A pterodactyl in the Civil War - Notes on a Strange World

Unfortunately, according to the story, the two cowboys left the monster where it was and only cut off a small portion of the tip of one wing as a souvenir. A search, however, was to be sent next day "for examination by the eminent scientists of the day." No trace of the bird or of the commission's report however has ever appeared. Harry McClure, a youngster early last century in Lordsburg, New Mexico, when the two ranchers came to town, remembered the episode. He had friends who knew them well and thought the story was not a hoax. Was the creature photographed? No, it was not, according to McClure, and in any case the Epitaph did not carry any pictures with its article.

Others, however, think differently. Writer Jack Pearl told about the Epitaph story in a 1963 issue of Saga Magazine and explained that the strange bird was brought to town and photographed. It was put in a wagon and, after reaching Tombstone, was nailed to the wall of a barn: six men stood before it with their arms outstretched touching fingertip to fingertip. Pearl, however, seems to have gotten many details wrong, as Mark Hall clearly explained in Fortean Times magazine, and the story of the picture has never received any corroboration. There were many, though, who remembered seeing such a photograph, or a photocopy of it, in the hands of Ivan T. Sanderson, the famous naturalist and Fortean author who died in 1973. Apparently, Sanderson gave the photocopy to two young men who travelled into the heart of northern Pennsylvania to inquire about reports of giant birds in that region and lost it in the course of their search. All kinds of publications were searched, from National Geographic to Fate magazine, inc luding all the back issues of the Epitaph, but no traces of such a photo were ever found.

"The numerous vague recollections of seeing this missing photograph," concludes Hall in his article, "might well be erroneous. Like many others, I have spent many hours looking for it and like them I will continue to look. Everyone who reads about this phantom photograph has the same desire to see it for themselves." And then, after many years, a mysterious picture emerges from the Internet.

Lost Chance

In the spring of 2000 a new Web site (www.freakylinks.com) appeared and published a sensational photograph, here reproduced, showing a group of what appeared to be Union soldiers before the carcass of a massive pterodactyl! The editor of the site, Derek Barnes, claimed that the photo was found in July of 1998 "squeezed between the pages of a 70's cheesy paranormal book bought at a thrift store." The photograph, sepia tinted, scratched, bent, and torn on the edges, appeared to be very impressive and, apparently, its authenticity was verified by various experts. One historian had identified the men's uniforms as "typical of Union Volunteers around 1861-1862." Another expert, an "M. Nance Darbrow, professor of paleontology from the University of Florida," asserted that no one at that time could have known about pterodactyls, as the first fossils were not discovered in North America until 1871. "This photograph," commented Barnes in his Web pages, "is either going to be the biggest paranormal news scoop of the ce ntury or it's going to make me the biggest fool on the planet. Or perhaps both."