Evolution of the ThunderBird Photo perceptions

As far as we can trace, these "Thunderbird" photos are of only very recent vintage.

This is obviously a theatrical setup and on an indoor set. It illustrates the commonest current conception of what the photo had looked like in the first place. As a matter of fact, that perception has changed over time.

This is another theatrical mock-up, outdoors this time, and it shows an anatomically-incorrect pterosaur and it probably is even more recent than the articicially aged photograph reproduced below. The one immediately below is an admitted forgery and this one probably is, too; the interesting thing about this one is that it is intermediate between the oldest version of the bird or creature on the ground with a few men clusted together near it, and the more modern (or standard) version, which usually has the bird or creature mounted on the wall and six men standing, spreading themselves equidistantly and directly adjacent to the creature. And what is more peculiar to me is that it shows both sets of men in association with the bird or creature at the same time.

As explained on this blog before, the photo represented below seems to be the oldest "Thunderbird Photo" and it is probably the original. The base photo is authentically from the Southwest and from the 1890s: the men are digging a grave to bury a badman, and the bird is pasted over the body in the grave in the original photo. So this is the oldest identifiable version and it is a hoax. yet the version above seems to be a modification of it, bringing up the bird to the side of the building instead of leaving it on the ground and starting the more traditional modern version with the men behind the bird more spread out evenly. And I take those two elements to have been introduced from faulty memories of architectural decoration in the Pacific Northwest. My point here is that the version which most people recognize now has not been there from the first but has instead developed over time, and it has completely supplanted this the authentically Old West version to the point that only a few people can even recognize the older version any more.

Another Thunderbird Photo?

I was just sent this other photo purporting to be "The" Thunderbird photo. As far as I can tell it has only been around something like 5-6 years and it is much, much too vague to account for all of the reports that the original Thunderbird photo had been sharp and clear: in particular, none of the specific remarks that the rememberers recalled about the way that the men or the bird looked can be verified. It does not agree at all with John Keel's description, for one example. Nonetheless I am adding it here for the sake of completeness.

Here Is Your Thunderbird-Stuck-Up-On-The-Side-of-a-Building

Several comments on the supposed thunderbird photo have said they specifically remember the image of a giant bird on the side of a building, despite the fact that it would be difficult if not impossible to nail up such a monstrous bird on the side of a wall and have it stay up instead of being pulled off due to gravity upon its much greater weight (its OK to nail up a SMALL bird on a wall by its wings but whoever heard of nailing an ostrich on the side of a wall?): they very well might have remembered the Thunderbird on the side of a building. There are many photos of that: but in this case the Thunderbirds are actually painted on.

These buildings are from the Northwest Coast cultural area and these examples are Kwakiutl. The Thunderbirds are perched on top of whale skeletons and in fact the design of the whale's ribs do look like men with outstretched arms and are about that scale (but sideways). It is easy to see how any number of people could have remembered such photos and mis-remembered them with the proper visual clues and the proper verbal nudging to get the image "Right"

Thunderbird and whale design as marketed for T-shirts and the like

Below is an idea of minee as to how this design got firmly entrenched into the Native mind: Thunderbirds would not actually be carrying off whales and flying with them, but they very well could be found feasting on carcasses of whales that had gotten themselves beached. And since thunderbird reports commonly say they have a wingspan of 20-30 feet (taking the paintings on the sides of the buildings to be about lifesized), their wingspan is as great as the whole length of many of the smaller whales.

Thunderbird=Giant Teratorn Scavenging Beached Whale Carcass
(Reconstruction-Not an actual photo but for demonstration purposes only)

The older discussion on the Thunderbird photo is HERE:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/that-thunderbird-photo.html

And the most recent comment added on that discussion was:
BTW, I have heard that the site Cryptomundo has dismissed this candidate photo as "Merely another photoshopped photo found on the internet." It isn't: it came from the period before photoshopping and the basic photop is legitimately from the 1890s. It is a pasted-up montage and there was a fad for them in the early part of the 20th century, the 19teens and twenties. They were very commonly made into souvenir novelty postcards and that is EXACTLY what I think the reproduced photo is and what "the Thunderbird photo" actually WAS.

More on Thunderbirds

Before we get any further, the following photo is not to be taken seriously:

This is not an exterior shot, it is an interior theatrical set. The "Pterodactyl" is a fullscale mechanical special effect from an Edgar Rice Burroughs movie done in the middle 1970s. This is not an original "Thunderbird" photo, it is a mock up of what the original photo was imagined to be like as of the later 1970s and afterwards.

Having got that point straight, I would like to reprint a couple of articles from my friend Mr. R. Kline's exellent blog, Global Warming and Terraforming Terra:

http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2012/01/more-thunderbirds.html

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

More Thunderbirds

Here is another eyewitness report of a large black bird. It also noticeably makes little of the bird’s beak.

The observations themselves support the existence of a nearby nesting pair, with the larger one showing aggression to fend of the noisy motorcycles. I have posted the only creditable photo from the late nineteenth century that claims to be this bird. I also have posted another photo that surfaced this past year of what is obviously a pterodactyl which has also been observed in the USA. These are two separate creatures as one cannot mistake close up the one from the other.

The pterodactyl photo provides us with valuable new information also. The body is fully feathered while the wings are not. The observations made also confirmed exactly this but it was unexpected. Now we have a clear understanding of the creature’s appearance unless this was truly faked, except that would require a small group of cooperative loiers. Of course, I would like to see someone come forward, except this certainly was in someone’s photo collection and everyone involved is now dead.

I am certain that the pterodactyl is a nocturnal fisher that dives into the lake or sea in search of prey. The problem with the other creature is that its beak is so small. What does it actually eat?

That is the main problem here. It is not a carrion eater or we would be seeing it by the side of the road every day. Nocturnal habits are also likely but that makes eating nuts and insects pretty difficult.

That leaves me with a couple of ideas. Firstly, I am ruling out game hunting for rabbits in particular. It can be done at night, but the owl is designed for it and I still do not think we are looking at a giant owl here or are we? We this bird cannot grab rabbits then can it eat conifer cones? That food supply is also continuous and is ample. It can also be accessed at night. Otherwise every woodsman would see this creature about.

We are really back to our Mothman conjecture in which we proposed a giant owl. Owls also have a small beak that is not obvious.

Reader Submission: Thunderbird Encounters - Illinois / Wisconsin

SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 2012

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2012/01/reader-submission-thunderbird.html

I recently received the following email that references 2 separate flying cryptid encounters in two different locations, within a two month period this past Summer and by the same witness! Has anyone else seen something similar recently?

This summer (June 19, 2011) I had two encounters with giant black birds; when I say giant I mean I saw (at two separate times) birds that were all black in color with wing spans as big as a small plane 14 feet or bigger.

My first encounter was early one summer morning when I was returning from the Quad Cities. I was traveling on my motorcycleon Route 30 just past I-88 when I noticed a big black object in the distance sitting in the middle of the road. I slowed my motorcycle down as I got closer to the object. At first I thought it was a black bear sitting in the road but as I drove closer to the object I soon learned it wasn’t a bear at all. The black object was a giant BLACK BIRD which stood at least 4 to 5 feet tall. I was in awe and a little bit scared at the sight of the GIANT BIRD. I stopped my motorcycle immediately hoping that the beast would not attack me. I then looked behind me in hopes of seeing anyone else who might be witnessing this amazing sight, but of course just like in the movies there was no one else on the road. Realizing it was just me and the GIANT BIRD, my heart began to race with thoughts of being attacked; I slowly pulled in the clutch and put the motorcycle in gear just in case I had to make a quick getaway. The GIANT BIRD heard the noise of the gear shifting. It then looked directly at me for a brief moment, swung open its massive wings (which were at least 14 feet long), stood up right, then leaped off the ground and took off in flight. The bird looked like a small black plane and when it flew by the trees the branches were swaying back and forth. I sat on my motorcycle watching the bird fly out of sight.

I still do not know what kind of creature it was that I encountered. I have been looking on line at several different kind of birds but have yet to find the bird that I saw. The only bird that comes even close to what I saw was a condor but the bird I saw did not have a head like a condor nor did it look like that of a turkey buzzard or vulture plus this creature was much larger than a condor. I almost wonder if this was just a freak of nature; or possibly a prehistoric bird. Could it be possible that there are still some type of prehistoric birds still in existence? Trust me I am not crazy. I have recently seen pictures of the legendary Thunder Birds and that is exactly what this bird looked like.

My second encounter with a giant black bird was in August of 2011. My friends and I were traveling on our motorcycles near Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on some back road when all of a sudden a giant black bird appeared out of nowhere. The bird was obliviously mad at the noise of all of our motorcycles or something because it took a dive at the couple who were traveling in front of my wife and I. The giant bird actually dove at them causing them to swerve on their motorcycle. The bird then circled around them and tried to poop on them; yes I said poop on them! I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. Luckily the poop missed them. I am not exaggerating when I say the stuff that came out of the creature was much larger than that of a humans. It was disgusting! On a positive note there was ten of us who witnessed this giant bird. Once again none of us knew exactly what kind of bird it was that we encountered. Just like I had described before the giant bird was all black with a massive wing span and its head was not like that of a condor.

I couldn’t believe that I was so fortunate to witness this massive bird again and I was so happy that my friends were with me to see it as well. I had told my friends about the bird that I had seen in June but I don’t think that any of them really believed me. Now they know that I am not crazy and are obviously convinced that the Giant Black Bird does exist.

What is really kind of scary is that I do not believe that I saw the same bird twice; I truly believe that I saw two different birds that are of the same species. How I came to this conclusion is simple the first bird was bigger than the second bird.

I only hope that anyone who reads this takes this as a real encounter and just not as another fish story. I have ten witnesses to confirm one of my sightings. I only wish I had a picture too but obviously I can’t take pictures while I am driving a motorcycle.

Oh well, believe it or not that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Please let me know if anyone else has encountered one of these Giant Black Birds.

http://globalwarming-arclein.blogspot.com/2012/01/thunderbird-part-ii.html

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Thunderbird Part II

Lon’s recent reports on a thunder bird sighting has triggered additional reports to come forward and we now have enough good reports to reach a few conclusions regarding what we are dealing with. Google this blog for Mothman, thunderbird and also pterodactyl to get all the separate reports that we have seen so far. If it becomes better known that someone is collecting reports, I suspect that plenty of additional reports will surface.

First, I have posted on three separate possibilities regarding these huge creatures.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->1 <!--[endif]-->One possibility for which we have a few reports is most certainly a modern pterodactyl. The body is feathered and there is little evidence of the head crest shown in the fossil record.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->2 <!--[endif]-->The second possibility is some form of giant owl, possibly the Eurasian eagle owl.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->3 <!--[endif]-->The third possibility is an unknown American bird that is plausibly a giant eagle which is presently supported by these recent reports. This also fits native descriptions received in times past.

I can now make an extended conjecture regarding these birds.

A soaring large bird conforms nicely to the behavior of a raptor but could still be an owl with its special wing lift capability.

The natural food for such a bird would be deer. Just dropping from the sky would kill the deer and it is possible that the bird could carry the deer a short distance to a safe clearing to consume. Increasing deer herds are likely encouraging a population explosion of these birds.

The bird has fabulous eyesight and avoids humanity easily. It likely has decent eyesight for the night, but does not rely on that for hunting.

Most important we need to understand where the bird safely roosts. It is too large to roost in large trees high in the air and if they roosted in high points they would be spotted every day. The key comes from the reports themselves. They like the ground and become airborne easily from a standing start.

These birds actually roost on the ground itself. The moment one accepts that option other reports turn out to be about disturbing a roosting thunderbird at night. They roost in the thick conifer woods throughout the Eastern US at least.

A comment on this is due here. Large conifers standing alone by the edge of a clearing develop a full skirt around the tree’s base. It is impossible to see easily into that base and little sunlight penetrates. The base itself becomes covered with a thick mat of dry needles and the branches become quite bare. In winter, only a small amount of snow will actually penetrate this skirt canopy. It would provide a comfortable roost and nest for a huge bird as a human can also easily set up inside such a canopy. Importantly, it is possible to retain sightlines out into an open clearing from such a hide.

The point is that we have a secure residence, a constant food supply, and the capacity to possibly hunt day and night. Most important, the roost is never obvious to human hunters who could walk right by. Even better there are thousands of prospective roosts to choose from. The bird itself faces no threats whatsoever from other carnivores who it nicely out masses. That is why the ground is attractive. Particularly when it is kept fairly dry and consists of inches of pine needles.

Reader Submissions: Flying Cryptid Reports

MONDAY, JANUARY 16, 2012

http://naturalplane.blogspot.com/2012/01/reader-submissions-flying-cryptid.html

This past weekend I posted two separate flying cryptid encounters by the same witness in two different locationsand within a two month period this past Summer - Reader Submission: Thunderbird Encounters - Illinois / Wisconsin - Since then I have received several reports of cryptid bird or bird-like sightings. Here are a few of those reports (NOTE: I have not edited these submissions except for some spelling...otherwise, posted 'as is'):

Dear Lon,

After reading your article I wanted to share our encounter with you.

Back in the Summer of 2002 during the late morning to early afternoon we were driving south on Highway 83 leaving Round Lake Beach, Illinois going towards Grayslake when we were startled something large and black crossing in front of the car and landing in small open area of brush to our left. One wing easily filled the entire view ahead of us.

We saw that one huge black bird had landed next to another one and that they were devouring what looked like a small deer or a large dog. It was just for an instant but they were prehistoric looking and larger than the local turkey buzzards. We watched the evening news thinking that some large vultures may have escaped the zoo but we saw no mention of any such creatures. We often wondered if anyone else had seen anything like these large black birds in northern Illinois.

Thank you for posting the article and letting me know that I wasn't the only one who saw this.

Sue R.

**********

During the late 1970s, as I and my brother Mark were late and racing to The Jazz Mobile jazz school in Harlem, I saw what I first thought was a ash on a spider web spiraling in the sky.I thought it was that for it made such smooth tight circles that it was unnatural on such a windless day.

Though I called Mark's attention to it, he continued to run for we did not have time to stop. Jazz Mobile was a weekend school and it's policy was if you were late you were marked absent and two absences you were out. So he was right in telling me to forget it and come on as he went racing toward the school.

At four o'clock when we were on our way home I remembered the ash and looked for it as we were heading back to the subway. As we neared the lot I saw the thing was still there and stopped to try and focus in on it. To my shock I saw what I was looking at was a big bird not too far away from us riding the heat thermals. I called Marks attention to it again and he stopped and his mouth dropped open. This bird was greyish brown and did not flap its wings like other birds did that I had seen do in the skies over New York. It would just barely move them and soar with out doing it again. It was not a seagull, eagle, hawk, osprey, buzzard, or condor. First I thought it was just a big bird until it started flying through thunder heads so it was way up there, and not as close to the ground as we first thought it was.

"How could it be so high up but still look so huge? " I asked aloud. "Do you realize how big that thing has to be, when it comes down?" Mark said his voice tensing up " We better get the hell to the subway."

Where we were standing, we were in an open space for they were renovating the area and most of the old tenements had been torn down and so we were surrounded by vacant lots and abandoned buildings. Mark was right if that thing got into it's mind to come down and grab one of us there was nothing there to hide under or hold on to. At that moment it flew in to a cloud and did not come out of it. We hurried to the subway and went home.

The next weekend as I was getting out of bed a news report came in over NEWS 1010 radio about a man and a woman somewhere upstate New York who had fought off a giant bird that had tried to carry either a child or one of them off. I called the news station with hopes to talk to someone and see if I could get in contact with the couple I had heard about, but I was told that the news I was hearing was on a tape and there was no one for me to talk to in the station. I was told however that the report had come in over the Reuters machine so maybe there is a record of it somewhere in their archives.

If you or anyone can get this report please email me a copy of it like that I will be able to pinpoint the year, month and date of my sighting because that happened a week after my sighting. We never returned to the area again I do not know if it was because of our sighting or not but we did not speak of it. - Posey Gilbert

**********

Near Wisconsin Dells, WI, many years ago a woman claimed that a huge giant bird grabbed up her young daughter and flew away. she reported this to local sheriff's dept. On radio heard that if anyone has seen such a bird to please contact sheriff's dept. Sounded as if the sheriff's dept. Did not believe her story. Outcome? I have no idea.

I did see one that almost took my boyfriend away. It was in a farm field that I saw this huge winged creature. Which reminded me of those dinosaur birds. The ones that its head came to sort of a peak. It came swooping down out of the tree tops; it was flying above from. I was shouting to my boyfriend to run away. he could not understand what I was shouting. Then as he turned his head around and saw this huge bird which was just getting ready to grab him in its claws. He ran and the bird decided to just keep on flying away. My boyfriend was about six feet tall. One wing span on the bird was three times that and more.

It was something we could not believe our eyes. Even so, it did happen and I am the only one alive now, to remember our hearts in horror that one day. Least to think that something had missed a meal.

**********

Lon - I used to live ten miles North of Lake Geneva in the East Troy WI area, and I investigated several reports of UFOs sailing over the rolling farmland and hovering low enough overhead to "hit with a rock", but never ran into any BigBlackBird (BBB) reports there.

However, my brother has had several strange encounters with weird things near his home in Providence, R.I., and one event that affected him the most was a sighting of two giant birds during a dawn fishing trip in Providence's famed Roger Williams Park.

As he was approaching one of the Park's larger interconnected lakes, walking across a tree-studded lawn surrounding a marble music temple, a pair of huge black "crows", with bodies as large as VW bugs, came swooping out of the early morning lake mist, flapping their enormous wings slowly as they swept between the treetops, curving past him thru the swirling fog, then twisting between the large shoreline oaks' intertwining branches and vanishing out over the lake!

They made no sound except the soft whoosh of air over their beating wings; their feathers were jet black, as were what he could see of their eyes; there was no odor. He froze in place as the apparitions flew past, then he rushed down thru the trees to the water's edge and scanned the lake's surface, but the creatures were nowhere to be seen, and never seen there again.

There are many other reports of paranormal activities in and around that Park over the years, including several experienced by my brother.

Thanks - Wayne

That Thunderbird Photo

This is one of those matters in cryptozoology that shall be forever unsolvable at this point. The situation is that once upon a time there was supposed to be a photograph that had been circulated in the late 1950s or early 1960s, which was seen casually by several persons someplace or another. And then at one point in time, cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson found that the only copy he had, in form of a photostat from some unspecified earlier publication, had been lost while out on loan to some researchers. Naturally enough, Sanderson wanted to get another copy of it as a replacement. And then something happened (perhaps baffling but perhaps not): nobody seemed to be able to find another copy of the photo or even identify where it had originally come from. To quote an internet source on the subject:


...The story of the Thunderbird was relegated to the ranks of creatures like the "jackalope" until 1963, when the story was revived. In the May 1963 issue of Saga, a men's magazine of the day, writer Jack Pearl recounted the story of the Tombstone Thunderbird, along with some large bird sightings of the early 1960's. Not only did he tell the story though, he went one step further and claimed that the Tombstone Epitaph had, in 1886, "published a photograph of a huge bird nailed to a wall. The newspaper said that it had been shot by two prospectors and hauled into town by wagon. Lined up in front of the bird were six grown men with their arms outstretched, fingertip to fingertip. The creature measured about 36 feet from wingtip to wingtip."

While this is a different variation of the story (and size of the creature), it seems to be referring to the same incident. Was this nothing more than a mythic legend of the west, or was there something to the story after all?

In the September 1963 issue of Fate magazine, a correspondent to the magazine named H.M Cranmer would state that not only was the story true, but the photo was published and had appeared in newspapers all over America. And Cranmer would not be the only one who remembered the photo. Eminent researcher Ivan T. Sanderson also remembered seeing the photo and in fact, even claimed to have once had a photostat of it that he loaned to two associates, who lost it. The editors of Fate even came to believe that they may have published the photo in an earlier issue of the magazine but a search through back issues failed to reveal it. Meanwhile, the original Epitaph story, which again mentions no photograph, was revived in a 1969 issue of Old West, further confusing the issue as to whether the photo was real or not.

The Epitaph however stated that it did not exist, or if it did, it had not been in their newspaper. Responding to numerous inquiries, employees of the paper started a thorough search of back issues and files. They could find no such photo and even an extended search of other Arizona and California newspapers of the period produced no results. A number of articles that appeared in Pursuit, the journal for the Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained prompted a memory from W. Ritchie Benedict, who recalled seeing Ivan T. Sanderson himself display a copy[photostat-DD] of the photo on a Canadian television show "The Pierre Benton Show". Unfortunately though, no copies of the show have ever been found.

So, is the photo real? And if not, then why do so many of us with an interest in the unusual claim to remember seeing it? Who knows? In the late 1990's, author John Keel insisted that "I know I saw it! And not only that - I compared notes with a lot of other people who saw it." Like many of us, Keel believes that he saw it in one of the men's magazines (like Saga or True) that were so popular in the 1960's. Most of these magazines dealt with amazing subject matter like Bigfoot, ghosts and more. Keel also remembers the photo in the same way that most of us do - with men wearing cowboy clothing and the bird looking like a pterodactyl or some prehistoric, winged creature. [John Keel even said specifically that the creature did not look like aarge vulture with a hooked beak, as Sanderson's explanation had it. Keel said it had a long and pointed beak like a Pteranodon. This is quoted in such books as Jerome Clark's Unexplained!-DD]

Interestingly, a reprint of the original article that appeared in Old West magazine caused a reader to remember another strange incident. He wrote to the magazine in the summer of 1970 and gave a firsthand account of a separate flying monster incident that also occurred near Tombstone. The writer had met two cowboys who told about seeing a similar creature around 1890, although they had shot at and chased the creature until their horses refused to go any further. This giant bird was not killed, brought to town or photographed. In fact, except for the fact that it was not shot down, their account sounds much closer to Bell's original report.

During the 1990's, the search for the "Thunderbird Photo" reached a point of obsession for those interested in the subject. A discussion of the matter stretched over several issues of Mark Chorvinsky's Strange magazine and readers who believed they had seen the photo cited sources that ranged from old books, to Western photograph collections, men's magazines, National Geographic and beyond. As for myself, I combed through literally hundreds of issues of dusty copies of True and Saga but could find nothing more than the previously mentioned article by Jack Pearl. If the photo exists, I certainly don't have it in my own collection.

So, how do we explain this weird phenomena of a photograph that so many remember seeing and yet no one can seem to find? Author Mark Hall believes that the description of the photo creates such a vivid image in the mind that many people who have a knowledge and an interest in curious and eclectic things begin to think the photo is familiar. It literally creates a "shared memory" of something that does not exist. We think we have seen it, but we actually have not.

To be honest, I can't say for sure if I agree with this or not. I can certainly see the possibility of a "memory" like this that we have created from inside of our own overcrowded minds, but then again, what if the photo does exist and it's out there, just waiting to be discovered in some dusty garage, overflowing file cabinet or musty basement. I, for one, haven't given up quite yet - and I have a feeling that I am not the only one who is still out there looking.

But are thunderbirds and mysterious flying creatures actually real? Do they fill the skies of anything other than our imaginations? If not, then what have so many people seen over the years? At this point, such creatures remain a mystery but one thing is sure, the sightings have continued over the years and occasionally an unusual report still trickles in from somewhere across America. So keep that in mind the next time that you are standing in an open field and a large, dark shadow suddenly fills the sky overhead. Was that just a cloud passing in front of the sun - or something else??

http://www.prairieghosts.com/tbirdaz.html

Late in the 1990s while working at IUPUI I had found a copy of a photo which I took to be the original of the "Lost" thiunderbird photo from a collection of photos purporting to represent surviving Pterosaurs on a Creationist website. It was in fact the same photo which Loren Coleman illustrates first in a Cryptomundo posting in March 2006

http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/lost-t-bd-photo/

At this point, Coleman quoted another researcher who had published the photo without comment or caption. At the time, Coleman did not know me and I did not know the other fellow (the link Coleman posted at Cryptomundo for this person's blog has long since gone dead) So, Later in 2006, I mentioned casually to Coleman that I thought I had a copy of the original Thunderbird photo. Not knowing about the other fellow, I sent Coleman another copy of the same photo. I gather Coleman did not take it well, for he never got back to me on the matter.

So WHY did I choose that anonymously-submitted example from the 1990s? Two things in particular: the first is that the bird did NOT match the usual idea of what the "Thunderbird" in the photo was supposed to look like, BUT it matched John Keel's description specifically and exactly. And the second reason is that This copy is not a photograph, it is a photostat, as Sanderson's copy was supposed to have been.

So WHY was everyone going around looking for a photo that showed a bird nailed to a barn with six cowboys standing under it with fingertips touchig to mark six fathoms? Because that was the remaining published description of the photo from Saga magazine. And WHY was nobody able to find the photo again? My guess was that the description was wrong: near enough right to ring a bell with people who had seen the montage but not exact enough that the original could be recognised again by going on the published description.

My solution as far back as the period the SITU was still up and active, was that the photograph had been a montage and could possibly have come in more than one variation: indeed some accounts mention more than one photo. Here is a copy of another reconstruction of what the photo was supposed to look like taken from one of the Cryptozoological discussion boards, original without credit but I would guess from Deviant Art. And please note it does NOT match the published description from Saga either:

Compare to the version at the top. The bird could be mistakenly remembered as being in the upside-down position when it was actually rightside up and people were remembering THAT photo; or else it is also possible that an alternate montage pasted on the figure of the bird upside down as well.

Here is another remembrance, with the witness this time inverting the bird to the rightside-up version as better representing what the witness remembered:

http://www.forteantimes.com/artic/105/thunder.html


In a letter to then-SITU President Bob Warth during the early 1990s I spoke of my belief that the photograph had been a montage and that I had seen what I thought was the same photo without the bird. I had been through the SITU's files about the missing photograph at that point and I deduced that this following photograph of the death of outlaw John Sontag (1893) had been the BASE Photograph one or more montages had been built up on:




Another clever internet viewer later came to the same conclusion.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php?topic=93640.0

As to where or when the original montage could have been made, it COULD have been made anytime after 1893: my guess is sometime in the early 20th century and possibly as an April Fool's gag or possibly a souvenir postcard coming out of Tombstone Arizona or anywhere else in the Southwest. Possibly not the only variation of the idea in circulation, either. BUT The version shown at the top of this page is most likely the version in the possession of Ivan Sanderson and remembered by John Keel, because of the specific reasons given above.

Selected References:

Clark, Jerome (1993). Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Visible Ink Press.
Coleman, Loren (1986). "Curious encounters: Phantom trains, spooky spots and other mysterious wonders"" Faber and Faber, Inc.
Hall, Mark A. 1994. Thunderbirds- The Living Legend!. Mark A. Hall Publications, Wilmington, NC.
http://www.strangemag.com/strangemag/strange21/thunderbird21/thunderbirdintro21.html


PS, I have also seen the original letters from H. M. Cranmer in Sanderson's archives.

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