Page 117 - Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained Vol. 3

Mysterious Creatures 97

Cleary, Ryan. “Monster Beached.” The Telegram, saw the gigantic bird. One man said that he
August 2, 2001. [Online] http://www.thetelegram. had at first believed it to be a type of plane
com/topstories/news/story.asp?id=46701&In=In. that he had never before seen. On April 24,
Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America. New York: Par- back at Alton, a man described it as an enor-
aview, 2002. mous, incredible thing, flying at about 500
Ellis, Richard. Monsters of the Sea. New York: Alfred feet and casting a shadow the same size as that
A. Knopf, 1994. of a Piper Cub at the same height. Two police-
Heuvelmans, Bernard. In the Wake of the Sea Serpents. men said that the monster bird was as big as a
New York: Hill and Wang, 1968. small airplane.

Thunderbirds
The Thunderbird figures prominently in the
traditions of many Native American tribes. For THE Thunderbird is an embodiment of the
some, it is the flapping of the Thunderbird’s Great Mystery, the Supreme Being, which created all
wings that one hears during rainstorms rum- things on Earth.
bling in the skies and it is the Thunderbird’s
eyes and beak that flash the lightning. To the
Lakota of the prairie, the Thunderbird is an
embodiment of the Great Mystery, the Supreme Giant Thunderbird-type creatures have
Being, which created all things on Earth. For continued to be sighted in various parts of the
the tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy of the United States, from the northeast to the
northeast, Hino, the Thunderbird, guardian of northwest and many points in between. On
the skies and the spirit of thunder, could assume September 25, 2001, a witness sighted a giant
the form of a human when it suited its purpose. bird flying over South Greensburg, Pennsylva-
The cosmology of many of the western tribes nia. Researchers soon found other witnesses
establish a Thunderbird in each of the four cor- who claimed to have had sightings of Thun-
ners of the world as guardians and protectors, derbirds in Westmoreland County, Pennsylva-
fighting always to keep away evil spirits. nia. On November 5, a resident of Bristol,
Many scholars over the centuries have Connecticut, who was out walking his dog at
attributed the Native American myths of the dawn, said that he had sighted a giant birdlike
Thunderbird to their reverence for the eagle, creature the size of an ultralight plane flying
the largest of indigenous birds in North Amer- over a community center.
ica. Interestingly, however, many people have In addition to the ancient Native Ameri-
claimed to have seen for themselves a great can legends of the Thunderbird, there are cer-
bird, far larger than the eagle, flying overhead. tain old pioneer records that support the exis-
In fact, even in the nineteenth century, some tence of giant birdlike creatures in the skies of
witnesses were claiming to have seen flying North America. From the mouth of the Illi-
monsters that resembled pterodactyls, the nois River at Grafton to Alton (Illinois), a
winged reptiles that should have been extinct distance of 20 miles, the Mississippi River runs
60 million years ago. from west to east, and its north bank (the Illi-
On April 9, 1948, a farm family outside of nois side) is a high bluff. When the first white
Caledonia, Illinois, saw a monster bird that men explored the area, they found that some
they all said was bigger than an airplane. In unknown muralist from some forgotten tribal
different parts of the state on the same day, a culture had engraved and painted hideous
Freeport truck driver said that he, too, had depictions of two gigantic, winged monsters.
seen the creature. A former army colonel The petroglyphs were each about 30 feet in
admitted that he had seen a bird of tremen- length and 12 feet in height.
dous size while he stood talking with the head Father Jacques Marquette (1637–1675), the
of Western Military Academy and a farmer celebrated Jesuit priest-explorer, mentioned the
near Alton. On April 10, several witnesses strange petroglyphs in his journals of the Mis-

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