The Tombstone Thunderbird.

[BIAD]

Ever wondered when the media first began to see the potential in entertaining their customers instead of informing them
with accurate information? Instead of getting bogged-down with the Tombstone Thurnderbird photo debacle -a piece of
fakery that showed how much MSM will use imagery for their ratings-grabbing purposes, let's look at the actual article
from 1890.


(Taken from The US Library of Congress)

The Tombstone Epitaph. 26 April 1890

'A winged-monster, resembling a huge alligator with an extremely elongated tail and an immense pair of wings, was
found on the desert between the Whetstone and Huachuca mountains last Sunday by two ranchers who were returning
home from the Huachucas. The creature was evidently greatly exhausted by a long flight and when discovered was able
to fly but a short distance at a time.

After the first shock of wild amaze-ment had passed the two men, who were on horseback and armed with Winchester
rifles, regained sufficient courage to pursue the monster and after an exciting chase of several miles succeeded in
getting near enough to open fire with their rifles and wounding it. The creature then turned on the men, but owing to
it’s exhausted condition they were able to keep out of its way and after a few well directed shots the monster partly
rolled over and remained motionless.

The men cautiously approached, their horses snorting with terror, and found that the creature was dead. They then
proceeded to make an examination and found that it measured about ninety-two feet in length and the greatest
diameter was about fifty inches.

The monster had only two feet, these being situated in a short distance in front of where the wings were joined to the
body. The head, as near as they could judge, was about eight feet long, the jaws being thickly set with strong, sharp
teeth. It’s eyes were as large as a dinner plate and protruded about half way from the head.

They had some difficulty in measuring the wings as they were partly folded under the body, but finally got one
straightened out sufficiently to get a measurement of seventy-eight feet, making the total length from tip to tip
about 160 feet. The wings were composed of a thick and nearly transparent membrane and were devoid of feathers
or hair, as was the entire body. The skin of the body was comparatively smooth and easily penetrated by a bullet.

The men cut off a small portion of the top of one wing and took it home with them. Late last night one of them arrived
in this city for supplies and to make the necessary preparation to skin the creature, when the hide will be sent for
examination by the eminent scientists of the day. The finder returned early this morning accompanied by several
prominent men who will endeavor to bring the strange creature to this city before it is mutilated...'

The Tombstone Epitaph never had the facilities to produce a photograph and never did in their original article.
So who wrote it and why...? We'll probably never know.

Below is the newspaper-clipping and the photos that prove we're now living in a world where the notion of seeing
is believing has overtaken the idea of believing the media is believing. (The bottom image is a photo of 19th-century
train robber John Sontag laying wounded in the straw at the Stone Corral in Tulare County, California with some of
the posse members who caught him, as well as reporters and local ranchers.)

[727Sky]

A little know fact is way back when we had the flying reptiles the air was more dense..
Kinda like you stick your head under the water when swimming and then dive to 10 to 15 feet as far as a pressure difference. Those who have studied such things have said many of the flying creatures of old could not get airborne or fly in our present atmospheric pressured world. Dunno if that is all correct but at the time when I read the article it seemed like a good plausible story to me.

[BIAD]

A little know fact is way back when we had the flying reptiles the air was more dense..
Kinda like you stick your head under the water when swimming and then dive to 10 to 15 feet as far as a pressure difference. Those who have studied such things have said many of the flying creatures of old could not get airborne or fly in our present atmospheric pressured world. Dunno if that is all correct but at the time when I read the article it seemed like a good plausible story to me.

'...At a meeting of the Geological Society of America held last Fall in Phoenix, Robert Brenner of Yale
University and Gary Landis of the U. S. Geological Survey reported the results of a QMS analysis of
ancient air bubbles trapped in amber.

They obtained a remarkable result. The atmosphere of the Earth 80 million years ago was discovered to
have 50% more oxygen than modern air. Brenner and Landis found that for all gas samples taken from
amber 80 million years old the oxygen content ranged between 25% to 35% and averaged about 30%
oxygen. Cretaceous air was supercharged with oxygen...'
Source:

[BodhisattvaStyle]

The description of the creature almost sounds like a dragon.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

My only question is: Did anyone make gumbo out of it and how did it taste?

[Michigan Swamp Buck]

Those dimensions are ridiculous. I'd say cross-check the date of that article with paleontology history. Maybe pterosaurs were newly discovered and made headlines back East or in Europe. Perhaps this story capitalized on it. Something like that, or maybe a popular exhibit at a museum of the day inspired this story.