In a post on Mysterious Universe, Brent Swancer shares the tale of a pterodactyl sighting in Tombstone, Arizona, in the 1800s, one of many such reports from the American southwest.
On April 26, 1890, the Tombstone Epitaph reported that two ranchers had found a huge winged creature in the desert region between the Whetstone and Huachuca mountains. They described the animal as something like an alligator with an elongated tail and massive, bat-like wings. The ranchers pursued the creature and eventually shot it dead. After, they measured the creature and found it roughly 92 feet in length, with a 160 foot wingspan and 8 foot long head. The ranchers purportedly had the beast skinned so it could be examined by scientists.
There was no follow-up article indicating whether this ever happened, but in 1966, a writer claimed that a photo of a similar creature had been published in the Epitaph in 1886.
Tall tale or time travel? A beast from the past or the ranchers’ imagination? You decide and then write the story!
