When I was around 13 years old (three decades ago) I saw a photo that intrigued me. Years later now and I’m thinking ‘why not try to look it up on the net?’ I try a lot of different search parameters with no luck. Then I happen upon a link discussing the “Thunderbird Photograph”.
It seems that quite a few people remember seeing this photo. Most seem to think (like me) that it was in a book, but can’t recall the title or author. Some think it never existed and everyone is just remembering the mental picture they got from reading a vivid description of it from someone who claimed to have seen it. This doesn’t fly as far as I’m concerned, as I was looking for it before I knew there was a mystery.
The photo (as I remember it) was a printed, halftone reproduction with the definite look of early photography–more modern than daguerrotype, but probably not by much. The subject was a large pterosaur-looking creature nailed or otherwise affixed, spread-eagled, to the side of a barn. In front of it stood five or six men in western garb. Visual clues which I can no longer remember specifically made me think, at the time, that it was taken somewhere in the desert states of the Southwest.
I’m not suggesting that it was an actual photo of a real, extinct, flying reptile, and I really don’t want a debate about cryptozoology. I put this in IMHO because I’m polling to see if anyone else remembers seeing this and also in the hope that someone can point me to a reproduction of it–if it, indeed, exists outside of imagination.
I am aware that because of the mystery surrounding this subject (and human nature) there have been hoaxed photos purporting to be the ‘original’, so don’t bother pointing to these.
I’ve seen it – somewhere where they were debunking the picture. The author of the asrticle pointed out that the “Civil war Soldiers” didn’t look right – there were things wrong with their uniforms, and they all looked too well-fed – more like re-enactors than real soldiers.
The idea of pterodactyl + thunderbird has been knocking around pop culture for a while. It showed up in a 1950s Western comic drawn by Jack Kirby (“Rawhide Kid” or “Kid Colt” or something like that - Donald Glut reprints a panel in his Dinosaur Scrapbook), and it was used in the Ray Harryhausen film The Valley of Gwangi. so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it show up in a hack Civil War photo.
My article had a link going to an article, and the article had a link taking you to a now dead page, made to advertise a ::shudder: Fox show. Here is the correct link to what the article talked about. So that you can confuse people, here is a direct link to the photo.
Scott Plaid, your link refers to the obviously hoaxed photos I mentioned in the OP as not being of interest.
Cal, the Civil War soldier photos are, again, the same obvious hoaxes that have been produced since discussion of the ‘real’ photo began. There were no soldiers in the photo I (and others) remember seeing.
Soon someone will come along and refer to the (possibly related) Tombstone Epitaph newspaper story. All of this is interesting, but I really just wanted to see if any other 'Dopers can corroborate my memory of this (very likely hoaxed) photo.
Further down the page in my last link, there is a drawling, suposedly of a photograph, of a creature, hanging headdown, tied to a tree, spread eagled. No barn, but people often combine elements in their memory.
Scott, I don’t see that on your link, but I know what you are talking about. I’ve seen that drawing.
I recognize that memory can play tricks on you, and admit that this may be the case here. However, I was looking for this photo before I ever saw any of the hoaxes or reports that have been mentioned so far. If my memory is a false it is not because of a confusion involving any of these images. If, again, there was never a “real” photo in a real book as I seem to remember then I am making the same mental mistake that has led to these things.
In your OP, you asked for confirmation. The link above gives it. Since you are not bothering to read the fucking article, I am posting the revevant portions below.
The article goes on to talk about the photographs posted.
also, you claim “your link refers to the obviously hoaxed photos I mentioned in the OP as not being of interest.” WTF! Sure, so you are asking for a certain photograph I can not produce, but instead only an article showing the situation. However, that does not mean you ever posted what you think you did in the OP.
That’s the thing, see? The whole issue has become confused because of these hoaxers who may (wittingly or unwittingly) be hoaxing what was a hoax to begin with.
It’s all very confusing. But I still maintain that I saw an actual image in an actual book. Whether that image was real is really neither here nor there. The question on my mind is if anyone here has seen it.
I did read that article. It came up in my searches. It is very interesting.
It, however, does not contain or link to an image that could possibly be the source of my memory. As I said, I recognize the existance of the Tombstone Epitaph newspaper article and its possible relation to all this.
The reason that I did not put this in GQ or GD is because I really don’t care to discuss whether the image ever existed or if it was real.
