Case file · Cryptid
The Tombstone 'winged monster'
On 26 April 1890 the Tombstone Epitaph ran 'Found on the Desert', about two ranchers who shot a winged creature 'resembling a huge alligator' with an enormous wingspan between the Whetstone and Huachuca mountains.
1890 CE · 31.71, -110.07 · status: hoax
The account
A later legend added a photograph of the creature pinned to a barn wall with men standing beneath it. Many people insist they have seen it, but no copy has ever been found.
The sceptical view
Frontier papers often printed tall tales, and the Epitaph could not print photographs in 1890. The 'lost photo' is a well-known false memory.
Connections in the atlas
- The Red Ghost
- The Thunderbird
- Thunderbird