And hey, Pursuit 4(4) — Oct. 1971 — has what is apparently the first known mention of a barn as the location of the #ThunderbirdPhoto . Earlier locations had the bird attached to either the Tombstone Epitaph HQ or an anonymous wall. And what’s with the top hat?

The saga of the #ThunderbirdPhoto from the Current Pursuits section of the publication… Pursuit.

@WideAtlanticWeird There are some surprisingly extensive resources on the #ThunderbirdPhoto online, however, I have not seen a good side-by-side of the stories.

https://thunderbirdphoto.com

https://lostmediawiki.com/Tombstone_Thunderbird_Photograph_(lost_photo_of_cryptid;_existence_unconfirmed;_1890)

Janet and Colin Bord’s #CreaturesFromElsewhere has perhaps the only accurate depiction of the… critter… the Tombstone Epitaph reported as being shot down by two ranchers in 1890. It was approximately the size of Rodan at 92’ (28 m) long with a 160’ (49 m) wingspan.

Jack Pearl changed the date to 1896, the ranchers to prospectors, the critter into a California Condor with a 36’ (11 m) wingspan, and added the legendary #ThunderbirdPhoto aspect. It has further morphed into a pterosaur-like monster

This malarkey is from Jack Pearl’s May 1963 article “Monster Bird That Carries Off Human Beings” printed in Saga. This article contains the first published mention of the #ThunderbirdPhoto and, with the help of context, it is certainly a fabrication. But for “some reason” I’ve never seen the fable-like second half of the account mentioned in the #Cryptozoology literature, hmm…