I know I have. Or at least I used to think so.

I was going to save this for the Crypto-Creature of the Week, but since it’s more about a photo (and phenomenon) than about the creature itself, I figured I’d set it up on its own two feet.

If you have any interest at all in Cryptozoology, then I’m guessing you at least have a passing knowledge of the famous 1800s Thunderbird photo, purportedly showing a group of cowboys (or sometimes Civil War soldiers) posing next to the corpse of a pterosaur that they shot and killed. Everyone seems to have seen the photo at some point in their lives — I’m convinced that I saw it back when I was a kid in the ’70s, in some magazine or book.

Only problem is, no one can find the damn thing. There are a couple pictures circulating online but those are pretty much universally considered to be fakes.

So what about you? Have you seen the photo of the Thunderbird?

More info can be found at these links:

Unexplained America: The Mysterious Thunderbird Photo!
Freak-O-Pedia: How Many Pterodactyls Did You Kill In The War, Daddy?
Thunderbird at Wikipedia

And then there’s this famous Thunderbird photo, just because I like it…