That being said, I bring you a legend that I only learned about over the past year. This story comes from one of my favorite shows, Mountain Monsters. For those unfamiliar with this program, it follows a team of West Virginian good old boys trying to hunt down the monsters of Appalachia. Most of it is very comedic and while I believe there are some very good down-to-earth people in the deep county of West Virginia, they are unfortunately the butt of many jokes for the rest of the country. Despite all this, these guys put on a good show, try to come up with fine evidence from their witnesses and want to take us on their adventure to track down and (unsuccessfully) trap the week's quarry. Do I believe it possible to encounter a monster for every show? No. There's a good possibility that there is a crew making sounds, throwing rocks and raising hell off-screen. There's also a slim possibility that the encounters that make the air are one in ten that don't have any results. Unless we are out trekking the mountainside with these guys, we'll never know for sure. I laugh to think of a day that they might prove all of us wrong for watching their antics as pure entertainment.
True or not, the legends they are chasing down are very real.
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| Picture from www.endoftherow.blogspot.com |
The Snallygaster legend has a couple of different beginnings. One story has Pennsylvania Dutch origins. The name is believed to come from the German "Schneller Geist", meaning "quick spirit". While this description may typically be used to describe the cold breeze that knocks papers off a table or the wind that slams a door shut, it came to name a winged creature that prowls the mountains of Western Maryland.
This creature, the Snallygaster, is described as having large wings like a dragon, a half-reptilian/half-avian body, a metallic beak with sharp teeth, and sharp claws. Some descriptions even give the Snally octopus tentacles to help it snatch up its prey. Such a creature is pretty hard to swallow with so many creatures mashed together, but thus is the stuff of legends.
Many believe that the Snallygaster was more of a story to keep children and ne'er-do-wells disciplined. "Don't go out after dark or the Snallygaster will get you!" "Get in bed before the Snally eats you up!" Many of the farmers may have thought that it could have been a real thing. Driving through Western Maryland, you will find a seven-point star hex on the side of many barns. This was believed to keep the Snallygaster away from the crops, animals and family.
Reported sightings of this creature are proliferate around 1909, though stories of it go back as early as 1735. It has been suggested that stories from the 19th century may have had a dark purpose. These tales may have been manufactured as a last warning for slave headed up the Underground Railroad for the Mason-Dixon line, telling that any crossing through Western Maryland would be snatched up by the Snallygaster and meet death instead of freedom. In fact, many of the stories published after the turn of the century tell that the first sighting was by a colored man who disturbed it as it slept on the warmth of an outdoor kiln. Some say it screeched angrily and flew away; others claim he became the first victim, thrown off a cliff to his death.
This story is not to be confused with the Snoligoster found in the swamps of the south, mainly in the area of Lake Okeechobee, FL. That creature is a long crocodilian creature with a spike on its back. The Snoligoster uses its tail to toss its victims onto that spike to their death. Stories tell of this creature attacking escaped slaves and impaling them to their deaths.
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| Picture from www.hagerstownmagazine.com |
Snoligoster aside, this was the first encounter of many reported in 1909. Enough stories were published that hunters grabbed their rifles and set out to bring the beast down. Interest in this beast became so popular that the Smithsonian Institute offered a reward for its hide - $100,000 per square foot to whomever could bring it down. Rumor has it that even Theodore Roosevelt considered postponing an engagement in favor of mounting the Snally on his wall.
There were many sightings told to range from Western Maryland in the South Mountain region to West Virginia, parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio and even out to New Jersey. Coincidentally, these sightings are at the same time period and locations as another cryptid with large bat wings, a long fearsome face, a spiked tail and cloven feet - the Jersey Devil. Is it possible that people were seeing the same creature? A rose by any other name is still a rose.
Whatever was being reported, stories tell that this monster which could not be shot down by hunters had a wide-ranging territory. No one could say where it was roosting, though some claim to have found an egg in at least two different locations. The first is reported to have been laid near Sharpsburg, where a group of men supposedly tried to hatch it with a makeshift incubator. The second was said to be laid somewhere between Gapland and Burkittsville. This egg ranges in size from "large enough to catch a pony" to "big enough to hatch an elephant". The eggs were believed to have an incubation time of twenty-three years, as this was the amount of time between the disappearance of the Snallygaster in 1909 to the arrival of another set of sightings in 1932.
This new set of sightings ended with a supposed witnessed death to the creature in December of '32. Stories tell of this incarnation flying over a vat of moonshine and being overcome by its vapors. The poor creature fell to its drowning death in the vat, the lye of the mixture eating away its flesh and leaving only a skeleton. Authorities that responded to the scene blew up the vat with dynamite, leaving nary a clue that the Snallygaster was real.
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| Photo of article from www.baltimoreorless.com |
Now, these are the reported sightings of the Snallygaster, be they true or manufactured. Some will say that the story of the monster was a complete farce dreamed up by an Ohio author by name of Thomas Chalmers Harbaugh, a son of Middletown, MD. He was best friends with George Rhoderick, the editor of the Middletown Valley Register, and was a regular contributor to the paper. Some might say that he started the stories as a ruse and ended them with a bang of the dynamite when he felt he could no longer carry the stories on. Others may say that the articles were made up by rivaling editors of the local papers, but again, no one can say for sure.
Stories of the Snallygaster continue on even to this day, placing the Snallygaster in the mountains of West Virginia. If the stories are to be believed, the creatures' eggs have been reported again. Whatever it might be, it is breeding and living well in its roost. Maybe it is being held in check by its natural enemy, the Dwayyo - a fierce wolf man that also supposedly ranges the mountains of Western Maryland and West Virginia.
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| Picture from viergacht.deviantart.com |
Is it possible the Snallygaster is out there? It could be. Based on descriptions given, it has been seen in many different areas here in the Northeast. It is some type of winged creature that may also have a sufficient means of locomotion on the ground, if stories of tracks being found are to be believed. Could the Snally and the Jersey Devil be the same monster? They are told to be sighted in the same areas. What if we take away the fear of the witnesses. Shed away the octopus tentacles that could instead be raptors' claws. Change the long horse's face to an extended beak. Do we have a large fearsome bird that remains unidentified? Could we instead be witnessing a Thunderbird in action? Might there be a colony of surviving Pterosaurs living in Appalachia? Is it something else?
Whatever is out there, we will one day find out.
Notes taken from http://en.wikipedia.org, http://wesclark.com, http://books.google.com, http://cryptidz.wikia.com, http://www.njdevilhunters.com
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