The Crawfordsville monster refers to an alleged creature reported by residents of Crawfordsville,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

, in 1891 and subsequently identified as a flock of

killdeer The killdeer (''Charadrius vociferus'') is a large plover found in the Americas. It was described and given its current scientific name in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his ''Systema Naturae''. Three subspecies are described. Th ...

. The story, "among the most fantastic of all UFO reports," contributed to early theories of UFOs as airborne organisms.

History

On September 5, 1891, the ''Crawfordsville Journal'' reported that two ice delivery men sighted "a strange phenomenon" that hovered in the air above their location, describing it as a "horrible apparition" that "filled them with dread." A similar sighting was reported by a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

pastor and his wife. The ''Crawfordsville Journal'' described it as "about long and wide and moved rapidly through the air by means of several pairs of side fins. It was pure white and had no definite shape or form, resembling somewhat a great white shroud fitted with propelling fins. There was no tail or head visible but there was one great flaming eye, and a sort of a wheezing plaintive sound was emitted from a mouth which was invisible. It flapped like a flag in the winds as it came on and frequently gave a great squirm as though suffering unutterable agony." According to interviews conducted years later by Crawfordsville reporter and

Fortean Society The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of American writer Charles Hoy Fort, in order to promote his ideas. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first presiden ...

member Vincent Gaddis, hundreds of residents observed the phenomenon on the following evening, with some claiming they could feel the monster's "hot breath" as it swooped over them. The ''

Indianapolis Journal The ''Indianapolis Journal'' was a newspaper published in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The paper published daily editions every evening except on Sundays, when it published a morning edition. The fi ...

'' repeated the September 5th sightings, as did other newspapers across the country, including the ''

Brooklyn Eagle :''This article covers both the historical newspaper (1841–1955, 1960–1963), as well as an unrelated new Brooklyn Daily Eagle starting 1996 published currently'' The ''Brooklyn Eagle'' (originally joint name ''The Brooklyn Eagle'' and ''King ...

'', whose article later attracted the attention of early

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

investigator

Charles Fort Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who specialized in anomalous phenomena. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold w ...

. The Crawfordsville Postmaster was deluged with mail, and reports of the sightings generated both ridicule and a number of believers. Two local men, John Hornbeck and Abe Hernley, "followed the wraith about town and finally discovered it to be a flock of many hundred killdeer." The ''Crawfordsville Journal'' suggested that Crawfordsville's newly installed electric lights disoriented the birds, which caused them to hover above the city. The birds' wings and white under-feathers likely resulted in misidentification.

In popular culture

The monster has been adapted as a fantasy games monster under the D20-Modern gaming system,D20-Modern: Menace Creatures
The Crawfordsville Monster
(October 2006)World of Sulerin - Monstrous Index
Crawfordsville Monster
(October 2006) where it is classified as being an ooze-based creature that resembles an amoeba.D20-Modern: Menace Creatures
The Crawfordsville Monster
(Image), (October 2006) The myth was featured on an episode of the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

show ''

MonsterQuest ''MonsterQuest'' (sometimes written as ''Monsterquest'' or ''Monster Quest'') is an American television series that originally aired from October 31, 2007 to March 24, 2010 on the History channel. Produced by Whitewolf Entertainment, the program de ...

''. The incident is also depicted in a story about alleged "living UFOs" in Issue #3 of the

Gold Key Comics Gold Key Comics was originally an imprint of American company Western Publishing, created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated this way from 1962 to 1984. Currently, Gold Key Comics is owned b ...

series ''UFO Flying Saucers'' (1972).

References

External links

Historical Profile on the Crawfordsville Monster
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crawfordsville Monster Alleged extraterrestrial beings 1891 in Indiana

Monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

Indiana culture