In American folklore, the snallygaster is a bird-reptile chimera originating in the superstitions of early German immigrants later combined with sensationalistic newspaper reports of the monster. Early sightings associate the snallygaster with

Frederick County, Maryland Frederick County is located in Maryland, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, the population was 271,717. The county seat is Frederick, Maryland, Frederick. The county is part of the Washington metropolitan area, ...

, especially the areas of South Mountain, Braddock Heights and the Middletown Valley. Later reports would expand on sightings encompassing an area to include Central Maryland; Berkeley County, West Virginia; and the Washington, DC, metro area.

History

18th century

The area of

was settled by German immigrants beginning in the 1730s. Early accounts describe the community being terrorized by a monster called a ''Schneller Geist'', meaning "quick ghost" in German. The earliest incarnations of the creature mixed the half-bird features of a siren with the nightmarish features of demons and ghouls. The snallygaster was described as half-reptile, half-bird having a metallic beak lined with razor-sharp teeth, occasionally alongside octopus-like tentacles. The snallygaster was rumored to swoop silently from the sky to pick up and carry off its victims. The earliest stories claim that this monster sucked the blood of its victims. Seven-pointed stars, which reputedly kept the snallygaster at bay, can still be seen painted on local barns.

19th century

It has been suggested the legend was resurrected in the 19th century to frighten freed slaves.

20th century

Newspaper accounts throughout February and March 1909 describe encounters between local residents and a beast with "enormous wings, a long pointed bill, claws like steel hooks, and an eye in the center of its forehead." It was described as making screeches "like a locomotive whistle." A great deal of publicity surrounded this string of appearances, with the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

offering a reward for the hide. U.S. President

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

reportedly considered postponing an African safari to personally hunt the beast. It was later revealed that these reports were part of a hoax perpetrated by ''Middletown Valley Register'' editor George C. Rhoderick and reporter Ralph S. Wolfe in an attempt to increase readership. The descriptions they invented borrowed themes from existing German folklore, including dragon-like creatures who snatched children and livestock, and also appeared to invoke descriptions of the Jersey Devil, which had been spotted mere weeks earlier. On June 22, 1953, Whittaker Chambers (whose

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be p ...

lies in Carroll County, Maryland) used the snallygaster to examine U.S. Senator

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...

in his essay "Is Academic Freedom in Danger?" (''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' ):

It was a trick of fate in a low comedy mood that Senator McCarthy should first have bounded into public view dragging the unlikely and protesting person of Mr. Lattimore to share with him a historic spotlight so grateful to the one and so acutely unwanted by the other. It was a trick of fate that, in the case of each, has led to some serious confusions. For it led to the translation of Senator McCarthy into the symbol of a national snallygaster (a winged hobgoblin used to frighten naughty children in parts of rural Maryland), instead of one of the two things that he obviously is: an instinctive politician of a kind fairly common in our history, in which case the uproar he inspires is a phenomenon much more arresting than the senator; or a politician of a kind wholly new in our history, in which case he merits the most cautious and coldblooded appraisal.

In popular culture

The snallygaster appears as a boss fight in '' Blair Witch Volume II: The Legend of Coffin Rock'', which takes place in 1886. In 2008, author Patrick Boyton published a history of the snallygaster, entitled ''Snallygaster: the Lost Legend of Frederick County''. In 2011 an annual beer festival (a "beastly beer jamboree") called "Snallygaster" started in Washington, DC. The 2017 edition of J. K. Rowling's '' Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' incorporated the Snallygaster into her ''Harry Potter'' universe. It is described as a part-bird, part-reptile relative of the Occamy, with serrated steel fangs, a bulletproof hide, and a natural sense of curiosity. A creature called a snallygaster appears in the 2018 Bethesda game '' Fallout 76''. It bears little resemblance to the creature of legend and is described in the game as a failed genetic experiment. The Snallygaster is a Blended Whiskey produced by Dragon Distillery of Frederick, MD and released in 2018. South Mountain Creamery, a dairy farm located in Frederick County, Maryland, produces an ice cream flavor named Snallygaster. It consists of peanut butter flavored ice cream with caramel swirl, peanut butter cups, and pretzels. In 2021 Sarah Cooper, a cryptozoologist in Maryland, opened The American Snallygaster Museum in Libertytown, MD.

References