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(birds chirping)
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(static crackling)
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(eerie music)
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00:00:07,675 --> 00:00:10,425
(birds chirping)
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00:00:13,570 --> 00:00:16,153
(gentle music)
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- [Narrator] Why does it begin, this quest
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to understand the unexplainable?
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For some it's later in life
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long after the wide-eyed optimism of youth
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has left them and they believe the answers
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to all life's mysteries are
easily found in the mundane.
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(bird hooting)
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Maybe something happens to challenge
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their earth-bound assumptions
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and they're compelled to
discover what really happened.
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(rooster crowing)
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(pig snorting)
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But some fall into the
mysterious at a young age
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and truly believe they can seek out
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new discoveries, new frontiers.
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(bird hooting)
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(distant people shouting)
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(chickens clucking)
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Some no longer question
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whether these boundaries even exist
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or new revelations wait to be uncovered.
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They know that the universe
still keeps some secrets.
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They know because they've
heard the eyewitness stories,
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the accounts from good,
honest people of things
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that defy explanation.
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(train whistle tooting)
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(crickets chirping)
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(wings flapping)
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Or maybe they simply know
because in their search
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for legends, they've
seen one for themselves.
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(wings flapping)
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(moving to dramatic music)
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(bird hooting)
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(thunder cracking)
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(woman vocalizing)
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- [Woman] We see this
blood smear on the road.
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There was just a
tremendous amount of blood.
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We see off in the distance this shadow,
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large, black, sorta hunched over figure.
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The thing turns and we realize
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it's not a person.
- Over the weekend
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- It's this bird.
- out by this ranch
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in the middle of nowhere.
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A large bird flying in
circles like the size
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of a single engine airplane.
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- [Woman] Driving and all of a sudden
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they said, "Oh my God."
- Came into my bed.
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- And he immediately woke up
- I looked over and there was
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- and catched
- and there was
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00:03:06,177 --> 00:03:07,137
- a glimpse of this
- a huge bird there,
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- giant black bird.
- so massive it could
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take up the whole window.
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(bird screeching)
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- [Woman] Largest bird I've ever seen
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in my entire life.
(wings flapping)
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(dramatic music)
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(woman vocalizing)
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(bird roaring)
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(gentle music)
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(water lapping)
(siren blaring)
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(tense music)
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- [News Announcer] In the news today,
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yet another sighting of the
infamous Chicago Mothman.
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The Tribune is covering this
latest what they're calling
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flap about sightings of this
giant winged demonic thing
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people are seeing right
here in downtown Chicaco.
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A woman walking her dog
claimed she encountered
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a creature standing in the park.
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"I saw a large man probably
seven feet or taller
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"standing on the ground,"
according to the account
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published by Strickler.
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"It was solid black."
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- [Narrator] In 2017, sightings
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of a giant flying creature
begin taking place
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around the city of Chicago.
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While the being seen by many
Chicagoans was said to be
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simply an abnormally large bird,
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the media soon dubbed
it the Chicago Mothman
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in reference to a similar
phantom seen in the skies
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above Point Pleasant, West Virginia,
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in 1966 and 1967.
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- [News Announcer] But
what really stood out
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were the large, and I do mean large,
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pair of wings.
- While the Chicago sightings
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drew the attention of
local and national media,
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unusual occurrences were nothing new
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to paranormal researchers
familiar with the Prairie State.
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- [News Announcer] We'll
keep following this story
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in the days ahead no doubt
so keep it tuned right here
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to 97.1, The Lake.
(birds chirping)
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(tense music)
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(somber music)
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- I began in cryptozoology
in the late '50s
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and one of the first
things that I investigated
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was a report of a black panther.
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And I went out with a game warden
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and I musta been 12 years old.
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They found tracks, they
interviewed the individual
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who said they saw a panther-like creature,
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got back in the truck with the game warden
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and he said, "They just saw a beaver."
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And that kind of made me
know what I was getting into
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that most people don't
believe these things,
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they don't really listen to witnesses.
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They go in with a pre-conceived notion
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and I wanted to be more open-minded
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and that's what I started doing.
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(birds chirping and cawing)
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(gentle music)
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- My name is Troy Taylor
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and I was born and raised in Illinois.
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I have lived all over
the state of Illinois.
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Currently I live in
Jacksonville, Illinois.
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My sole interest beginning in
anything that wasn't ghosts
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was because I read Loren
Coleman's book Mysterious America
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when I was in high school.
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The thing I loved about it
the most is that so many
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of his stories were based in Illinois
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and I didn't know why till
I saw an article about him
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in our local paper and realized
he was from Decatur, too.
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You know, it was Loren
who put me on the path
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of well, you know, there's a
lotta cool stuff in Illinois.
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I rarely meet people who
don't either know someone
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or have a family member who
had some sort of encounter
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in their life, in their entire lifetime.
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Even if they don't believe
in this kinda stuff,
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these things tend to happen
or are drawn to people.
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And I think that that seems
to make Illinois more haunted
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than other states but I
don't think that's the case.
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I think they're all very haunted
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or all drawn to the paranormal.
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It's just somebody's gotta
write this stuff down.
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Somebody's gotta collect it.
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- I grew up in Illinois.
(somber music)
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I lived in Illinois most of my life
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from 1947 through 1975.
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And I really saw Illinois
as a little United States.
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- The state of Illinois is a
lot bigger than people think.
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You try to drive tip to tip in Illinois,
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it's about an eight-hour drive.
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- You have the urban area in Chicago,
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then the river area in the
northern part of the state.
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- You've got Chicago, you've
got a big metropolitan area.
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In Northern Illinois,
(computer beeping)
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you have the Illinois River
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and all the bluffs and the
wooded areas and the canyons.
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And then you get into
the middle of the state
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where everything's flat.
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There just isn't a lot geographically
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across the middle of the
state that's unusual.
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(moving to dynamic music)
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- To me there's nothing more beautiful
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than driving across that flat land
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and seeing a thunderstorm come toward you.
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- But when you travel further south,
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then you get into a whole different area.
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Once you get to the
southern part of the state,
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you will swear you have left Illinois.
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- And then southern
Illinois, Little Egypt,
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is a whole different country.
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It's like a little swampy
land, there's rolling hills.
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- This is the edge of the Ozarks
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and there are mountains
(birds chirping)
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and hills and canyons and
rivers and it's a wild region.
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And you find that a lot
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of these strange
anomalous animal sightings
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all seem to come to the
southern part of the state.
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And then along the western edge,
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you have the Mississippi River
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which is completely different again.
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(gentle music)
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(water lapping)
(birds chirping)
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(computer beeping)
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- [Narrator] The town of Alton,
Illinois, sits on the banks
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of the Mississippi at the confluence
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of the Illinois, the Mississippi,
and the Missouri Rivers.
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Situated in the furthest
reaches of the state,
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it's an often overlooked
destination with a rich history
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that defines it as one of
the most important pieces
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of a century-old puzzle.
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Alton was founded in 1818
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and, despite its
considerably smaller size,
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was conceived as a
sister city to St. Louis.
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The region was once home
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to Native Americans
(people chanting)
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who had called southern
Illinois home for centuries
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prior to the arrival of European settlers.
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Naturally, the incursion into the Midwest
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caused a number of skirmishes
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between the local natives
(men shouting)
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and the outsiders.
(guns firing)
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(horse whinnying)
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Over time, Alton became
(gentle music)
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incredibly important to Illinois' economy
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as it grew into an industrial hub
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thanks to its location along the river.
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- This was the start of
a town that's had a lot
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of odd things drawn to it over the years.
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It's a town that's plagued
by stories of ghosts
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and hauntings and strange creatures
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and that dates back to
really the beginning.
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It's a place where there's
been a lotta death,
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00:10:13,540 --> 00:10:15,540
there's been diseases,
there's been flooding.
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There was a Civil War
prison located there.
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And it's become known
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as one of the most haunted
small towns in America
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because of all the history
that's taken place there.
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(gentle music)
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- [Narrator] Alton's geographical location
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places it in a historically
significant region
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known as the Gateway to the West.
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As Lewis and Clark began their journey
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across the United States in 1804,
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the current location of
Alton would've been an area
220
00:10:40,130 --> 00:10:42,350
they traveled through
during the early days
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of the western expansion.
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While Alton has a
noteworthy role in history,
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it hasn't always been a positive one.
224
00:10:50,740 --> 00:10:53,360
At the Confederate
prison located in Alton,
225
00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:57,000
the Union Army kept as many
as 12,000 soldiers captive
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in horrifying conditions that
led to disease and death.
227
00:11:01,870 --> 00:11:03,240
In the years to follow,
228
00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:05,710
the mighty Mississippi
would overflow its banks
229
00:11:05,710 --> 00:11:07,260
on multiple occasions
(film clacking)
230
00:11:07,260 --> 00:11:10,170
resulting in catastrophic flooding.
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00:11:10,170 --> 00:11:12,740
For followers of the strange and unusual,
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these aspects of the town's history
233
00:11:14,850 --> 00:11:17,410
might ring strangely familiar.
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00:11:17,410 --> 00:11:18,910
- So I find a lot of connections
235
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between Alton as a river community
236
00:11:21,070 --> 00:11:23,490
and other river communities
across the country
237
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like Point Pleasant in West Virginia.
238
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It's got the same type of
history in that you've got
239
00:11:28,090 --> 00:11:30,000
Native Americans, you've got bloodshed,
240
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you've got diseases, and
you've got this great history.
241
00:11:32,980 --> 00:11:34,870
Point Pleasant is also one of those towns
242
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that, not only has a haunted history,
243
00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,550
but also has, of course,
the Mothman legend
244
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connected to it.
245
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So you've go the Piasa Bird in one place,
246
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you've got the Mothman in the other,
247
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and all of this energy
drawn to these towns
248
00:11:49,040 --> 00:11:50,530
with all this water.
249
00:11:50,530 --> 00:11:54,240
And I think any time you
have a river community
250
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you're gonna have more stories.
251
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You're gonna have more ghost stories,
252
00:11:56,660 --> 00:11:58,580
you're gonna have more weird encounters,
253
00:11:58,580 --> 00:12:00,723
you're gonna have more strange legends.
254
00:12:04,554 --> 00:12:07,522
(loud thudding)
(bird roaring)
255
00:12:07,522 --> 00:12:12,522
(eerie drumming music)
(birds chirping)
256
00:12:15,310 --> 00:12:17,410
- For many years people have
been discussing something
257
00:12:17,410 --> 00:12:18,920
known as the Piasa
258
00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:20,120
which allegedly is
(tense music)
259
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:23,300
an Illinois Native American
Thunderbird creature.
260
00:12:23,300 --> 00:12:25,890
There's a long history and
story behind this creature.
261
00:12:25,890 --> 00:12:27,100
It first appears
(somber music)
262
00:12:27,100 --> 00:12:32,100
in the work of a Jesuit
missionary name Jacques Marquette.
263
00:12:32,250 --> 00:12:34,610
And in 1673 he was exploring
(bird hooting)
264
00:12:34,610 --> 00:12:38,470
the Mississippi River and he
saw these giant pictographs,
265
00:12:38,470 --> 00:12:41,550
these rock paintings
on the side of cliffs.
266
00:12:41,550 --> 00:12:44,620
- [Troy] Dating even further
back than before the city
267
00:12:44,620 --> 00:12:47,230
actually started was
when Marquette and Joliet
268
00:12:47,230 --> 00:12:49,767
came down the Mississippi River in 1673
269
00:12:49,767 --> 00:12:52,060
and claimed the entire region for France.
270
00:12:52,060 --> 00:12:55,310
They'd already been primed
for weird things in Illinois.
271
00:12:55,310 --> 00:12:57,140
Well, they come around
a curve in the river
272
00:12:57,140 --> 00:13:00,510
near what's now Alton and
painted on the side of the bluff
273
00:13:00,510 --> 00:13:03,787
is two renditions of this monster.
274
00:13:03,787 --> 00:13:07,160
(creature growling)
(moving to drumming music)
275
00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:10,950
- The Illini Indians used the word Piasa
276
00:13:10,950 --> 00:13:13,749
as the bird that would devour humans.
277
00:13:13,749 --> 00:13:14,582
(tense music)
278
00:13:14,582 --> 00:13:17,690
And the whole story
was that the Piasa Bird
279
00:13:17,690 --> 00:13:19,700
would come down and eat people
(animal screaming)
280
00:13:19,700 --> 00:13:22,020
or that some of the tribal groups
281
00:13:22,020 --> 00:13:25,460
had to, in some ways, give a sacrifice
282
00:13:25,460 --> 00:13:26,510
of young people
(person screaming)
283
00:13:26,510 --> 00:13:28,150
to the Piasa Birds.
284
00:13:28,150 --> 00:13:32,480
One of the major chiefs
decided enough was enough.
285
00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:34,460
I don't wanna do this anymore.
(bird screeching)
286
00:13:34,460 --> 00:13:36,400
I'm losing a lot of my people
287
00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:38,490
so he actually went on one of the cliffs
288
00:13:38,490 --> 00:13:40,903
where the sacrifice was given
289
00:13:40,903 --> 00:13:45,236
(moving to dramatic drumming music)
290
00:13:46,750 --> 00:13:49,643
and when the Piasa Bird came down,
291
00:13:49,643 --> 00:13:51,750
(bird screeching)
292
00:13:51,750 --> 00:13:54,978
he had 11 warriors come out and kill it.
293
00:13:54,978 --> 00:13:57,728
(wings flapping)
294
00:13:59,540 --> 00:14:01,076
(arrows thudding)
295
00:14:01,076 --> 00:14:03,580
(bird screaming)
296
00:14:03,580 --> 00:14:07,740
That story's really come
down as the creation story,
297
00:14:07,740 --> 00:14:10,460
so to speak, of the Piasa Bird.
298
00:14:10,460 --> 00:14:11,740
- There's always been a question
299
00:14:11,740 --> 00:14:12,850
as to whether or not
(gentle drumming music)
300
00:14:12,850 --> 00:14:15,750
the Piasa Bird was a true story or not.
301
00:14:15,750 --> 00:14:17,540
Of course the Native
Americans claimed it was.
302
00:14:17,540 --> 00:14:19,340
And after they painted that mural,
303
00:14:19,340 --> 00:14:21,240
as they passed it on
the Mississippi River,
304
00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:23,480
they would fire arrows at it,
305
00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:25,020
they would fire rifles at it,
306
00:14:25,020 --> 00:14:26,560
they would blow tobacco smoke at it,
307
00:14:26,560 --> 00:14:29,350
all in tribute to its ferocity.
308
00:14:29,350 --> 00:14:32,450
- In the 1830s, a professor
at Shurtleff College
309
00:14:32,450 --> 00:14:35,210
in Alton, Illinois, wrote an article
310
00:14:35,210 --> 00:14:36,500
about the Piasa.
311
00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:37,400
And he claimed
(tense music)
312
00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,840
that the Illini people told him
313
00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:43,070
that these creatures
were actually giant birds
314
00:14:43,070 --> 00:14:45,180
and that the name literally meant
315
00:14:45,180 --> 00:14:47,110
the bird that devours men.
316
00:14:47,110 --> 00:14:48,560
- And in 1836,
(bird hooting)
317
00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:51,420
he went looking for what he had heard
318
00:14:51,420 --> 00:14:54,020
was a cave that was
connected to the Piasa Bird
319
00:14:54,020 --> 00:14:54,890
in some way.
320
00:14:54,890 --> 00:14:57,470
He hired a young man to
take him up into the bluffs.
321
00:14:57,470 --> 00:15:00,770
They spent the entire day
hunting for this cave.
322
00:15:00,770 --> 00:15:03,220
And after climbing up the sheer face
323
00:15:03,220 --> 00:15:05,560
of one of the cliffs, they entered a cave.
324
00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,380
And as they walked inside,
he said he could hear
325
00:15:08,380 --> 00:15:09,320
the sound of something
(footsteps crunching)
326
00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:11,150
crunching under his feet.
327
00:15:11,150 --> 00:15:13,000
And when he lit a torch
to see what it was,
328
00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:14,740
he discovered that he was in a cave
329
00:15:14,740 --> 00:15:16,860
completely filled with human bones.
330
00:15:16,860 --> 00:15:20,450
This was allegedly the Piasa cave.
331
00:15:20,450 --> 00:15:22,330
This is where the bird
was taking its victims,
332
00:15:22,330 --> 00:15:24,710
and eating them, and
leaving its bones behind.
333
00:15:24,710 --> 00:15:27,710
The problem is is that no one
else has ever found this cave.
334
00:15:28,839 --> 00:15:31,130
(gentle suspenseful music)
335
00:15:31,130 --> 00:15:32,650
- Researchers have uncovered the fact
336
00:15:32,650 --> 00:15:36,480
that this article was
probably highly fictionalized
337
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,210
and that he took a lot
of physical embellishment
338
00:15:38,210 --> 00:15:39,877
because the original Piasa creatures,
339
00:15:39,877 --> 00:15:42,640
the pictographs did not
display wings at all.
340
00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:44,840
- There were some people
who even criticized the fact
341
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:47,320
that it had wings and Marquette and Joliet
342
00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:48,570
didn't make a note of that.
343
00:15:48,570 --> 00:15:51,280
Well, it turns out that
there really were wings
344
00:15:51,280 --> 00:15:55,080
but they were usually only
visible when the bluffs were wet.
345
00:15:55,080 --> 00:15:56,840
- [Narrator] The original Piasa Bird mural
346
00:15:56,840 --> 00:15:59,870
was eventually destroyed in the mid-1800s
347
00:15:59,870 --> 00:16:01,200
but was recreated again
348
00:16:01,200 --> 00:16:02,920
in the 1870s
(suspenseful music)
349
00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,123
by Professor William McAdams.
350
00:16:06,050 --> 00:16:08,530
This recreation was based on descriptions
351
00:16:08,530 --> 00:16:11,550
of the lost mural by local settlers.
352
00:16:11,550 --> 00:16:13,730
The supposed cave containing the bones
353
00:16:13,730 --> 00:16:17,020
of the Piasa Bird victims was never found.
354
00:16:17,020 --> 00:16:18,894
And whether or not the Piasa Bird was even
355
00:16:18,894 --> 00:16:20,780
a winged cryptid,
(gentle music)
356
00:16:20,780 --> 00:16:23,863
remains a debate among
historians and researchers.
357
00:16:24,820 --> 00:16:27,120
One thing is sure, however,
358
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:29,130
Alton, Illinois, was a town
(birds chirping)
359
00:16:29,130 --> 00:16:31,973
that seemed to be a
magnet for the unusual.
360
00:16:34,495 --> 00:16:36,317
(wings flapping)
361
00:16:36,317 --> 00:16:39,734
(dynamic rhythmic music)
362
00:16:40,831 --> 00:16:43,581
(birds chirping)
363
00:16:45,540 --> 00:16:47,970
- Really from the 1700s,
(upbeat music)
364
00:16:47,970 --> 00:16:49,700
there started to be
365
00:16:49,700 --> 00:16:53,020
documentation in this record
366
00:16:53,020 --> 00:16:56,300
that certain people who were explorers,
367
00:16:56,300 --> 00:16:59,440
who were colonists,
who were native peoples
368
00:16:59,440 --> 00:17:01,600
were seeing large birds.
369
00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:04,270
And they would often see
them on the top of mountains,
370
00:17:04,270 --> 00:17:08,590
on bald mountains, in caves,
in different things like that.
371
00:17:08,590 --> 00:17:10,840
They didn't wanna get too close to them
372
00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:14,330
but they certainly knew they
had to deal with these things.
373
00:17:14,330 --> 00:17:16,210
- Accounts of giant monstrous birds
374
00:17:16,210 --> 00:17:18,630
actually date back decades.
375
00:17:18,630 --> 00:17:20,230
Even into the 19th century
376
00:17:20,230 --> 00:17:21,300
you have accounts as old
(bird squawking)
377
00:17:21,300 --> 00:17:23,692
as the 1860s.
(gentle suspenseful music)
378
00:17:23,692 --> 00:17:26,520
- In 1868 in Missouri, there
was a group of children
379
00:17:26,520 --> 00:17:28,180
out playing at school.
380
00:17:28,180 --> 00:17:31,100
The school teacher came
out and saw this huge bird
381
00:17:31,100 --> 00:17:32,970
swoop down, grab ahold
(bird squawking)
382
00:17:32,970 --> 00:17:34,570
of a boy and literally
(boy shouting)
383
00:17:34,570 --> 00:17:37,090
carry him away and disappear.
(child screaming)
384
00:17:37,090 --> 00:17:38,840
Apparently it was well-documented
385
00:17:38,840 --> 00:17:40,820
and it probably happened.
386
00:17:40,820 --> 00:17:43,530
- And these sightings
tend to occur in flaps,
387
00:17:43,530 --> 00:17:45,610
that is clusters, many
clusters of sightings
388
00:17:45,610 --> 00:17:47,400
in a concentrated area.
389
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,390
- There was a big, what they call, a flap
390
00:17:49,390 --> 00:17:52,210
around the Alton area in the 1940s.
391
00:17:52,210 --> 00:17:55,020
And people were seeing these
large birds in the skies
392
00:17:55,020 --> 00:17:56,230
and didn't really know what they were.
393
00:17:56,230 --> 00:17:57,440
People were calling them Thunderbirds
394
00:17:57,440 --> 00:17:59,880
because, of course, that's the
Native American name for 'em
395
00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:01,479
and what they traditionally called.
396
00:18:01,479 --> 00:18:02,312
(tense music)
397
00:18:02,312 --> 00:18:04,240
- But in the 1940s around Alton
398
00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:06,750
and spreading out even into Springfield
399
00:18:06,750 --> 00:18:10,240
and up to the northern state of Wisconsin,
400
00:18:10,240 --> 00:18:13,820
people were seeing these
giant bird-like creatures.
401
00:18:13,820 --> 00:18:17,340
And you can actually
follow some of the paths
402
00:18:17,340 --> 00:18:18,970
of these creatures by following
403
00:18:18,970 --> 00:18:20,630
the newspaper accounts
(birds chirping)
404
00:18:20,630 --> 00:18:23,630
that each town the
night after would report
405
00:18:23,630 --> 00:18:25,548
people seeing these.
406
00:18:25,548 --> 00:18:28,578
(film clacking)
(lighthearted music)
407
00:18:28,578 --> 00:18:30,838
(bird screeching)
408
00:18:30,838 --> 00:18:33,421
(lively music)
409
00:18:34,813 --> 00:18:36,450
- [News Announcer] In
the small town of Alton,
410
00:18:36,450 --> 00:18:38,940
strange flying creatures
are making a merry mess
411
00:18:38,940 --> 00:18:40,170
of the panicked masses
412
00:18:40,170 --> 00:18:42,113
as more and more reports flood in.
413
00:18:42,113 --> 00:18:42,946
(bird screeching)
414
00:18:42,946 --> 00:18:46,510
Where do these bizarre beaked
bearers of bad luck originate?
415
00:18:46,510 --> 00:18:49,782
Are they giant birds
or mere mass hysteria?
416
00:18:49,782 --> 00:18:51,860
You be the judge.
(boat whistle tooting)
417
00:18:51,860 --> 00:18:54,720
- In early April of 1948, there began
418
00:18:54,720 --> 00:18:56,600
to be sightings around Alto
419
00:18:56,600 --> 00:18:58,950
of some sort of giant bird.
(gentle music)
420
00:18:58,950 --> 00:19:00,670
And everyone described it about the same.
421
00:19:00,670 --> 00:19:02,100
It was gray.
422
00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:04,020
I find with all these
sightings the wingspans
423
00:19:04,020 --> 00:19:06,440
seemed to kind of vary
a little but not much.
424
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:07,910
The fact that they were all so close
425
00:19:07,910 --> 00:19:09,270
I thought was impressive.
(computer beeping)
426
00:19:09,270 --> 00:19:12,350
- When I was a very young
boy and getting into this,
427
00:19:12,350 --> 00:19:15,890
I discovered that microfiche and microfilm
428
00:19:15,890 --> 00:19:19,630
in libraries, you could
look through old records.
429
00:19:19,630 --> 00:19:23,780
And found all of these stories from 1948
430
00:19:23,780 --> 00:19:25,820
that nobody had discovered.
431
00:19:25,820 --> 00:19:29,150
And I found one story in April
432
00:19:29,150 --> 00:19:31,960
when the whole big flap
(film clacking)
433
00:19:31,960 --> 00:19:33,770
in 1948 began.
434
00:19:33,770 --> 00:19:34,790
- I found probably
(suspenseful music)
435
00:19:34,790 --> 00:19:37,130
the most convincing of
all of those sightings
436
00:19:37,130 --> 00:19:39,490
were a couple of retired military guys
437
00:19:39,490 --> 00:19:42,780
one of which was the head of
the Western Military Academy
438
00:19:42,780 --> 00:19:44,193
which was in Alton at the time.
439
00:19:44,193 --> 00:19:45,330
- And the first that we're familiar with
440
00:19:45,330 --> 00:19:47,240
goes back to April of 1948.
441
00:19:48,512 --> 00:19:51,660
And the first may in fact
have been a army colonel
442
00:19:51,660 --> 00:19:55,370
name Walter Sigmund who
was standing at an airbase
443
00:19:55,370 --> 00:19:57,860
talking to another colonel and a farmer
444
00:19:57,860 --> 00:20:00,360
and he claimed he looked up and saw this,
445
00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:02,990
what he thought at first was
an airplane flying overhead
446
00:20:02,990 --> 00:20:05,530
until he saw this thing flap its wings.
447
00:20:05,530 --> 00:20:07,420
And at that point he
realized that this thing
448
00:20:07,420 --> 00:20:10,093
was an airplane-sized bird literally.
449
00:20:12,469 --> 00:20:13,302
(gentle music)
450
00:20:13,302 --> 00:20:16,320
- [Narrator] In April of
1948, the St. Louis Dispatch
451
00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,350
ran an eyewitness account
told to a mother and father
452
00:20:19,350 --> 00:20:21,160
by their young son.
453
00:20:21,160 --> 00:20:23,330
The boy had spied what he claimed to be
454
00:20:23,330 --> 00:20:27,300
a giant grayish-green bird
over their home in Overland
455
00:20:27,300 --> 00:20:31,683
just 25 miles south of Alton
in January of the same year.
456
00:20:32,590 --> 00:20:35,180
The family was initially
hesitant to come forward
457
00:20:35,180 --> 00:20:36,430
with their story.
458
00:20:36,430 --> 00:20:39,120
However, as the Sigmund
account found its way
459
00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,380
into area newspapers,
suddenly other witnesses
460
00:20:42,380 --> 00:20:44,820
who had seen giant birds felt compelled
461
00:20:44,820 --> 00:20:47,383
to add their own reports
to the public record.
462
00:20:48,970 --> 00:20:51,750
Alongside the Walter Sigmund
sighting was another one
463
00:20:51,750 --> 00:20:54,440
from April 9th, 1948.
464
00:20:54,440 --> 00:20:57,120
In this case, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Price
465
00:20:57,120 --> 00:20:59,710
of Caledonia, Illinois, describe seeing
466
00:20:59,710 --> 00:21:02,273
a monstrous bird bigger than an airplane.
467
00:21:03,130 --> 00:21:05,390
They reported seeing enormous wings
468
00:21:05,390 --> 00:21:08,683
and what they took to be massive
legs and feet beneath it.
469
00:21:10,310 --> 00:21:13,400
On April 10th, the winged
monstrosity appeared again
470
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:16,460
in the sky above Overland,
observed by a couple
471
00:21:16,460 --> 00:21:19,293
and their acquaintance as
it soared over their home.
472
00:21:20,140 --> 00:21:22,540
Their initial assumption was
that they were witnessing
473
00:21:22,540 --> 00:21:24,713
an airplane maneuvering through the sky.
474
00:21:25,670 --> 00:21:28,660
- There was a truck
driver named Verle Babb
475
00:21:28,660 --> 00:21:31,200
who was driving one morning and claimed
476
00:21:31,200 --> 00:21:33,900
that he saw this thing, a giant bird
477
00:21:33,900 --> 00:21:36,620
swooping down trying to
pick up a small piglet
478
00:21:36,620 --> 00:21:37,590
at a pig farm.
479
00:21:37,590 --> 00:21:38,710
There's a famous account
(film clacking)
480
00:21:38,710 --> 00:21:41,310
from a lady doctor in Alton, Illinois,
481
00:21:41,310 --> 00:21:42,870
who claims she looked out her window
482
00:21:42,870 --> 00:21:45,220
and saw a Thunderbird flying by.
483
00:21:45,220 --> 00:21:49,000
- She said that it
looked like a Piper Cub.
484
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,240
A bird, no, a airplane.
485
00:21:52,240 --> 00:21:54,290
She thought it was that huge.
486
00:21:54,290 --> 00:21:58,270
And people started saying
maybe we should pay attention.
487
00:21:58,270 --> 00:22:01,000
- And there was also a sighting
of a farmer and his wife,
488
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,660
a man named Charles Pierce who claimed
489
00:22:02,660 --> 00:22:04,680
that they saw this monster-sized bird.
490
00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:07,480
Now, most of the descriptions
were very similar
491
00:22:07,480 --> 00:22:10,980
and people were describing
literally an airplane-sized bird
492
00:22:10,980 --> 00:22:15,060
with a wingspan perhaps
20 feet, 25 feet across.
493
00:22:15,060 --> 00:22:18,390
- And this went on for a few weeks
494
00:22:18,390 --> 00:22:20,360
until around the end of the month.
495
00:22:20,360 --> 00:22:22,398
It also showed up across
the river in St. Louis.
496
00:22:22,398 --> 00:22:25,440
(suspenseful music)
(bird howling)
497
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:26,980
- [Narrator] Sightings
on the Missouri side
498
00:22:26,980 --> 00:22:29,930
of the Mississippi River were
covered with greater intensity
499
00:22:29,930 --> 00:22:32,980
than the Alton sightings
given their closer proximity
500
00:22:32,980 --> 00:22:35,158
to the bustling city of St. Louis.
501
00:22:35,158 --> 00:22:35,991
(film clacking)
502
00:22:35,991 --> 00:22:38,060
The St. Louis Dispatch recounted sightings
503
00:22:38,060 --> 00:22:40,700
of an airplane-sized gray-black bird
504
00:22:40,700 --> 00:22:44,340
seen all over the region
during the two-week span.
505
00:22:44,340 --> 00:22:46,600
One of the most memorable
giant bird sightings
506
00:22:46,600 --> 00:22:49,280
took place on April 26th.
507
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:51,360
This involved a group
of flight instructors
508
00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:54,530
at the Mississippi School
of Aeronautics in St. Louis
509
00:22:54,530 --> 00:22:57,320
who spotted an abnormally
large bird flying
510
00:22:57,320 --> 00:23:00,670
at nearly 1200 above the airstrip.
511
00:23:00,670 --> 00:23:04,180
On April 27th, salesman
Harry Bradford was driving
512
00:23:04,180 --> 00:23:07,100
down the Red Feather Highway
in the late afternoon
513
00:23:07,100 --> 00:23:10,200
when he spotted something
huge flying above him.
514
00:23:10,200 --> 00:23:12,860
He pulled to the side of the
road and shined a spotlight
515
00:23:12,860 --> 00:23:13,823
into the sky.
516
00:23:13,823 --> 00:23:14,656
(bird screeching)
517
00:23:14,656 --> 00:23:15,570
Using the light,
518
00:23:15,570 --> 00:23:17,210
he could positively identify
(eerie music)
519
00:23:17,210 --> 00:23:20,100
it as a strangely massive bird.
520
00:23:20,100 --> 00:23:21,390
In the days to follow,
(wings flapping)
521
00:23:21,390 --> 00:23:23,610
he would claim to have
three more sightings
522
00:23:23,610 --> 00:23:25,834
of the very same creature.
523
00:23:25,834 --> 00:23:26,760
(suspenseful music)
524
00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:28,600
Things took an even stranger turn
525
00:23:28,600 --> 00:23:31,540
when three St. Louis locals
saw what they described
526
00:23:31,540 --> 00:23:34,610
as a Piper Cub-sized bird in the night sky
527
00:23:34,610 --> 00:23:35,803
around 10 p.m.
528
00:23:36,660 --> 00:23:38,710
They recalled seeing it flap its wings
529
00:23:38,710 --> 00:23:41,370
and move unusually fast
through the darkness
530
00:23:41,370 --> 00:23:44,880
at an altitude of perhaps 3000 feet.
531
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,500
Most unusual was the fact
that the creature seemed
532
00:23:47,500 --> 00:23:50,410
to be illuminated by a dull glow emanating
533
00:23:50,410 --> 00:23:51,653
from within its body.
534
00:23:52,770 --> 00:23:54,970
The hysteria surrounding
the bird sightings
535
00:23:54,970 --> 00:23:58,040
reached a feverish pitch
when the Civil Air Patrol
536
00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:00,630
offered to make aerial
searches for the bird
537
00:24:00,630 --> 00:24:02,812
which was now making national news.
538
00:24:02,812 --> 00:24:04,520
(tense music)
539
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:06,180
- One of the most entertaining parts
540
00:24:06,180 --> 00:24:08,330
of this flap of sightings
541
00:24:08,330 --> 00:24:09,700
was that the mayor of Alton
(gentle music)
542
00:24:09,700 --> 00:24:11,680
kept getting all these letters from people
543
00:24:11,680 --> 00:24:14,250
demanding that he do
something about this bird
544
00:24:14,250 --> 00:24:16,530
because for all they knew
it was gonna eat people
545
00:24:16,530 --> 00:24:17,890
like the Piasa Bird.
546
00:24:17,890 --> 00:24:20,040
And so he put his assistant in charge
547
00:24:20,040 --> 00:24:22,540
of trying to track down
this creature and trap it.
548
00:24:22,540 --> 00:24:26,510
- Then the mayor got involved
and a heron was caught
549
00:24:26,510 --> 00:24:29,350
and tracks were found on the mud bank.
550
00:24:29,350 --> 00:24:31,550
It kinda got to be a media event
551
00:24:31,550 --> 00:24:34,720
and became what we call nine day wonder
552
00:24:34,720 --> 00:24:37,470
because it really was in
the newspaper nine days.
553
00:24:37,470 --> 00:24:39,980
But in those nine days, people talked
554
00:24:39,980 --> 00:24:42,560
about several months of reports.
555
00:24:42,560 --> 00:24:46,130
- But it seemed as soon as
public interest in it peaked,
556
00:24:46,130 --> 00:24:47,100
it just stopped.
557
00:24:47,100 --> 00:24:51,130
Wherever this thing went
it moved on somewhere else.
558
00:24:51,130 --> 00:24:54,360
- It moved on, the people forgot about it,
559
00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:56,903
and they went back to living.
560
00:24:59,030 --> 00:25:00,030
- So what was it
(gentle music)
561
00:25:00,030 --> 00:25:03,160
that people saw in 1948 and does it have
562
00:25:03,160 --> 00:25:04,963
any historical precedents?
563
00:25:06,260 --> 00:25:09,190
While there are occasional
accounts of large bird sightings
564
00:25:09,190 --> 00:25:12,610
around the Prairie State,
they aren't exactly common
565
00:25:12,610 --> 00:25:15,343
and when they do come, it's in waves.
566
00:25:16,910 --> 00:25:19,370
It would be odd for some
sort of natural animal
567
00:25:19,370 --> 00:25:22,593
to only occasionally travel
to a geographical region.
568
00:25:23,640 --> 00:25:26,430
Perhaps the answers as to what
people were seeing in Alton
569
00:25:26,430 --> 00:25:29,833
in those days dwells within
the pages of history.
570
00:25:32,774 --> 00:25:33,607
- One of the most
(tense drumming music)
571
00:25:33,607 --> 00:25:34,560
compelling lines of evidence
572
00:25:34,560 --> 00:25:37,070
with regard to quote unquote Thunderbirds
573
00:25:37,070 --> 00:25:40,980
is that you have so many
widespread Native American legends
574
00:25:40,980 --> 00:25:43,080
that refer to these monstrous eagles
575
00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:45,150
or Thunderbirds, giant birds.
576
00:25:45,150 --> 00:25:47,000
These Native American Thunderbird accounts
577
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:50,370
range from the Pacific
Northwest to the Southwest,
578
00:25:50,370 --> 00:25:53,570
the Great Plains, New England,
and so on and so forth.
579
00:25:53,570 --> 00:25:55,070
So isn't it interesting that we have
580
00:25:55,070 --> 00:25:58,490
all of these widespread different cultures
581
00:25:58,490 --> 00:26:00,620
that refer to identical animals.
582
00:26:00,620 --> 00:26:04,610
- Many saw this as, again, bad luck,
583
00:26:04,610 --> 00:26:06,520
an omen, that these creatures
(bird groaning)
584
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,250
would show up and you
did not want to see them.
585
00:26:10,250 --> 00:26:14,080
Many cultures are even
hesitant to say the name
586
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:18,170
of these creatures with the
belief that even mentioning them
587
00:26:18,170 --> 00:26:20,213
is enough to put you on their radar.
588
00:26:21,300 --> 00:26:22,670
- One of the things that Thunderbirds
589
00:26:22,670 --> 00:26:25,190
are often depicted doing
is shooting lightning
590
00:26:25,190 --> 00:26:27,300
from their beaks or
their eyes or their head.
591
00:26:27,300 --> 00:26:28,900
They're very closely associated,
592
00:26:28,900 --> 00:26:32,800
almost in an elemental aspect,
with thunder and storms.
593
00:26:32,800 --> 00:26:36,810
- These giant birds are
associated with storm fronts
594
00:26:36,810 --> 00:26:39,760
that the beating of their
wings sounds like thunder.
595
00:26:39,760 --> 00:26:40,593
I know there may be
596
00:26:40,593 --> 00:26:42,130
a scientific reason
(thunder cracking)
597
00:26:42,130 --> 00:26:45,570
behind this if we
consider that large birds
598
00:26:45,570 --> 00:26:49,350
could take advantage
of the thermal updrafts
599
00:26:49,350 --> 00:26:51,430
that are at the forefront of storms
600
00:26:51,430 --> 00:26:52,730
and that perhaps
(wings flapping)
601
00:26:52,730 --> 00:26:54,838
it helps them fly and so forth.
602
00:26:54,838 --> 00:26:57,338
(tense music)
603
00:27:01,361 --> 00:27:03,944
(gentle music)
604
00:27:14,430 --> 00:27:15,720
- [Narrator] It's difficult to define
605
00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:19,070
just where central Illinois
begins but for many
606
00:27:19,070 --> 00:27:22,960
the flat endless acres of
corn, wheat, and soybean fields
607
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:24,382
define the Prairie State.
608
00:27:24,382 --> 00:27:27,299
(woman vocalizing)
609
00:27:28,210 --> 00:27:30,820
Here among the ruins of
the once-vibrant homes
610
00:27:30,820 --> 00:27:33,810
and businesses, small
pockets of civilization
611
00:27:33,810 --> 00:27:36,010
have managed to survive among the decline
612
00:27:36,010 --> 00:27:37,717
of agriculture and industry.
613
00:27:37,717 --> 00:27:40,467
(birds chirping)
614
00:27:41,672 --> 00:27:44,589
(woman vocalizing)
615
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:56,633
Imagine a Midwest once alive and booming.
616
00:27:59,060 --> 00:28:02,700
These small towns situated
along old highways
617
00:28:02,700 --> 00:28:03,980
which today are shells
618
00:28:03,980 --> 00:28:05,520
of their former glory
(horns honking)
619
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,492
were once micro-cities.
620
00:28:07,492 --> 00:28:09,160
(people chattering)
621
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:12,820
Dance halls, grocery
stores, bars, and nightlife
622
00:28:12,820 --> 00:28:15,220
were just around every corner.
623
00:28:15,220 --> 00:28:17,050
Lawndale was no different.
624
00:28:17,050 --> 00:28:17,883
(woman vocalizing)
625
00:28:17,883 --> 00:28:20,550
(gentle music)
626
00:28:23,030 --> 00:28:26,850
- Lawndale, Illinois, is a quiet town
627
00:28:26,850 --> 00:28:29,680
in Logan County, Central Illinois.
628
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:32,190
Nothing much ever happens there.
629
00:28:32,190 --> 00:28:35,023
(birds chirping)
630
00:28:35,932 --> 00:28:36,765
(computer beeping)
631
00:28:36,765 --> 00:28:38,880
- Lawndale, Illinois, is located actually
632
00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:40,910
right off Interstate 55.
633
00:28:40,910 --> 00:28:42,923
It is a little north of Lincoln.
634
00:28:43,790 --> 00:28:45,340
It's not easy to find on a map
635
00:28:45,340 --> 00:28:46,980
because it's a very small town.
636
00:28:46,980 --> 00:28:49,750
I believe the population
is less than a thousand.
637
00:28:49,750 --> 00:28:52,190
It's just a ordinary little community
638
00:28:52,190 --> 00:28:53,310
on the side of the road.
639
00:28:53,310 --> 00:28:55,670
I can't give you anything famous about it
640
00:28:55,670 --> 00:28:58,070
because as far as I'm concerned
the only really famous thing
641
00:28:58,070 --> 00:28:59,300
that ever happened there
642
00:28:59,300 --> 00:29:04,273
was the July 25th, 1977,
attack by a Thunderbird.
643
00:29:10,500 --> 00:29:12,100
- [Narrator] Nearly 30 years had passed
644
00:29:12,100 --> 00:29:13,280
since the Thunderbird wave
(film clacking)
645
00:29:13,280 --> 00:29:16,273
had swept across southern
Illinois in 1948.
646
00:29:17,180 --> 00:29:19,900
While occasional sightings
of large birds in Illinois
647
00:29:19,900 --> 00:29:22,390
were still reported,
giant, winged cryptids
648
00:29:22,390 --> 00:29:25,660
had long since been forgotten.
649
00:29:25,660 --> 00:29:28,580
Despite the tales of small
children being carried away
650
00:29:28,580 --> 00:29:32,430
by Thunderbirds in Missouri,
kids were free to play outside
651
00:29:32,430 --> 00:29:35,410
at all hours of the day and
rarely looked to the sky
652
00:29:35,410 --> 00:29:37,003
with any sense of fear.
653
00:29:38,070 --> 00:29:41,180
All that would change
for one Lawndale family
654
00:29:41,180 --> 00:29:45,330
on July 25th, 1977.
(moving to tense music)
655
00:29:45,330 --> 00:29:46,640
- At 8:00 in the evening
(gentle music)
656
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:49,680
of July 25th, 1977,
657
00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,300
in Lawndale, Logan County, Illinois,
658
00:29:52,300 --> 00:29:54,260
a young 10-year-old boy named Marlon Lowe
659
00:29:54,260 --> 00:29:56,710
was playing hide-and-seek
with two of his buddies,
660
00:29:56,710 --> 00:29:58,910
Travis Goodwin and Michael Thompson.
661
00:29:58,910 --> 00:30:00,910
They were in his backyard
while his mother,
662
00:30:00,910 --> 00:30:02,930
his parents, and some
of their family friends
663
00:30:02,930 --> 00:30:05,620
were cleaning out a
trailer on their property.
664
00:30:05,620 --> 00:30:09,620
- The trailer that had
little black eagles on it.
665
00:30:09,620 --> 00:30:12,740
And these three boys were
kinda playing hide-and-seek
666
00:30:12,740 --> 00:30:14,123
around the front yard.
667
00:30:14,990 --> 00:30:17,710
And right behind them
(boys chattering)
668
00:30:17,710 --> 00:30:19,690
is Kickapoo Creek.
669
00:30:19,690 --> 00:30:21,180
And all of a sudden flying
670
00:30:21,180 --> 00:30:23,220
down Kickapoo Creek
(ominous music)
671
00:30:23,220 --> 00:30:27,410
was two giant birds swooping down.
672
00:30:27,410 --> 00:30:29,460
- These two huge birds
(tense drumming music)
673
00:30:29,460 --> 00:30:32,830
fly down over the yard, try
to pick up one of the boys
674
00:30:32,830 --> 00:30:34,193
who dives to safety
- Look out!
675
00:30:34,193 --> 00:30:36,210
- [Troy] into a plastic wading pool
676
00:30:36,210 --> 00:30:39,590
and narrowly misses becoming infamous
677
00:30:39,590 --> 00:30:41,150
like Marlon Lowe became.
678
00:30:41,150 --> 00:30:42,800
- [Ken] Marlon began to run away.
679
00:30:42,800 --> 00:30:44,760
He weighed about 56 pounds at the time.
680
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:46,120
He was kind of a small boy.
(bird chattering)
681
00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:48,630
But according to all the
witnesses that were present
682
00:30:48,630 --> 00:30:49,720
one of these two birds
(woman gasping)
683
00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:50,905
swooped down.
684
00:30:50,905 --> 00:30:53,500
(boy shouting)
685
00:30:53,500 --> 00:30:57,320
- [Loren] He gets caught by
the talons of one of the birds.
686
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:58,410
(Marlon panting)
687
00:30:58,410 --> 00:31:00,840
It was two birds but
only one of them got him.
688
00:31:00,840 --> 00:31:02,180
Picks him up,
(bird moaning)
689
00:31:02,180 --> 00:31:05,660
carries him about 50 feet across the yard.
690
00:31:05,660 --> 00:31:07,580
- The bird turns, grabs ahold of this kid
691
00:31:07,580 --> 00:31:09,480
by the back of the shirt and picks him up
692
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:10,690
off the ground.
(bird cawing)
693
00:31:10,690 --> 00:31:12,130
Well, as these boys are screaming,
694
00:31:12,130 --> 00:31:14,880
Marlon's mother Ruth runs
to the back of the house
695
00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:19,190
to see what's going on and sees this bird
696
00:31:19,190 --> 00:31:21,800
pick her son up three feet off the ground
697
00:31:21,800 --> 00:31:23,550
and carry him about 10 yards
698
00:31:23,550 --> 00:31:24,973
across the backyard
(Marlon screaming)
699
00:31:24,973 --> 00:31:25,921
of their house.
700
00:31:25,921 --> 00:31:26,754
- Oh help!
701
00:31:27,980 --> 00:31:30,120
- [Ken] As Marlon was kicking and fighting
702
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:32,050
until the bird finally just dropped him
703
00:31:32,050 --> 00:31:33,230
and let him go.
704
00:31:33,230 --> 00:31:35,490
And then the two birds kind of took off
705
00:31:35,490 --> 00:31:37,729
flew underneath
- Oh honey, are you okay?
706
00:31:37,729 --> 00:31:38,630
Are you okay?
- a electric wire
707
00:31:38,630 --> 00:31:40,080
right over the trailer home.
- Are you okay, honey?
708
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,760
- Attempted to roost in a
large tree in their property
709
00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:45,280
but according to the witnesses
they were having trouble
710
00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:47,500
roosting in this tree
'cause they were too big
711
00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:48,350
and then they took off
712
00:31:48,350 --> 00:31:49,410
towards Kickapoo Creek
(ominous music)
713
00:31:49,410 --> 00:31:50,243
to the north.
714
00:31:51,180 --> 00:31:55,120
- [Troy] Saw these birds fly
away off toward a wooded area
715
00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:56,870
at the edge of town.
716
00:31:56,870 --> 00:31:58,560
They called the police.
717
00:31:58,560 --> 00:32:01,460
- They needed some kind of validation.
718
00:32:01,460 --> 00:32:05,000
And they also thought if
this can happen to one kid,
719
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:06,730
it can happen to other kids.
720
00:32:06,730 --> 00:32:09,090
And there had been stories
(rain pattering)
721
00:32:09,090 --> 00:32:12,410
about around that time
of dog disappearing,
722
00:32:12,410 --> 00:32:15,960
of certain little lambs
and other livestock.
723
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:18,220
So there was becoming a hint
724
00:32:19,100 --> 00:32:21,480
that something sinister was happening.
725
00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:22,730
- When I was a kid, I'd never heard
726
00:32:22,730 --> 00:32:24,430
of anything like this before.
727
00:32:24,430 --> 00:32:27,250
And suddenly these people
had had an encounter
728
00:32:27,250 --> 00:32:30,270
with something that you couldn't
even wrap your head around.
729
00:32:30,270 --> 00:32:32,040
I don't think anybody could.
(woman vocalizing)
730
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:33,690
- Other things started happening,
731
00:32:33,690 --> 00:32:36,050
other things that were psychological
732
00:32:36,050 --> 00:32:37,300
that happened to that family
733
00:32:37,300 --> 00:32:40,790
because they weren't ready for what impact
734
00:32:40,790 --> 00:32:42,450
this was gonna have on their lives.
735
00:32:42,450 --> 00:32:43,575
- [Troy] Again, it's one of those things
736
00:32:43,575 --> 00:32:45,920
why would you make a story like this up?
737
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,940
It makes no sense as
to why you would invent
738
00:32:48,940 --> 00:32:50,300
something like this.
739
00:32:50,300 --> 00:32:53,170
- [Loren] It affected the family
so much that for many years
740
00:32:53,170 --> 00:32:55,280
they wouldn't talk to anybody.
741
00:32:55,280 --> 00:32:57,950
- Marlon, according to his mother,
742
00:32:57,950 --> 00:33:00,610
didn't sleep for nights afterward.
743
00:33:00,610 --> 00:33:04,330
They were being teased
and harassed by neighbors
744
00:33:04,330 --> 00:33:06,140
and people from anywhere
that would show up
745
00:33:06,140 --> 00:33:08,420
at their house, leave dead
birds on their sidewalk.
746
00:33:08,420 --> 00:33:10,390
They started calling Marlon the Bird Boy.
747
00:33:10,390 --> 00:33:12,930
But it made the papers and
people talked about it,
748
00:33:12,930 --> 00:33:14,410
people laughed about it,
(woman vocalizing)
749
00:33:14,410 --> 00:33:16,130
but the Lowes swore it was true.
750
00:33:16,130 --> 00:33:17,700
They swore that it happened.
751
00:33:17,700 --> 00:33:19,360
- Wasn't until a couple years later
752
00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:20,660
that I went out
(gentle music)
753
00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:24,150
to Illinois to interview
the family all over again.
754
00:33:24,150 --> 00:33:26,840
And what struck me was
755
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:30,530
how Marlo Lowe
(woman vocalizing)
756
00:33:30,530 --> 00:33:32,580
really was affected by this.
757
00:33:32,580 --> 00:33:35,420
Kids had started calling him the Bird Boy.
758
00:33:35,420 --> 00:33:38,410
They started killing birds
and leaving dead birds
759
00:33:38,410 --> 00:33:40,070
on their porch.
760
00:33:40,070 --> 00:33:42,733
And he had bright red
hair when he was littler,
761
00:33:43,610 --> 00:33:46,120
when he was 10 years old, and here he was
762
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,245
two years later, gray hair.
763
00:33:48,245 --> 00:33:51,560
(film clacking)
764
00:33:51,560 --> 00:33:52,740
- The Lowes described
(suspenseful music)
765
00:33:52,740 --> 00:33:56,750
these two birds as looking
very much like Andean condors.
766
00:33:56,750 --> 00:33:58,410
They said that they were all black,
767
00:33:58,410 --> 00:34:01,060
that they had a hooked
beak, but they actually had
768
00:34:01,060 --> 00:34:04,710
a white waft of feathers
around their neck.
769
00:34:04,710 --> 00:34:07,220
- Then beyond that, you've
got all of these other people
770
00:34:07,220 --> 00:34:11,930
then for the next several
months seeing one or two birds
771
00:34:11,930 --> 00:34:13,920
exactly like the Lowes described.
772
00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:17,320
- The Lawndale incident was
such big news that it really put
773
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:19,890
the Thunderbirds back into the headlines.
774
00:34:19,890 --> 00:34:22,683
It was essentially the first
sighting of that time period
775
00:34:22,683 --> 00:34:24,320
although there may have been a couple of,
776
00:34:24,320 --> 00:34:25,470
like a week before that
(film clacking)
777
00:34:25,470 --> 00:34:28,810
a woman nearby in
Lincoln, Illinois, claimed
778
00:34:28,810 --> 00:34:30,840
that she had also seen these Thunderbirds.
779
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:32,590
So as often happens in these cases,
780
00:34:32,590 --> 00:34:35,380
there's that one big
incident that really gets
781
00:34:35,380 --> 00:34:37,930
all the publicity and that
creates an environment
782
00:34:37,930 --> 00:34:40,470
where other eyewitnesses feel
a little bit more comfortable
783
00:34:40,470 --> 00:34:42,340
coming out of the shadows
and saying you know what,
784
00:34:42,340 --> 00:34:43,300
I saw those things, too.
785
00:34:43,300 --> 00:34:45,070
I just didn't wanna talk about it.
786
00:34:45,070 --> 00:34:48,129
- They talked about a trailer court
787
00:34:48,129 --> 00:34:50,650
couple communities over.
788
00:34:50,650 --> 00:34:54,080
A big, giant bird landed on the trailer
789
00:34:54,080 --> 00:34:55,840
and then took off.
790
00:34:55,840 --> 00:35:00,010
Someplace else in the county
somebody else was seeing it.
791
00:35:00,010 --> 00:35:03,000
And you started hearing these reports
792
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,030
very casually at first
(bird squawking)
793
00:35:05,030 --> 00:35:06,480
then in the media.
794
00:35:06,480 --> 00:35:08,650
Then the Chicago media got involved,
795
00:35:08,650 --> 00:35:13,449
then the television media, and
it became a traditional flap.
796
00:35:13,449 --> 00:35:15,490
(roof clattering)
797
00:35:15,490 --> 00:35:16,323
- [Narrator] In the days
798
00:35:16,323 --> 00:35:17,550
following the Lowe incident,
(bird cawing)
799
00:35:17,550 --> 00:35:19,800
the giant birds were seen repeatedly
800
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:21,290
many times as a pair
801
00:35:21,290 --> 00:35:23,860
occasionally glimpsed alone.
(roof clattering)
802
00:35:23,860 --> 00:35:27,260
On July 28th, the Thompsons
spotted a massive bird
803
00:35:27,260 --> 00:35:29,810
flying above their farm in McLean County
804
00:35:29,810 --> 00:35:31,363
just to the north of Lawndale.
805
00:35:31,363 --> 00:35:32,200
(ominous music)
806
00:35:32,200 --> 00:35:35,150
The creature had a wingspan
of at least 10 feet
807
00:35:35,150 --> 00:35:36,950
and the couple and their visiting friends
808
00:35:36,950 --> 00:35:39,623
would soon recount their
sighting to local police.
809
00:35:39,623 --> 00:35:41,080
(film clacking)
810
00:35:41,080 --> 00:35:44,210
Later the same day, a mail
carrier spotted two birds
811
00:35:44,210 --> 00:35:45,670
matching the same description
(wings flapping)
812
00:35:45,670 --> 00:35:48,950
as those in the Lowe incident
in Bloomington, Illinois,
813
00:35:48,950 --> 00:35:51,731
just 25 miles north of Lawndale.
814
00:35:51,731 --> 00:35:52,564
(bird cawing)
815
00:35:52,564 --> 00:35:54,110
He witnessed one of the birds soar
816
00:35:54,110 --> 00:35:55,580
into a nearby field
(birds chattering)
817
00:35:55,580 --> 00:35:58,010
where it snatched up a pig and flew off
818
00:35:58,010 --> 00:36:01,790
as the poor animal struggled
in its massive talons.
819
00:36:01,790 --> 00:36:04,150
The incident left the man shaken
820
00:36:04,150 --> 00:36:08,350
and convinced that what
he'd seen was a huge condor.
821
00:36:08,350 --> 00:36:11,630
Also on the 28th, Lisa
Montgomery was washing her car
822
00:36:11,630 --> 00:36:15,180
when she spied a lone bird
in the sky above Tremont.
823
00:36:15,180 --> 00:36:19,070
She described the wingspan
as being 10 feet or more.
824
00:36:19,070 --> 00:36:21,500
Two more sightings drew
national media attention
825
00:36:21,500 --> 00:36:23,060
on July 30th.
(film clacking)
826
00:36:23,060 --> 00:36:25,240
The first of these
occurred when Denise Turner
827
00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:28,730
of Downs, Illinois, and
two friends saw a huge bird
828
00:36:28,730 --> 00:36:32,245
perched on a telephone pole
alongside an intersection.
829
00:36:32,245 --> 00:36:33,078
(bird cawing)
830
00:36:33,078 --> 00:36:35,070
The witness described
seeing the creature's talons
831
00:36:35,070 --> 00:36:37,480
unfurl and drop something to the ground
832
00:36:37,480 --> 00:36:40,290
which was later identified by local police
833
00:36:40,290 --> 00:36:42,360
as a footlong rat.
834
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,440
At 2 p.m. that same day multiple residents
835
00:36:45,440 --> 00:36:47,870
of Waynesville, Illinois, reported seeing
836
00:36:47,870 --> 00:36:50,193
a massive bird soar overhead.
837
00:36:52,150 --> 00:36:53,020
- In the midst of all
838
00:36:53,020 --> 00:36:55,670
of the Lawndale reports
(suspenseful music)
839
00:36:55,670 --> 00:36:58,640
and the other reports from
around central Illinois,
840
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:02,930
a gentleman showed up
calling himself Texas John.
841
00:37:02,930 --> 00:37:06,980
And in Shelbyville, which
is a little bit further
842
00:37:06,980 --> 00:37:09,380
to the west of Lawndale,
843
00:37:09,380 --> 00:37:10,247
Texas John said,
(film clacking)
844
00:37:10,247 --> 00:37:14,450
"I shot some footage of Thunderbirds."
845
00:37:14,450 --> 00:37:19,280
And he went to Champaign,
Illinois, TV station,
846
00:37:19,280 --> 00:37:21,470
showed 'em the footage,
they showed it to me,
847
00:37:21,470 --> 00:37:25,020
and everybody was interested in it.
848
00:37:25,020 --> 00:37:27,350
- And he had heard about
these Thunderbird sightings
849
00:37:27,350 --> 00:37:29,880
and he has a Cherokee lineage
850
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:32,010
so he certainly believed
in the Thunderbird.
851
00:37:32,010 --> 00:37:34,100
And he was in his boat on
the north side of the lake
852
00:37:34,100 --> 00:37:36,670
when he suddenly saw
these two enormous birds
853
00:37:36,670 --> 00:37:38,120
perched in a tree.
854
00:37:38,120 --> 00:37:40,860
And he knew that these
birds were extraordinary.
855
00:37:40,860 --> 00:37:43,550
So what he did was he
blew the horn on his boat
856
00:37:43,550 --> 00:37:45,621
in order to scare them to get them
857
00:37:45,621 --> 00:37:47,560
to take off on these trees
and then he began to film
858
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:49,110
as they flew off.
859
00:37:49,110 --> 00:37:50,500
- To me and to a lot
(tense music)
860
00:37:50,500 --> 00:37:54,290
of researchers it looked
like turkey vultures
861
00:37:54,290 --> 00:37:57,210
sitting in a tree and then taking off.
862
00:37:57,210 --> 00:37:59,360
- A number of wildlife
experts have looked at it
863
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:02,180
and dismissed these two birds
as simply turkey vultures
864
00:38:02,180 --> 00:38:04,610
which are very common in Illinois.
865
00:38:04,610 --> 00:38:08,863
- Turkey vultures can be
extremely large-looking.
866
00:38:10,220 --> 00:38:13,960
- But I've looked at the film
quite a bit through the years,
867
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:17,310
analyzed it, and at least in my own mind,
868
00:38:17,310 --> 00:38:19,520
one of the two birds is much, much larger
869
00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:22,640
than any turkey vulture
and really appears to have
870
00:38:22,640 --> 00:38:24,610
the proportions of a bird like a condor
871
00:38:24,610 --> 00:38:26,771
with a wingspan perhaps nine feet across.
872
00:38:26,771 --> 00:38:28,850
(gentle music)
873
00:38:28,850 --> 00:38:33,490
- In December of 1977, there was a report,
874
00:38:33,490 --> 00:38:36,180
and it mostly showed up in news reports,
875
00:38:36,180 --> 00:38:38,610
we never get to the bottom of it,
876
00:38:38,610 --> 00:38:40,050
a group of men
(birds chirping)
877
00:38:40,050 --> 00:38:43,800
were going along a road
and they saw a giant bird.
878
00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:45,130
They shot it.
879
00:38:45,130 --> 00:38:47,660
They got very scared and
they burned the body.
880
00:38:47,660 --> 00:38:50,760
And they felt that they'd done
something wrong and illegal.
881
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,300
And that often happens in
those kind of shooting stories
882
00:38:54,300 --> 00:38:56,220
'cause you never see the bodies.
883
00:38:56,220 --> 00:38:57,161
People burn them.
884
00:38:57,161 --> 00:38:58,010
(suspenseful music)
885
00:38:58,010 --> 00:38:59,360
- [Narrator] In the weeks that followed,
886
00:38:59,360 --> 00:39:02,070
occasional reports of
abnormally large birds
887
00:39:02,070 --> 00:39:05,490
continued to trickle in
around central Illinois.
888
00:39:05,490 --> 00:39:09,720
However, like the Alton
Thunderbird wave of 1948,
889
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:12,690
eventually the reports simply stopped.
890
00:39:12,690 --> 00:39:15,360
The birds had disappeared
yet sightings continued
891
00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:17,710
of strange things in the skies.
892
00:39:17,710 --> 00:39:20,320
Loren Coleman and his brother
Jerry would investigate
893
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,410
numerous winged cryptid sightings
in the years that followed
894
00:39:23,410 --> 00:39:27,433
the Lawndale incidents,
not all of them mere birds.
895
00:39:28,770 --> 00:39:29,603
- When I'm involved
(somber music)
896
00:39:29,603 --> 00:39:31,400
in investigating cryptozoology,
897
00:39:31,400 --> 00:39:35,240
I usually try to categorize the branches
898
00:39:35,240 --> 00:39:36,540
that I'm going down.
899
00:39:36,540 --> 00:39:39,980
And one large branch is
what I call winged weirdies.
900
00:39:39,980 --> 00:39:43,260
And in that file of winged weirdies,
901
00:39:43,260 --> 00:39:47,380
there's flying humans, there's big owls,
902
00:39:47,380 --> 00:39:50,380
there's big birds, there's pterodactyls,
903
00:39:50,380 --> 00:39:52,683
there's all kinds of different reports.
904
00:39:53,530 --> 00:39:57,400
And you have to look
at them as best you can
905
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:00,430
just make them all kind of go together.
906
00:40:00,430 --> 00:40:01,530
- When investigating
(suspenseful music)
907
00:40:01,530 --> 00:40:04,660
giant winged cryptids, it
all becomes very confusing.
908
00:40:04,660 --> 00:40:06,340
There's a lot of gray area.
909
00:40:06,340 --> 00:40:09,230
And in my research, which
has spanned decades,
910
00:40:09,230 --> 00:40:13,000
I typically get three types
of reports or accounts.
911
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:15,850
But for example, we have the
sightings of the giant birds,
912
00:40:15,850 --> 00:40:17,650
the Thunderbirds, which
people always describe
913
00:40:17,650 --> 00:40:18,810
as having feathers.
914
00:40:18,810 --> 00:40:19,970
I get a second type of people
(creature screeching)
915
00:40:19,970 --> 00:40:23,360
describing something more
quote unquote prehistoric.
916
00:40:23,360 --> 00:40:25,190
- [Chad] And then you
get people that report
917
00:40:25,190 --> 00:40:27,270
more the flying dinosaurs,
918
00:40:27,270 --> 00:40:28,770
the pterodactyls, something
(wings flapping)
919
00:40:28,770 --> 00:40:30,860
out of prehistoric times.
920
00:40:30,860 --> 00:40:32,420
- [Ken] And then you
also have many accounts
921
00:40:32,420 --> 00:40:34,880
of what we call flying humanoids,
922
00:40:34,880 --> 00:40:39,150
creatures that are composites
or anthropomorphic creatures
923
00:40:39,150 --> 00:40:43,350
with human-like characteristics,
bodies, sturdy legs,
924
00:40:43,350 --> 00:40:46,993
arms, heads, but also wings
attached to their body.
925
00:40:46,993 --> 00:40:49,493
(tense music)
926
00:40:53,380 --> 00:40:55,810
- It was still cold out and it was late
927
00:40:55,810 --> 00:41:00,190
and I was possibly driving
928
00:41:00,190 --> 00:41:02,400
slightly faster than I should be.
929
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:06,130
As I came up Route 51
where this turnoff is
930
00:41:06,130 --> 00:41:07,690
to go to the lake there's a sign
931
00:41:07,690 --> 00:41:10,090
and like a light, pole light.
932
00:41:10,090 --> 00:41:12,380
So as I'm coming down, you
know, it's pretty late,
933
00:41:12,380 --> 00:41:14,890
but I notice a man
standing along the road.
934
00:41:14,890 --> 00:41:16,790
It looked like a man in a trench coat.
935
00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:20,660
And I'm pretty sure that
there's so much road kill
936
00:41:20,660 --> 00:41:22,525
around there it was eating
something alongside the road.
937
00:41:22,525 --> 00:41:23,630
(bird squawking)
938
00:41:23,630 --> 00:41:27,120
As I came up on it, it was,
939
00:41:27,120 --> 00:41:28,370
I thought it was a man
940
00:41:28,370 --> 00:41:29,550
because it was man height.
941
00:41:29,550 --> 00:41:34,050
It was, you know, five
plus feet, six foot tall.
942
00:41:34,050 --> 00:41:37,940
Very dark, with headlights
on it it looked dark gray.
943
00:41:37,940 --> 00:41:40,280
I bet it was black.
(tense music)
944
00:41:40,280 --> 00:41:42,310
As it opened up and I saw, you could see
945
00:41:42,310 --> 00:41:44,240
the wings, feathers, you
could see what it was.
946
00:41:44,240 --> 00:41:46,330
There was a little bit of
light, like my headlights
947
00:41:46,330 --> 00:41:48,510
were showing a little bit
lighter color than that.
948
00:41:48,510 --> 00:41:51,260
It was the size of a man.
949
00:41:51,260 --> 00:41:52,610
And I saw the wings come up
(bird chattering)
950
00:41:52,610 --> 00:41:55,290
and take off and he was
standing on the white line
951
00:41:55,290 --> 00:41:56,310
on the edge of the road.
952
00:41:56,310 --> 00:41:59,900
And when it went like this, the wing broke
953
00:41:59,900 --> 00:42:02,360
center line of the road
which was just like
954
00:42:03,894 --> 00:42:05,020
what the heck?
955
00:42:05,020 --> 00:42:07,912
And I kinda, as it went
up, I kinda went under.
956
00:42:07,912 --> 00:42:10,378
(wings flapping)
957
00:42:10,378 --> 00:42:13,849
It was very startling
958
00:42:13,849 --> 00:42:14,682
(bird chattering)
959
00:42:14,682 --> 00:42:16,803
because it was, I thought it was a guy.
960
00:42:16,803 --> 00:42:17,636
And when it took off,
(bird squawking)
961
00:42:17,636 --> 00:42:19,200
it was almost exciting.
962
00:42:19,200 --> 00:42:21,380
I think I turned around
and went back to my house
963
00:42:21,380 --> 00:42:23,300
and woke my brother up and told him.
964
00:42:23,300 --> 00:42:24,900
Shortly after that,
(tense music)
965
00:42:24,900 --> 00:42:27,910
around two weeks, 15 minutes from my house
966
00:42:27,910 --> 00:42:29,820
in a small town called Herrick,
967
00:42:29,820 --> 00:42:31,780
there was another sighting
that was very similar
968
00:42:31,780 --> 00:42:32,880
to I what I seen.
969
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:35,600
So it kinda helped me,
970
00:42:35,600 --> 00:42:38,250
you know, you always get
that, did that happen?
971
00:42:38,250 --> 00:42:41,420
Or as with everything you try
to rationalize what was it?
972
00:42:41,420 --> 00:42:43,560
Was it too close or too,
973
00:42:43,560 --> 00:42:45,210
you know, but having
(somber music)
974
00:42:45,210 --> 00:42:47,670
that same description, same
size, that close to home
975
00:42:47,670 --> 00:42:50,010
that soon after, was kinda like yeah
976
00:42:51,570 --> 00:42:53,473
there was something around
there at that point.
977
00:42:56,836 --> 00:42:59,336
(eerie music)
978
00:43:02,357 --> 00:43:03,190
(moving to gentle music)
979
00:43:03,190 --> 00:43:04,720
- It was a mid-December day.
980
00:43:04,720 --> 00:43:06,890
It was in the '90s, I think '94.
981
00:43:06,890 --> 00:43:09,080
My friend and I were
going out pheasant hunting
982
00:43:09,080 --> 00:43:13,860
and it was a real cold,
windy, blustery winter day.
983
00:43:13,860 --> 00:43:16,740
We'd stopped at the guy's place
where we were going hunting.
984
00:43:16,740 --> 00:43:19,480
We asked if we could go
and we were hunting a ditch
985
00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:20,727
out in Caybury, Illinois.
986
00:43:20,727 --> 00:43:22,443
That's where we were at.
987
00:43:23,770 --> 00:43:26,210
Our dogs, we had German
Shorthaired Pointer dogs
988
00:43:26,210 --> 00:43:28,060
and we were watching them hunt.
989
00:43:28,060 --> 00:43:30,230
So the dogs were down in the ditch.
990
00:43:30,230 --> 00:43:31,460
My friend yelled, "Look!"
991
00:43:31,460 --> 00:43:32,470
And I looked over at him,
992
00:43:32,470 --> 00:43:33,420
he was to my left.
- Look!
993
00:43:33,420 --> 00:43:35,330
- And I saw him pointing above me.
994
00:43:35,330 --> 00:43:36,163
I'd never saw it.
995
00:43:36,163 --> 00:43:40,800
And I looked up and
there was a massive bird
996
00:43:40,800 --> 00:43:42,868
right over the top of our dogs.
997
00:43:42,868 --> 00:43:44,260
(bird hooting)
998
00:43:44,260 --> 00:43:47,720
He later said that he
thought that that bird
999
00:43:47,720 --> 00:43:49,670
was coming after our dogs
and that made sense to me
1000
00:43:49,670 --> 00:43:51,693
because it was right above us.
1001
00:43:53,430 --> 00:43:57,260
It was black and it was
probably, a good guess
1002
00:43:57,260 --> 00:43:59,410
is the wingspan was 20 feet.
(bird squawking)
1003
00:43:59,410 --> 00:44:01,480
I noticed that the wings were really long
1004
00:44:01,480 --> 00:44:02,950
and they had one bend in the middle.
1005
00:44:02,950 --> 00:44:05,090
I distinctly saw that.
1006
00:44:05,090 --> 00:44:07,920
And its head, it had a very long beak
1007
00:44:07,920 --> 00:44:10,260
and had kind of a long head,
(bird screeching)
1008
00:44:10,260 --> 00:44:12,700
a very big head, long beak,
1009
00:44:12,700 --> 00:44:15,710
and like it seemed like
almost like its head
1010
00:44:15,710 --> 00:44:17,310
went back behind it, too.
1011
00:44:17,310 --> 00:44:19,040
The bird, as soon as he yelled, "Look,"
1012
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,870
and it heard us and saw us,
1013
00:44:21,870 --> 00:44:23,840
it took a couple flaps and went up
1014
00:44:23,840 --> 00:44:25,140
and got up into the sky
1015
00:44:25,140 --> 00:44:27,060
and that wind just, and it was just gone.
1016
00:44:27,060 --> 00:44:30,320
It was gone outta sight in a minute,
1017
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:32,040
not even a minute.
1018
00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:35,100
We both walked over to
each other and we're like
1019
00:44:35,100 --> 00:44:38,170
what did you just see?
1020
00:44:38,170 --> 00:44:41,160
And we both have talked
about it a lot since.
1021
00:44:41,160 --> 00:44:42,580
I'm a lifelong outdoorsman,
1022
00:44:42,580 --> 00:44:44,910
I've spent my life out in the outdoors.
1023
00:44:44,910 --> 00:44:46,231
I've never seen anything like this.
1024
00:44:46,231 --> 00:44:48,840
(lively music)
1025
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:50,573
My boss used to say, you know,
1026
00:44:50,573 --> 00:44:54,600
"Danhausen, tell that
crazy bird story of yours."
1027
00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,690
It was kinda something we told
as it was funny to people.
1028
00:44:57,690 --> 00:45:02,340
And it wasn't for years
that I actually figured out
1029
00:45:02,340 --> 00:45:05,890
or later discovered that other
people had seen these birds.
1030
00:45:05,890 --> 00:45:08,220
It's been a source of laughter for people
1031
00:45:08,220 --> 00:45:09,725
for quite some time.
1032
00:45:09,725 --> 00:45:11,060
(suspenseful music)
1033
00:45:11,060 --> 00:45:13,690
- [Narrator] Thunderbirds,
winged humanoids,
1034
00:45:13,690 --> 00:45:16,930
prehistoric remnants, is there any reason
1035
00:45:16,930 --> 00:45:18,810
why rational, skeptical people
1036
00:45:18,810 --> 00:45:20,833
would believe these things exist?
1037
00:45:21,720 --> 00:45:23,740
The Teratorn was a massive bird
1038
00:45:23,740 --> 00:45:26,270
that, as strange as it sounds,
(animals growling)
1039
00:45:26,270 --> 00:45:29,890
does match descriptions given
by many of the witnesses
1040
00:45:29,890 --> 00:45:32,540
particularly when it pertains to wingspan
1041
00:45:32,540 --> 00:45:35,123
and the white plumage
around the creature's neck.
1042
00:45:35,970 --> 00:45:38,030
The skeletal remains of Teratorns
1043
00:45:38,030 --> 00:45:41,220
with wingspans up to 20
feet have been discovered
1044
00:45:41,220 --> 00:45:43,630
in much of the United States.
1045
00:45:43,630 --> 00:45:46,410
Yet science claims that
these creatures went extinct
1046
00:45:46,410 --> 00:45:47,843
millions of years ago.
1047
00:45:49,710 --> 00:45:51,680
- The Thunderbirds, which are
(bird screeching)
1048
00:45:51,680 --> 00:45:55,350
all over the West and a
little bit in the Midwest,
1049
00:45:55,350 --> 00:45:57,420
look like Teratorns.
1050
00:45:57,420 --> 00:46:00,993
They seem to be giant ancient condors.
1051
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:04,030
- And they were catharaforms.
1052
00:46:04,030 --> 00:46:05,720
They were essentially the ancestors
1053
00:46:05,720 --> 00:46:08,080
of modern condors and vultures.
1054
00:46:08,080 --> 00:46:10,210
- A lot of people believe
that these giant birds
1055
00:46:10,210 --> 00:46:12,090
that are seen that don't really match
1056
00:46:12,090 --> 00:46:14,870
the description of known birds might be
1057
00:46:14,870 --> 00:46:19,320
some kind of prehistoric
winged creature, winged bird.
1058
00:46:19,320 --> 00:46:20,153
I don't know.
1059
00:46:20,153 --> 00:46:22,056
I mean, I would think we
would see them more often
1060
00:46:22,056 --> 00:46:25,050
if they were just living out
there roosting somewhere.
1061
00:46:25,050 --> 00:46:27,090
I think we'd see them
more often than we do.
1062
00:46:27,090 --> 00:46:29,057
- Is there something
paranormal about these things?
1063
00:46:29,057 --> 00:46:32,530
Are they sort of projections
from the past perhaps
1064
00:46:32,530 --> 00:46:33,570
of extinct species
(bird squawking)
1065
00:46:33,570 --> 00:46:36,370
or time slips or something?
1066
00:46:36,370 --> 00:46:39,160
And then you hear of reports
of other even stranger things
1067
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:42,580
like lights emitting from these creatures,
1068
00:46:42,580 --> 00:46:44,700
which of course, a normal bird can't do.
1069
00:46:44,700 --> 00:46:46,050
- I've always wondered
(somber music)
1070
00:46:46,050 --> 00:46:50,140
if there might be some sort
of at least a paranormal thing
1071
00:46:50,140 --> 00:46:52,040
behind winged creatures.
1072
00:46:52,040 --> 00:46:53,710
I mean, I think there might be some sort
1073
00:46:53,710 --> 00:46:57,110
of dimensional question there.
1074
00:46:57,110 --> 00:46:58,560
- A lot of sightings people
1075
00:46:58,560 --> 00:46:59,393
will think it's just
(thunder rumbling)
1076
00:46:59,393 --> 00:47:02,160
a gigantic bird, something flesh and blood
1077
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:04,290
that you could hunt, you could kill
1078
00:47:04,290 --> 00:47:05,590
if you had to.
(tense music)
1079
00:47:05,590 --> 00:47:07,730
But then there are other accounts
1080
00:47:07,730 --> 00:47:11,470
whether it's UFO-related
or other phenomenon
1081
00:47:11,470 --> 00:47:12,640
where people believe
1082
00:47:12,640 --> 00:47:16,260
the creature's exhibiting
supernatural abilities.
1083
00:47:16,260 --> 00:47:17,460
- But yes, there is a notion
(ethereal music)
1084
00:47:17,460 --> 00:47:21,220
that any of these winged
creatures could represent
1085
00:47:21,220 --> 00:47:23,500
tragic or catastrophic events to come,
1086
00:47:23,500 --> 00:47:27,450
that they could be omens,
warnings, of dire events.
1087
00:47:27,450 --> 00:47:30,297
Course we have the connection
between the famous Mothman
1088
00:47:30,297 --> 00:47:32,790
and the tragedy of the
Silver Bridge collapse.
1089
00:47:32,790 --> 00:47:34,380
Many people connect those two things
1090
00:47:34,380 --> 00:47:35,540
in their minds.
(gentle music)
1091
00:47:35,540 --> 00:47:36,820
There is certainly a notion
1092
00:47:36,820 --> 00:47:38,810
that these winged cryptids, creatures,
1093
00:47:38,810 --> 00:47:40,030
whatever you wanna call them
(film clacking)
1094
00:47:40,030 --> 00:47:42,260
are essentially very negative things
1095
00:47:42,260 --> 00:47:44,093
that you do not want to encounter.
1096
00:47:49,005 --> 00:47:51,588
(gentle music)
1097
00:47:54,260 --> 00:47:55,640
- [Narrator] Northern Illinois is defined
1098
00:47:55,640 --> 00:47:58,170
by the state's largest metropolitan area,
1099
00:47:58,170 --> 00:48:00,430
the city of Chicago.
1100
00:48:00,430 --> 00:48:01,900
Yet, outside the sprawl
(sirens blaring)
1101
00:48:01,900 --> 00:48:05,230
of Chicagoland, lies
large pockets of forest,
1102
00:48:05,230 --> 00:48:08,263
vast rolling fields,
and the Illinois River.
1103
00:48:09,220 --> 00:48:11,990
In addition to miles
of undeveloped prairie,
1104
00:48:11,990 --> 00:48:13,910
this stretch of the state is also home
1105
00:48:13,910 --> 00:48:17,080
to two other large cities
and acres and acres
1106
00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:19,620
of swamps and farmland.
1107
00:48:19,620 --> 00:48:23,800
It's a remarkable Midwestern
mix of uninhabited expanses
1108
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:25,823
and densely populated areas.
1109
00:48:28,350 --> 00:48:32,490
- The city of Chicago was
built on a swamp essentially.
1110
00:48:32,490 --> 00:48:35,890
The beginning of its history
began with bloodshed.
1111
00:48:35,890 --> 00:48:36,723
This was a place
(sirens blaring)
1112
00:48:36,723 --> 00:48:38,440
where settlers were massacred
1113
00:48:38,440 --> 00:48:40,460
by the local Native American tribes
1114
00:48:40,460 --> 00:48:42,550
at the beginning of the War of 1812.
1115
00:48:42,550 --> 00:48:44,910
And so it already was off to a bad start.
1116
00:48:44,910 --> 00:48:46,000
It took almost 20 years
(film clacking)
1117
00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:49,490
to really develop after
that massacre took place.
1118
00:48:49,490 --> 00:48:52,230
But Chicago, thanks to all of the people
1119
00:48:52,230 --> 00:48:54,800
and the energy there, its history
1120
00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:56,910
has created it's ghosts.
(train clattering)
1121
00:48:56,910 --> 00:49:00,100
I don't think that it's
the location of Chicago
1122
00:49:00,100 --> 00:49:01,090
that makes it so strange.
1123
00:49:01,090 --> 00:49:03,010
I think it's all of the things
that have happened there
1124
00:49:03,010 --> 00:49:04,300
over the years.
1125
00:49:04,300 --> 00:49:05,770
Because you have had
1126
00:49:05,770 --> 00:49:07,417
the great fire in 1871.
(film clacking)
1127
00:49:07,417 --> 00:49:11,010
You've had millions of people come through
1128
00:49:11,010 --> 00:49:13,140
what's essentially downtown Chicago
1129
00:49:13,140 --> 00:49:16,560
in the last, oh not even quite 200 years.
1130
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:18,010
I mean, you name it, it's had
1131
00:49:18,010 --> 00:49:20,040
all of this very violent history
1132
00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:22,340
and it think that's
really left a mark behind.
1133
00:49:27,427 --> 00:49:32,427
(eerie music)
(wings flapping)
1134
00:49:32,629 --> 00:49:37,629
(crickets chirping)
(gentle music)
1135
00:49:38,310 --> 00:49:41,890
- My name is Tobias Wayland
and I am the head writer
1136
00:49:41,890 --> 00:49:44,630
and editor for the
Singular Fortean Society.
1137
00:49:44,630 --> 00:49:48,037
I began my career
investigating the breadth
1138
00:49:48,037 --> 00:49:49,780
of paranormal phenomena
1139
00:49:51,100 --> 00:49:53,890
in the true Fortean fashion
1140
00:49:53,890 --> 00:49:56,569
of not leaving anything uninvestigated.
1141
00:49:56,569 --> 00:49:57,402
(tense music)
1142
00:49:57,402 --> 00:49:58,950
- [Narrator] In August of 2016,
1143
00:49:58,950 --> 00:50:02,310
the winged cryptid phenomenon
returned to Illinois.
1144
00:50:02,310 --> 00:50:04,303
This time to the city of Chicago.
1145
00:50:05,580 --> 00:50:07,470
As reported to Lon Strickler,
1146
00:50:07,470 --> 00:50:09,880
a woman was wandering down Roosevelt Road
1147
00:50:09,880 --> 00:50:12,350
in the suburb of Cicero when she noticed
1148
00:50:12,350 --> 00:50:15,460
a flash of movement between two buildings.
1149
00:50:15,460 --> 00:50:17,160
Upon straining to see what it was
1150
00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:18,740
that had caught her attention,
1151
00:50:18,740 --> 00:50:21,500
she noticed a large
humanoid figure perched
1152
00:50:21,500 --> 00:50:22,716
on top of a streetlight.
1153
00:50:22,716 --> 00:50:23,760
(creature shouting)
1154
00:50:23,760 --> 00:50:27,063
The thing shot into the air
and disappeared into the night.
1155
00:50:27,950 --> 00:50:31,440
In February of 2017, the
flying, manlike creature
1156
00:50:31,440 --> 00:50:33,620
was spotted again by a motorist traveling
1157
00:50:33,620 --> 00:50:37,610
down 294 south outside of Chicago.
1158
00:50:37,610 --> 00:50:38,877
The driver recalled seeing
1159
00:50:38,877 --> 00:50:40,000
a manlike shape
(tires screeching)
1160
00:50:40,000 --> 00:50:41,480
running beside the road
1161
00:50:41,480 --> 00:50:43,707
before suddenly unfurling two wings
1162
00:50:43,707 --> 00:50:46,690
and taking to the skies over the city.
1163
00:50:46,690 --> 00:50:47,710
The man was shaken
(tires screeching)
1164
00:50:47,710 --> 00:50:49,460
as he recalled observing
(chaotic music)
1165
00:50:49,460 --> 00:50:52,080
what he described as the biggest bird
1166
00:50:52,080 --> 00:50:52,931
he had ever seen.
1167
00:50:52,931 --> 00:50:54,760
(wings flapping)
1168
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:56,170
In March, a third sighting
(tense music)
1169
00:50:56,170 --> 00:50:58,270
took place in Tinley Park.
1170
00:50:58,270 --> 00:51:00,960
This time a man and his
dog encountered a being
1171
00:51:00,960 --> 00:51:02,510
matching the same description
(thunder cracking)
1172
00:51:02,510 --> 00:51:04,950
as the previous two sightings.
1173
00:51:04,950 --> 00:51:07,770
It peered at him from a nearby roof.
1174
00:51:07,770 --> 00:51:10,010
The man attempted to get a
better view of the creature
1175
00:51:10,010 --> 00:51:12,360
by approaching it but it took to the sky
1176
00:51:12,360 --> 00:51:16,310
and disappeared before
he could capture a photo.
1177
00:51:16,310 --> 00:51:18,410
The initial reports of the Chicago Mothman
1178
00:51:19,260 --> 00:51:21,280
or Chicago Phantom were reported
1179
00:51:21,280 --> 00:51:24,500
to the paranormal websites
Phantoms & Monsters
1180
00:51:24,500 --> 00:51:27,910
operated by investigator
and author, Lon Strickler,
1181
00:51:27,910 --> 00:51:32,340
and UFO Clearinghouse
operated by Manuel Navarette.
1182
00:51:32,340 --> 00:51:36,560
- In early May of 2017,
I had seen three reports
1183
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:39,760
come through the MUFON database.
1184
00:51:39,760 --> 00:51:44,540
And they each described
a bat or bird-like being.
1185
00:51:44,540 --> 00:51:48,830
And you know, as a paranormal
researcher, journalist,
1186
00:51:48,830 --> 00:51:50,730
investigator, it piqued my interest
1187
00:51:50,730 --> 00:51:54,710
and so I wrote a short
article about it for our site.
1188
00:51:54,710 --> 00:51:55,713
I was following it.
1189
00:51:56,830 --> 00:52:01,130
I noticed that more
reports kept coming in.
1190
00:52:01,130 --> 00:52:06,130
- In 2017, I became aware that there was
1191
00:52:06,390 --> 00:52:09,970
seemingly a flap of
flying humanoid sightings
1192
00:52:09,970 --> 00:52:12,610
coming out of Chicago and I was like
1193
00:52:12,610 --> 00:52:13,520
what is happening.
1194
00:52:13,520 --> 00:52:16,200
I was familiar, of course, with John Keel
1195
00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:18,680
and with the Mothman sightings
1196
00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:23,680
in Point Pleasant, West
Virginia, from 1966 to 1967.
1197
00:52:23,900 --> 00:52:25,440
So I was like, could it be
1198
00:52:25,440 --> 00:52:27,250
that Mothman is now
(tense music)
1199
00:52:27,250 --> 00:52:28,803
pretty much in my neighborhood?
1200
00:52:29,910 --> 00:52:33,070
- More sightings kept coming in.
1201
00:52:33,070 --> 00:52:36,038
Almost immediately after in late April
1202
00:52:36,038 --> 00:52:39,610
and early May you had two sightings
1203
00:52:39,610 --> 00:52:42,400
near the Little Calument River.
1204
00:52:42,400 --> 00:52:45,370
And so both of those were men out fishing
1205
00:52:45,370 --> 00:52:46,610
with their sons.
1206
00:52:46,610 --> 00:52:47,740
In the first instance,
(wings flapping)
1207
00:52:47,740 --> 00:52:50,000
on April 27th, the witness said
1208
00:52:50,000 --> 00:52:53,741
that he heard a sound like train brakes
1209
00:52:53,741 --> 00:52:55,420
as a train slows down
(bird screeching)
1210
00:52:55,420 --> 00:52:57,030
like the sound of its brakes.
1211
00:52:57,030 --> 00:52:59,730
Just after that he saw what he described
1212
00:52:59,730 --> 00:53:02,770
as a giant bat fly overhead.
1213
00:53:02,770 --> 00:53:06,010
The second sighting was very, very similar
1214
00:53:06,010 --> 00:53:06,880
in that area.
1215
00:53:06,880 --> 00:53:08,060
I don't believe
(wings flapping)
1216
00:53:08,060 --> 00:53:12,330
that he mentioned the same shrill noise.
1217
00:53:12,330 --> 00:53:13,307
Saw a giant bat.
1218
00:53:13,307 --> 00:53:16,530
But in both cases they described
it as being very large,
1219
00:53:16,530 --> 00:53:18,350
you know, seven to eight-foot wingspan.
1220
00:53:18,350 --> 00:53:20,970
- The Chicago Mothman case
is really interesting.
1221
00:53:20,970 --> 00:53:23,410
It started about a year,
year and a half ago
1222
00:53:23,410 --> 00:53:26,380
and there was a huge rash of sightings.
1223
00:53:26,380 --> 00:53:30,123
I think upwards of 70
to 80 sightings by now.
1224
00:53:30,123 --> 00:53:33,400
- Right now, according
to internet sources,
1225
00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:36,810
there have been 71 sightings.
1226
00:53:36,810 --> 00:53:41,530
2011, 2017 was the bulk of them
1227
00:53:41,530 --> 00:53:45,070
and then a few in 2018.
1228
00:53:45,070 --> 00:53:48,520
Lon Strickler who published
the very first accounts,
1229
00:53:48,520 --> 00:53:51,390
knowing that I had an interest
in the specific subject
1230
00:53:51,390 --> 00:53:54,250
was gracious enough to funnel
me each individual sighting
1231
00:53:54,250 --> 00:53:55,530
or account for me to review.
1232
00:53:55,530 --> 00:53:59,100
And I did review and go through
the eyewitness testimonies.
1233
00:53:59,100 --> 00:54:01,690
And initially the descriptions
seemed very similar
1234
00:54:01,690 --> 00:54:04,820
to other flying humanoids
that have been documented
1235
00:54:04,820 --> 00:54:07,350
in Point Pleasant, West
Virginia, and other places.
1236
00:54:07,350 --> 00:54:09,700
A creature with quote
unquote bat-like wings
1237
00:54:09,700 --> 00:54:11,970
and other human-like features.
1238
00:54:11,970 --> 00:54:13,680
- I have several criticisms
(tense music)
1239
00:54:13,680 --> 00:54:15,300
of the Chicago phenomena.
1240
00:54:15,300 --> 00:54:17,710
For one thing, to call it Mothman,
1241
00:54:17,710 --> 00:54:21,720
I thought was pure and
simple the copycat phenomena.
1242
00:54:21,720 --> 00:54:24,250
People were seeing things in the sky
1243
00:54:24,250 --> 00:54:28,770
or things near the Earth
that were above them.
1244
00:54:28,770 --> 00:54:31,210
Some of them looked like kites.
1245
00:54:31,210 --> 00:54:33,260
Some of them looked like balloons,
1246
00:54:33,260 --> 00:54:35,970
winged creatures, ravens.
1247
00:54:35,970 --> 00:54:40,970
And somebody decided
to label those Mothman.
1248
00:54:41,450 --> 00:54:44,297
And I think the problem started then.
1249
00:54:44,297 --> 00:54:46,500
- And it was all still
very much up in the air.
1250
00:54:46,500 --> 00:54:49,100
You know, obviously, there was people
1251
00:54:49,100 --> 00:54:50,550
comparing it to Mothman.
1252
00:54:50,550 --> 00:54:53,000
There were people who thought it could be
1253
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:55,570
a Halloween costume on a drone.
1254
00:54:55,570 --> 00:54:58,010
Some people thought that we're dealing
1255
00:54:58,010 --> 00:55:02,080
with a skydiver in a wing suit.
1256
00:55:02,080 --> 00:55:03,730
- So I've been investigating accounts
1257
00:55:03,730 --> 00:55:06,360
of flying humanoids like the Mothman
1258
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:07,800
for many, many years.
1259
00:55:07,800 --> 00:55:09,000
And, like the Thunderbirds,
1260
00:55:09,000 --> 00:55:09,833
there seem to be
(gentle music)
1261
00:55:09,833 --> 00:55:12,250
specific areas where they're
reported more than others.
1262
00:55:12,250 --> 00:55:14,500
I will say that the
Chicago cases do follow
1263
00:55:14,500 --> 00:55:18,230
the basic pattern of,
again, flying humanoid flaps
1264
00:55:18,230 --> 00:55:19,990
where you have a short period of time
1265
00:55:19,990 --> 00:55:22,460
and on a high concentration
(horns honking)
1266
00:55:22,460 --> 00:55:25,260
of these flying humanoid creatures
1267
00:55:25,260 --> 00:55:27,800
being reported or encountered.
1268
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:29,470
- [Narrator] Sightings
of the Chicago Mothman
1269
00:55:29,470 --> 00:55:31,740
begin to draw local media attention
1270
00:55:31,740 --> 00:55:33,990
and soon the creature
was being written about
1271
00:55:33,990 --> 00:55:36,823
in publications such as the Chicago Post.
1272
00:55:37,700 --> 00:55:40,760
The articles were picked
up by the Associated Press
1273
00:55:40,760 --> 00:55:43,680
and ran in newspapers
around the United States
1274
00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:46,803
and soon a media sensation was born.
1275
00:55:47,820 --> 00:55:52,460
Just as it had in 1948 and 1977,
1276
00:55:52,460 --> 00:55:55,990
a winged creature flap was
drawing national attention.
1277
00:55:55,990 --> 00:55:58,710
And just as it had in the previous waves,
1278
00:55:58,710 --> 00:56:00,500
the brighter the spotlight,
1279
00:56:00,500 --> 00:56:03,240
the more the witnesses that came forward.
1280
00:56:03,240 --> 00:56:04,600
- And this happens
(tense music)
1281
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:06,880
with a lot of cases that
there are originally
1282
00:56:06,880 --> 00:56:09,950
very credible stories behind it
1283
00:56:09,950 --> 00:56:14,350
and then the media descends,
monster hunters descend,
1284
00:56:14,350 --> 00:56:16,500
and all hell breaks loose.
1285
00:56:16,500 --> 00:56:17,900
And now the reports
(drumming music)
1286
00:56:17,900 --> 00:56:19,770
get stranger and stranger.
1287
00:56:19,770 --> 00:56:23,660
So I think the original reports
are what should be looked at
1288
00:56:23,660 --> 00:56:26,260
and have a lot of credibility to them
1289
00:56:26,260 --> 00:56:28,140
but some of the later reports,
1290
00:56:28,140 --> 00:56:30,480
just like every other crypto out there,
1291
00:56:30,480 --> 00:56:33,170
have to be looked at with a little more,
1292
00:56:33,170 --> 00:56:37,260
I think a little more of a critical eye.
1293
00:56:37,260 --> 00:56:41,120
- And the closer you get
to the actual eyewitnesses,
1294
00:56:41,120 --> 00:56:45,060
it becomes clear that everybody's
seeing different things,
1295
00:56:45,060 --> 00:56:47,920
that there's different
levels of credibility
1296
00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:49,510
in the eyewitnesses.
1297
00:56:49,510 --> 00:56:53,230
And if there was 50 sightings in Chicago,
1298
00:56:53,230 --> 00:56:57,280
Chicago is an urban area,
all you would have to do
1299
00:56:57,280 --> 00:57:00,940
is involve the law enforcement branch
1300
00:57:00,940 --> 00:57:02,690
of the city of Chicago
1301
00:57:02,690 --> 00:57:06,320
and there's CCTV cameras all over.
1302
00:57:06,320 --> 00:57:09,110
- Yeah, I'm familiar with
Chicago but I wasn't familiar
1303
00:57:09,110 --> 00:57:11,850
with each of the sighting locations.
1304
00:57:11,850 --> 00:57:15,010
And then upon going there, my question was
1305
00:57:15,010 --> 00:57:18,350
why haven't more people
reported the Mothman
1306
00:57:18,350 --> 00:57:22,050
if he, or it, is indeed appearing
1307
00:57:22,050 --> 00:57:25,200
in these tremendously crowded locations
1308
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:29,030
where when I went there at
all times of day and night,
1309
00:57:29,030 --> 00:57:31,180
I was constantly under foot.
1310
00:57:31,180 --> 00:57:32,570
- I've spoken quite a bit
(eerie music)
1311
00:57:32,570 --> 00:57:35,610
in the Chicago metro area
1312
00:57:35,610 --> 00:57:39,020
on monsters and legends
and I have yet to encounter
1313
00:57:39,020 --> 00:57:41,680
anyone who not only has seen this,
1314
00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:44,850
but that has a personal
story from a friend.
1315
00:57:44,850 --> 00:57:47,173
- I have spoken to witnesses personally.
1316
00:57:48,170 --> 00:57:51,940
I've worked very closely
with every investigator
1317
00:57:51,940 --> 00:57:55,256
who has spoken to witnesses personally.
1318
00:57:55,256 --> 00:57:57,810
And if they think that
any of the investigators
1319
00:57:57,810 --> 00:58:00,230
are making it up, they're mistaken.
1320
00:58:00,230 --> 00:58:01,510
- [Narrator] In the months
following the intiial outbreak
1321
00:58:01,510 --> 00:58:05,940
of reports, the Mothman
moniker stuck and reports
1322
00:58:05,940 --> 00:58:08,620
began expanding outside of the city.
1323
00:58:08,620 --> 00:58:11,380
Suddenly, people were
seeing a similar creature
1324
00:58:11,380 --> 00:58:15,000
over cities and suburbs
all along the Great Lakes
1325
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:17,880
particularly in the town of Gary, Indiana,
1326
00:58:17,880 --> 00:58:20,750
only 37 minutes to the south.
1327
00:58:20,750 --> 00:58:23,250
The wave of sightings swept across Chicago
1328
00:58:23,250 --> 00:58:25,900
and continued into 2018.
1329
00:58:25,900 --> 00:58:27,610
While investigators and researchers
1330
00:58:27,610 --> 00:58:31,090
continued to argue over the
possible cause of the flap,
1331
00:58:31,090 --> 00:58:34,890
witnesses were still seeing
something in the skies overhead.
1332
00:58:34,890 --> 00:58:37,010
But what was it?
1333
00:58:37,010 --> 00:58:39,780
- The other explanation could possibly be
1334
00:58:39,780 --> 00:58:42,500
what if something extraordinary did happen
1335
00:58:42,500 --> 00:58:45,480
in the Illinois Chicagoland area?
1336
00:58:45,480 --> 00:58:49,091
What if there was a UFO
1337
00:58:49,091 --> 00:58:53,450
or even a Thunderbird sighting
1338
00:58:53,450 --> 00:58:57,670
and someone knew about it
that didn't want other people
1339
00:58:57,670 --> 00:58:59,030
to believe it?
(film clicking)
1340
00:58:59,030 --> 00:59:03,970
And so they, upon seeing that this account
1341
00:59:03,970 --> 00:59:07,020
would be released, flood
the information channels
1342
00:59:07,020 --> 00:59:08,370
with bogus accounts?
1343
00:59:08,370 --> 00:59:10,500
- We've talked to a number
of people in Chicago.
1344
00:59:10,500 --> 00:59:13,240
I think there probably were
some credible sightings
1345
00:59:13,240 --> 00:59:15,420
but I think a lot of it
might have been exaggerated.
1346
00:59:15,420 --> 00:59:17,210
In a big city, you're
gonna have an active sky.
1347
00:59:17,210 --> 00:59:18,930
You're always gonna have
things moving overhead.
1348
00:59:18,930 --> 00:59:21,300
'Cause of course now we
live in the age of drones
1349
00:59:21,300 --> 00:59:24,160
that come in all kinds of
shapes including fixed wing
1350
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:26,370
that are bat-like shapes.
(suspenseful music)
1351
00:59:26,370 --> 00:59:29,250
You also have tall buildings
so there's the potential
1352
00:59:29,250 --> 00:59:31,640
that there coulda been thrill
seekers doing base jumping
1353
00:59:31,640 --> 00:59:32,900
with wing suits.
1354
00:59:32,900 --> 00:59:34,870
So there's all kinds of
possibilities you have
1355
00:59:34,870 --> 00:59:37,150
when you've got a city versus, you know,
1356
00:59:37,150 --> 00:59:39,100
a corn field out in the middle of nowhere.
1357
00:59:39,100 --> 00:59:42,040
You know, people may tend
to think of these things
1358
00:59:42,040 --> 00:59:44,300
as flesh and blood animals
1359
00:59:44,300 --> 00:59:47,570
and why would something like
that be near a big city?
1360
00:59:47,570 --> 00:59:48,403
If we consider
1361
00:59:48,403 --> 00:59:49,660
that these flying humanoids
- Okay!
1362
00:59:49,660 --> 00:59:51,180
- [Ken] may not fit neatly
1363
00:59:51,180 --> 00:59:52,390
into the natural world
- Okay, man.
1364
00:59:52,390 --> 00:59:54,010
- so to speak, that they may be something
1365
00:59:54,010 --> 00:59:57,240
more spectral or supernatural
(owl hooting)
1366
00:59:57,240 --> 00:59:59,730
in nature, then that would create
1367
00:59:59,730 --> 01:00:01,910
no geographic delineations.
1368
01:00:01,910 --> 01:00:04,010
These things could appear
at the time and place
1369
01:00:04,010 --> 01:00:05,060
of their choosing.
1370
01:00:05,060 --> 01:00:07,240
- [Allison] Maybe there's
misidentification.
1371
01:00:07,240 --> 01:00:10,810
Some of the researchers on
the case like Tobias Wayland
1372
01:00:10,810 --> 01:00:13,120
from Singular Fortean
think that, you know,
1373
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:16,660
perhaps global warming is causing
1374
01:00:16,660 --> 01:00:19,507
some migrational birds into areas
1375
01:00:19,507 --> 01:00:21,880
where you normally wouldn't see them.
1376
01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:23,950
- When it comes to the Chicago sightings,
1377
01:00:23,950 --> 01:00:26,400
I think that there are two disparate
1378
01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:27,930
but concurrent phenomena.
1379
01:00:27,930 --> 01:00:30,646
And so the first is misidentifications
1380
01:00:30,646 --> 01:00:32,840
of large migratory birds.
1381
01:00:32,840 --> 01:00:34,790
People started seeing these birds,
1382
01:00:34,790 --> 01:00:38,950
they started going online
to try to figure out
1383
01:00:38,950 --> 01:00:40,010
what they had seen.
1384
01:00:40,010 --> 01:00:43,200
They find websites like
Phantoms & Monsters
1385
01:00:43,200 --> 01:00:45,940
and UFO Clearinghouse and us
and they start reporting them.
1386
01:00:45,940 --> 01:00:49,350
So even though a lot of
those turned out to be
1387
01:00:49,350 --> 01:00:51,450
Great Blue Herons or something similar,
1388
01:00:51,450 --> 01:00:54,140
it's actually led to a lot
1389
01:00:54,140 --> 01:00:57,410
of potentially paranormal sightings.
1390
01:00:57,410 --> 01:01:00,810
- While accounts, encounters
with Thunderbirds,
1391
01:01:00,810 --> 01:01:03,390
flying humanoids, any of
these weird flying creatures
1392
01:01:03,390 --> 01:01:05,930
are considered omens, warnings, harbingers
1393
01:01:05,930 --> 01:01:09,030
of tragic events, we must consider
1394
01:01:09,030 --> 01:01:11,790
that the word monster
comes from a Latin word
1395
01:01:11,790 --> 01:01:13,410
that means warning.
1396
01:01:13,410 --> 01:01:15,810
So in a way, all of our
monsters are harbingers.
1397
01:01:16,720 --> 01:01:19,065
(gentle music)
1398
01:01:19,065 --> 01:01:21,815
(birds chirping)
1399
01:01:24,140 --> 01:01:27,690
- [Narrator] Illinois is a
state defined by its legends.
1400
01:01:27,690 --> 01:01:29,890
Like the changing terrain that one finds
1401
01:01:29,890 --> 01:01:32,990
when they travel north to
south, the Prairie State
1402
01:01:32,990 --> 01:01:36,143
is awash in stories that
capture the imagination.
1403
01:01:37,390 --> 01:01:41,090
Perhaps no town within the
state has embraced those legends
1404
01:01:41,090 --> 01:01:42,730
more than Alton.
1405
01:01:42,730 --> 01:01:45,330
Here you will find a town
that celebrates tales
1406
01:01:45,330 --> 01:01:49,070
of giant men, mythical musicians, ghosts,
1407
01:01:49,070 --> 01:01:52,160
and winged cryptids all mingling together
1408
01:01:52,160 --> 01:01:54,490
just like the waters of the three rivers
1409
01:01:54,490 --> 01:01:56,323
on whose banks it sits.
1410
01:01:57,810 --> 01:02:00,740
Centuries tend to carry away lies
1411
01:02:00,740 --> 01:02:03,760
but a legend is something else entirely,
1412
01:02:03,760 --> 01:02:06,770
a tale told to bolster or frighten,
1413
01:02:06,770 --> 01:02:08,853
to invigorate or encourage.
1414
01:02:09,900 --> 01:02:12,210
Perhaps lost in the passage of time
1415
01:02:12,210 --> 01:02:14,310
is the fact that the
tellers were every bit
1416
01:02:14,310 --> 01:02:16,170
as important to the story
(woman vocalizing)
1417
01:02:16,170 --> 01:02:20,453
as the characters or
creatures that populated it.
1418
01:02:25,770 --> 01:02:27,173
But where did it begin?
1419
01:02:28,210 --> 01:02:30,020
With discovery.
1420
01:02:30,020 --> 01:02:33,830
Discovery of a truth,
discovery of an experience
1421
01:02:33,830 --> 01:02:36,550
that must be related to others.
1422
01:02:36,550 --> 01:02:38,400
Discovery of a story
(birds chirping)
1423
01:02:38,400 --> 01:02:41,010
that, like the mighty Mississippi itself,
1424
01:02:41,010 --> 01:02:42,373
can live forever.
1425
01:02:43,440 --> 01:02:47,700
Discovery of a legend
still living right here
1426
01:02:47,700 --> 01:02:50,253
amongst the vanishing Midwest.
1427
01:02:52,228 --> 01:02:54,970
(birds hooting)
1428
01:02:54,970 --> 01:02:56,170
- The reason a lot of people
(gentle music)
1429
01:02:56,170 --> 01:02:58,540
are interested in cryptozoology in general
1430
01:02:58,540 --> 01:03:01,190
is because people are
interested in animals
1431
01:03:01,190 --> 01:03:03,040
and they're interested in mysteries.
1432
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:05,330
Why should people be interested in,
1433
01:03:05,330 --> 01:03:07,150
for instance, Thunderbirds?
1434
01:03:07,150 --> 01:03:08,780
Because Thunderbirds could tell
1435
01:03:08,780 --> 01:03:09,930
us a lot.
(woman vocalizing)
1436
01:03:09,930 --> 01:03:12,240
They could tell us a lot about climate,
1437
01:03:12,240 --> 01:03:16,100
about the terrain, about
their reactions to people
1438
01:03:16,100 --> 01:03:17,940
to unknown animals.
1439
01:03:17,940 --> 01:03:20,540
Why are people afraid of animals
1440
01:03:20,540 --> 01:03:23,337
that are always above them?
1441
01:03:23,337 --> 01:03:25,140
And that is a key.
1442
01:03:25,140 --> 01:03:28,650
These animals terrify
because they could come
1443
01:03:28,650 --> 01:03:30,140
out of nowhere.
(dog barking)
1444
01:03:30,140 --> 01:03:33,040
They could kill you, they
can take your children,
1445
01:03:33,040 --> 01:03:34,430
they could take your pets.
1446
01:03:34,430 --> 01:03:37,170
They don't have a clue about Thunderbirds
1447
01:03:37,170 --> 01:03:39,907
and that scares the bejeebas outta people.
1448
01:03:39,907 --> 01:03:42,660
(woman vocalizing)
1449
01:03:42,660 --> 01:03:46,060
- Regardless of the objective truth
1450
01:03:46,060 --> 01:03:47,730
behind some of these stories,
1451
01:03:47,730 --> 01:03:50,610
they have a huge effect on people's lives
1452
01:03:50,610 --> 01:03:53,380
and they have a huge
effect on people's outlook.
1453
01:03:53,380 --> 01:03:57,780
And I think that it teaches
us a lot about humanity
1454
01:03:57,780 --> 01:04:02,300
and I think that it's
sort of our ethical duty
1455
01:04:02,300 --> 01:04:05,860
as human beings to help each other
1456
01:04:05,860 --> 01:04:10,860
through our experiences.
(birds chirping)
1457
01:04:10,910 --> 01:04:13,350
- For me personally,
collecting this kind of stuff
1458
01:04:13,350 --> 01:04:17,630
over the years is something
that, historically speaking,
1459
01:04:17,630 --> 01:04:21,680
I find it to be very important
because these are stories
1460
01:04:21,680 --> 01:04:23,240
that would be lost otherwise
(bird hooting)
1461
01:04:23,240 --> 01:04:24,700
if someone wasn't writing them down.
1462
01:04:24,700 --> 01:04:28,050
And I think that, culturally speaking,
1463
01:04:28,050 --> 01:04:31,120
this is important to us because this is,
1464
01:04:31,120 --> 01:04:35,470
some day this will be the
folklore of our generation.
1465
01:04:35,470 --> 01:04:39,330
I think that gathering
tales of ghosts and monsters
1466
01:04:39,330 --> 01:04:41,250
and giant birds and whatever
1467
01:04:42,180 --> 01:04:45,360
is important to American history,
1468
01:04:45,360 --> 01:04:47,470
American culture, and it is something
1469
01:04:47,470 --> 01:04:50,740
that future generations are gonna need
1470
01:04:50,740 --> 01:04:52,890
to understand what we were doing
1471
01:04:52,890 --> 01:04:55,961
in the 20th century and the 21st century.
1472
01:04:55,961 --> 01:04:58,172
(emotional music)
1473
01:04:58,172 --> 01:05:00,922
(birds warbling)
1474
01:05:06,069 --> 01:05:08,986
(woman vocalizing)
1475
01:05:47,111 --> 01:05:50,111
(suspenseful music)
1476
01:06:11,150 --> 01:06:16,150
(woman vocalizing)
(gentle music)
110302
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