Animadversions.

TMoL had a “Ghost Stories” thread today, what with it being all Halloweeny and such. I posted this story from the area where I grew up as my offering. I took the various versions I’ve heard over the years and combined them to try and make it as coherent as possible, keeping the common factors and eliminating what appeared to be embellishments from others. So without further ado…

The Snallygaster

Accounts of the Snallygaster go back as far as the earliest settlers in the Northern regions of Maryland. Beginning around 1735, people told stories of a great winged beast, with scales like a reptile and the wings and talons of a great bird. It was known to steal chickens and other small farm animals and was generally viewed as a pest by farmers in the area. Many would paint symbols - called “hex signs” - on their barns in the hopes of warding off the monster.

For generations, the story didn’t change. No one ever saw the Snallygaster, but everyone assumed it was there. In 1909, a local paper - The Middletown Valley Register - published the account of a man from Ohio who claimed to have actually seen the creature - some twenty feet long and heading towards Maryland.

Shortly thereafter, the first sighting in Maryland occurred. A kiln-operator in the northern mountains claimed to have found the Snallygaster resting its wings on his kiln and sleeping. Upon awakening it, it made a horrible screeching sound and flew off.

The Valley Register published requests that witnesses remain calm and provide them with as much detail as possible about any sightings that occurred. As accounts poured in, the Register dutifully printed story after story about the Snallygaster.

As sightings became more frequent, the monster’s appearance seemed to change. It was soon described as having more mammalian traits - now eagle-winged with the fur of a wildcat and the belly of a dragon. The Snallygaster’s behavior became more troubling as well. It was no longer simply snatching animals, but tearing whole herds apart and drinking their blood. Some accounts included tales of relatives from West Virginia and Ohio who’d lost children to the beast - dragged off in broad daylight and never seen again.

Hikers and lumberjacks claimed to have seen it lay and tend to an egg, high atop a sheer cliff. The egg was said to be large enough to hatch a horse.

As reports piled up, various rumors circulated. Supposedly, the Smithsonian had offered $100,000 for the skin of the beast and local hunters began to swarm the forests to the north, searching for the monster. It was said that President Teddy Roosevelt postponed a hunting trip in Africa, so that he too might have a shot at the Snallygaster, which he intended to then gift to the Smithsonian personally.

In late spring of 1909, the last reported Snallygaster sighting took place. Three men claimed to have fought the creature for over an hour near a railroad station in Emmitsburg, Maryland, before wounding it and sending it fleeing into night.

Stories of the Snallygaster waned and, after some years, it faded back into the realm of legend.

That is, of course, until the monster suddenly reappeared some twenty years later in the northern mountains of Maryland. Accounts of thunderous explosions and loud screeching sounds began circulating with disturbing regularity. As the noises became more common, so did reports of a winged creature - this time with huge tentacles - that would swoop down and snatch grown men up and drag them off into the night. If bodies were found, they were said to be drained of blood and scorched.

As before, the Valley Register was on the case. Again publishing detailed reports of the sightings, they painted a grim picture of the dangerous mountain regions of the area. It was decided that this new monster was the offspring of the egg that had been reported a generation prior.

This time, however, other papers got in on the act. The Baltimore Sun published articles, as did the Washington Post and various other local papers. As scrutiny increased, more pressure came to catch or photograph the Snallygaster. Supposedly, National Geographic was preparing an expedition to capture it on film.

Then one day, the Register published shocking news.

The Snallygaster was dead.

Evidently, the beast had been drawn to the smells of a moonshine still deep in the forests of Frog Hollow. Stunned by an unexpected updraft from the huge vat of hot mash, it plummeted into the boiling liquid and was killed. Revenuers arrived soon after to demolish the still and were surprised to find the dead Snallygaster in the vat. As they had been instructed to destroy the still anyway, they piled hundreds of pounds of dynamite about and blew up the still - taking the monster’s body with it.

The Snallygaster was never seen again…

And now, the true story of the Snallygaster:

The name “Snallygaster” is actually a mispronunciation of the term Schnellegeister - which is, itself, a corruption of the German term “schnelle geist,” or “quick spirit.” In Pennsylvania Dutch traditions, a “quick spirit” is responsible mostly for things like sudden drafts, knocking over lightweight household objects or scattering papers. I am uncertain how, exactly, the term came to be applied to a dragon-like monster that ate children.

There are two men responsible for the popularization of the Snallygaster in modern times - George Rhoderick and Ralph Wolf, two staff writers at the Middletown Valley Register who thought they would boost sagging circulation with a modified version of old German dragonlore they’d heard as children. They claimed it was intended to be enjoyable mythology but it, obviously, became something far more involved. They initially published vague accounts of the beast, only to become innundated with “actual” sightings as a result. The paper enjoyed the increased interest and circulation and the two men carefully cultivated public suspicion for some time. However, once hunters began to flood the countryside and rumors spread of President Roosevelt’s interest, the small paper felt it would be prudent to get rid of their monster, rather than risk hunting accidents or a lawsuit. As such, they published the story of the three brave men, fighting and wounding the beast and driving it from the area.

The Snallygaster’s second round of terror is even more interesting. The monster’s reappearance coincided with Prohibition. Moonshiners in the forests and mountains of Northern Maryland coopted the old story in an effort to scare revenue agents away and to explain the sounds (like explosions and bending metal) that came from their stills at night. The Register let this “resurrection” play out for a while, but eventually decided - once again - that it had gone quite far enough and killed their monster for a second time.

Despite all of this and the fact that the two writers went on to admit to their scheme, public interest in the Snallygaster continued for many years. In 1976, the Washington Post actually funded a brief expedition to hunt for signs of the creature, but - not surprisingly - no evidence of eggs or other Snallygasters was found. To this day, you will often come across locals who really and truly believe in the Snallygaster. Hex signs still appear on many barns and above many doorways.

It seems that a good story is even harder to kill than a monster.