Today’s common complaint is that our media fill their pages with primarily fake news. Here’s a story from the wild west and the Tombstone epitaph of April 26, 1890, and certainly peaks my interest:

“Many interesting stories could be told by some newspaper writers if choose as their subject the significant little word “fake.”

The following story might have been identified as such:

A Strange Winged Monster Discovered and Killed on the Huachuca Desert (The Tombstone epitaph)

A winged monster resembling a huge alligator with an extremely elongated bill an immense pair of wings was found on the desert between Whetstone and the Huachuca mountains last Sunday by two ranchers who were returning home from the Huachucas. The creature was evidently greatly exhausted by a long flight and when discovered was able to fly but a short distance at a time. After the first shock of wild amazement, it passed over the two men who were horseback and armed with Winchester rifles, regained sufficient courage to pursue the monster, and after an exciting chase of several miles succeeded in getting near enough to open fire with their rifles and wounding it.

The creature then turned on the men but owing to its exhausted condition, they were able to keep out of its way, and after a few well-directed shots, the monster partly rolled over and remained motionless. The men cautiously approached; their horses snorted with terror, and found the creature dead. They then proceeded to make an examination and found it measured about ninety-two feet in length, and the greater diameter was about fifty inches. The monster had only two feet, those being situated in front of where the wings were joined to the body. The head as near as they could judge was about eight feet long, the jaws being set with strong, sharp teeth. Its eyes were as large as a dinner plate and protruded about halfway from the head. They got a wing straightened out and got a measurement of seventy-eight feet, making the total length from tip to tip of about 160 feet.”

I have never seen such a creature except as some sort of creature flying above the earth in the movie “Jurassic Park.” Is this Fake news, hoax, a canard, or akin to a wild fish tale?