9 Review of some Michigan cases as cited in Clark.

The sources I have consulted in assessing the distribution of the Andean Condor as an accidental species are varied and represent a disparate collection, many of these sources of which are not specially concerned with natural history as they are not catalogued in a library collection with either natural history or ornithological titles.  One book that has provided a storehouse of information in my researches is one which generally concerns the paranormal and is largely devoted to anomalous cases.  It is simply a collection of reprinted newspaper pieces, the greater part of them from the nineteenth century, yet nonetheless it is a collection which has a plenitude to offer in what I feel only further substantiates my arguments.  It is Unnatural Phenomena:  A Guide to the Bizarre Wonders of North America, compiled by Jerome Clark  (ABC-CLIO, Inc.; 2005). 

From repeated examination of the materials I came to discover that, however relatively few of the stories make an actual reference to "birds" or similar terms, many of them refer to observations of anomalous entities which I suspect may actually be impressions of Andean Condors.  These, likewise, reveal remarkable details of what would not at first seem to suggest anything avian.  Even after dismissing some stories which I felt were not relevant to my researches did I later reconsider them to find that the anomalous creature described likely or may be a crudely characterized description of a condor.  Overall, I approached the content carefully in making judgment, which has been a difficult task in giving disposition to each piece. 

Many of these reports are anecdotal and, as I suggest above, are difficult to assess.  However, I am not going to ignore them in my proceedings on the discussion of the Andean Condor.  

Clark assigns the materials according to location, all of these being the contiguous United States and Alaska.  Albeit at random, I selected the material relating to cases from the state of Michigan as the focus of this post. 

"Quite a sensation has been created on the Chicago & Lake Huron Railroad, near Olivet, in consequence of a singular apparition which has just made its appearance in that vicinity...[.............]    A spook came out of the wood-pile a few nights since and stopped the eastward-bound train.  It is described as a human form robed in snowy white, and appeared on the track a few rods in advance of the engine.  The engineer blew the whistle, but the mysterious form refused to yield the track.  The train was stopped, and a party went ahead to reconnoiter, when the strange personage retreated, and when they retreated would follow them.  To all questions that were asked it gave no response.  They ordered it off the track, and it refused to budge, when they fired several bullets through its heart, but, instead of crying out, it danced a hornpipe on the rails, and seemed to delight at their discomforture.  Finally the engineer mounted the engine and pulled the throttle, and just as the exasperated engine was about to make mince-meat of the stranger, it disappeared in the air.

"The news soon spread in the vicinity, and the next night farmers and trackmen went to the spot, and, behold!  the strange figure confronted them.  They set dogs on it, who seemed to be grappling with an object, but no blood was found.  The men, armed to the teeth, boldly went forward, but it retreated, and when they receded would follow to a given point.  A party outflanked it, and came upon it to solve the mystery, but it vanished heavenward.

"Not being satisfied, the party went to the spot the next day, when to their horror, an old man robed in black came out of the wood-pile and took his wonted position on the track as if to dispute their passage, his long silvery locks and snowy-white beard floating in the breeze.  The dogs were called into requisition against it, but to no avail.  He carried a death-like smile throughout, and retreated at their advance as before, and, on being surrounded, again vanished heavenward.

"We heard from the scene a couple of days ago, and the country thereabouts is all excitement.  The question is:  Has some old man been murdered and buried there, and this was his apparition?  Certainly it is flesh and blood.  Scores of visitors from other counties have been there and took observations, and all have gone away mystified.  At last accounts no light had been gained as to the strange apparition."

See Clark, pp. 150--151.  Source:  "A Mysterious Apparition."  Elyria Republican  (Elyria, Ohio).  May 2, 1878.  

Reading the above account, I am given to make the following comments.  The location might be ambiguous, however the actual railroad does pass through Michigan.  The place name, Olivet (Eaton County), is common to communities in both Michigan and Illinois, but as I think that the railroad in question does pass near Olivet, Michigan, I will ascribe it to that state and not challenge the author's categorical placement for it.  Reading it over, I can clearly see that this is an encounter with a bird, one of a very specific genus, as each time it is described it disappears "in the air" or "heavenward."  The observers believe that it was a human dressed in black and white and that it had a "snowy-white beard."  I can readily see that these characters are impressions of an adult Vultur gryphus, especially with respects to the coloration and the ruff of the bird being described as a "beard." 

The entity described is both anomalous and one which can be referred to as that of a large bird.  With that, yes, I believe that it represents a possible record of the Andean Condor in the United States in Michigan.  The rest of these, below, are interesting, but contain reports describing anomalous entities which I cannot ascribe to this species.

________________________________________________________________________________

The following account is very ambiguous, but I will mention it as it relates to "flapping of the wings of a bird."  It is not substantive in its content for me to ascribe any species to it.  The incident occurred in Detroit (Wayne County) on January 31, 1868.

"A gentleman employed at the Detroit and Milwaukee depot states that about 12:45 o'clock yesterday morning he witnessed a most curious phenomenon, which found no parallel in his own experience.  He was passing upward Woodward-avenue, when he suddenly discovered that he was surrounded by a very brilliant light.  The moon was down, the sky was clouded, and there were no street lamps lighted, so that the night was unusually dark.  His first thought was that there was an explosion in the street lamp, under which he was just passing, but looking up he discovered that this could not be.  He then supposed it to be the aurora borealis, but there was none of the well-known characteristics of this illumination of the heavens.  The thought of meteors next occurred to him, but he saw no meteoritic bodies, and the appearance differed altogether from what he had before witnessed when large meteors had fallen in close proximity to him.  The whole city was illuminated as light apparently as day.  

"He was looking up the street and saw both buildings and trees, and then turned and looked down, seeing the whole length of the avenue to the river and the Canada shore beyond.  The light lasted from a quarter to half a minute.  He described it as very peculiar.  It was not a flash, nor yet a steady light, but seemed to come in waves, and he could think of no comparison except the flapping of the wings of a bird.  This phenomenon was also witnessed by another person.  A gentleman employed at the Michigan Central was at the time passing along Third-street, near Howard, and his description of the appearance agrees with that given above.  Another gentleman living in the eastern part of the state also witnessed it.  The same phenomenon was also seen at Ypsilanti by a gentleman who became somewhat nervous thereat."  

"Curious Phenomenon Observed in Michigan."  New York Times, February 3, 1868.  Reprinted from the Detriot Post, February 1, 1868.  See Clark, 149--150.

________________________________________________________________________________

Clark (152) paraphrases a Chicago Tribune article about an instance of an observation of an unusual creature seen on Round Island (Mackinac County) in the summer of 1892.  It was also discussed in the journal Pursuit (12(2):50) in 1979 by Gary S. Mangiacopra under the heading "Water Monsters of the Midwestern Lakes."  One J. Frederick Stevenson asserted to having seen a "huge snake" in the surrounding waters of Lake Huron which was "black and oily" and made a "singular whirring noise."  Out of the interest of being comprehensive to this study, I will make mention of it, but as I do not have any other details, will not admit it as relevant to a discussion on the Andean Condor.  Perhaps the original text of the the article can be scrutinized further?  

The sound of a condor's wings in flight does give an impression of the movement of a humming or mechanical object, as many other reports also reinforce the same characteristics in those respective observations.  For the witness to describe it as "black and oily" could in the least suggest the impression of the reflective sheen of the condor's plumage.

Nonetheless, what was being described then was, more likely, an aquatic creature and not an avian entity.

_______________________________________________________________________________

As a digression, I will allude to two short newspaper articles from nineteenth-century Michigan, but after careful review, I have decided that they do not pertain to sightings of birds and are actually, in substance, alleged observations of snakes.  An untitled piece from the Titusville Morning Herald was published June 13, 1870, and pertains to an incident in Barry County, Michigan (see Clark, 150, "Monster Resembling a Snake").  The other was "News of the Week" in the Grand Traverse Herald [Grand Traverse, Michigan]; June 19, 1884.  It concerned an incident in Walled Lake (Oakland County), Michigan.

In 1897 an unusual series of events occurred in the state which I find interesting to note yet am not sure as to what to make of them.  The link below alludes to these reports.

https://www.angelfire.com/ma4/oddities/page4.html

Clark on page 153 also quotes an article relating to such an incident in the Montcalm County community of Reynolds Township.  An untitled article was published in the Grand Rapids Evening Press [Grand Rapids, Michigan] for April 16, 1897.  It must be kept in mind that certain persons the country over were trying to perfect models of what would soon become the airplane, particularly in the closing years of the century.  It is very anecdotal and lacks descriptiveness.

"Reynolds, it is claimed, not only had the pleasure of looking at the airship, but several people had the rare good fortune to become acquainted with the navigator.  The thing swooped down from the sky and a half a dozen farmers immediately surrounded it.  While they were examining the strange craft a creature nine and a half feet in height clambered over the side and grew eloquent in an unknown tongue.  One of the farmers hospitably extended his hand, but in the country the visitor comes from this seems to be considered an affront.  The big fellow swung one of his legs and the farmer retired in disorder with a broken hip.  Then the unknown sprang into his aerial craft, turned on some strange power and the whole thing darted away.  There is no still in the vicinity of Reynolds that is known to the revenue authorities and a sharp lookout is being kept for moonshiners." 

See also, on the same page in Clark, a reprint of a newspaper story "Weird Lights," which appeared in the Detroit Evening News on March 29, 1897 and refers to bright lights seen on lakes near Mills Township, Ogemaw County and which were associated with "the sound of groaning and weeping."  If it is not a good description of what I think may be a will-o'-the-wisp, it is also ambiguous for categorization as a possible sighting of any genus of large bird.

________________________________________________________________________________

CORRECTION

In UAC7 ("Reprisal of My Evaluation of Bartram") I referred to the 1865 sighting of King Vultures by Elliot Coues as having occurred in Arizona in "what is now Greenlee County."  The report relates not to that location but to Coconino County.  The latter includes the San Francisco Peaks, near to where Coues made his alleged observation, but that term can be confused with the San Francisco Mountains of extreme west New Mexico, which straddle the state line into Arizona.

________________________________________________________________________________

Above image detail of an adult female Andean Condor by Trisha Shears

This post was written September 26, 2023.

(draft pages, July 12--28, 2017; September 24, 2023)

https://unknownandeancondor.wordpress.com/2023/09/26/9/

mathewspilllouis

This entry was posted in Andean Condor and tagged Andean Condor, Eaton County, Michigan, Olivet, Unnatural Phenomena.