The Snallygaster of Middletown, Maryland (1909)

January 1909. The Jersey Devil scare had gripped New Jersey. In Middletown, Maryland, the weekly Valley Register saw its chance. On 12 February 1909 it ran a story headlined "The Colored People Are in Great Danger." The first line set the tone: "We look for a considerable scare among the colored people of this section, for the terrible beast that has been causing so much alarm in New Jersey is undoubtedly headed this way."

The paper named an eyewitness. James Harding. He described "enormous wings; a long, pointed bill; four legs armed with claws like steel hooks; one eye in the center of its forehead." A longer version adds "a voice like a locomotive whistle coming through a cut."

The same report named a victim, Bill Gifferson. The creature killed him by "piercing his jugular vein with its needle-like bill … while it gently fanned him with its wings." It was said to be "wanted alive by the Smithsonian and dead by the US government, who planned to deploy a gatling gun."

One week later came "The Great Go-Devil Was Seen in Ohio." A letter from Casstown, Ohio told of two enormous wings, a large horny head and a 20-foot tail. At a kiln the beast drank 100 gallons of boiling water and spoke: "My, I'm dry! I haven't had a good drink since I was killed in the Battle of Chickamauga!" It laid an egg the size of a barrel. Another egg, between Gapland and Burkittsville, was "big enough to hatch an elephant."

5 March 1909. "Emmitsburg Saw the Great Snallygaster." The last episode of 1909 was a battle. "Ghost-like wings beat the air and fire singed the pike." The monster seized Ed Brown. Bill Snider grabbed Brown by the foot, which broke his suspenders. With Dan Shorb and Sheriff's Deputy Norman Hoke, they fought it for about 90 minutes, and Snider's automobile helped stop the abduction. The creature was driven into Carroll County. Some retellings speak instead of three men outside a railroad station.

None of it happened. "Neither man existed. Neither did the killing." The Smithsonian and the US government never hunted the Snallygaster, and there is no evidence that Roosevelt ever commented on it, despite the story that he thought of delaying his African safari. The usual account says editor George C. Rhoderick and reporter Ralph S. Wolfe confessed to a hoax to boost circulation. Another names George C. Rhoderick II and Ralph Wolfe Sr., writing with the dime novelist T.C. Harbaugh. Whether a confession was ever printed remains unverified.

Retired librarian and author Susan Fair argues the monster was invented to frighten and control Black residents. Others tie it to the disenfranchisement push of Maryland Democrats between 1903 and 1910, through the Poe, Straus and Digges amendments, all defeated. Burkittsville, named in the stories, had a large Black population.

A popular story traces the creature to the Schneller Geist, the "quick ghost" of German settlers who arrived from the 1730s. Sarah Cooper repeats that version. Fair's archive research points to the 1909 paper as the true origin. Dwight Hutchinson of the Middletown Valley Historical Society says editors made up details to sell papers.

December 1932. The beast came back. The Montgomery County Sentinel wrote: "It has been 23 years since the dreaded winged monster, the 'Snallygaster,' has appeared." Now it had tentacles and "a spread of at least 30 feet." It met its end in a 2,500-gallon moonshine vat in Washington County, destroyed by revenue agents. A cousin, the Dwayyo, was reported in 1965.

The name endures. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Fallout 76. A Washington DC beer festival. The American Snallygaster Museum in Libertytown, opened by Sarah Cooper in 2021. Behind them all sits a newspaper monster built, from its first issue, to frighten.