Illinois – Thunderbirds
In 1977, a woman named Ruth Lowe claimed two giant birds attempted to pick up her ten year old son, Marlon, and carry him away. She claimed they carried him over 35 feet before dropping him. She described the bird as having a white ring around its neck and a black body, with a beak that was six inches long, wings of at least four feet each.
While this could have been one mom who’d had too many wine coolers, legends about giant creepy birds in that area go back to the Cahokia tribe. The most famous of the cliff drawings that the Cahokia tribe left behind is called the Piasa bird, which was a large bird/lizard hybrid. The tribe called them “Thunderbirds” because of the sound made when they flapped their wings.
It’s interesting to note that there many stories of Thunderbirds among other plains tribes, and that in the 1940’s, there were sightings of massive birds near Alton, Illinois. People who reported these sightings included an Army Colonel and flight instructors from local airports. So, is it a myth, or just big creepy child stealing birds biding their time?
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You missed the boat on New Jersey! THE JERSEY DEVIL is most definitely the official haunting creature of the Garden State. Long before NJ was even a state, the legend of the Jersey Devil began. It was the 13th child of Mrs Leeds, who had no desire for another baby. According to legend, she cursed the baby even before it was born. At its birth, the creature assumed otherworldly dimension and flew up the chimney of the home. Since then, the Devil regularly haunts the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, frightening all it encounters. On the eve of a National tragedy, the Devil is said to appear at many varied places in the state to warn of evils to come (most notably in December 1941, just before Pearl Harbor.)