I always enjoy checking in on some of the more dubious tales of cryptids or strange phenomena in the American West.
After all, the place has more than its fair share. Given the wild and woolly nature of the frontier in the late nineteenth century, it was perfectly acceptable—even expected—for bored newspapermen to populate it with the usually ridiculous products of their fervid imaginations.
Besides, who could really gainsay them?
Take the matter of the Mystery Monster of the Mojave. We looked at this one in an earlier article, in which the Los Angeles Herald reported in May of 1892 that a grizzled prospector, who went by the name of George Nay, was spreading a cock-and-bull story in San Francisco that he had heard tell of a thirty-foot-long reptile of some kind causing a ruckus in Death Valley. Obviously, everyone concurred that it was a surviving prehistoric saurian—in other words, a dinosaur.
The article concluded with the observation that a large party had been equipped and outfitted to seek out the monster and, if possible, lasso the damned thing and take it alive so as to be exhibited at the upcoming World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Now, since I couldn’t recall offhand that a living dinosaur had been exhibited at the 1893 Chicago world’s fair, I assumed that the party must have been disappointed in its ambitious objective of capturing the Mojave mystery monster alive. Even so, I asked readers to provide an update, were any of them privy to further intelligence on the matter.
Turns out I needn’t have, since the required information presented itself in the form of an update that appeared in a number of midwestern papers a few months after the report in the Los Angeles Herald. Actually, the update was posted in July of 1892, only two months after the initial story, which was probably about as fast as news could travel in those days.
And although the update has nothing further to say about the proposed expedition to capture the monster—which I rather think disbanded shortly after setting out from Daggett, California, due to a sudden access of cold feet on the part of its members—it does provide a very convincing corroboration of the creature’s existence in the form of a statement from another eyewitness. And this time not just another half-educated prospector, either—the eyewitness was a bona fide geologist, by the name of Oscar W. Clark.
Moreover, it was Clark’s learned opinion that the Mystery Monster of the Mojave could be authoritatively determined to belong to some relict species of late-persisting Iguanodon. In fact, while I’m at it, I might as well reproduce verbatim the story as it appeared in those midwestern papers, in this case The Sentinel of Holyrood, Kansas:
“The San Francisco Examiner publishes a statement made by George May [note that George Nay has now become “George May”] in relation to a huge reptile that had been seen near Daggett. E. W. Spear had discovered a peculiar trail, and, following it, came upon a gigan[tic] creature, unlike any thing [sic] he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. He describes it as thirty feet long and thoroughly unprepossessing [an unusual descriptor for a giant surviving dinosaur!]. Sear withdrew without formality, and told his story, only to be laughed at. Later Henry Brown saw the monster, and Mr. Brown scratched the desert sands right hastily in retreat. At the time Mr. May left Daggett a party was being organized to hunt the strange denizen of the valley.
“Oscar W. Clark, who has been spending some time in Daggett, and who has been making geological researches along the coast in the interest of the Royal Academy of Sciences, was on his way to Coronado to take a rest. Mr. Clark has made a number of journeys into Death Valley desert and was one of the parties who saw this gigantic monster.
“He has sent the result of his experiences to the Smithsonian institution, with a view to having a party sent out here to endeavor to capture the monster.
“‘The announcement of the experiences of Messrs. Spear and Brown rather anticipated me,’ said Mr. Clark recently. ‘I had a fine opportunity of seeing this strange denizen of that mysterious land known as Death Valley desert, and I desire to say that this animal is the most wonderful living proof of the exact authenticity of the researches made by savants into the field of paleontological study.
“‘This animal is really the only living link between prehistoric times and the present. It is virtually a marvel of the ages, an eighth wonder of the world, a marvelous illustration of the profound economy of nature. It was six weeks ago that I had the pleasure of seeing this remarkable animal. I was some thirty miles distant from Daggett and stopped at 6 o’clock in the evening to rest, having made some valuable additions to my collection of fossil remains.
“‘Happening to glance to the southwest through the haze peculiar to the desert, I saw a strange body moving along about one mile away. I went toward it and was soon both elated and horrified by seeing an animal fully thirty feet long that differed from any of the known forms of the present epoch. It was an immense monster, walking part of the time on its hind feet and at times dragging itself through the sand and leaving tracks of a three-toed foot and a peculiar scratchy configuration in the sand whenever it changed its form of locomotion and dragged itself.
“‘The fore limbs of the animal were extremely short and it occasionally grasped the nearest scrub and devoured it. The thumb of the three pronged forefoot was evidently a strong, conical spine that would be a dangerous weapon of attack. Whenever the animal stood upright it was fully fourteen feet high.
“‘The head was as large as a good-sized cask and was shaped somewhat like a horse, while the body was as large as that of an elephant, with a long tail extending from the hindquarters something like that of an alligator.
“‘When I saw it the strange animal was on the edge of a great sink hole of alkaline water—a sink hole, by the way, that my guides told me was a bottomless pit, and evidently a remnant of the days when Death Valley was an inland sea. I approached within a hundred yards of the monster, crawling cautiously over the sand, and watched it for fully half an hour. Suddenly the beast began to bellow, and the sound was of a most terrifying and blood-curdling character. Its immense eyes, fully as large as saucers, projected from the head, and gleamed like a wild furious fire, while from the enormous mouth of the monster streams of steam-like vapor were exhaled, and as they drifted toward one the effluvia was something awful [that’s an interesting detail].
“‘The animal was a liver color, with bronze-like spots. The monster dragged itself to the edge of the sinkhole and lashed its tail, and finally fell off into a quiescent condition. I left the scene and attempted to secure the assistance of my guides in an effort to capture the monster, but they were absolutely terrified and refused to do anything [typical].
“‘From what I saw of the animal I am perfectly satisfied that it is one of the species of the iguanodon bennissantensis [sic, see below], of the European Jurassic, an animal presenting many points of structure in common with the iguana of to-day. In fact, that is the report that I have sent in, and knowing full well the geological environments of the Pacific slope and the very remarkable and peculiar condition regarding the Death Valley section, I am satisfied that my deductions are correct and that there is to-day living in the desert of Death Valley one of the most remarkable animals now on the face of the globe, none other than one of the monsters of the prehistoric epoch—a wonder of the centuries.’”
Actually, come to think of it, Mr. Clark’s description of the Death Valley Iguanodon bernissartensis (the correct species name) is remarkably detailed, and accords rather well with modern reconstructions. Alas, no one else seems to have seen the elusive thing, so it must have been the last of its kind—and it must also have dropped into that alkaline sinkhole (perhaps a reference to the infamous “Devil’s Hole”), since its remains have never turned up.
Still, it’s nothing to get too upset about. As we’ll see in future issues of this newsletter, the Mojave Dinosaur is hardly the first—and by no means the last—mysterious prehistoric survivor that’s said to haunt the deserts, mountains, lakes, and other unvisited waste places of the American West.