by Cole Herrold
Dragons are one of the most noticeable figures in culture. They appear in almost every culture and have plagued and aided many characters in Fantasy. The massive flying fire breathing beasts is something that many fans of Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings have wanted to exist, yet the sheer impossibility of such a creature is staggering. Interestingly enough, however, people to this day and throughout history have reported encounters of flying reptiles outside of the normal Pteranodon or pterodactyl type variety, and these reports can truly only be filed as a dragon.
It
was on March 28th, 2012, when an unnamed man out walking his dog in
his front yard at 11:45 at night. He was heading towards the darker end of his
yard to give his dog, assumedly a more private place for the family pet to do
his business. The darkness began to envelop the two, and the yards foliage was
extra dense, creating a sense of isolation, which can be all-consuming in the
wooded sections of Pennsylvania. While standing in the chilly night, the man
continued to listen to the silence of the woods, enjoying the serenity. This
soon, however, would end as he began to hear a swooshing sound like the
flapping of wings. This airborne cacophony continued resulting in the man
looking up into the black it was then that as his attention was drawn towards
the sky, he saw something that would shatter his very perception of the natural
world around him. The figure was still dark, but he could tell that this flying
form was around 55ft above the ground. The creature continued to flap its wings
as it crossed the yard. It made its way in front of the house, hitting the
motion sensor automatic light. It was at that moment that he got his first
clear look at a creature he could only describe as a dragon.
The
creature was 22ft long and had a wingspan of 18ft. Its body was scaleless yet
seemed to be a bright reflective, almost shiny form. Its body's color was dark,
and it was almost an auburn brown in color. Its wings had three to four
talon-tipped fingers located at the end, and its wings were fused to the side
of the body. The arms of the creature were extremely muscular and connected to
the wings. The wings were a peculiar material. Its wings were extremely thick
and not like flaps of skin as seen in bats and what is portrayed in stereotypical
dragon art. Its rear portion of the body had two rear fins that were above the
rear legs. The creature had a long tail with a pointed arrow-like tip at the
end. Its head bore two horn-like protrusions and had spikes located under the
chin. The creature had a cone shape around its head and stopped at the base of
the neck. The most bizarre feature arguably on this already extremely bizarre
beast was that both its eyes and mouth glowed a bright orange.
The
creature continued its path as it flapped its giant wings. The creature flew
over a tree at the bottom of the yard and flew off into the distance. As the
creature continued to beat its wings to travel away from its witness, it
disappeared into the darkness of the night. The man watched the whole creature
for a mere twenty seconds, but that was not the end of his encounter with the
creature. While the creature was no longer in sight, the man could for the
first time hear the beast. It released a loud throaty sound, which the man
could only compare to that of a foghorn. No one to this day at least officially
has claimed to see this creature making this account the only case of the
Fayette County Dragon.
This
case is something very unique, for it is a bizarre beast seen in the modern-day
when genuinely originally bizarre creatures seem not to be as common. This
creature has features that seem mammalian and reptilian and is something that
does not match any known creature. This creature is described in the few
sources it appears in as a dragon, yet even as dragons go, it does not match
one hundred percent any of the known kinds. Its form is very similar to a
wyvern when looking at how the arms connect to the wings and that it only has a
rear set of legs yet the way the wings connect to the body is something that is
more like a flying squirrel than any known dragon. The head is similar to a
variety of dragons from Europe, and the tail is the same. The rear fins are
something seen in a lot of modern dragon artwork, especially in films like How
to Train Your Dragon, as well as in medieval paintings and artwork of sea
monsters, which have rear fins similar to what was seen in Fayette County.
Rear
fins or wings in flying organisms are rare insects that are known to have
double sets of wings but nothing similar to what was seen in Fayette County,
yet in the fossil record, there was a species that did, in fact, toy with this
evolutionary design. In nature, Sharovipteryx was a species of reptile
that could glide using skin that stretched across their back legs, much like a
reversed version of what was seen in Fayette County. They're also in the bird
world was Changyuraptor, which bore four wings, two connected to arms
and two connected to legs form-wise not unlike what was seen in Fayette County
aside from the direct connection to the rear legs. There, however, is not much
else in form like that in the natural world. Both species are not native to the
united states, so even entertaining the thought of them being the ancestors to
what was seen in Fayette County is improbable, so there is no real hypothesis
of origin for this beast aside from some unknown animal native to the states
that evolved to exhibit these features.
There
are several dragon reports that have occurred throughout the ages. Many are of
the stereotypical European or Asian variety. This particular United States
variant is exceptionally bizarre, and I would love to see if there were, in
fact, more cases of this creature that as of yet have gone unreported. This
creature, if real, is an evolutionary wonder, for its wings do not seem
suitable for flight, yet the rear fins would appear perfect for guiding the
body in the sky, not unlike what is seen on planes. The amount of information
we could gain from this creature in regard to navigation and flight would be
staggering and could explain some of the other cryptid creatures like the
flying manta ray varieties that are becoming increasingly common, as well as
the countless other sky critters reported over the years. Yet we still have no
answers and are no closer to solving the mystery of the Fayette County Dragon.
Quick Facts:
---“Three Mysterious Creature Encounters Reported From Pennsylvania” Stan Gordon's UFO Anomalies Zone. http://www.stangordon.info/wp/special-reports/three-mysterious-creature-encounters-reported-from-pennsylvania/. Accessed January 24, 2021
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