I visited the local library a lot in those days (this would have been late-’80s to mid-’90s) and read the book often. I was really into the Philadelphia Experiment, and I believe the book had a chapter on the disappearance of the Navy ship as well. (I can’t remember the title. Sorry.)

One day, I was doing some reading about the thunderbird and how the photo had been lost. I thought, “That’s weird, it’s in that other book.” I went to the library and looked through book I knew so well. I looked repeatedly, but could not find the photo. There was a description of the photo, but the photo itself was not in the book.

I know exactly what it looks like. It’s in my head, an image of several men standing by the side of a barn with a large bird/pterodactyl tacked up on the side of the building. The men are standing a bit a part with arms stretched to show the relative size of the bird.

Reading Kim’s story freaked me out a little because it mirrors my own. I don’t know if I buy her “time travel” theory, but something is amiss in the universe’s continuity. Maybe it is false memory. If it is, that in and of itself is an interesting phenomenon.

However, I don’t recall seeing it in any of the commonly quoted sources, and it wasn’t a photograph.

Back in the 60s, when I was an impressionable 8-10 year old, I was an incurable reader of weird books. Among my favorites were a series of pocketbook reprints of Ripley’s Believe It Or Not cartoons. My 40-year-old memories tell me the Thunderbird scene was one of Ripley’s realistically rendered comics.

Perhaps that’s why a _photograph_ of the Thunderbird eludes discovery.

Has anyone ever searched Ripley’s archives (if there is such a thing) for leads into the Thunderbird story?

The photograph I remember showed a half dozen or more men standing and kneeling behind the outstretched wings of a giant creature, although I remember it as being across a shallow-pitched low roof rather than a wall.

I think I’m going to have to go back to my old school and try to find this book.

I did not look through every one of the Time-Life books, but the Thunderbird is never mentioned in the “Mysterious Creatures” volume. Thankfully, I own the master index book for the series, and it lists “Thunderbird” as being discussed in “The Mysterious World” volume on pages 47 and 50, and “Pteradactyl” on pages 67, 68 and 70 of the same volume. There are brief comments, but again, no photos, just a drawing or two.

I also could have sworn that I saw the famous photo “somewhere”, and was initially sure it must have been in one of the books mentioned above. After looking at the internet photos, however, I’m pretty sure these are the ones I was remembering.

I am very impressesed that so many people are reading.

I made a mistake. Thank you for the corrective requirement. I felt it a direct attack upon my person. Thanks and peace out.