The Monster of "Partridge Creek"
The Monster of "Partridge Creek"is a 1908 story by French writerGeorges Dupuypublished inJe sais toutandThe Strand Magazine.It describes alleged encounters with a largedinosauratPartridge Creek,in theYukonterritory ofCanada.
Plot
[edit]Banker James Lewis Buttler and miner Tom Leemore tell Dupuy that they were hunting moose nearClear Creekwhen the animals they were hunting began running away in fright. The men said they followed tracks, which they interpreted as being made by a large animal, into a deep rockygorge.Dupuy agrees to join the men, along with French missionary Father Pierre Lavagneux and five unnamedFirst Nationsindividuals, to search for the reported animal. The group establishes a camp site overlooking a ravine near Partridge Creek where, for 10 minutes, they observe a creature described as 30 feet long with a hairy body. In the French language version of the story, upon seeing it, a frightened Lavagneux exclaimed, "ACeratosaurus.It is theCeratosaurusof the Arctic Circle ".[1][2]
Dupuy's story describes how he and Buttler were "the laughing stock of Golden City" for a month after they reported an encounter with a dinosaur, and that theDawson Daily Nuggetwrote a satirical article comparing him toEdgar Allan Poe.Dupuy's story includes a letter he allegedly later received from Lavagneux in which the missionary claimed to have spotted the creature again in the same area on December 24, 1907, carrying a deadcaribouin its jaws and leaving tracks identical to previous ones.[1][2]
Reception
[edit]In the September 1908 issue ofKnowledge & Illustrated Scientific News,naturalistRichard Lydekkercommented on the publication of Dupuy's story, noting the existence of carnivorous dinosaurs in northern Alaska "seems incredible to every scientific mind" and pointing out the "prima faciepresumption "that" the larger dinosaurs were inhabitants of warm rather than of Arctic zones ".[3]
American comics artistStephen R. Bissettecalls the story "one slice of great northern Yukon territory fiction" and cites it as among early "Western/paleontology tales" involving protagonists in theWild Westfacing still-living dinosaurs. According to Bissette, Dupuy's story is "enshrined as the real thing by certain cryptozoology circles", despite having been published as fiction.[4]
References
[edit]- ^abDupuy, Georges (July 1908). Newnes, George (ed.)."The Monster of 'Partridge Creek'".The Strand Magazine.Vol. 36, no. 211. George Newnes Ltd. pp. 73–79 – viaInternet Archive.
- ^abDupuy, Georges (15 April 1908)."Le Monstre de 'Partridge Creek'"[The Monster of "Partridge Creek" ].Je sais tout(in French). Vol. 4, no. 39. Paris, France: Pierre Lafitte & Cie. pp. 403–409 – viaBibliothèque nationale de France.
- ^Lydekker, Richard(September 1908)."The Monster of Partridge Creek".Zoology.Knowledge & Illustrated Scientific News.Vol. 5, no. 9. London, England. p. 219 – via Hathi Trust.
- ^Lansdale, Joe R. (19 July 2017).Red Range: A Wild Western Adventure.IDW Publishing. p. 110.ISBN978-1-68406-290-4.