Down the rabbit hole

Each shape is one document; open it to go to where we found it. The same graph as a list is below.

Why these records are connected

• 9 copies: the copy detector found the same words in a later document, so it sits in the same row as the account it copies.
• Why these documents are one case. The case matcher joined them because:
  • The Portland daily press & Lincoln County leader: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • The Portland daily press & Eagle River review: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • The Portland daily press & The Caldwell tribune: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • The Portland daily press & Corvallis gazette: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • Lincoln County leader & Eagle River review: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • Lincoln County leader & The Caldwell tribune: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • Lincoln County leader & Corvallis gazette: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
  • Eagle River review & The Caldwell tribune: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year

Every document, as a list

1. Account 1 10 documents
   • Earliest found The Portland Daily Press (Portland, Me.) Newspaper · Jun 29, 1904
     Image 8 of The Portland daily press (Portland, Me.), June 29, 1904
   • Reprint The Birmingham Age-Herald (Birmingham, Ala.) Newspaper · Jul 17, 1904
   • Reprint Wauwatosa News (Wauwatosa, Wis.) Newspaper · Jul 30, 1904
   • Reprint Eagle River Review (Eagle River, Wis.) Newspaper · Aug 5, 1904
     Image 5 of Eagle River review (Eagle River, Wis.), August 5, 1904
   • Reprint Manchester Democrat (Manchester, Iowa) Newspaper · Aug 10, 1904
   • Reprint Chicago Eagle (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19?? Newspaper · Aug 13, 1904
   • Reprint Corvallis Gazette (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) Newspaper · Aug 19, 1904
     Image 6 of Corvallis gazette (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.), August 19, 1904
   • Reprint Lincoln County Leader (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) Newspaper · Sep 16, 1904
     Image 3 of Lincoln County leader (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.), September 16, 1904
   • Reprint The Caldwell Tribune (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) Newspaper · Sep 17, 1904
     Image 3 of The Caldwell tribune (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]), September 17, 1904
   • Reprint The Denison Review (Denison, Iowa) Newspaper · Oct 12, 1904

How to read this

• Time runs left to right by publication date. Very long empty stretches are cut short (the axis shows how many years were skipped); undated documents sit in their own column.
• One row per independent account. A reprint, re-upload or cross-post carries the same text, so it stays in its account's row and never counts as a second witness.
• Earliest found (ringed) is the earliest document we hold for that account. It is not proof of the first telling: an earlier one may exist that we haven't collected.
• Arrows run from a document to a source it names. A dashed shape is a source a document cites that we haven't found yet; its link searches a public archive for it, and a hit there is a lead, not a confirmation.

About the numbers

• Only documents we've collected are counted; retellings elsewhere on the web aren't counted yet.
• Documents are matched by shared text and by the sources they name, by plain rules with no model in the loop. A match can be wrong; tell us.

The deepest rabbit holes →

Where next

• Back to the case
  its summary, sources and discussion
• Back to the map
  opened on this case
• Water Monster · Chicago, Illinois · 1904
  Another trail, same creature: 9 documents · 1 independent account
• Other Flying · Tucson, Arizona · 1889
  The next-deepest trail: 10 documents · 1 independent account

Every rabbit hole → · How we tell copies from independent accounts