Down the rabbit hole

Other Flying · Tucson, Arizona · 1889

10 documents · 1 independent account

10 documents tell this story. They trace back to 1 independent account.

The route

Copies are not confirmations: thirty papers printing one story is still one account.

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

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 Indianapolis journal & The Democratic press: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same place; same year
- Audubon County Republican & Arizona weekly enterprise: a person reviewed them and joined them
- The Indianapolis journal & The Sully County watchman: a person reviewed them and joined them
- The Democratic press & The Sully County watchman: a person reviewed them and joined them
- Audubon County Republican & Idaho news: a person reviewed them and joined them
- Audubon County Republican & The Sully County watchman: a person reviewed them and joined them
- Arizona weekly enterprise & The Sully County watchman: the copy detector found the same text in both; their quoted passages are nearly identical; they describe the same details; same year (though they were placed far apart)

Account 1 10 documents
- Earliest found The Indianapolis Journal (Indianapolis [Ind.]) Newspaper · Jun 3, 1888
  Image 2 of The Indianapolis journal (Indianapolis [Ind.]), June 3, 1888
- Reprint The Democratic Press (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) Newspaper · Jul 26, 1888
  Image 4 of The Democratic press (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]), July 26, 1888
- Reprint The Sully County Watchman (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) Newspaper · Aug 25, 1888
  Image 4 of The Sully County watchman (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]), August 25, 1888
- Reprint Arizona Weekly Enterprise (Florence, Pinal County, Arizona Territory) Newspaper · Dec 15, 1888
  Image 4 of Arizona weekly enterprise (Florence, Pinal County, Arizona Territory), December 15, 1888
- Reprint Mineral Point Tribune (Mineral Point, Wis.) Newspaper · Jan 3, 1889
- Reprint The National Leader (Washington, D.C.) Newspaper · Jan 12, 1889
- Reprint Audubon County Republican (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) Newspaper · Mar 7, 1889
  Image 4 of Audubon County Republican (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa), March 7, 1889
- Reprint Idaho News (Blackfoot, Idaho) Newspaper · Apr 27, 1889
  Image 2 of Idaho news (Blackfoot, Idaho), April 27, 1889
- Reprint The White Pine News (Treasure City, Nev.) Newspaper · Jun 1, 1889
- Reprint The Mason County Journal (Shelton, W.T.) Newspaper · Jul 23, 1897

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.

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.

Back to the case
its summary, sources and discussion
Back to the map
opened on this case
Other Flying · East Ely, Nevada · 1889
Another trail, same creature: 8 documents · 1 independent account
Water Monster · Chicago, Illinois · 1904
The next-deepest trail: 9 documents · 1 independent account