"Skeptical British ufologist Peter Rogerson included in his INTCAT ufology catalogue of "entities" a report he said he found in "Arment 2006 p244 citing Zanesville Signal 29 June 1930".
He says that on June 26, 1930, in Alger, Ohio, USA, the mayor, Liman Clark, encountered an ape-like creature on the edge of a grove. Attempts to get a dog to chase the thing away were unsuccessful.
Having found what the Press really said at the time, I can tell that the mayor's name was Lyman Clark, that his sighting what on June 28, 1930, that another person reported to have seen the ape on June 27, 1930.
Moreover, it appears obvious that it was neither a UFO occupant nor a "Bigfoot" but really an ape, that was thought to have been the one that escaped from a circus at Carey, Ohio.
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[Ref. sr1:] "THE SANDUSKY REGISTER" NEWSPAPER:
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APE FRIGHTENS ALGER, O., FOLKLIMA, O., (AP) -- Panic stricken residents of the village of Alger, 15 miles east of here, formed posses today to search for an ape, supposed to [h]ave escaped from a circus at Carey, O. The animal first appeared in Alger Thursday, Mayor Lyman Clark met it on the edge of a grove, and later it was seen on the porch of the Cooney farm ouse. Members of the family, thinging [thinking] their dog might drive the ape away, attempted to coax the dog out of the house, but the animal refused to leave. On Friday, the ape appeared in a corn field where Myron Hetrick was at work. He fired several shots at it from a shot gun, but the ape escaped into a woods [wood]. For two nights Alger has appeared as a city of the dead - for there are no street lights, and residents have feared to leave their homes after dark. |
[Ref. tr1:] "THE TIMES RECORDER" NEWSPAPER:
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ANOTHER "APE" HUNTLIMA, O., June 29 -- (AP) -- Residents of Alger, 15 miles east of here, went ape-hunting Saturday, for an animal supposed to have escaped from a circus at Carey. Several persons in the vicinity of Alger reported seeing the animal, among then being Mayor Lyman Clark, who met it on the edge of a grove, last Thursday. |
[Ref. pr1:] PETER ROGERSON:
June 26 1930.ALGER (OHIO : USA) The mayor, Liman Clark encountered an ape like creature on the edge of a grove. Attempts to get a dog to chase the thing away were unsuccessful. Arment 2006 p244 citing Zanesville Signal 29 June 1930 |
It may seem incredible that a "skeptical" ufologist [pr1] cataloged a story of an ape escaped from a circus in his ufology catalog.
The "mechanism" here is as follows: Peter Rogerson [pr1], on the issue of UFOs and their occupants, argues that that they are all misinterpretations and inventions. He intended to show that the errors "due to imagination" according to him, and "inventions", have always existed.
He then retrieved a number of fairy stories, ghosts stories, "Bigfoot" stories in the books, not as UFO occupant sightings, but as imaginary or invented "entities" sightings; as examples.
Although, I think, no one doubts that hoaxes and misunderstandings exist, many of these "examples" fall short, and this is generally the case for stories of this type, stories of apes seen at large in the United States in the 1930s.
Indeed, there was in those years a craze for apes that followed movies, comics, and short stories appearing in newspapers, including "Tarzan the Ape-Man". There were circuses responding to this craze by showing great anthropoid apes. And sometimes, apres escaped, and were seen roaming the country.
As the great anthropoid apes were often shown as quite dangerous creatures in fiction - and they are often dangerous in reality! - people were often frightened by the reports. And they often organized search parties to capture or shoot them down.
Newspapers, or authorities, or locals, sometimes expressed skepticism about monkey sightings. They did not want to believe. But what is quite obvious, is that in these cases, neither the hoax nor the misinterpretations are proven, Nothing allows to affirm that, in this case, mayor Lyman Clark or farmer Myron Hetrick the day before, have "invented" or "imagined" anything!
They reported seeing an ape, and there may have been one. Of course, we were not told, perhaps in Arment's book but certainly in Rogerson's catalog, that the Press had reported a circus ape escaped in the area.
To give the context, for the year 1930 alone, I list at least 4000 mentions of the expression "Tarzan the ape-man" in the US newspapers that I can access - obviously not the complete Press. Newspapers published in comics and illustrated short stories the adventures of Tarzan written by Edgar Rice Burroughs:
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Circuses capitalized on the success of Tarzan and the monkeys:
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Seeing "Bigfoot" in any story of stray ape in the US, as well as thinking that all reported of alien encounters really are alien encounters, is obviously wrong, my catalog clearly shows this.
But on the other hand, if this case obviously does not prove that imagination and invention never existed, it proves that the generalization of this explanation to all cases is an error sometimes leading to probably false explanations.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
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Probable ape escaped from circus, not UFO-related.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | September 24, 2018 | Creation, [sr1], [za1], [pr1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | September 24, 2018 | First published. |
