When The Snallygaster Came Calling

The other day, a friend of mine, Stan Heuisler, former Baltimore magazine editor, author and bon vivant, mentioned the snallygaster in an email to me.

Not that Stan ever bore witness to a snallygaster sighting — no matter how terrifying delightful that may have been — but a friend of his had named his boat the snallygaster.

The what?

The snallygaster is a half-bird, half-reptile-like cryptozoological creature that is said to dive bomb out of the clouds searching for its prey of small game, farm animals, inattentive pets and even young children. 

Some years ago, I turned to my late friend Ed Okonowicz, the Elkton author who wrote more than 20 books chronicling the ghosts, monsters, apparitions on other strange and weird goings-on that have been scaring the bejesus out of Maryland and Delaware residents since Colonial times, to chase down the story and origins of the snallygaster.

In 2012, his book, “Monsters of Maryland,” was published and in it he spins the yarn of the frightening snallygaster.

In the 1700s when German immigrants settled in Western Maryland and Southern Pennsylvania, they brought more than their native language; they also brought their music, dances, customs, beer and bratwurst along with their monsters, including the snallygaster.

“Among the most distinctive creatures to settle in and hide among the wooded niches of America’s Eastern mountains and valleys is the snallygaster — a fearsome, dragon-like flying beast,” he wrote.

The creature has been described as having a very long (up to a 25-foot) wingspan, claws with sharp talons made of hot glowing metal. A long, pointed beak, and a third red, blazing eye in the middle of its forehead,” Okonowicz wrote. “Another description tells of a creature that is half-reptile, half-bird sporting a loud snapping metallic beak lined with razor-sharp teeth, and possessing several octopus-like tentacles.”

He added that the snallygaster had a keen sense of smell which assured that it would score a breakfast, lunch or dinner from an unfortunate victim, all the while emitting an “unpleasant smell.”

The origin of its name is from the German, “schnelle geist” or “schneller geist,” which translates to “quick spirit” or “fast ghost.”

In her book, “Spirits of Frederick,” author Alyce T. Weinberg reported that the first snallygaster sighting was in 1735.

“Since the dragon-flying, child-and animal-snatching monster conducted much of its terrorizing at night, confirmed sightings were rare,” concluded Okonowicz. “But the lack of eyeball evidence did not deter country folk from blaming the mountain creature for any misfortune that fell upon the region.”

Maryland newspapers, including The Sun reported on the creature’s appearances, and in 1906 said a snallygaster was observed airborn near Frederick.

The snallygaster came to the attention of president Theodore Rosevelt who momentarily planned on postponing an African safari to retreat to the hills of Western Maryland to bag the creature, but later changed his mind and thought that Africa was the more important destination.

So, the snallygaster was spared from the crack shot Roosevelt to terrify another day.

The snallygaster then went into hiding and it wasn’t until 1932 when one measuring 14 feet crashed into a moonshiner’s 2,500 gallon mash barrell in the mountains near Middletown and suffered a boozy death by drowning in bootleg hooch.

But, what a way to go!

Then again, one has to test the validity of the moonshiner’s tale of this event who may have been conducting a bit too much quality-control over his product.

Whatever, the moonshiner fearing what he had in his vat later took a charge of dynamite to it and blew it to kingdom come.

In the early 1940s, Charles F. Main, of Middletown, told The Sun he had seen a snallygaster flying “25-feet from the ground” and “that it changed color several times, first as appearing black and then as white.”

Reports emerged in 1944 when a snallygaster was spotted flying above the spires of Westminster, and in 1973, Maryland State Police began searching Sykesville “for a huge, hairy monster described by resident as a cross between a dwayyo and a snallygaster,” reported The Sun.

A dwayyo, according to lore, hatches from a snallygaster egg and has human traits.

At the time of the Sykesville sighting, a woman told The Sun, she heard it “cry like a baby and then scream like a woman.”

Not many years later, a man told the newspaper he had been chased by a dwayyo along the banks of the Severn River in Anne Arundel County.

Now, to add to the confusion of the snallygaster is the “snollygaster,” a word commonly used in the South beginning in the 1860s, to describe a bad politician or shyster.

The last president to use the term “snollygaster” was President Harry S. Truman who used it in a letter to Washington Post music critic Paul Hume, who had written a negative review of his daughter Margaret’s singing. 

I asked Okonowicz if in his long tenure exploring the weird had he ever seen a snallygaster, and he said, “I’ve never seen one, not even a snallygaster costume. And if I had seen a real snallygaster, I wouldn’t be talking to you right now.”

As we sit on porches or around campfires on a summer evening, the tale of the snallygaster may not be the best digestif for a good night’s rest.