1906 Chicago dinosaur invasion hoax
Script error: No such module "AfC submission catcheck".
The 1906 Chicago dinosaur invasion hoax was an elaborate April Fools' Day prank played in the United States by the editors of the Chicago Tribune, the Scranton Republican, the Rochester, New York Democrat and Chronicle, the Salt Lake Herald-Republican, and the Lincoln Star newspapers on Sunday, April 1, 1906. On that date, each of the papers printed variations of an anonymous two-page feature article purporting to recount the then-recent invasion of Chicago, Illinois by "hordes of prehistoric monsters dealing death and destruction".
The article described the events of the invasion, beginning with panicked reports of lake monsters and giant bat-like reptiles being sighted in Canada and then progressing through the arrival of thousands of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures in Chicago. The initial wave included a swarm of pterodactyls which caused havoc in the Stockyards district but apparently posed no threat to humans, and then a horde of seemingly docile, but dangerously large and clumsy sauropods.
According to the article, Chicagoans quickly became accustomed to the creatures, treating them as a curiosity or at worst as a nuisance. The invasion then escalated with the arrival of numerous carnivorous dinosaurs which attacked the herbivores, humans and even animals in the Lincoln Park Zoo before culminating in a spectacular battle in which the US Army had, fortunately, prevailed.
The approximately 9000-word article also featured eight doctored photographs apparently showing Chicagoans fleeing from a rampaging brontosaur, a group of giant sauropods grazing near the Art Institute, a flight of pterodactyli over the city, a gigantic brachiosaur wading ashore at Diversey Beach, a battle between a tyrannosaur and a brontosaur on the Montgomery Ward Building tower and other outlandish scenarios.
The text of the story was modified by the editors of various newspapers, including one anonymous writer who inserted a humane sub-plot in which two elderly university professors manage to save some of the less-dangerous dinosaurs from destruction during the battle, implicitly preserving their species from extinction. In the conclusion, the professors are also quoted as speculating that the dinosaurs may have been released from Atlantis by some catastrophic upheaval, making their way southward to Chicago in search of food and warmth.
Significance as a narrative theme[edit]
Although the "dinosaur invasion" was represented as an actual event for purposes of the April Fools' prank, the article's narrative and imagery of giant prehistoric creatures attacking a modern metropolis was a historically significant precursor to many later works of overt fiction, notably including The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Godzilla (1954).
In popular culture[edit]
The article was featured in the book Dinomania: The Lost Art of Winsor McCay, the Secret Origins of King Kong, and the Urge to Destroy New York by Ulrich Merkl (2015)
On March 31, 2022, excerpts from the article appeared on the online edition of the Chicago Tribune, including reproductions of three of the photographs.
All five versions of the article were amalgamated and republished, with additional illustrations and a new introduction, as the book Prehistoric Monsters Invade Chicago! (2023)
The Chicago Tribune version of the article is included on the Museum of Hoaxes website, under the heading Chicago Invaded By Dinosaurs
References[edit]
External links[edit]
- April 1, 1906: Chicago invaded by hordes of prehistoric monsters dealing death and destruction: extensive excerpts from the original article, including three photographs
This article "1906 Chicago dinosaur invasion hoax" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:1906 Chicago dinosaur invasion hoax. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
