Vampire Creature on Display in Sheridan, 1910

Yep. You read that right. In March of 1910, locals could stop by taxidermist Simon B. Clark's showroom on East Brundage to view "a specimen of a creature known as the vampire."

The Daily Enterprise claimed the creature was neither "bird [nor] beast," but a concoction of the two. About the size of a bat, the vampire "look[ed] something like that of a rat of gigantic size" with a four-foot wingspan.

From the March 14th, 1910 edition of the Daily Enterprise.
Click to enlarge.

Curtis procured the creature from a soldier who had caught it in the Philippines. Of the menacing fiend, the Daily Enterprise described its alleged method of slaughter, "creeping upon its sleeping victim, it lulls and sooths [sic] with a cooling breeze which comes from its slowly moving wings, while it fastens its fangs in the throat and sucks the life blood."

The article assured Sheridan readers the creature would not escape, so nobody would ever find out whether such legends were true, but said the creature was "sufficiently ferocious in appearance to make the story seem probable."

Whether reported with sensationalism or tongue-in-cheek snark, the incident marks a strange little moment in Sheridan history, all the more so because, of known bat species in the Philippines, the only one that could have a four-foot wingspan would have been a variety of flying fox. If you've never seen a flying fox, imagine a border collie's head on a bat's body. Kind of cute, in an Island-of-Dr.Moreau fashion. 

Fun fact: flying foxes subsist solely on fruit and vegetation, requiring nary a drop of blood. Looks like we might have another Wimpus on our hands.