r/HighStrangeness • u/DetectiveFork • 2d ago
Cryptozoology Montana's Lost Cave of Dragon Bones
An 1894 tale of an impossible fossil skeleton leads down a rabbit hole of actual miners, a mysterious cavern, an underground river, and a forgotten geyser in The Treasure State's limestone hills.
By Kevin J. Guhl / American Strangeness
Eighty feet below the Montana frontier sky, prospector J. P. Hardy squeezed down the narrow corridor of natural limestone and found his way blocked by rocky debris, washed down from the crater above. His fingers scrambled at stones and dirt, shoveling pebbled limestone and parched dust in fans of filth past his elbows. As the opening gaped wider, Hardy sucked in his breath and yanked himself into the gulf of blackness on the other side. He sensed he had entered a spacious void and was able to stand. Hardy lit a candle and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the meager light. He stood in a vast underground cavern. It was lined with natural columns, formed by water dripping through limestone and extending gracefully from floor and ceiling. Hardy cautiously wove through the pale stalagmites, moving a few hundred yards deeper into the seemingly endless cavern. The flickering flame illuminated what appeared to be a line of white barrel hoops standing upright, extending into the darkness farther than his one candle could shed its rays. Hardy's mind assembled the parts of what he was seeing, and he soon realized he was standing amidst one of the grandest sights ever beheld by him or anyone else. Lying there within that glorious cavern was the petrified skeleton of an enormous reptile, perfect in every detail from head to tail... the silent remains of a dragon.
This isn't a passage from some knock-off Jules Verne novel from the 19th century. It was a discovery reported as fact in a Montana newspaper in 1894. The setting, a hopeful little mining community named Townsend. And Mr. Hardy, candle wax dripping down his fingers, flame and shadow painting the outlines of an impossible beast, had just wandered into... American Strangeness.
As told in the June 29, 1894 Townsend Messenger, Hardy was a well-known miner who had ventured up into the mountains about five miles west of town the previous week, hoping to uncover valuable minerals. There he encountered a curious, circular hole in the solid limestone that was about three feet in diameter with an unknown depth. The opening was known by Townsend's prospecting crowd and had long been regarded as the crater of a prehistoric geyser. Hardy had dared to enter the crater and navigate the narrow tunnel that led to the massive cavern. He now stood there, taking careful note of the sprawling skeleton before him:
"The bones of the head showed plainly that the monster was well equipped for aggressive warfare. Curved fangs hinged to the upper jaw, eighteen inches long, lay in place in what was once a huge mouth, which could open easily four feet, judging from the articulation. The monster lay in a nearly straight line, and Mr. Hardy found upon pacing it off that it measured upwards of 120 feet. About fifty feet from the head lay a number of bones that appeared to belong to the skeleton and which Mr. Hardy concluded were the remains of wings. Further examination disclosed the presence of legs though only one of these was in good condition. "
After returning to town, Hardy consulted Judge Weston, a self-educated expert on prehistoric animals and fossils. Weston, in startling fashion, proclaimed that the remains represented "probably the only perfect specimen of a Dragon in existence." Aside from the judge, Hardy attempted to keep the story quiet and protect his find, but word trickled out. He received an offer of $20,000 for the skeleton, but stated he would accept nothing less than $50,000. The Smithsonian Institution was informed of the find and a representative was expected to arrive in Townsend within a few days. The Messenger, reporting on the discovery, opined, "We think that Townsend should not permit this wonder to be sold, but should purchase it and keep it in its present form on free exhibition. Who will move in the matter?"
Let us pause and consider the sheer size of Hardy's dragon. If intended to represent a prehistoric flying reptile, the creature's reported dimensions bear little resemblance to any pterosaur presently known to science. The Messenger claimed that the skeleton measured more than 120 feet from head to tail. By comparison, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, from Late Cretaceous Texas and regarded as the largest known pterosaur (and largest flying organism ever known), had a reconstructed wingspan of about 32 feet and stood roughly as tall as a giraffe. Montana's own pterosaur record offers a considerably smaller comparison. Infernodrakon hastacollis, an azhdarchid recently identified from the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana, is known from a single neck vertebra and has been classified as a medium-sized member of the group. Thus, nothing presently known in the pterosaur fossil record suggests a flying reptile approaching the extraordinary dimensions attributed to the Townsend “Dragon.”
So, is this yet another tall tale of the Wild West, one more entry in the late 19th century newspaper genre of "American Dragons" that included the likes of the Tombstone Thunderbird, the Salt Lake Dragon and the Elizabeth Lake Monster (all of which I've written about previously)? Or could there have been some degree of reality to this fantastic yarn? You might be surprised to learn that this story is constructed on a foundation of truth.
Joseph P. Hardy was born in 1862 in Wisconsin and resided for several years in Bozeman before moving to Townsend in the 1890s. He and his wife, Tillie, resided there for 28 years, becoming beloved members of the community. Joseph and Tillie shared the same birthday (Oct. 14, 1862) but Tillie would live to be 103, affectionately called "Granny" by townsfolk. Hardy was a prominent entrepreneur in Townsend, operating two ranches, partnering in the Townsend Land and Livestock Co., owning several properties in Deep Creek, and eventually opening the town's first silent movie theater. His nickname was "Boss" Hardy because, according to the Townsend Star, "he always had a deliberate conclusion how things ought to be arranged and his close associates never cared to interfere with his ideas because they were always good ones." Tillie was a practical nurse who operated a maternity ward in their home. Hardy also held a sustained interest in mining, one of his claims being the gold and quartz-producing Black Hank Mine. In fact, Hardy was planning a trip to tour a mine with a friend on the morning he died suddenly in 1921 following a bout of pneumonia.
Judge James R. Weston, dinosaur expert, was born in Onondaga County, New York in 1824 and graduated medical school in 1846. Moving to Bolivar, New York the following year, Weston worked as a doctor, opened a drug store, served as postmaster, and engaged in other mercantile pursuits during his 12 years in the town. An adventurous spirit then took hold and, in 1863, Weston and his wife, Adelaid, joined a train of 70 wagons bound for Montana. Weston was chosen as captain of the expedition. Once out west, he prospected in Bannack and Last Chance Gulch for a time before operating a hotel in Diamond City. He then relocated to Radersburg and finally moved to Townsend in 1883, where he opened another drug store. Weston was a 32nd degree Mason and served as Grand Master of the jurisdiction at the time the first Masonic Temple was dedicated in Helena, serving as master of ceremonies. Upon his death in 1904, the Townsend Star eulogized Weston as "eccentric in disposition, fearless in thought and expressions, and tireless in his efforts to assist a friend."
The so-called "geyser" in the limestone hills was described in detail by the Townsend Tranchant newspaper on May 1, 1889, five years before the dragon story emerged. The reporter wrote of spending a few days in the Thompson district, "situated just east of Indian Creek in the picturesque limestone hills just opposite on the west and in sight of Townsend." They traveled six miles in a Concord stagecoach over a smooth trail via Raymond's Ferry and across Radersburg Road. A switch-off on the right led them up through the scenic "Geyser Canyon" and on to their destination of the cabin and works of the "Old Faithful" iron mine. There, manager I. N. (Naylor) Thompson—who made a name for himself mining silver in the same district in 1882 (arriving around 1877)—was leading a force of men prying iron ore from the site.
Wrote the Tranchant, "Anyone visiting this mine will miss a genuine curiosity if they fail to visit the defunct geyser which is situated about 350 yards east of the mine along on the same hillside, and which consists of a regular circular crater, leading down from which to a depth of 85 feet is a smoothly worn, round hole through nearly solid rock, about the size of a flour barrel, at the bottom of which is a 10x12 nearly square chamber, leading off from the east side of which is a ten-inch hole evidently running through into another larger chamber, and all showing that at one period there had been an active, first-class flowing geyser for many years in operation. The main shaft, or nozzle, of this now mute wonder was descended by means of a rope several years ago by Mr. Thompson and a companion, who furnish the particulars of what is underground—the balance being plainly visible from the surface." This account dovetails remarkably with the structure of the geyser shaft described by Hardy, who perhaps explored a previously inaccessible larger chamber. It is unclear if he had permission from Thompson to do this.
Another curiosity in the Thompson district noted by the Tranchant reporter was "the wonderful 'Paint-pot,' a shaft sunk upon a big vein and many tons of pure ochre or mineral paint of a useful color, thrown out." It was located very near the geyser, with both features discovered by Thompson around 1876. The miner claimed that a Native American chief had taken a liking to him and showed him the Paint-pot, claiming "it was the source of [paint] supply for all the Indians West of the Mississippi River, and had been for centuries." Thompson learned that Indigenous people traveled thousands of miles for this paint, which they used to decorate themselves while on the warpath. He noted that trails led from the paint mine out in all directions, supporting the assertion that this was a central destination. Indeed, Townsend residents would cart home the ore, pound it into powder and mix it with linseed oil to create fence paint, producing a few different colors such as "a rich old gold" and maroon.
While the Paint-Pot might seem like a colorful story, it's not as implausible as it may sound. Naturally occurring deposits of ochre have long been commercially mined for use in the manufacture of paints and pigments. Ochre consists of earthy forms of the iron oxides hematite and limonite, often mixed with clay. Hematite generally produces red ochres, while limonite produces yellow or brown varieties.
Thompson and his team completed the tedious and expensive job of opening a cut into the Old Faithful mine by the end of May 1889. But it paid off, as they uncovered an immense body of good iron ore and began rapidly removing and hauling the lode to cars for shipment.
In 1894, the Townsend Messenger described Thompson as "that veteran old timer and prince of Good Fellows... whom everybody knows and likes." The paper jocularly added, "In those early days Naylor did not possess his present circumference; you see he had not lost sight—[of] his feet, and bid them an eternal fare-well..." Thompson partnered in business with Weston, the pair signing a contract in October 1895 to pump water away from workers sinking a well for fire prevention purposes in Townsend. Thompson was also a mining partner of Hardy's, the men having located and claimed the "Hopeful" quartz lode on June 24, 1894.
The Townsend Messenger continued its coverage of the geyser cavern and its petrified "dragon" skeleton almost a month later on Jul. 20, 1894. There is no mention of a visit from the Smithsonian, and the massive bones seem strangely like an afterthought. The focus is more on the business potential of the cavern itself, perhaps unsurprising when you consider the mining entrepreneurs involved.
According to the Messenger, Hardy invited well-known and trusted mining expert Angus McQueen to visit the "Geyser" and view "the wonderful skeleton of a dragon that is lying in the upper cave." McQueen told the newspaper, "If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed there could have ever existed such a monster as that; the fact is I did not want to go at first to see it but Hardy insisted so much that I could not refuse."
Yet strangely, the dragon was not what Hardy most wanted McQueen to see. After viewing the skeleton, Hardy urged McQueen to follow him as there was something else he wanted to show him. Hardy led the way behind what appeared to be a "petrified waterfall" and into a passage that seemed to have been recently enlarged. They walked the passage a short distance until arriving at a hole similar to the one above, from which hung a rope ladder. The men climbed the ladder down about 50 feet to an inclined floor, which they followed about 40 yards until entering a chamber. It was much larger than the one above but different, having a smooth, sandy floor. Through it ran a river of black, silent water which Hardy stated was 30 feet deep and 55 feet across.
"'There,' said Hardy, 'What do you think of that?'" recalled McQueen. "I admitted of course that it was wonderful, grand, etc., when he asked impatiently, 'What do you consider that worth?' I looked at him to see if he was joking, but as he appeared to be serious, I asked, what do you mean? He said, 'I will tell you. At the rate that water is flowing, there is not less than 50,000 inches of water, which is high enough to wash all the placer ground between here and Helena, and which I can take out by a tunnel of not more than 2,000 feet.'"
"I knew and everybody knows that the placer ground he mentioned was as rich as could be found in Montana," said McQueen. "In fact, I have several locations myself on it, so I said, 'Hardy, if you can do that, this water is a much bigger thing than that skeleton up above.' Hardy also told me he had caught some blind or I should say some eyeless fish, but as I am a mining man, I did not care for these things. The water interested me, not the fish, so I asked him if there was any other country rock to go through except the lime, in running that tunnel, and he said, yes, and that is the rub; there is about 1,500 feet of iron ore mixed with a kind of flint, all run together like slag from a furnace, the hardest formation I have ever seen; he said in drilling one hole in this hard formation 20 inches, he had dulled just 11 drills, so I think myself it must be hard.
"An assay of this hard formation, Hardy said, showed that it would go $16.00 in gold [presumably per ton of ore-Ed.] with a small percentage of lead and copper. He thinks some plan may be found to work it with tools and predicts that within two years, he will have the water tapped. All the placer ground that this water will cover has been taken up for years, so there is no need of any rush to take up claims. I looked after that myself. I will assist Hardy in forming a company of choice people to open this tunnel for which I am to have some of the stock. No, I don't know what the stock is worth, but I know I would not take a dollar per share for mine, even if I needed money."
McQueen was a colorful character in Montana's late-19th-century mining world. Born in Skye, Scotland, he emigrated with his father to Canada and grew up in Ontario. Around 1879, he headed south to seek his fortune, leaving behind his fiancée, Margery Hamil of Harwich. McQueen refused to marry until he could provide her with a home. He spent eight largely unsuccessful years prospecting in Montana, returning to Canada twice and each time finding Margery still waiting. Increasingly discouraged, McQueen urged her not to waste her life on him, but she remained steadfast. His luck finally changed in 1888, when his mining ventures made him about $50,000. Rather than immediately returning home, McQueen invested half his money in a Butte mine that proved highly profitable. When he finally went back to Margery, however, he concealed his success and again insisted she deserved better. She replied that she cared nothing for wealth and trusted him simply to earn enough for them to live on. The couple quietly wed in Charing Cross, Ontario, on Jan. 16, 1889, and departed for Montana. Only after they arrived in Butte did McQueen reveal to his new wife that he had struck it rich.
The Anaconda Standard once wrote, "Everybody knows Angus McQueen. He is one of the oldest mining men in the camp and for 19 years has buried underground every dollar he could earn... nobody in town has more friends than Angus McQueen." Among McQueen's various mines was the prosperous Queen Bee, which had a 24-foot gold-quartz vein and was considered one of the best properties in the Diamond Hill District of Jefferson County. He also owned the adjoining Gold Coin claim, the nearby Silver Wave mine, and the Mattie, a rich copper prospect in High Ore Gulch.
Like so many weird stories of the Wild West, the trail on this story goes cold. Did Hardy ever extract the "dragon" bones from the cavern? Did he and McQueen succeed in accessing the subterranean river for mining purposes? If the answers are out there, I haven't yet found them. However, we can follow some investigative paths suggested by the original news articles...
The Smithsonian's annual records do not reference the acquisition of any fossils matching Hardy's “dragon” for that time period. The Report of the United States National Museum for the Year Ending June 30, 1895, covering the year immediately following the alleged discovery, states that its vertebrate-fossil collection increased by about 65 specimens, including the noteworthy acquisitions of Zeuglodon bones, a fossil bison skull, a Portheus molossus skull and an Ichthyosaurus specimen. But there is no mention of Hardy, Townsend, or the enormous fossils of a flying reptile from Montana. Nor does any corresponding record appear in the Museum’s annual reports for the previous or following fiscal years. This absence does not establish that the Smithsonian was never contacted, only that it is unlikely the museum acquired Hardy's dragon, if it existed.
However, there IS record that Hardy managed to succeed in a water diversion project. According to the 1977 book "Broadwater Bygones," published by the Broadwater County Historical Society, Hardy and Helena financier Jacob Yung held interests in the Townsend Land and Livestock Co., with several holdings in the Deep Creek area. According to the book, "Hardy was the ramrod for the company and ran the Job Thompson ranch and started the development on the sand hills east of Townsend to bring water by ditch from Deep Creek to water the arid hills and also fill a lake in one of the swales. Trees grew and alfalfa was planted and a bumper crop ensued. It wasn't feasible as the water sank in the sandy areas—it was deserted and went back to its native state." Did this water actually come from the limestone hills west of town? Did Hardy switch plans to utilize the water source for his ranching interests instead of mining? Or was this a different project altogether than the one described by McQueen?
There was certainly skepticism regarding Hardy's dragon among contemporary and later readers. Soon after the discovery was reported, the Daily Leader in Great Falls, Montana wrote, "From Townsend comes the news of a wonderful discovery made five miles from that town a few days ago by J. P. Hardy, a mining man, which sounds like the average sea serpent story so often sprung on the Atlantic." Montana newspapers rediscovered and reprinted the original article in 1948, one headline reading, "Old Timers Had Good Imaginations, Files of Ancient Newspaper Reveals."
But the strangest refutation came from the Townsend Messenger itself. It printed a short notice on Aug. 24, 1894, in which the newspaper appeared to be weaseling away from its original reporting in a manner both vague and blithe, probably because the story had gained legs outside Montana. "A special to the Minneapolis Journal gives a full account of the remarkable find of the huge skeleton of an antediluvian dragon, recently discovered by Mr. Hardy, while exploring an extinct geyser, near this place," wrote the Messenger. "As for the facts in this case, we are wholly at error, as the alleged discovery was made previous to our arrival at this point. However, we will state that we never saw anything like it, not even in our most boisterous days."
The Messenger continued this jocular attitude a week later, writing, "On Wednesday last, Mr. L. M. Potts came into our sanctum and exhibited a queer looking specimen of antiquity which very much resembled a fang of some gigantic reptile of antediluvian existence. As it was a rather singular shaped concern, dark and streaked, and resembling the sad remains of an ill spent life, Prof. Stout claimed it was a mole from the petrified cheek of a delinquent subscriber; however, many were of the opinion that it is a tooth from Mr. Hardy's dragon. Notwithstanding the conflicting opinions in regard to its originality, we are fully convinced that it is the only relic of the kind in existence."
So, just what was going on here? Was Hardy's dragon skeleton just a creative prank on behalf of the Townsend Messenger, bolstered by quoting well-known mining men of the locality? Or did Hardy and McQueen both claim that the fossilized remains truly existed and a reporter from the Messenger wrote down the story without checking it out for themselves?
It sounds like Hardy and McQueen were well-respected businessmen, but we cannot rule out the possibility that the dragon story was an attempt to gain investors for a mining or irrigation project in the limestone hills. It would be unsurprising if Thompson, who had a claim on the geyser site, was involved, as well. Mining fraud was sufficiently common in the late 19th-century American West that investors were routinely warned about stock manipulation, “salted” mines and outright false advertising. Newspapers and telegraph services could amplify such schemes by carrying reports of purported discoveries and promising developments to investors far removed from the properties themselves. In 1880, the Engineering and Mining Journal complained that information circulated in “press dispatches” had led Eastern investors to purchase mining stocks “of but little value,” while another article that year warned that promoters could create a “movement” in their stocks and use the reputations of successful mines “to float worthless property.” In such an environment, publicity surrounding an apparently spectacular mineral discovery could have financial value quite apart from whether the discovery lived up to its billing. But perhaps a dragon skeleton was a step too far, and they all backed away from the story.
However, the people and places in this odd tale are remarkably consistent with reality. All the main actors are attested in Montana history. The extinct geyser, whether that's what it really was or not, is supported by a detailed account of the site years before it became attached to the dragon tale. One possible location for Hardy’s “geyser” is the general vicinity of Graymont’s present-day Indian Creek limestone quarry west of Townsend, which has operated there since 1982. The 1894 account placed the opening about five miles west of town and described it as occurring in “solid limestone.” Today, Graymont operates its limestone quarry approximately 4½ miles west of Townsend on Indian Creek Road. (I tried contacting Graymont, who did not respond to my admittedly unusual query about whether there is or ever was a geyser hole or paint-pot on their property.)
The limestone hills, a natural topographic formation encompassing about 16 square miles, are situated a few miles west and southwest of Townsend. They are composed of pre-Cambrian, Paleozoic, and Mesozoic sedimentary rocks, per the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). A 1950 USGS study noted marine fossils throughout the formation, but did not mention any vertebrate remains. According to the report, the limestone hills were probably submerged during all of Mississippian time, but were above sea level during the Triassic and part of the Jurassic era.
The most outlandish element of this entire story seems to be the massive size of Hardy's dragon. But what if that was the only exaggeration, and the miner really did stumble across the ancient remains of a large pterosaur or dinosaur inside the limestone hills? Hardy was much more interested in the mineral and hydration potential of the site. If there were no takers for the bones or they were too difficult to remove, he might have given up on it as financial folly. Could that mysterious cavern and its massive "dragon" skeleton still lie hidden beneath the limestone formations west of Townsend, or have they long been obliterated by more than a century of mining and quarrying activity? You just never know what monsters lie dormant beneath our feet in America's darkest recesses.
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u/DetectiveFork 2d ago
SOURCES:
"A Wonderful Discovery." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 29 Jun. 1894, p. A3.
"A Find Near Townsend." Daily Independent [Helena, MT], 9 Jul. 1894, p. 8.
"The Northwest." Minneapolis Times, 20 Jul. 1894, p. 2.
Andres, Brian and Wann Langston, Jr. “Morphology and Taxonomy of Quetzalcoatlus Lawson 1975 (Pterodactyloidea: Azhdarchoidea)." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 41, suppl. no. 2, 2021, pp. 46–202.
Witton, Mark P. “A New Approach to Determining Pterosaur Body Mass and Its Implications for Pterosaur Flight.” Zitteliana, vol. B28, 2008, pp. 143–158.
Thomas, Henry N., et al. "Infernodrakon hastacollis gen. et sp. nov., a New Azhdarchid Pterosaur from the Hell Creek Formation of Montana, and the Pterosaur Diversity of Maastrichtian North America." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol. 44, no. 4, 2024, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2024.2442476. Accessed 18 Sep. 2026.
Chorvinsky, Mark. “Cowboys & Dragons: Unravelling the Mystery of the Thunderbird Photograph.” Strange Magazine, Fall 2000. http://www.strangemag.com/strangemag/strange21/thunderbird21/thunderbirdintro21.html. Accessed 10 Nov. 2024.
"Townsend Citizen, J. P. Hardy, Crosses the Great Divide." Townsend Star [Townsend, MT], 20 Oct. 1921, p. A1.
Broadwater Bygones. Broadwater County Historical Society, 1977.
"Local and Personal." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 6 Oct. 1895, p. A3.
"Local News." Townsend Star [Townsend, MT], 14 Aug. 1909, p. A3.
"Bozeman." Butte Miner [Butte, MT], 1 Mar. 1896, p. 3.
"Local and Personal." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 7 Dec. 1894, p. A5.
"Local and Personal." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 17 Aug. 1894, p. A3.
"Quartz Locations." Age [Boulder, MT], 29 Aug. 1894, p. A1.
"In Memorium [sic]: Judge J. R. Weston." Townsend Star [Townsend, MT], 20 Aug. 1904, p. A2.
"Valley Country." Townsend Tranchant [Townsend, MT], 14 Sep. 1887, p. A4.
"Near-By Iron Mines, Etc." Townsend Tranchant [Townsend, MT], 1 May 1889, p. A2.
"Valley County." Townsend Tranchant [Townsend, MT], 29 May 1889, p. A3.
"A Paint Mine." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 27 Jul. 1894, p. A2.
Butts, Charles and Benjamin Gildersleeve. Geology and Mineral Resources of the Paleozoic Area in Northwest Georgia. State Division of Conservation, Department of Mines, Mining and Geology, 1948.
"Local and Personal." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 10 Oct. 1895, p. A5.
"That Wonderful Discovery." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 20 Jul. 1894, p. A2.
"Visions of a Fortune." Anaconda Standard [Anaconda, MT], 7 Dec. 1890, p. 6.
"Waited Fifteen Years for Him." Populist Tribune [Butte, MT], 7 Jul. 1894, p. 7.
"Angus McQueen Married." Daily Inter Mountain [Butte, MT], 24 Jan. 1889, p. 4.
"In the Diamond Hill District" Helena Daily Herald [Helena, MT], 17 Jun. 1895, p. 2.
U. S. National Museum. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution for the Year Ending June 30, 1895. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1897.
U. S. National Museum. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution for the Year Ending June 30, 1894: Report of the U. S. National Museum. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1896.
U. S. National Museum. Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, Showing the Operations, Expenditures, and Condition of the Institution for the Year Ending June 30, 1896. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1898.
"Townsend Has a Sensation." Daily Leader [Great Falls, MT], 7 Jul. 1894, p. 2.
"Old Timers Had Good Imaginations, Files of Ancient Newspaper Reveals." Livingston Enterprise [Livingston, MT], 24 Jan. 1948, p. 3.
"Old Meagher County Paper Reports Finding of Prehistoric Monster in Townsend Cave." Townsend Star [Townsend, MT], 29 Jan. 1948, p. A2.
"That Guy-ser." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 24 Aug. 1894, p. A2.
"A What Is It." Townsend Messenger [Townsend, MT], 31 Aug. 1894, p. A3.
Grossman, Sarah E. M. "Mining Engineers and Fraud in the U.S.–Mexico Borderlands, 1860–1910." Technology and Culture, vol. 55, no. 4. Oct. 2014, pp. 821-849.
“Review of the Mining Stock Market for 1879,” Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. 29, no. 4, 24 Jan. 1880, p. 61.
"Gold and Silver Stocks." Engineering and Mining Journal, vol. 30, no. 8, 21 Aug. 1880, p. 129.
Montana Department of Environmental Quality, Air, Energy & Mining Division. Montana Air Quality Permit #1554-19, Graymont Western U.S., Inc., 14 Aug. 2018, https://deq.mt.gov/files/Air/AirQuality/Documents/ARMpermits/1554-19.pdf.
Charney, Evan. "Decades-Old Limestone Mine Remains an Economic Anchor for Broadwater County." KTVH, 28 Sep. 2026, https://www.ktvh.com/news/decades-old-limestone-mine-remains-an-economic-anchor-for-broadwater-county. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.
Ruppel, Edward T. Geology of the Limestone Hills, Broadwater County, Montana. USGS, 1950, https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/ofr5014. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.
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u/Rezart_KLD 1d ago
The 140 foot measurement might not even be exaggerated, just misunderstanding. He said he paced the length off, and the bones were separated by some distance - the ones he called wings were separated from the body, for example. It could be multiple sets of fossils that he assumed were the same creature. Hes not a biologist after all, and he's doing this in a cave by torchlight, and the cave is most likely not a straight line. That the bones he called wings even were wings is just a guess on his part.
This is a great story OP, thank you very much!
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u/MaleficentPass6091 2d ago
Many believe the Smithsonian to be responsible for the collection and cover up of "specimens" and "truths" that dont fit a specific narrative. Great post OP! Fun and informative read. Thank you.
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u/Soggy-Mistake8910 1d ago
Ah yes, the newspapers of the 1800s. So well known for their truthfulness and accuracy of content that regulations have to be enacted to stop them writing whatever they wanted whether it was true or not .
And what were the two main reasons for these regulations. Libel and to protect the public from their own gullibility.
Who knew people would still fall for the nonsense they printed all these years later!?
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u/IndividualCurious322 19h ago
Is this written about in the American Strangeness books?
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u/Hot_Transition_5173 2d ago
You can bet that if the Smithsonian got their hands on anything like the dragon no one would ever know.
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u/Thenameimusingtoday 2d ago
What other things have they hidden?
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u/DetectiveFork 1d ago
There are many conspiracy theories regarding the likes of giant human remains, extant mammoths, and archaeological ruins that don't fit established history (Kincaid's Cave).
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u/Dark_Jedi1432 1d ago
The giant bones were attractions to draw people to fuck all nowhere, and were almost always the bones of local native burial sites dug up, and made into giants
It's not even a conspiracy, its just bullshit, grifting, and farmers looking to put their shit town on the map.
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u/DetectiveFork 1d ago
ADDENDUM: AN EXTINCT GEYSER?
The late 19th-century news coverage stated that the three-foot-wide hole in the Limestone Hills was considered the crater of a “prehistoric geyser,” but its description might be a closer match for natural limestone features. Geysers have underground plumbing systems, with constricted passages and chambers where heated water builds pressure. They can become dormant over time. However, limestone is generally less favorable to geyser formation than silica-rich volcanic rock. At Yellowstone, superheated subsurface water dissolves the silica in volcanic rhyolite rock, precipitating into cracks and sealing the system so it can endure the pressure needed to create a geyser. By contrast, warm water rich in carbon dioxide flows through limestone at Mammoth Hot Springs, dissolving calcium carbonate from the bedrock and depositing it on the surface as travertine terraces, rather than silica-rich geyserite.
On the other hand, vertical shafts, caverns and underground streams are all common features of limestone “karst,” created as slightly acidic groundwater gradually dissolves the rock along cracks and fractures. That makes the basic geology of Hardy’s story surprisingly plausible. More than 90% of Montana's caves are found in limestone within the Madison Group, which encompasses the Limestone Hills just west and southwest of Townsend. Groundwater studies of the Townsend Valley have documented water moving through fractures and voids in the bedrock, while springs with substantial flows appear to emanate from limestone in the Madison Group. So, while there is no evidence that the mysterious hole truly was an extinct geyser, a limestone shaft opening into a cavern with running water seems like a reasonable possibility.
A possible location for Naylor Thompson’s Old Faithful mine might be the northern Limestone Hills. In 1950, geologist Edward T. Ruppel stated that no metallic deposits of economic value had been found in the Limestone Hills, aside from minor occurrences that had once been prospected. The most extensive old metalliferous workings Ruppel identified were three shafts, 50 to 100 feet deep and probably connected by underground levels, near the mutual corner of Sections 3, 4, 9 and 10, Township 6 North, Range 1 East. A modern Bureau of Land Management map places that intersection in the northern part of the Limestone Hills, within the general Indian Creek area west of Townsend. The location is intriguing because the 1889 account of Thompson’s mine placed it east of Indian Creek and described the supposedly extinct geyser as being only about 350 yards east of it. Ruppel did not identify the old shafts by name, however, and reported pyrite and chalcopyrite specifically rather than an iron deposit, so the identification as the Old Faithful remains only an intriguing possibility.
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u/DetectiveFork 2d ago
TL;DR: In 1894, Montana miner J.P. Hardy claimed he descended into an extinct geyser near Townsend and discovered a vast limestone cavern containing the 120-foot skeleton of a winged “dragon.” The story sounds like classic Wild West newspaper fiction but a deep dive into contemporary records reveals some surprising truths. Hardy and the other men involved were real, respected local miners; the mysterious geyser shaft had been documented years before the dragon story; and later reports described an even deeper cavern containing a huge underground river that Hardy hoped to exploit for mining. So what began as an investigation of an impossible fossil became a search for a very real... and apparently lost... Montana cave.