Many eyewitnesses have called the flying creatures “pterodactyls,” although the correct name for the large non-bat featherless flyer is “pterosaur.” Let’s examine some of what has been reported on sightings in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Texarkana, Arkansa, Sighting, About 1982
I received an email from this eyewitness many years ago.
We saw the creature for approximately 20 seconds. We did not see any signs of feathers just sharp edged wings, the sharp pointed beak, and the sharp pointed crest on its head. We did not see any tail. I have looked at my dinosuar book and the picture of the pteranodon looked like what we saw.
Woodward, Oklahoma, Pterosaur Sighting
From page 33 of my book Live Pterosaurs in America (third edition):
About [1985] . . . in Woodward, Oklahoma, near a small river, at about noon, a fourteen-year-old became terrified at the sight of a pterosaur-like creature.
“I was walking to the small river where I usually caught carp fish. . . . a large animal took off into the air. At first I thought it was an eagle. Then I noticed it was a dinosaur. . . . I was afraid it would eat me. I stared at the back part of the head because it was exactly like the ones depicted in books. . . . had a long neck and wide wings just like in the movies or in books. It had no feathers and it was flying around and looking downwards into the fields.
“I was really afraid. . . . I never told anyone about this until now. People think you’re crazy when you tell them about something like this. The creature [looked] like it was dark brown. I was really close to it.”
“Pterodactyl” in Southern States
. . . a huge, featherless bird in Arkansas . . . We were sitting on big rocks at a cliff about 300 foot above the river when it flew out just under us and we watched it all the way down toward the river till it passed the tree lines. It was an awesome experience, indeed.
“Susan Wooten was driving east on Highway 20 . . . on a clear mid-afternoon in the fall of about 1989 . . . [She] saw something flying from her left, then passing in front of her . . . ‘It swooped down over the highway and back up gracefully over the pines,’ . . . ‘It looked as big as any car . . . NO feathers, not like a huge crane or egret, but like a humongous bat.’”
