November 21, 2007
The Alien Coal Frog of Lafayette Township, PA
We discovered this article in the September 28, 2005 issue of UFO Roundup (volume 10, number 39). The story details a peculiar find made in Lafayette, PA during 1886.
1886: THE EMBEDDED FROG OF McKEAN COUNTY, PA.
Another long-running phenomena in Forteana is the embedded toad syndrome, which researcher Bob Skinner calls Toad in the Hole. One of the best documented cases of this type occurred in McKean County, in northern Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1886.
"Not long ago, Mr. James Stevenson of the U.S. Geological Survey visited me for a day or two at Fort Wingate and while here invited my attention to an interesting specimen that had fallen into his possession during a recent trip he had made in the coal regions of northern Pennsylvania."
"The specimen consists of a mummified frog taken from the coal mine of McKean County, Penn. and the following account of it from a local newspaper loaned me by Mr. Stevenson for the present purpose."
"I quote the short notice in full; and the writer of it says, 'One of the most curious finds unearthed lately in this region, and what may yet prove a valuable fact in the study of science and history, was singularly found by Eddie Marsh, the fourteen-year-old son of Mr. D.B. Marsh, a book-keeper for Stevenson Brothers, hardware dealers.'"
"'Eddie, becoming impatient at the fire in the stove, which was not burning vigorously, took the poker and began punching it. A large lump of coal lay smoldering, and he determined to break it; and, after punching at it for a moment, the lump burst open as if by explosion, and a number of pieces flew out of the stove.'"
"'One piece he caught, and he was in the act of casting it back into the stove, when its lightness (light weight--J.T.) attracted his attention. On viewing it, he saw that it was nothing less than a perfectly formed frog.'"
"'On last evening, a large number of persons viewed the little curiosity. It had been embedded in the centre of a large lump of coal, and its bed was plainly discernible when the lump was laid open. The lump of coal came from the third vein of coal in the McKean County coalshaft, which is 541 feet (163 meters) under ground.'"
"'The curiosity apparently was not petrified. Apparently it had been mummified instead. It was shrivelled until it was half the size of a full-grown frog, and it is light and soft. Its shape is perfect, and the warty protuberances of the skin are very plain. Its limbs are regular and properly shaped, including the finger-like toe of its feet, and its eyes and mouth are natural. There can be no doubt of its being a mummified frog, and now various and tough questions arise regarding it: How did it get that far underground? How did it become embedded in that chunk of coal, which had probably been blasted from the centre of a thick vein? How many thousands of years had it been buried? And various other queries, which we will leave for the scientist to unravel and explain.'"
"Mr. Stevenson tells me that he is personally acquainted with all of the parties concerned in the discovery of this specimen, and has carefully examined the piece of coal whence the (frog) mummy was taken, and says, further, that it came from the vault, and not from either the sides nor the floor of the mine."
Stevenson made the mummy available to R.W. Shufeldt, who wrote up the odd discovery in the journal Science. Shufeldt wrote, "The specimen is now before me, and I at once recognized it as a species of Hyla, though I am unable to say which one. It apparently agrees in all its external characteristics with a specimen I have of Hyla versicolor, kindly diagnosed for me by Professor Cope last summer (1885), though it is rather smaller...it is in a nearly natural position; its feet, however, are somewhat drawn up under it...It is completely mummified, and in a wonderfully perfect state of preservation, being of a dark, snuff-brown color, somewhat shrunken, and, in short, reduced to a condition that, if properly excluded from the air, would keep for an indefinite length of time."
"I am aware that these tree-frogs very often climb into some of the most unheard-of places; but it struck me that it would be interesting to have some one tell us if they ever heard of a Hyla finding its way to the vault of a coal mine 541 feet under ground, and climbing into the solid coal-bed after getting there."
Apparently, James Stevenson was a relative of the hardware dealers and was able to interview the principal eyewitnesses during a trip home to McKean County.
But there's another interesting Fortean link here. The coal mine in question is within 10 miles (16 kilometers) of the town of Lafayette, Pennsylvania. The Fayette Factor, anyone? (See the book The Unexplained: A Sourcebook of Strange Phenomena by William R. Corliss, Bantam Books, New York, N.Y., 1976, pages 280 to 282. See also Science 8: 279-280 for September 24, 1886, "A Mummified Frog" by W.R. Schufeldt.)
©2005-07 UFO Roundup
Modern Day Hyla versicolor (Gray Tree Frog)
Though this sounds like a bizarre story there is actually a plausible explanation. See the story below about a recent discovery made in a Hungarian coal field:
Rare fossilized cypress trees found in Hungary
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered a group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from 8 million years ago which could provide clues about the climate of pre-historic times.
Instead of petrifying -- turning to stone -- the wood of 16 Taxodium trees was preserved in an open-cast coal mine allowing geologists to study samples as if they were sections cut from a piece of living wood.
"The importance of the findings is that so many trees got preserved in their original position in one place," Alfred Dulai, geologist at the Hungarian Natural History Museum said.
"But the real rarity about these trees is that ... their original wood got preserved ... they did not turn into stone."
The trees, which stand 4-6 meters tall and 1.5-3 meters in diameter, were found when miners started to remove a deep layer of sand at a mine in the north-eastern village of Bukkabrany to get at deposits of lignite.
The trees date back to the late Miocene geological period at a time when the Carpathian basin -- present day Hungary -- was a freshwater lake surrounded by swamps.
The trees were found on top of the lignite, capturing one of the last moments of these swamps, Dulai said.
©2007 Reuters
This story has sparked our interest in the all but forgotten coal fields of Lafayette Township. We will be posting a section on that topic soon!
©2007 MBPS
