The Great 'Chicken Hunt' Hoax Exposed
A reported runaway incident during a chicken hunt near Eureka Flat turned out to be a manufactured prank on a local reporter.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A thrilling runaway that J. C. Scott, Thomas Drumheller and R. E. Allen were reported to have had while on a chicken hunt in the Eureka flat country last Sunday and which was given some prominence in the Statesman, proves to have been a good deal of a canard, the story having been manufactured by friends of the three gentlemen and given to a reporter for the Statesman as a joke. As some ill feeling has been engendered by the publication of the story, the Statesman hastens to correct the story in so far as the runaway is concerned, though as to the purchase of the chickens obtained from a farmer's boy, nothing is to be said.
“The story having been manufactured by friends of the three gentlemen and given to a reporter for the Statesman as a joke.”
This event captures the era's 'tall tale' culture, where local figures would feed fabricated stories to newspaper reporters for sport. It highlights the friction between the era's competitive journalism and the prank-filled social life of prominent residents.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.