The media furor that resulted from the reported sighting of a live plesiosaur in Patagonia in early 1922 led to a massive coverage of the expedition sent to hunt it.
Of course, the creature didn't exist (at least not as a gigantic reptile), and the party sent to capture it returned to Buenos Aires empty handed.
But a local tycoon, Don Primo Modesto Capraro (1873-1932), who had migrated from Belluno, Italy, to Argentina and settled in Bariloche, decided to have some fun with the episode.
For the 1923 carnival parade in Bariloche he built a float in the shape of a plesiosaur, using a wooden frame covered with painted burpap. He mounted the enormous structure on a truck and paraded down Mitre Street to the amusement of the locals. Capraro rode on a horse, dressed as the gaucho Martín Fierro, heading the parade. A group of people wearing costumes parodying the expedition members marched beside the float.
He promoted the parade with a mocking telegram sent to the media on February 19, 2023 that announced: "The plesiosaur was finally captured. Since yesterday it is blocked so it can't escape from the Bariloche beach. It was caught thanks to the "dry law" [prohibition of alcohol."
The animal's neck and tail were mobile, thanks to an internal mechanism in the float. The neck had stood upwards but was lowered so that it could pass under the lighting cables that crossed the street.
Capraro had made a fortune with his sawmill and had built most of the buildings in Bariloche. But the Great Depression of 1930 left him bankrupt. He committed sucide in 1932.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
Very interesting post…!!. Indeed , media´s reaction to this expedition was absolutely pintoresque...At this respect, a nice article I have read some years ago, written by local paleontologists; “ El Monstruo, el Noble, el Sheriff y la curiosa historia de una expedición a los lagos del Sur” (Tonni, Bond, Pasquali, 2003), describes the interesting (and also bizarre…) details of this expedition…among others, how was it conceived, which were the real goals of its organizer; Clemente Onelli (at that time, director of the Buenos Aires Zoo)…and the clever strategy implemented by him to incentivate donors in order to get all the funds needed to carry it out…
ReplyDeletePerhaps you have it… but just in case, I will send you a pdf of it to your email.
Best regards
Marcelo