THE TACONIC CHICKEN LIZARD

The Taconic Chicken Lizard once roamed the forsests in the mountains between the Hudson River Valley of New York and the Connecticut River Valley of Massachusetts.What little is known about this two legged reptillian has been garnered from local legend and crude drawings. A hold over from some prehistoric era gone by it apparently missed the extinction boat and managed to survive into the early seventeenth century.

The Nonotuck Indians called the beast "Ko Chawk". It is said to have run faster than the wind itself and that it could carry off children in its powerful jaws. Legend has it that Ko Chawk could disembowel a grown man with one slice of its fearsome leg spikes. Many a Mohawk war party turned back after encountering the beast which caused the Nonotucks to hold Ko Chawk in great regard.

Their only known natural enemy is believed to have been the even more deadly Berkshire Mountain Monkey.

Pictured is a life-size model of the Chicken Lizard based on drawings by Nathan Hannum, an early settler to the region. They were found in the last entry of his diary. The diary was found in his ransacked cabin still clutched in his severed hand. Along side the sketches these final words were scrawled, "Lord be with me. The great lizard beast is at my door."