It was a front page story - above the fold - in 1928.
Good Sized Elephant Seen Along
Coudersport Pike by Two Reputable People
Potter County is famous in more ways than one. New York farmers come here to learn of potato-raising – how to produce 400 or 500 bushels an acre; thousands come here each year to see ice that forms on the hottest summer days; great numbers of the Masonic fraternity come to the reunions of Coudersport Consistory where the Scottish Rite degrees are conferred up to and including the 32nd; the county is famous for its 700 miles of uncontaminated trout streams; a big crop of deer is raised here each year and it is claimed there are more brown nosed black bears in Potter County than in any other county in the United States.
Now comes the strange part of our story. An elephant was seen on the Coudersport Pike last Saturday afternoon by two reputable citizens – a least one of them was reputable. Dr. Carl H. Dudley, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, and W.D. Fish of the Enterprise were returning from a motor trip through the southern part of the state, Maryland and West Virginia, when shortly after having run over a rattlesnake in the road, the pachyderm was seen just at the edge of the woodland and contently browsing.
For fear the story would be given no credence the newspaper man took a camera shot at the beast which is here reproduced.
When this story was related at a meeting of the Coudersport Rotary Club Monday, there was a united cry of "what had you fellas been drinking?" but the Enterprise hastens to assure readers that the men were sane, sober, fully clothed and in their right minds.
Of course there is a short sequel to the tale – the rattlesnake had been killed and laid across the highway track in a lifelike position and the pachyderm was the property of a small circus that had a broken truck and was awaiting assistance from a garage.
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