The Carnivorous Cloud

One of Florida's biggest Fortean legends tells of a pink cloud that allegedly would appear, floating low to the ground, along the Tomoka River west of Daytona between 1955 and 1966.

But what do we really have here? A number of fishermen and hunters reported a pink haze filling the woods, that much we have for sure. But somewhere along the way the story has grown to say that the cloud eats people's flesh and leaves nothing but the bones. The evidence for this is given by way of anecdotes about human bones being found in those same woods. Is there a chain of evidence linking these bones with the cloud? Nope. And are those reports of bones even real? I did some looking into old newspapers from the period and could find no news article mentioning such a thing.

I did find a story from 2007 in which multiple human remains were indeed discovered in the Tomoka area, but I don't think a pink cloud would have put the bodies in garbage bags, as they were found.

I also found a letter to the editor from 1982 about Native American bones of the Timicuan tribe being found around Tomoka. Very interesting stuff, but again, this is of no help.

I'm filing the carnivorous pink cloud in the baloney basket, right next to the invisible pink unicorn, until a reason not to appears.