Wild turkeys are big, ungainly birds, and may not win many beauty contests, but they’ve played a surprisingly important role in our history.

Native Americans, for example, win accolades for domesticating the turkey, a bird that’s common throughout most of North America, except Alaska. They also used turkey feathers to make their hunting arrows.

But the Spanish, who colonized Florida, Mexico and California in the early 1500s, are credited with introducing this “meaty, tasty” bird to the Europeans, who were already dining on such delicacies as storks, herons and bustards. Roast turkey quickly became a smash hit.

The bird allegedly gets its English name from Turkey, a country that had ancient trade routes, which the bird passed through to reach key European markets and beyond.

In 1776, after adopting the Declaration of Independence, the fledgling Continental Congress asked Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to create a national emblem.

Franklin, contrary to popular opinion, did not propose the wild turkey for the national symbol. Instead, according to Franklin’s own notes, he suggested a biblical image of “Moses standing on the shore, extending his hand over the sea, thereby causing the same to overwhelm the pharaoh, who is sitting in an open chariot,” with the following motto: “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”

Congress was not impressed. Six years later, they adopted the bald eagle as the country’s national symbol.

However, Franklin did have a bone to pick with bald eagles, and the incident may have been the genesis for the myth surrounding our famous statesman and turkeys, according to History.com.

On Jan. 26, 1784, Franklin privately wrote his daughter, Sarah, blasting the Society of Cincinnati, an organization of American Revolutionary War veterans, for choosing to put the bald eagle on their medal of honor.

Franklin spared no words, writing the eagle had a “bad moral character, doesn’t earn his living honestly,” steals food from other birds, and is “too lazy to fish for himself.”

The turkey was a far more respectable choice for the medal, Franklin argued, calling the bird “a true original native of America that would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”

Franklin apparently kept his acerbic thoughts to himself and his daughter, but over time, people have a way of ferreting out hidden foot notes like these and blurring them.

One hundred years later, during the country’s Centennial celebration, several American newspapers began circulating a back story that Franklin proposed the wild turkey for our national symbol, instigating the myth, according to History.com.

Finally, let’s not forget Thanksgiving.In 1863, the wild turkey gained traction as a standard table fare, when Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.

No matter what people think, the wild turkey is an extraordinary animal.

I’ll close with some startling facts. Adult wild turkeys stand 40 inches tall and weigh an average of 17 pounds.

Have you ever noticed how quick they can move? Wild turkeys can run 25 mph through the forest.

Sensing danger, turkeys can burst through underbrush with their short, stout wings, flying up to 55 mph, scaring the living daylights out of you, if you’re anywhere near them when they flush.

If you know or have heard of any fun or unusual animal stories, please write me, and I will gladly share these stories or photos in future columns.

Bill Hobbs is a resident of Stonington and a life-long wildlife enthusiast. For comments, he can be reached at whobbs246@gmail.com.