Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2013 6:08:50 GMT 1
1897 UFO Crash in Aurora, Texas
Hello All,
There's a story that's gone around ufology circles for years, over a century to be exact. It's a rather interesting tale about a supposed UFO that crashed in Aurora, Texas back in 1897. It was described as a "mystery airship" and there was a write up in the local paper covering the details of the incident:
One intriguing aspect in the newspaper article is the line that says th airship finally came close enough to earth. It gave the impression that several sightings may have preceded the event in the narration. There is some rich background here and thought it would be a fun read.
From Wikipedia:
"The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident is a UFO incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, a small town in the northwest corner of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) reportedly resulted in a fatality from the crash. The alleged alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local cemetery
During the 1896–1897 timeframe (some six or seven years before the Wright Brothers' first flight), numerous sightings of a cigar-shaped mystery airship were reported across the United States.
One of these accounts appeared in the April 19, 1897, edition of the Dallas Morning News. Written by Aurora resident S.E. Haydon, the alleged UFO is said to have hit a windmill on the property of a Judge J.S. Proctor two days earlier at around 6am local (Central) time, resulting in its crash. The pilot (who was reported to be "not of this world", and a "Martian" according to a reported Army officer from nearby Fort Worth) did not survive the crash, and was buried "with Christian rites" at the nearby Aurora Cemetery. (The cemetery contains a Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident.)
Reportedly, wreckage from the crash site was dumped into a nearby well located under the damaged windmill, while some ended up with the alien in the grave. Adding to the mystery was the story of Mr. Brawley Oates, who purchased Judge Proctor's property around 1945. Oates cleaned out the debris from the well in order to use it as a water source, but later developed an extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed to be the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. As a result, Oates sealed up the well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding atop the slab. (According to writing on the slab, this was done in 1957.)
Hoax theory:
The hoax theory is primarily based on historical research performed by Barbara Brammer, a former mayor of Aurora. Her research (featured as part of the UFO Files episode on the incident) revealed that, in the months prior to the alleged crash, Aurora had been beset by a series of tragic incidents:
First, the local cotton crop (the major source of town revenue) was destroyed by a boll weevil infestation.
Second, a fire on the town's west side claimed several buildings and lives.
Shortly after the fire, a spotted fever epidemic hit the town, nearly wiping out the remaining citizens and placing the town under quarantine.
Finally, a planned railroad got within 27 miles of Aurora, but never made it into the town.
Essentially, Aurora (which claimed nearly 3,000 residents at the time) was in serious danger of dying out; Brammer's research also showed that Haydon was known in the town to be a bit of a jokester, and her conclusion is that Haydon's article was a last-ditch attempt to keep Aurora alive.
The theory was further supported by the fact that Haydon never performed any sort of follow-up on the story, not even to report on the alien's burial, which is highly unusual given the significance of the event.
Further, in 1979, Time magazine interviewed Etta Pegues who claimed that Haydon had fabricated the entire story, stating that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora. The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying."[3] Pegues further claimed that Judge Proctor never operated a windmill on his property, a statement later refuted as part of the UFO Hunters episode.
Investigations:
The incident has been investigated on numerous occasions. One was broadcast by local television station KDFW FOX 4 and two were aired on cable television,.
KDFW Report:
In 1998, Dallas-based TV station KDFW aired a lengthy report about the Aurora incident. Reporter Richard Ray interviewed former Fort Worth Star Telegram reporter Jim Marrs and other locals, who said something crashed in Aurora. However, Ray's report was unable to find conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial life or technology. Ray reported that the State of Texas erected a historical plaque in town that outlines the tale and labels it "legend."
UFO Files investigation:
On December 2, 2005, UFO Files first aired an episode related to this incident, titled "Texas' Roswell". The episode featured a 1973 investigation led by Bill Case, an aviation writer for the Dallas Times Herald and the Texas state director of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
MUFON uncovered two new eyewitnesses to the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the time, told of how her parents went to the crash site (they forbade her from going) and the discovery of the alien body. Charlie Stephens, who was age 10, told how he saw the airship trailing smoke as it headed north toward Aurora. He wanted to see what happened, but his father made him finish his chores; later, he told how his father went to town the next day and saw wreckage from the crash.
MUFON then investigated the Aurora Cemetery, and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort, as well as readings from its metal detector. MUFON asked for permission to exhume the site, but the cemetery association declined permission. After the MUFON investigation, the marker mysteriously disappeared from the cemetery and a three-inch pipe was placed into the ground; MUFON's metal detector no longer picked up metal readings from the grave, thus it was presumed that the metal was removed from the grave.
MUFON's report eventually stated that the evidence was inconclusive, but did not rule out the possibility of a hoax. The episode featured an interview with Mayor Brammer who discussed the town's tragic history.
UFO Hunters investigation:
On November 19, 2008, UFO Hunters first aired another television documentary regarding the Aurora incident, titled "First Contact":
The documentary featured one notable change from the UFO Files story – Tim Oates, nephew of Brawley Oates and the now-owner of the property with the sealed well where the UFO wreckage was purportedly buried, allowed the investigators to unseal the well, in order to examine it for possible debris. Water was taken from the well which tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum present; the well had no significant contents. It was stated in the episode that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a past owner of the property. Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near the well site, which refuted Ms. Pegues' statements (from the 1979 Time magazine article) that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on his property.
In addition, the Aurora Cemetery was again examined. Although the cemetery association still did not permit exhumation, using ground-penetrating radar and photos from prior visits, an unmarked grave was found in the area near other 1890s graves. However, the condition of the grave was badly deteriorated, and the radar could not conclusively prove what type of remains existed."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora,_Texas,_UFO_incident
As an added bonus to the story:
Also from Wikipedia:
"Mystery airships or phantom airships are a class of unidentified flying objects best known from a series of newspaper reports originating in the western United States and spreading east during 1896 and 1897. According to researcher Jerome Clark, airship reports were made worldwide from the 1880s to 1890s. Mystery airship reports are seen as a cultural predecessor to modern extraterrestrial-piloted flying saucer-style UFO claims. Typical airship reports involved unidentified lights, but more detailed accounts reported ships comparable to a dirigible. Reports of the alleged crewmen and pilots usually described them as human looking, although sometimes the crew claimed to be from Mars. It was popularly believed that the mystery airships were the product of some genius inventor not ready to make knowledge of his creation public. Thomas Edison was so widely speculated to be the mind behind the alleged airships that in 1897 he "was forced to issue a strongly worded statement" denying his responsibility.
Mystery airships are unlikely to represent test flights of real human-manufactured dirigibles as no record of successful airship flights are known from the period and "it would have been impossible, not to mention irrational, to keep such a thing secret." Contemporary American newspapers were more likely to print manufactured stories and hoaxes than modern ones are and newspapers often would have expected the reader to be in on the fact that the outlandish stories were hoaxes. Period journalists did not seem to take airship reports very seriously, as after the major 1896-1897 flap concluded the subject was not given further investigation. Instead, it was allowed to very quickly drop off the cultural radar. The subject only received further attention when ufologists revived studies of the airship reports as alleged early UFO sightings.
The 1896-1897 wave:
The best-known of the Mystery Airship waves began in California in 1896. Afterwards, reports and accounts of similar airships came from others areas, generally moving east. Some accounts during this wave of airship reports claim that occupants were visible on some airships, and encounters with the pilots were reported as well. These occupants often appeared to be human, though their behaviour, mannerisms and clothing were sometimes reported to be unusual. Sometimes the apparent humans claimed to be from the planet Mars.
Historian Mike Dash described and summarized the 1896-1897 series of airship sightings, writing:
"Not only were [the Mystery Airships] bigger, faster and more robust than anything then produced by the aviators of the world; they seemed to be able to fly enormous distances, and some were equipped with giant wings ... The 1896-1897 airship wave is probably the best investigated of all historical anomalies. The files of almost 1500 newspapers from across the United States have been combed for reports, an astonishing feat of research. The general conclusion of investigators was that a considerable number of the simpler sightings were misidentification of planets and stars, and a large number of the more complex the result of hoaxes and practical jokes. A small residuum remains perplexing."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_airship
Hello All,
There's a story that's gone around ufology circles for years, over a century to be exact. It's a rather interesting tale about a supposed UFO that crashed in Aurora, Texas back in 1897. It was described as a "mystery airship" and there was a write up in the local paper covering the details of the incident:
One intriguing aspect in the newspaper article is the line that says th airship finally came close enough to earth. It gave the impression that several sightings may have preceded the event in the narration. There is some rich background here and thought it would be a fun read.
From Wikipedia:
"The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident is a UFO incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, in Aurora, Texas, a small town in the northwest corner of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) reportedly resulted in a fatality from the crash. The alleged alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local cemetery
During the 1896–1897 timeframe (some six or seven years before the Wright Brothers' first flight), numerous sightings of a cigar-shaped mystery airship were reported across the United States.
One of these accounts appeared in the April 19, 1897, edition of the Dallas Morning News. Written by Aurora resident S.E. Haydon, the alleged UFO is said to have hit a windmill on the property of a Judge J.S. Proctor two days earlier at around 6am local (Central) time, resulting in its crash. The pilot (who was reported to be "not of this world", and a "Martian" according to a reported Army officer from nearby Fort Worth) did not survive the crash, and was buried "with Christian rites" at the nearby Aurora Cemetery. (The cemetery contains a Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident.)
Reportedly, wreckage from the crash site was dumped into a nearby well located under the damaged windmill, while some ended up with the alien in the grave. Adding to the mystery was the story of Mr. Brawley Oates, who purchased Judge Proctor's property around 1945. Oates cleaned out the debris from the well in order to use it as a water source, but later developed an extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed to be the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. As a result, Oates sealed up the well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding atop the slab. (According to writing on the slab, this was done in 1957.)
Hoax theory:
The hoax theory is primarily based on historical research performed by Barbara Brammer, a former mayor of Aurora. Her research (featured as part of the UFO Files episode on the incident) revealed that, in the months prior to the alleged crash, Aurora had been beset by a series of tragic incidents:
First, the local cotton crop (the major source of town revenue) was destroyed by a boll weevil infestation.
Second, a fire on the town's west side claimed several buildings and lives.
Shortly after the fire, a spotted fever epidemic hit the town, nearly wiping out the remaining citizens and placing the town under quarantine.
Finally, a planned railroad got within 27 miles of Aurora, but never made it into the town.
Essentially, Aurora (which claimed nearly 3,000 residents at the time) was in serious danger of dying out; Brammer's research also showed that Haydon was known in the town to be a bit of a jokester, and her conclusion is that Haydon's article was a last-ditch attempt to keep Aurora alive.
The theory was further supported by the fact that Haydon never performed any sort of follow-up on the story, not even to report on the alien's burial, which is highly unusual given the significance of the event.
Further, in 1979, Time magazine interviewed Etta Pegues who claimed that Haydon had fabricated the entire story, stating that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora. The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying."[3] Pegues further claimed that Judge Proctor never operated a windmill on his property, a statement later refuted as part of the UFO Hunters episode.
Investigations:
The incident has been investigated on numerous occasions. One was broadcast by local television station KDFW FOX 4 and two were aired on cable television,.
KDFW Report:
In 1998, Dallas-based TV station KDFW aired a lengthy report about the Aurora incident. Reporter Richard Ray interviewed former Fort Worth Star Telegram reporter Jim Marrs and other locals, who said something crashed in Aurora. However, Ray's report was unable to find conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial life or technology. Ray reported that the State of Texas erected a historical plaque in town that outlines the tale and labels it "legend."
UFO Files investigation:
On December 2, 2005, UFO Files first aired an episode related to this incident, titled "Texas' Roswell". The episode featured a 1973 investigation led by Bill Case, an aviation writer for the Dallas Times Herald and the Texas state director of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
MUFON uncovered two new eyewitnesses to the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the time, told of how her parents went to the crash site (they forbade her from going) and the discovery of the alien body. Charlie Stephens, who was age 10, told how he saw the airship trailing smoke as it headed north toward Aurora. He wanted to see what happened, but his father made him finish his chores; later, he told how his father went to town the next day and saw wreckage from the crash.
MUFON then investigated the Aurora Cemetery, and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort, as well as readings from its metal detector. MUFON asked for permission to exhume the site, but the cemetery association declined permission. After the MUFON investigation, the marker mysteriously disappeared from the cemetery and a three-inch pipe was placed into the ground; MUFON's metal detector no longer picked up metal readings from the grave, thus it was presumed that the metal was removed from the grave.
MUFON's report eventually stated that the evidence was inconclusive, but did not rule out the possibility of a hoax. The episode featured an interview with Mayor Brammer who discussed the town's tragic history.
UFO Hunters investigation:
On November 19, 2008, UFO Hunters first aired another television documentary regarding the Aurora incident, titled "First Contact":
The documentary featured one notable change from the UFO Files story – Tim Oates, nephew of Brawley Oates and the now-owner of the property with the sealed well where the UFO wreckage was purportedly buried, allowed the investigators to unseal the well, in order to examine it for possible debris. Water was taken from the well which tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum present; the well had no significant contents. It was stated in the episode that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a past owner of the property. Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near the well site, which refuted Ms. Pegues' statements (from the 1979 Time magazine article) that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on his property.
In addition, the Aurora Cemetery was again examined. Although the cemetery association still did not permit exhumation, using ground-penetrating radar and photos from prior visits, an unmarked grave was found in the area near other 1890s graves. However, the condition of the grave was badly deteriorated, and the radar could not conclusively prove what type of remains existed."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora,_Texas,_UFO_incident
As an added bonus to the story:
Also from Wikipedia:
"Mystery airships or phantom airships are a class of unidentified flying objects best known from a series of newspaper reports originating in the western United States and spreading east during 1896 and 1897. According to researcher Jerome Clark, airship reports were made worldwide from the 1880s to 1890s. Mystery airship reports are seen as a cultural predecessor to modern extraterrestrial-piloted flying saucer-style UFO claims. Typical airship reports involved unidentified lights, but more detailed accounts reported ships comparable to a dirigible. Reports of the alleged crewmen and pilots usually described them as human looking, although sometimes the crew claimed to be from Mars. It was popularly believed that the mystery airships were the product of some genius inventor not ready to make knowledge of his creation public. Thomas Edison was so widely speculated to be the mind behind the alleged airships that in 1897 he "was forced to issue a strongly worded statement" denying his responsibility.
Mystery airships are unlikely to represent test flights of real human-manufactured dirigibles as no record of successful airship flights are known from the period and "it would have been impossible, not to mention irrational, to keep such a thing secret." Contemporary American newspapers were more likely to print manufactured stories and hoaxes than modern ones are and newspapers often would have expected the reader to be in on the fact that the outlandish stories were hoaxes. Period journalists did not seem to take airship reports very seriously, as after the major 1896-1897 flap concluded the subject was not given further investigation. Instead, it was allowed to very quickly drop off the cultural radar. The subject only received further attention when ufologists revived studies of the airship reports as alleged early UFO sightings.
The 1896-1897 wave:
The best-known of the Mystery Airship waves began in California in 1896. Afterwards, reports and accounts of similar airships came from others areas, generally moving east. Some accounts during this wave of airship reports claim that occupants were visible on some airships, and encounters with the pilots were reported as well. These occupants often appeared to be human, though their behaviour, mannerisms and clothing were sometimes reported to be unusual. Sometimes the apparent humans claimed to be from the planet Mars.
Historian Mike Dash described and summarized the 1896-1897 series of airship sightings, writing:
"Not only were [the Mystery Airships] bigger, faster and more robust than anything then produced by the aviators of the world; they seemed to be able to fly enormous distances, and some were equipped with giant wings ... The 1896-1897 airship wave is probably the best investigated of all historical anomalies. The files of almost 1500 newspapers from across the United States have been combed for reports, an astonishing feat of research. The general conclusion of investigators was that a considerable number of the simpler sightings were misidentification of planets and stars, and a large number of the more complex the result of hoaxes and practical jokes. A small residuum remains perplexing."
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_airship