UFO Sightings and Crashes of the 1800s in America

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UFO Sightings and Crashes of the 1800s in America
March 23, 2008
by Cristina Aguilar
Socyberty

For decades, these UFO sightings have been explained away as meteors or other things. But what is interesting that before the Wright brothers launched an airplane, flying crafts were already visible in the skies. None of these crafts could really be explained away as weather balloons or meteorites, to witnesses of the 1800s the crafts were not from this earth.

The Wright Brothers may have been the first to put an machine into the sky, but people had been looking up at flying aircraft for decades before the brothers launched the first airplane.

Reports of UFOs were recorded in newspapers of the 19th century, among the most famous was written in the St. Louis Democrat, Oct. 19, 1865. That article appeared two weeks later in The Cincinnati Commercial, bringing more public awareness to UFOs. The account was of an old Montana fir trapper by the name of James Lumley who saw a UFO fly over him and crash into the forest, exploding like a rocket. The story picked up by the Missouri Democrat and other newspapers, which contributed to national attention or awareness of alien spacecraft.

Most fur trappers may tell tales of Indians, or bears, or mountain lions, but Lumley's account of a flying saucer that crashed into Cadotte Pass was among the most explicit and remains a mystery to this day. It is said that debris from the crash may still be up there, but few there has been no findings since. Nevertheless the story has remained one of the most mysterious of the 1800s.

Lumley was about 175 miles above the Upper Missouri in Great Falls Montana. He was on his way back to his camp site when he saw a "bright luminous body in the heavens." It went rapidly into an eastern direction and was plainly visible for about five seconds. As it flew Lumley saw it burst into an explosion in the sky and he later heard an explosion. It was shortly followed by a strong wind through the forest like a tornado, and the event left the air smelling like sulfur.

The next day, after walking two miles, he saw a path "several rods wide" made through the forest. He followed the path and discovered an object or rather a stone on the side of the mountain. What was unusual about this stone is that it had strange hieroglyphics and glass in it. Lumley felt the fragment he had found had come from an immense body and that the hieroglyphics must have been used for some purpose and made by human hands.

In April of 1897, people in five Midwestern states reported various accounts of an oblong shape in the sky. The accounts were reported from April 5th to April 19th.

The first recorded sighting was in Omaha Nebraska where more than 100 people witnessed the appearance of a flying object more than 12 feet long. It was shiny and made of steel. The object became so luminous that the brightness awoke people from their sleep.

People in Sioux City, Iowa saw another cigar-shaped craft just a few days later. It was also seen in Cedar Rapids and Burlington and described as a mysterious object with a glaring headlight of some kind and a shiny steel haul, gliding with a hissing sound.

Eyewitnesses in Chicago and Mount Carroll Illinois reported seeing an elongated object with flashing or rotating red and green lights on April 10. Hundreds of people throughout Illinois saw an aircraft hovering about 500 ft in the air and leaving at tremendous speeds. The craft had one bright light in addition to the red and green flashing lights. A Chicago newsstand dealer, Walter McCann was said to have taken two photos of the object at the time, but copies of these photos have not been made public in a very long time. They may still be in a file tucked away in Washington, or so the conspiracy theorists believe.

Later, that same night the people in Wausau Wisconsin looked up to see and egg-shaped craft hovering over city hall in Milwaukee. Thousands of awestruck spectators stood watching the craft as its lights moved back and forth.

On the next night, the same craft or one similar in description was seen in Minnesota and later in Indiana. By April 19, the craft appeared in Cochranville, Ohio and later traveled on to other areas, unknown. All accounts were similar throughout all five states with thousands of witnesses.

One of the most famous of all UFO sightings and crashes in the late 1800s was recorded in Aurora, Texas.


Although no evidence has been found to substantiate the story, the local newspaper account reads as follows: "About 6 o'clock this morning, the early risers of Aurora were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship which has been sailing around the country. It was traveling due north and much nearer the earth than before. Evidently some of the machinery was out of order, for it was making a speed of only 10 to 12 miles per hour and gradually settled toward the earth."

The craft later crashed into a windmill, bursting into pieces. Some of the material recovered by townspeople revealed material sketched with a type of hieroglyphic.

United Press International, which is now defunct, then picked up the story and it spread throughout the borders of Texas. There were a number of eyewitnesses who all agreed on the basic facts: An unknown craft crashed into the town, and strange debris was found along with a "being not of this world was found in the wreckage."

The townspeople of Aurora discovered the remains of the pilot, or rather extraterrestrial along with the strange debris and gave the creature a "proper burial," respect was due to him as well since he resembled a small man, or humanoid to the town folk. The alien body has long disappeared along with the gravestone after military personnel came to Aurora to "investigate" the incident. The story was so famous it was later made into a movie: The Aurora Encounter" in 1986 starring Jack Elam. The incident is still being studied today.

The Denison Daily News of Denison Texas reported another famous sighting in 1878, when a farmer, John Martin saw a spacecraft. He was later credited for being one of the first to use the term "flying saucer." Martin described the flying saucer as a dark object he saw in the sky. The object moved close to him the whole time he watched.

For decades, these UFO sightings have been explained away as meteors or other things. But what is interesting that before the Wright brothers launched an airplane, flying crafts were already visible in the skies. None of these crafts could really be explained away as weather balloons or meteorites, to witnesses of the 1800s the crafts were not from this earth.