1880: Lamy, New Mexico Encounter

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THINK ABOUTIT UFO|ENTITY SIGHTING REPORT

Date: March 26, 1880

Sighting Time: 19:00

Day/Night:

Location: Lamy, New Mexico

Urban or Rural: –

Entity Type: 8 – 10 Human types

Entity Description:

Hynek Classification: CE-III (Close Encounter III) Close observation with animate beings associated with the object.

Duration:

No. of Object(s): 8 to 10

Size of Object(s): “monstrous” size

Distance to Object(s):

Shape of Object(s): balloon, or “Aerial Monster”,  fish-shaped, propelled and directed by a fan

Color of Object(s):

Number of Witnesses: 3 or 4

Source: Mystery Airships of the 1800s, Jacques Vallee “Passport to Magonia.” #6, FSR 65, 3

Summary/Description: The newspaper Santa Fe Weekly New Mexican, of Santa Fe, New Mexico, for March 29, 1880, headlined that a mysterious aerial phenomenon appeared at Galisteo Junction. Three or four people apparently reported that a balloon of “monstrous” size, fish-shaped, propelled and directed by a fan, probably from Asia, was visible overhead, and that there were 8 to 10 people on board, normal human beings, singing and talking in a foreign language, and music, as if there was some party. After a while, it rose up and departed to the east at fast speed. Elegantly-drawn characters were discerned on the outside of the balloon, but not understood and thus the newspaper speculated that it must have been an airship from Asia.

Moreover, allegedly, people on board the balloon’s car tossed out stuff that was picked up by the alleged witnesses. Apparently, the stuff was a beautiful flower with some silk-like paper with characters which reminded the witnesses of designs they had seen on Japanese tea chests.

The next morning, a cup was also found. The witnesses had seen it thrown out of the balloon but failed to locate in the darkness. The newspaper reported the cup to be of very peculiar workmanship, entirely different from anything used in the United States. The items were allegedly put on display.

A week later, the same newspaper reported that the mystery is solved: the balloon, or “Aerial Monster”, was the first of a regular line of airships from China to America. A party of tourists which included a wealthy young Chinaman had stopped in the vicinity. The young man was excited about seeing the articles dropped from the airship and on display at the station because among them was a note in his fiancée’s hand. He, of course, could read it and thus he explained that Chinese experiments in flying had succeeded and the airship which crossed the skies of Galisteo Junction was actually the first flight of China-to-America airlines. That claimed had already been made previously in the US newspaper.

In the sixties, ufologists found about the newspapers articles and their nonsensical claims, and quite generally unaware of the sensationalistic claims so usual in the press of the time, called the story almost anything from secret US inventors revolutionary secret blimps to alien UFO landing to paranormal intervention and the so-called wealthy young China man who bought the flower and the teacup was even considered as one of these “Men-in-Black” from some other realm of reality who are supposedly engaged in the “confiscation of the hard evidence for UFOs”.