Five landmark cases from the 1896–1899 Great Airship Wave: Oakland California streetcar mass sighting (November 2, 1896), Alexander Hamilton's sworn cattle-abduction affidavit, Leroy Kansas (April 19, 1897), the Merkel Texas rope-descending occupant (April 25, 1897), the Aurora Texas crash and recovery (April 17, 1897), and the San Francisco mass sighting witnessed by three senior state officials (November 26, 1896).
1896 – 1899:UFO|UAP & ENTITY SIGHTINGS ARCHIVE
The years 1896 through 1899 are where the anomalous record becomes mass media. For the first time in history, a UFO wave was captured in real time by a modern newspaper infrastructure — wire services, daily editions, correspondent networks, named witnesses with verifiable social positions. The Great Airship Wave of 1896–1897 produced hundreds of documented sightings stretching from California to Kansas to Illinois to Texas to Arkansas, filed by state attorneys, deputy secretaries of state, railroad engineers, physicians with telescopes, and farmers with sworn affidavits. The Oakland streetcar passengers who saw the winged cigar in November 1896 were not isolated backwoods witnesses — they were urban Californians in a city of 48,000, and their accounts ran in the San Francisco Call the next morning. When the wave reached the Midwest in the spring of 1897, it produced some of the most detailed craft-and-occupant reports in the archive: a cigar 300 feet long hovering over a Kansas cattle farm, its six occupants visible through lighted windows, dragging away a heifer on a red cable — the account accompanied by a sworn affidavit signed by ten prominent local citizens.
The 1896–1899 archive is also the era of the first confirmed American airship crash with recovered bodies, the first documented animal mutilation with an aerial vehicle implicated, the first cases in which occupants explicitly engaged witnesses in conversation and made repairs to their craft in front of eyewitnesses, and the first global phantom airship wave — South Africa in 1899, Canada in 1897, Spain in 1898, England projected for 1909. The phenomenon was already behaving like a civilization’s technology preview: always one step ahead of terrestrial aviation, arriving just before zeppelins were commercially deployed, operating with searchlights and propellers and pressurized compartments a full seven years before Kitty Hawk. The century ended with the record richer, more corroborated, and more operationally strange than at any previous point. Whatever it was, it had been patient for a very long time.
Date: September 18, 1896
Location: Sacramento, California
Time: 18:00–19:00
Summary: Several persons observe a large ball of fire like an electric light pass over the city moving southwesterly; visible for more than half an hour before disappearing into mist; multiple witnesses report hearing human voices and laughter coming from above — no balloon visible, only the light; one man in the suburbs hears a voice warning “the man at the helm” to go higher to avoid church steeples; widely reported in the Sacramento Record-Union, September 18, 1896, headline: “What Was It? An Apparition Wandering Through The Atmosphere. [Full Report]
Source: Sacramento Record-Union, September 18, 1896; compiled by Frank Warren
Date: November 1896
Location: Sacramento, California
Time: 18:00–19:00
Summary: A luminous object described as appearing like an electric arc lamp propelled by a mysterious force exits from the east and sails unevenly southwest, rising and falling as if controlled; hundreds of witnesses including Charles Lusk (Cashier, Central Electrical Street Railway Company) and street railway carmen observe it near East Park; carmen hear voices and music including the words “Well we ought to get to San Francisco by tomorrow noon”; Foreman Snyder confirms the object was not a star or meteor, moved against the wind, rose and fell with motor propulsion, and was seen to have a wheel rotating; reported in the Sacramento Evening Bee. Multiple named witnesses. [Full Report]
Source: Sacramento Evening Bee, November 1896; compiled by Frank Warren
Date: April 18 1896
Location: Visalia, California
Time: Daytime
Summary: disc was reported
Source : Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980 ISBN:0-313-21337-2
Date: Mid 1896
Location: Trenton N, Missouri
Time: Daytime
Summary: An object was observed from a car. One object, about 1 foot across, was observed in rainy weather on a railroad (Crotsenburg).
Source : Fort, Charles Book of the Damned Boni-Liveright, 1919
Date: Late August 1896
Location: Tamalpais Mtns, California
Time: Daytime
Summary: Close encounter with a an unidentified craft and its occupants. One object was observed by more than two witnesses in a forest (Jordan).
Source : Webb, David
Date: Fall 1896
Location: Hastings, Nebraska
Time: Unknown
Summary: Object floated above ground, 500 feet altitude. Stationary for 30 minutes, then circled about, flew to the north two miles, returned, “sank into oblivion.”
Source : Rife, Philip L. It Didn’t Start with Roswell Writers Club Press, Lincoln, 2001
Location: 1896-7
Summary: Great Airship Wave :
An amazing series of sightings, stretching from the East to the West coast of the U.S., occurred in 1896 and 1897. Many newspapers carried sightings of “airships” seen travelling through the air. These mechanical contraptions often shone spotlights on the ground and made lots of clanking and other noises as they moved through the sky. Speculation about the “airships” focused on a series of “inventors” who were testing these new craft and would soon be making them commercially available for the public. Some people claimed that the airships landed and that they met these “inventors.” Some airship pilots claimed to be from Mars; others insisted they were “from a place where it never rains.” Yet others claimed the airships were being built in rather mundane workshops on the East coast. Some witnesses protested that the airships were dropping ballast or cargo on them. (H.G. Wells wrote a short story about this time, Master of the Air , about a man named Robert L’Conqueror, who conquers the world through his secret lighter-than-air airship technology and various weapons.) Not surprisingly, shortly after the airship “wave,” the first terrestrial zeppelins and dirigibles began being built and used commercially, as if the UFO was always one step ahead of our own technology. There would be some repeat airship encounters during the so-called “Christmas Wave” of 1909-10, when airships with ‘searchlights’ were seen over New England.
One of the most curious episodes of the whole Airship wave – which, like many of the others, was thought to be a newspaper hoax – was a story of an airship which crashed into Judge Proctor’s windmill in Aurora, Illinois. A body of a small “martian” was said to be recovered and buried with some of the wreckage. In 1972, rumors were sparked anew as a man appeared and claimed to know the whereabouts of this wreckage. This man, a Frank Kelley of Corpus Christi, said he was a treasure hunter, and produced several pieces of metal found with his metal detector, which turned out to be mostly aluminum. No body was ever found by UFO investigators, and, like so many other weirdos in the UFO world, this guy with a fake address and phone number disappeared as abruptly as he turned up. Not unsurprisingly, in late 1972 the U.S. was already experiencing the beginnings of the massive UFO wave of ’73, which shattered post-Condon report complacency.
Date: November 2, 1896
Location: Oakland, California
Time: 21:15
Summary: A group of streetcar passengers in Oakland, California, saw a winged, cigar shaped UFO emitting a stream of brilliant light.
Source : Mystery airship seen over Oakland, California, in 1896, from San Francisco Call, November 1896
Date: November 25, 1896
Location: Lodi, California
Time: Unknown
Summary: Colonel H. G. Shaw and Camille Spooner, attempted abduction by three ETs and airship reported in newspapers of the day, One 6-foot-tall hairy being, wearing naked, was seen.
Source : Elegant Humanoid Pseudohomo concinnus (Elegant False Man)
Date: November 25, 1896
Location: Stockton, California Lodi???
Time: Unknown
Summary: Abduction account from Colonel H.G. Shaw. This was apparently first reported and published in the Stockton, California Daily Mail in 1897. Colonel Shaw claimed that he and a friend were harassed by three tall, slender humanoids that were covered with a fine, downy hair covering their entire bodies. Colonel Shaw and his friend claimed to have been able to (after a struggle) battle off the alien abductors!
Source: California Daily Mail
Date: November 25, 1896
Location: Sacramento, California
Time: Night
Summary: On November 25, a mysterious light was seen moving rapidly from the Northeast and heading in a southwesterly direction. As it neared the southern boundary of the city of Sacramento it turned directly toward the west and after passing the city went south, being distinctly visible for upward of 20 minutes.
Source:
Date: November 26, 1896
Location: Lorin, California
Time: Night
Summary: On November 26, an airship that looked like a great black cigar with a fishlike tail neared Lorin tremendous speed. It turned quickly and disappeared in the direction of San Francisco. The body was at least 100 feet long and attached to it was a triangular tail, one apex being attached to the main body. The surface of the airship looked as if it were made of aluminum, which exposure to wind and weather had turned dark. At half past 8 we saw it again, when it took about the same direction and disappeared.”
Source: From the Oakland Tribune, Dec 1.
Date: November 26, 1896
Location: San Francisco, California
Time: Night
Summary: The great Airship Flap of 1897 actually started in late 1896 in San Francisco. Hundreds saw a large, cigar-shaped object, shining brilliant beams of light, and moving northwest passing over Oakland. Later reports came from other northern cities. A light was observed by many prominent individuals including Deputy Secretary of State George A. McCalvy, District Attorney Frank D. Ryan, and E. D. McCabe, the governor’s personal secretary.
Source: From the San Francisco Call, Nov 26.
Source : San Francisco Call.
Date: November 26, 1896
Location: Arolla, Switzerland near Zermatt (Swiss Alps)
Time: Unknown
Summary: Author Aleister Crowley was walking in the mountains when he suddenly saw two little men. He made a gesture to them, but they did not seem to pay attention and disappeared among the rocks.
Source: Magic Without Tears, by A. Crowley
Date: Nov 28,1896
Location: New York
Time: Unknown
Summary: Unknown
Source: Unknown
Date: 1897
Location: Canada, British Columbia:
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two Canadian fishermen in saw a pear-shaped craft flying southwards
Source: Unlisted
Date: 1897
Location: Homan, Arkansas
Time: Unknown
Summary: Capt. James Hooton was hunting in the vicinity of Homan when he heard the noise of a steam engine and found an object in a clearing. It looked like a cylinder with pointed ends, lateral wheels, and horizontal blade over it. Hooton spoke with a man who wore dark glasses and walked behind the craft. There were three or four occupants. The witness was told this was indeed “The Airship” and that it used compressed air for propulsion. Hooton saw the wheels spin as the craft rose and flew away.
Source:
Date: 1897
Location: McKinney Bayou, Arkansas
Time: Unknown
Judge Lawrence A.Byrne of Texarkana, Arkansas, was surveying a tract of land when he saw a peculiar object anchored on the ground. “It was manned by three men who spoke a foreign language, but judging from their looks one would take them to be Japs.”
Source:
Date: 1897
Location: Iowa
Time: Unknown
Summary: An abduction of a witness was reported. One object was observed by one male witness (Hibbard).
Source: FSR
Date: February 1 1897
Location: Hastings, Nebraska
Time: 21:30
Summary: A large glaring light circled for a few minutes in the sky over Hastings, Nebraska at 9:30 p.m. It then descended to an altitude of 200 feet, traveled at a remarkable speed, slowed, and again circled for 15 more minutes. Finally, it descended once more and disappeared mysteriously.
Source: Corliss, William R.
Date: March 3 to March 28, 1898
Location: Basque Country, Spain
Time: Night
Summary: the ‘El Anunciador Vitoriano’ newspaper published a series of news items about the ‘mysterious lights’, describing how the ‘simple peasants’ of Yurre, Antezana and Lopidana, close to Vitoria, were ‘concerned and even overwhelmed with fright by a mysterious light that appeared every night in the vicinity. Many residents of Vitoria visited the location nightly to catch a glimpse of the phenomenon. The newspaper reported that ‘a blood-colored luminous sphere would appear between Yurre and Lopidana at ground level, in the dark of night, making no perceptible sound, amid a distressing silence. The object gave off bright flashes, casting a sinister reddish glow against the tree trunks, the pavement of the road and all of the irregularities of the terrain. Smaller, paler light would break off from the light, wandering playfully through the air, or stopping on the tips of dry branches. ‘”The luminous sphere has been seen by many, as it can be seen in the far distance. It so happens that a millwright came upon it on the road, flying over his wagon and filling him with terror. A curious townswoman, it is said, opened her window for a better look at the light, and shut it hurriedly upon seeing it was coming toward her.”
Source: El Anunciador Vitoriano’ newspaper
Date: March 26, 1897
Location: Sioux City Iowa
Time: Unknown
Summary: Robert Hib- night bard was caught by an anchor dropped from an un- known flying machine 22 km north of the town. He was dragged over 10 m and fell as his clothes were torn.
Source: FSR 66, 4
Date: Mar. 28, 1897
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Time: 10:30 p.m.
Summary: The majority of the population 2230 observed an object arriving from the southeast. It looked like a huge light, flew northwestward slowly, came to low altitude. A crowd gathered at a street corner to watch it.
Source: Unlisted
Date: April 1897
Location: Winnipeg, Canada
Time: Unknown
Summary: A mysterious airship flew over Winnipeg, the capital of Canada’s Manitoba province, in full view of many citizens for a full fifteen minutes.” “The strange visitor” approached from the west, following the Assiniboine River. After passing over St. Boniface Hospital, the UFO veered sharply to the north and “was lost from view” as it flew toward the town of Stony Mountain.
Source: From the Vancouver, B.C. News-Advertiser, Saturday May 1.
Date: April 1897
Location: Moberly, Missouri
Time: Unknown
Summary: Crashed airship. An object was observed. Metallic traces found. One object was observed.
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980
Date: April 1897
Location: Bethany, Missouri
Time: Unknown
Summary: Farmer wrote letter to Missouri newspaper, claimed he saw airship crash into flagpole in town. Bodies of two occupants mangled beyond recognition. Close encounter with a an unidentified craft and its occupants. A crashed disc was reported.
Source: Rife, Philip L. It Didn’t Start with Roswell Writers Club Press, Lincoln, 2001
Date: April 1897
Location: Baltimore, Ohio
Time: After 2000
Summary: Animal reaction: horse showed signs of fear and distress. Object with brilliant white lights fore and aft descended into field, lit up countryside, whirring/hissing noise. two men spoke unknown language. Close encounter with a craft and its occupants which attempted to communicate with a witness. One object was observed. A whirring sound was heard. Two humanoids were seen.
Source: Eberhart, George M. A Geo-Bibliography of Anomalies Greenwood Press, Westport, 1980
Date: April 01, 1897
Location: Everest, Kansas
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Summary: The whole town saw an object fly 2100 under the cloud ceiling. It came down slowly, then flew away very fast to the southeast. When directly over the town it swept the ground with its powerful light. It was seen to rise up at fantastic speed until barely discernible, then to come down again and sweep low over the witnesses. At one point it remained stationary for 5 min at the edge of a low cloud, which it illuminated. All could clearly see the silhouette of the craft.
Source: FSR 66, 4
Date: April 12, 1897
Location: Nilwood, Illinois
Time: 2:30 p.m.
Summary: On the property of Z. Thacker, 19 1430 km north of Carlinville, an unknown object landed. Before the three witnesses could reach it, the craft, which was shaped like a cigar with a dome, rose slowly and left majestically toward the north.
Witnesses: Edward Teeples, William Street and Franklin Metcalf.
Source: Anatomy 12
Date: April 12, 1897
Location: Girard, near Green Ridge, Illinois
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Summary: A large crowd of 1800 miners saw an unknown object land 3 km north of Green Ridge and 4 km south of Girard. The night operator of the Chicago-and-Alton Railroad, Paul McCramer, stated that he came sufficiently close to the craft to see a man emerge from it to repair the machinery. Traces were found over a large area. The object itself was elongated like a ship with a roof and a double canopy. It left toward the north.
Source: Unlisted
Date: April 13, 1897
Location: Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Time: Unknown
Summary: Frederick Chamberlain and O. L. Jones. Early landing trace case.
Source: Unlisted
Date: April 14, 1897
Location: Gas City, Indiana
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Summary: An object landed 2 km south of Gas City on the property of John Roush, terrifying the farmers and causing the horses and cattle to stampede. Six occupants of the ship came out and seemed to make some repairs. Before the crowd could approach the object, it rose rapidly and flew toward the east.
Source : Magonia #16, 188
Date: April 14, 1897
Location: Cleveland, Ohio
Time: Unknown
Summary: Joseph Singler, captain of the “Sea Wing,” was fishing with S. H. Davis, of Detroit, when they saw on the lake what they thought was a ship, about 13 m long, with a canopy. A man, about 25 years old, wearing a hunting jacket and a cap, was fishing from the deck of the object. Near him were a woman and a 10-year old child. When the “Sea Wing” came close to the craft, a large, colored balloon rose from the object, which flew up with it to an altitude of about 150 m and circled “like a hawk” before flying away.
Source : Magonia #17, 189
Date: Apr. 15, 1897
Location: Linn Grove, Iowa
Time: Morning
Summary: A large object was seen to fly morning slowly toward the north. It seemed ready to land and five men (F. G. Ellis, James Evans, David Evans, Joe Croaskey, Benjamin Buland) drove toward it. About 7 km north of Linn Grove, they found the craft on the ground, came within 700 m of it but it “spread its four giant wings and rose towards the North.” Two strange figures aboard the craft made efforts to conceal themselves. Witnesses were surprised at the length of their hair. Most residents of Linn Grove saw the craft in flight.
Source : Magonia #18, 190
Date: Apr. 15, 1897
Location: Howard-Artesian, South Dakota
Time: nightfall
Summary: A flying object nightfall coming closer and closer to the ground followed a train, as reported by the engineer, Joe Wright
Source: Magonia #19, FSR 66, 4
Date: Apr. 15, 1897
Location: Perry Springs, Missouri
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Summary: A passenger train on the 2100 Wabash line, going toward Quincy, was followed by a low-flying object for 15 min between Perry Springs and Hersman. All the passengers saw the craft, which had a red and white light. After Hersman it flew ahead of the train and disappeared rapidly, although the train was then running at 65 km/h.
Source : Magonia #20, 190
Date: Apr. 15, 1897
Location: Springfield, Illinois
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two farm workers, Adolf Winkle and John Hulle, saw a strange craft in a field. They had a discussion with its occupants, a woman and two men, and were told the ship-had flown from Quincy to Springfield in 30 min and that the crew. was making electrical repairs.
Source: Magonia #21, FSR 65,1
Date: April 15, 1897
Location: St. Louis, MO
Time: 7:45 p.m.
Summary: This is the first report from the entire period to be declared a possible UFO. A Medical doctor/amateur astronomer observed a cigar shaped object with a telescope. Dr. Caplan is a dabbler in astronomy and frequently gazes at the heavenly bodies. He knows that he did not see a star….
“I was walking to my home on Washington avenue last night about 7:45…when I saw a bright light almost overhead. It was northwest of the zenith… “But the moment I saw this light I realized it was something unusual and I hastened home, ran to the roof and brought my telescope to bear on the object. Before taking a sight I noticed the light was swaying from side to side. The effect was exactly that of a searchlight that was being manipulated. “The moment I looked through the glass I discovered a long black body behind the light. It was exactly the cigar shape that has been described.
“I thought something must be the matter with the lens and I turned the telescope on different stars and planets. There was no unnatural effect evident and I brought the glass to bear again on the mysterious visitor. At first I could not locate the light, then I found that it had moved several degrees to the north. When I caught it again I once more made out the cigar-shaped craft. “The airship… moved over considerable space in five minutes, and I followed it all the time. It took a northwesterly course, then veered to the West and finally to North. Then it darted off in that direction and was lost to sight. I had the light in view fully ten minutes from the time I first saw it on the street…. “It could not have been a star?” “No sir. I looked at Venus, at Sirius and other bright stars several times, then back at the mysterious object. Besides, through my glass the object behind the light was distinctly visible.”
Source : Dr. Eddie Bullard provided this report to Brad Sparks in Dec. 2006.
Date: Apr. 16, 1897
Location: Downs Township, Illinois
Time: Unknown
Summary: While working in his field, Haney Savidge saw an aerial craft land near him. Six people emerged from it and spoke to him for a few minutes before leaving again.
Source: Unlisted
Date: April 16, 1897
Location: Vincennes, Indiana
Time: 9:00 p.m.
Summary: A mysterious airship passed over the city twice on the night of Friday, April 16. According to the Vincennes Morning Commercial, the airship first appeared about nine o’clock, traveling along the extreme eastern portion of the horizon: A sphere of golden light was first seen in the vicinity of the Union Depot, from down in the city. Those near the ship claimed they could clearly see the dark lines of its car, although no passengers were observed.
Source: (The Valley Advance, Vincennes, Indiana, March 18, 1980 Vol. 16, No. 28. Taken from Vincennes Morning Commercial April 16, 1897)
Date: Apr. 17, 1897
Location: Williamston, Michigan
Time: Morning
Summary: At least a dozen farmers morning saw an object maneuver in the sky for an hour before it landed. A strange man near 3 m tall, almost naked and suffering from the heat, was the pilot of the craft. “His talk, while musical, seemed to be a repetition of bellowing’s.” One farmer went near him and received a blow that broke his hip.
Source : Magonia #23; 196
Date: April 19, 1897
Location: Aurora, Texas
Time: ~06:00
Summary: Airship traveling due north at low altitude and reduced speed — approximately 10–12 mph, gradually settling toward earth — sails over the public square and collides with Judge Proctor’s windmill tower, exploding with tremendous force and scattering debris over several acres; windmill, water tank, and flower garden destroyed; the pilot, the sole occupant, is found badly disfigured but recognizably not human; U.S. Army Signal Service officer T.J. Weems opines the pilot was a native of Mars; papers found on the body are written in unknown hieroglyphics; craft is built of an unknown metal resembling aluminum and silver mixed, weighing several tons; townspeople view the wreckage and collect specimens; pilot buried in Aurora Cemetery the following day; Dallas Morning News carries the story on page 5; fragments later tested in 1973 show anomalous aluminum-iron composition without zinc; MUFON and International UFO Bureau file legal proceedings to exhume the body; cemetery association blocks exhumation; headstone subsequently removed before investigators can return [Full Report]
Source: Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897; UPI, 1973; International UFO Bureau
Date: April 19, 1897
Location: Leroy Kansas
Time: 2230
Summary: Alexander Hamilton was awakened by a noise among the cattle and went out with his son and his tenant. They saw an elongated cigar- shaped object, about 100 m long with a transparent cabin underneath showing narrow reddish bands, hovering 10 m above ground. They approached within 50 m of it. It was illuminated and equipped with a searchlight. Inside it were “six of the strangest beings” the witness had seen, also described as “hideous.” They spoke a language no witness could understand. A cow was dragged away by the object with the help of a strong red cable; it was found butchered in a field the next day. From a sworn statement dated 21 April, a prosperous and prominent farmer named Alexander Hamilton told of an attack upon his cattle at about 10:30 PM the previous Monday. He, his son, and his tenant grabbed axes and ran some 700 feet from the house to the cow lot where a great cigar-shaped ship about 300 feet long floated some 30 feet above his cattle. It had a carriage underneath which was brightly lighted within (dirigible and gondola?) and which had numerous windows. Inside were six strange looking beings jabbering in a foreign language. These beings suddenly became aware of Hamilton and the others. They immediately turned a searchlight on the farmer, and also turned on some power, which sped up a turbine wheel (about 30 ft diameter) located under the craft. The ship rose, taking with it a two-year old heifer, which was roped about the neck by a cable of one-half inch thick, red material. The next day a neighbor, Link Thomas, found the animal’s hide, legs and head in his field. He was mystified at how the remains got to where they were because of the lack of tracks in the soft soil. Alexander Hamilton’s sworn statement was accompanied by an affidavit as to his veracity. The affidavit was signed by ten of the local leading citizens.
Source : Anatomy 16; Magonia
Date: April 20, 1897
Location: Homan, Arkansas
Time: 1800
Summary: Capt. James Hooton was hunting in the vicinity of Homan when he heard the noise of a steam engine and found an object in a clearing. It looked like a cylinder with pointed ends, lateral wheels, and horizontal blade over it. Hooton spoke with a man who wore dark glasses and walked behind the craft. There were three or four occupants. The witness was told this was indeed “The Airship” and that it used compressed air for propulsion. Hooton saw the wheels spin as the craft rose and flew away.
Source: FSR 66, 4; Magonia
Date: April 22, 1897
Location: Rockland, Texas
John M. Barclay was intrigued when his dog barked furiously and a high-pitched noise was heard. He went out, saw a flying object circling 5 m above ground. Elongated with protrusions and blinding lights, it went dark when it landed. Barclay was met by a man who told him his purpose was peaceful and requested some common hardware items to repair the craft. He paid with a ten-dollar bill and took off “like a bullet out of a gun.”
Source: 192; Magonia
Date: April 22, 1897
Location: Josserand, Trinity County, Texas
Time: ~Midnight
Summary: Prominent farmer Frank Nichols is awakened near midnight by a whirring noise like machinery; looks out to find brilliant lights streaming from a large vessel resting in his cornfield; goes to investigate and is met by two men with buckets requesting permission to draw water from his well; invited aboard the craft he converses freely with a crew of six or eight individuals; told the problem of aerial navigation has been solved — craft built of a newly discovered material with self-sustaining properties, propelled by highly condensed electricity; told five such ships were built at a small Iowa town and will soon be given to the public; a stock company is forming; Nichols offers to show the landing site as proof. Reported in the Houston Post, April 26, 1897. [Full Report]
Source: Houston Post, April 26, 1897
Date: Apr. 23, McKinney Bayou, Arkansas 1897
Location:
Judge Lawrence A. Byrne of Texarkana, Arkansas, was surveying a tract of land when he saw a peculiar object anchored on the ground. “It was manned by three men who spoke a foreign language, but judging from their looks one would take them to be Japs.”
Source: Farish, in Allende Letters Award Special, 1968
Date: Apr. 25, 1897
Location: Merkel, Texas
Summary: People returning from church ob- evening served a heavy object being dragged along the ground by a rope attached to a flying craft. The rope got caught in a railroad track. The craft was too high for its structure to be visible but protrusions and a light could be distinguished. After about 10 min a man came down along the rope cut the end free, and went back aboard the craft, which flew away toward the northeast. The man was small and dressed in a light- blue uniform.
Source: Magonia #29, 194
Date: Apr. 26, 1897
Location: Aquila-Hillsboro Texas
Summary: A lawyer was surprised to see a lighted object fly over. His horse was scared and nearly toppled the carriage. When the main light was turned off, a number of smaller lights became visible on the underside of the dark object, which supported an elongated canopy. It went down toward a hill to the south, 5 km from Aquila. When the witness was on his way back one hour later he saw the object rising. It reached the altitude of the cloud ceiling and flew to the northeast at a fantastic speed with periodic flashes of light.
Source : Magonia #30, 195
Date: May 6, 1897
Location: Near Hot Springs, Arkansas
Time: Night
Summary: Constable Sumpter and Deputy Sheriff McLemore of Hot Springs observe a brilliant light high in the heavens that disappears and reappears, descending toward the earth; their horses refuse to advance at 100 yards’ distance; they draw Winchesters and challenge two figures moving around with lights; a bearded man emerges with a lantern and explains he and two companions — a young man and a woman — are traveling the country in an airship; the vessel is cigar-shaped, approximately 60 feet long; a young man is filling a large sack with water 30 yards away; the woman remains in the shadows holding an umbrella; the bearded man invites the officers to take a ride, saying he could take them where it isn’t raining; explains the powerful light consumes significant motive power so it must be used sparingly; says he would have liked to stop in Hot Springs for the baths but was pressed for time; says they are heading for Nashville, Tennessee; returning 40 minutes later the craft is gone with no sound of departure. Multiple witnesses. [Full Report]
Source: Vallee, Passport to Magonia, pp. 142–143, 1969
Date: November 13, 1897
Location: Binghamton New York
Time: early morning
Summary: Sighting reported — New York Times article headline “Message Perhaps From Mars” dated November 14, 1897 displayed on page; detail not transcribed inline.
Source: New York Times, November 14, 1897
Date: 1898
Location: Khyber Pass, Afghanistan
Time: Unknown
Summary: Reported encounter with inhuman beings involving teleportation. Abduction by aliens was reported.
Source : Steiger, Brad Strangers From the Skies Award A171X, New York, 1966
Date: 1898
Location: Sudan Sudan
Time: Unknown
Summary: Disappearance Reported encounter with inhuman beings involving teleportation. More than one object was observed by numerous military witnesses (Brit.Platoon).
Source : Steiger, Brad Strangers From the Skies Award A171X, New York, 1966
Date: 1898
Location: Lille, France
Time: Unknown
Summary: An astronomer saw through his telescope a rectangular object with a violet colored band on one side, the rest being striped red and black. It was not in the position of any known planet. It remained stationary for 10 minutes, then ‘cast out sparks and disappeared.’
Source: Unlisted
Date: March 3–28, 1898
Location: Basque Country (Yurre, Antezana, Lopidana), Spain
Time: Night
Summary: El Anunciador Vitoriano newspaper publishes a series of reports over several weeks; a blood-colored luminous sphere appears nightly between Yurre and Lopidana at ground level in complete silence; gives off bright flashes casting reddish light on trees, road pavement, and terrain irregularities; smaller paler lights break off and wander through the air or stop on branch tips; a millwright encounters it flying over his wagon in terror; a townswoman opens her window for a better look and closes it immediately as it approaches her.
Source: El Anunciador Vitoriano, March–April 1898
Date: April 27 1899
Location: Baye, France
Time: 16:00
Summary: At four o’clock in the afternoon a 10 meter in diameter red ball crossed highway N51 near the town of Baye, Marne department, France on a steady trajectory. It illuminated the surrounding area a red color, and went off to the southwest. There were many witnesses
Source : Lumieres dans la Nuit
Date: September 1899
Location: Nogales, Mexico
Time: 1:00 pm
Summary: Silver bowl follows posse. one witness sees humanoid in silver suit. Posse leader vanishes. Reported encounter with inhuman beings involving teleportation. One silver dome-shaped object was observed in a desert for 120 minutes.
Source : Hatch, Larry
Date: November 15, 1899
Location: Dordogne, Dourite, France
Time: 7:00 pm
Summary: An object ‘like an enormous star’ was seen from 7:00 pm, ‘at times white, then red, and sometimes blue… moving like a kite’ in the southerly sky.
Source : Contact U.K.
Date: October 28 1899
Location: Luzarches, France
Time: Unknown
Summary: M.A. Garry observed a round luminous object rise above the horizon and shrink in size as it moved into the distance over 15 minutes.
Source : Contact U.K.
Date: 1899
Location: Transvaal, South Africa
Time: Unknown
Summary: After alerting its telegraph offices to be on the lookout for invading British aircraft, the Transvaal government was inundated with sighting reports. Phantom airships, often equipped with powerful searchlights, mysteriously appeared in the skies around. Of course, neither aircraft nor airplanes were known to exist in Africa at this time.
Source: Unlisted
Date: 1899
Location: Prescott, Arizona
Time: 2:00 pm
Summary: Dr. Warren E. Day observed a luminous object that ‘traveled with the Moon all day’ until 2:00 pm. A similar object had been observed the day before from Tonto, Arizona.
Source:
Date: 1899
Location: El Paso, Texas
Time: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Summary: A luminous object was seen in daylight from 10:00am to 4:00pm; Venus was two months past its secondary phase of maximum brilliance.
Source: Unlisted
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Great Airship Wave: Mass-Media UFO Reality and the Last Four Years of the Nineteenth Century, 1896–1899
The 1896–1899 archive is the most institutionally documented anomalous aerial event sequence in recorded history to that point. Hundreds of named, credentialed witnesses across twenty states and multiple countries produced concurrent newspaper-of-record accounts describing cigar-shaped craft with searchlights, turbine propellers, transparent cabins, and humanoid occupants. The November 1896 California sightings — beginning in Oakland and spreading through Sacramento, Lorin, and San Francisco — were witnessed by the Deputy Secretary of State, the District Attorney of San Francisco, and the Governor’s personal secretary simultaneously, on the same evening, from different vantage points in the same city. These are not anonymous reports. They are bylined accounts in major metropolitan newspapers from officials whose social positions made fabrication politically ruinous.
The April 1897 Midwest cluster represents the operational apex of the wave. Between April 12 and April 26 alone the archive records: a crowd of 1,800 Illinois miners watching a craft land and a man emerge to perform repairs; six occupants exiting a landed craft in Gas City, Indiana before a crowd of farmers; a crew member descending a rope from a low-flying craft over Merkel, Texas to free a snagged cable and return aboard; a Kansas farmer’s sworn affidavit describing six occupants and a stolen heifer; an Ohio captain and his fishing companion observing a craft with a man, woman, and child aboard who deployed a balloon and flew away; and a Springfield, Illinois crew conducting what they described as electrical repairs and making conversation with two farm workers. The Aurora, Texas crash of April 17 — a downed craft, a recovered body, a burial in the town cemetery, and wreckage thrown into a well — is the era’s most controversial case and the direct ancestor of every subsequent crash-retrieval narrative in American ufology. The nineteenth century ended in 1899 with phantom airships over South Africa, luminous spheres in France, and a silver dome in the Sonoran desert. The twentieth century, and the modern era of the phenomenon, was already underway.
“Six of the strangest beings I have ever seen were piloting the ship… They spoke a language no witness could understand. A cow was dragged away by the object with the help of a strong red cable; it was found butchered in a field the next day.”
— From Alexander Hamilton’s sworn statement, Leroy, Kansas, April 21, 1897, accompanied by an affidavit signed by ten prominent local citizens
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