July 2, 1907, Church and College Streets, Burlington, Vermont — Bishop John S. Michaud, former Governor Urban Woodbury, and A.A. Buell observe a torpedo-shaped object with burnished copper surfaces and tongues of fire hovering 300 feet above downtown Burlington; reported in the Burlington Free Press, June 3, 1907. Same year, 1907–08, Albanian mountains — Mihal Grameno records a shiny hovering object in his guerrilla memoir The Albanian Uprising (1925): the first documented UFO report in Albanian history.
1907: UFO|UAP & Alien Sightings Archive
On the evening of July 2, 1907, a former governor of Vermont, a Roman Catholic bishop, and a prominent lumber and shipping magnate stepped out onto the corner of Church and College streets in Burlington after dinner and watched a torpedo-shaped copper-burning object hover 300 feet above downtown Burlington, issue tongues of fire from spots on its surface, knock a horse sideways, and then disappear into the sky. The Burlington Free Press published their account on June 3. This is not a rumor. This is a named former governor, a named bishop, and a named businessman giving a contemporaneous newspaper account of a structured aerial object with defined morphology, specific dimensions, and behavioral features — hover, fire emission, animal impact, departure — in the most public setting available to a 1907 Edwardian American city. No explanation was offered then. None has been offered since.
The year 1907 also adds — for the first time — the Balkans to the anomalous aerial archive. Mihal Grameno, a distinguished Albanian journalist, writer, and patriotic activist fighting in the guerrilla band of revolutionary leader Çerçiz Topulli in the mountains of Ottoman-controlled Albania, recorded in his memoirs that one night a shiny object flew before them, stayed suspended in the air for several minutes, and then disappeared. Grameno’s book The Albanian Uprising (Kryengritja shqiptare), published in 1925, is the source — a literary memoir with no UFO agenda by a nationally recognized intellectual whose credibility rested on his role in the Albanian National Awakening. Powered aircraft were not present in remote Ottoman Albanian mountains in 1907. Meteors do not hover for several minutes. The archive notes both the Burlington bishop and the Albanian revolutionary in the same year, because the record makes no distinction about who is watching the sky or from what mountain they are watching it.
Date: 1907
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Time: Early evening
Summary: A torpedo-shaped UFO explodes over downtown Burlington, Vermont. Seen by Bishop John S. Michaud, former governor Alexander Woodbury, A.A. Buell and others. This story is condensed from a report given in The Burlington Free Press for June 3rd, 1907. According to the story, several witnesses spied a strange ball of fire enter the town amidst a loud explosion, pause and hover, then speed away, careening into a horse and momentarily stunning it. The object then disappeared into the sky. The object was described by one witness as being torpedo-shaped, six feet in length, and about eight inches in diameter. It had a burnished copper appearance and was reported to issue tongues of fire from several spots on its body. No explanation was given for the event.
Source: Burlington Free Press, June 3, 1907 | Source Status: VERIFIED — contemporary newspaper account with three named highly credentialed witnesses; independently confirmed by Seven Days Vermont (2025) citing the same primary source
Date: 1907
Location: High mountains, Albania (Ottoman Empire)
Time: Night
Summary: Albanian journalist, writer, and patriotic guerrilla fighter Mihal Grameno, serving with the band of revolutionary leader Çerçiz Topulli in the mountains of Ottoman-controlled Albania, records in his memoirs: “One night while Çerçiz’s fighters had set up a camp on top of a high mountain, a shiny object flew in front of us that stayed suspended in the air for several minutes and then disappeared.” No powered aircraft were present in remote Ottoman Albanian mountains; meteors do not hover.
Source: Grameno, Mihal, Kryengritja shqiptare (The Albanian Uprising), 1925; cited in Wikipedia UFO sightings in Albania | Source Status: VERIFIED — primary source is Grameno’s own published 1925 memoir; Grameno was a nationally recognized Albanian intellectual and patriotic figure; first documented UFO report in Albanian history
Date: October 1907
Location: Solimões das Águas, Colombia
Time:Daytime
Summary: In October 1907, a remarkable and terrifying encounter with a water-monster occurred on the Solimões das Águas, Colombia. The story came from a respected German explorer and adventurer, Franz Herrmann Schmidt, who, along with a companion, Captain Rudolph Pfleng, spent weeks exploring the wilder areas of Colombia, and in search of all things wild and wonderful. He certainly found them. Or, at least, one of them. Twelve days into their trek along the river, Schmidt, Pfleng and their Indian guides reached a remote valley that was filed with thick vegetation and fed by a small, shallow lake. The entire team was excited, but also disturbed, to see a number of huge tracks leading to and from the lake – tracks that were unrecognizable as anything conventional. In addition, there was evidence that whatever left the tracks had been feeding on the leaves of certain trees that extended to heights of around fourteen feet. In other words, this was a formidable, huge creature. The next day, something astounding occurred. As Schmidt, Pfleng and their guides negotiated the waters of the lake in canoes a sudden, loud crashing and splashing was heard coming from the direction of the thick vegetation on the bank to their right side. The guides, seemingly having some pre-existing awareness of the beast that lurked just out of sight, panicked and they furiously paddled their canoes away from the edge and towards the central portion of the lake.
In Schmidt’s own words: “There was a sudden outcry among them, a large dark something half hidden among the branches shot up among them and there was a great commotion. One of the excited Indians began to paddle the boat away from the shore, and before we could stop him we were one hundred feet from the waterline. Now we could see nothing and the Indians absolutely refused to put in again, while neither Pfleng nor myself cared to lay down our rifles to paddle. There was a great waving of plants and a sound like heavy slaps of a great paddle, mingled with the cries of some of the monkeys moving rapidly away from the lake. One or two that were hurt or held fast wore shrieking close at hand, then their cries ceased. For a full ten minutes there was silence, then the green growth began to stir again, and coming back to the lake we beheld the frightful monster that I shall now describe.” “Frightful” was a most apt word for Schmidt to use, as his following words make very clear: “The head appeared over bushes ten feet tall. It was about the size of a beer keg and was shaped like that of a tapir, as if the snout was used for pulling things or taking hold of them. The eyes were small and dull and set in like those of an alligator. Despite the half dried mud we could see that the neck, which was very snakelike, only thicker in proportion, as rough knotted like an alligator’s sides rather than his back. “Evidently the animal saw nothing odd in us, if he noticed us, and advanced till he was not more than one hundred and fifty feet away. We could see part of the body, which I should judge to have been eight or nine feet thick at the shoulders, if that word may be used, since there were no fore legs, only some great, heavy clawed flippers. The surface was like that of the neck. For a wonder the Indians did not bolt, but they seemed fascinated. “As far as I was concerned, I would have waited a little longer, but Pfleng threw up his rifle and let drive at the head. I am sure that he struck between the eyes and that the bullet must have struck something bony, horny or very tough, for it cut twigs from a tree higher up and further on after it glanced. I shot as Pfleng shot again and aimed for the base of the neck. “The animal had remained perfectly still till now. It dropped its nose to the spot at which I had aimed and seemed to bite at it, but there was no blood or any sign of real hurt. As quickly as we could fire we pumped seven shots into it, and I believe all struck. They seemed to annoy the creature but not to work any injury. Suddenly it plunged forward in a silly, clumsy fashion. The Indians nearly upset the dugout getting away, and both Pfleng and I missed the sight as it entered the water. I was very anxious to see its hind legs, if it had any. I looked again only in time to see the last of it leave the land – a heavy blunt tail with rough horny lumps. The head was visible still, though the body was hidden by the splash. From this instant’s opportunity I should say that the creature was thirty-five feet long, with at least twelve of this devoted to head and neck. “In three seconds there was nothing to be seen except the waves of the muddy water, the movements of the waterside growth and a monkey with its hind parts useless hauling himself up a tree top. As the Indians paddled frantically away I put a bullet through the poor thing to let it out of its misery. We had not gone a hundred yards before Pfleng called to me and pointed to the right. “Above the water an eighth of a mile away appeared the head and neck of the monster. It must have dived and gone right under us. After a few seconds’ gaze it began to swim toward us, and as our bullets seemed to have no effect we took to flight in earnest. Losing sight of it behind an island, we did not pick it up again and were just as well pleased.” Whatever the true identity of the monster, it eludes us today, just as it did Schmidt and Pfleng back in 1907.
Source: SOURCE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Bishop’s Torpedo — Burlington Vermont 1907 and the Guerrilla’s Mountain Light in Ottoman Albania
The 1907 archive has two entries that belong permanently in the record and one that belongs in a different category. The Burlington, Vermont case of July 2 is anchored by three of the most credentialed witnesses in the pre-war American UFO archive: a former state governor, a Roman Catholic bishop, and a prominent businessman, standing on a named street corner in a named city, giving a named newspaper a contemporaneous account of a named object. Bishop Michaud’s description is as precise as any 1907 witness could have produced — torpedo shape, six feet by eight inches, dark with burnished copper tonality, fire issuing from multiple surface points. The horse being knocked sideways and momentarily stunned adds a physical interaction element that distinguishes this from a purely visual observation. The Burlington Free Press ran it. No explanation was ever offered. Seven Days Vermont, covering the story for its 2025 edition on the anniversary, confirms the original 1907 account unchanged.
The Mihal Grameno Albania entry is the archive’s first Balkan case and a noteworthy addition to the record not for its brevity — it is a single sentence from a guerrilla’s memoir — but for the caliber of the witness and the context. Grameno was a nationally recognized intellectual of the Albanian National Awakening, fighting for Albanian independence in the mountains of Ottoman Albania. His memoir was published in 1925 with no UFO agenda — he was recording the hardships and experiences of a revolutionary campaign. The shiny object that flew before them, hovered, and disappeared is a single clear sentence in a book about political struggle. It is the most understated first UFO report of any nation in the archive, and it comes from one of the most credible witnesses the archive could have produced for that region and era.
“The shell, or covering, having a dark appearance, with here and there tongues of fire issuing from spots on the surface, resembling red-hot, burnished copper.”
Bishop John S. Michaud, Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, Vermont, describing the July 2, 1907 torpedo-shaped aerial object over Burlington, as reported in the Burlington Free Press, June 3, 1907
Date: 1907
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