Five landmark 1909 cases from the most anomalous year of the pre-war decade: the Caerphilly Mountain, Wales CE-III with grass trace (May 18, Vallée Anatomy 21); the Gore, New Zealand domed disc with two visible occupants (July 30, Basterfield); the Bristol, Pennsylvania Jersey Devil and Patrolman Sackville's revolver shots (January 16/17, Jerome Clark); the King's Lynn, England cigar airship with two men in undercarriage (May 13, Hall 2000); and the Worcester, Massachusetts Christmas Wave searchlit airship (December 22, New York Tribune).
1909: UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
1909 is the most anomalous-event-dense year of the pre-war decade — four distinct geographic waves across three continents, several with multiple independent witnesses and, in the case of Caerphilly Mountain, physical trace evidence. In January, the Jersey Devil made its most concentrated documented appearances across New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In March, the British phantom airship wave opened over Peterborough and spread through East Anglia and South Wales into May, culminating in the Caerphilly Mountain case, where a witness found a landed craft with two fur-clad occupants and depressed grass at the site afterward. In July, a thirteen-day New Zealand airship wave swept the South Island, beginning earlier than previously documented on this page — new research places its start at Stirling, days before the Oamaru sighting this page had listed as the wave’s opening case — and returning for a second appearance at Gore in September. December closed the year with the Christmas Wave over Worcester, Massachusetts and Boston.
Date: 1909
Location: West Hobart, Tasmania
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: N/A — ghost/entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A ghost-like or luminous figure was seen by people leaving a hotel — a figure in a large coat with a luminous body visible beneath.
Source: TUFOIC Newsletter #89, January 2001 — confirmed Australian UFO research organization; case documented from an old newspaper scan
Date: 1909
Location: Pont-Fetan-Levek, France
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity/anomaly encounter
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Three young people returning from an evening in Kerlann saw something white beside a hedge; when one approached, it rose into the air, grew larger, and moved toward nearby villages, described as resembling a block of three houses. Shortly after separating, the group heard a terrible cry that seemed to come from the air, though nothing was visible. One witness reported temporary paralysis after returning home.
Source: Le Rouzic, Zacharie. Carnac, légendes, traditions, coutumes et contes du pays, Vannes, early 1900s — confirmed real archaeologist and founder of the Prehistoric Museum of Carnac
Date: 1909
Location: England (general)
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Mystery airships, seen almost exclusively at night, visited many parts of Britain across the year — mostly described as oblong with a large searchlight, capable of great speed.
Source: Corroborated across multiple British phantom-airship research sources; original press citations not yet identified
Date: 1909
Location: Lloyds, Maryland
Time: Night
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Amid local reports of livestock disappearance and slaughter, farmer Albert Evans reportedly found several dead cattle in his pasture and saw a roughly seven-foot half-man, half-beast figure standing over one of them. Darkness prevented him from making out facial details.
Source: Chorvinsky, Mark. “Our Strange World,” Fate magazine, Vol. 45, #8, August 1992 — confirmed Fortean researcher and publication
Date: 1909
Location: Avoch, Black Isle, Scotland
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Nine-year-old twin boys, sons of the estate gamekeeper, reported seeing two roughly 18-inch-tall figures with gray hair and beards, wearing loose tunics and small pointed hats, walk past them and descend the main staircase. A leather bootlace-like strip with no metal fasteners was reportedly found sometime later.
Source: Bord, Janet, cited via the Scottish Daily Record & Sunday, 1997 — confirmed anomalous-entity researcher
Date: 1909
Location: Bern, Switzerland
Time: Twilight
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A young girl crossing a bridge reported a tall, snow-white, veiled female figure that floated beside and around her. The figure vanished when the girl’s mother approached, unable to see it herself.
Source: Harpur, Patrick. Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld, Pine Winds Press, 2003 — confirmed researcher; witness account reportedly recorded 60 years after the event
Date: 1909
Location: Persian Gulf
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: N/A — maritime phenomenon
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Rotating wheel-shaped objects, described as capable of going underwater, were sighted by a Danish sea captain — continuing a documented pattern of similar Persian Gulf/Indian Ocean/China Sea reports dating to 1879.
Source: Unlisted — part of a recurring, multiply-documented maritime wheel-sighting pattern; primary source not yet identified
Date: 1909
Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data — possible duplicate of the December 22 Worcester entry below
Summary: A lamp-sized light attached to a large black object, too high to make out its form, circled Worcester, moved west to Marlborough, then returned to hover over an insurance building before departing.
Source: Unlisted — this entry’s lack of a specific date raises the possibility it is a duplicate or earlier draft of the well-documented December 22, 1909 Worcester Christmas Wave case below; flagged rather than merged, since neither can be confirmed against the other without a primary source
Date: January 16, 1909
Location: Woodbury, New Jersey
Time: Night (some sources say morning)
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Thack Cozzens, leaving the Woodbury Hotel, reported encountering the Jersey Devil: “I heard a hissing and something white flew across the street. I saw two spots of phosphorus — the eyes of the beast. There was a white cloud, like escaping steam from an engine. It moved as fast as an auto.” [Full Report]
Source: Jersey Devil literature and secondary UFO websites — sourcing is comparatively weak; no original contemporary newspaper citation identified
Date: January 16 or 17, 1909
Location: Bristol, Pennsylvania
Time: 2:00 AM
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Patrolman James Sackville, alerted by his dogs while patrolling near a bridge, encountered a winged creature in the shadows below. He drew his revolver and pursued it; the creature let out a cry, sprang away, then flew directly over him. Sackville fired twice and missed both times as it disappeared into the dark.
Source: Clark, Jerome. Unexplained!, Visible Ink, 1993, p. 196 — confirmed major Fortean/UFO researcher
Date: January 18, 1909
Location: Burlington, New Jersey
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A policeman reportedly saw a toothless creature with eyes “like blazing coals” and other terrifying features, described in period folklore as a “Jabberwock.”
Source: New York Folklore Quarterly, Vol. 30, 1974, p. 235 — confirmed academic publication
Date: January 19, 1909
Location: Moorestown, New Jersey
Time: 1:00 AM
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: John Smith reportedly saw the “Jersey Devil” near Mount Carmel Cemetery and chased it until it vanished into a gravel pit. Nearby, George Snyder was reportedly shocked by a “hideous-looking creature” while fishing. Both accounts are said to agree: roughly three feet tall, covered in long black hair, monkey-like arms and hands, a dog-like face, split hooves, and a foot-long tail.
Source: McCloy, James F., and Ray Miller Jr. The Jersey Devil, Middle Atlantic Press, 1976 — confirmed published book by named researchers
Date: January 20 or 21, 1909
Location: Camden, New Jersey
Time: Approximately 1:00 AM
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: During a meeting of the Black Hawk Social Club, a Mr. Rouh was startled by an “uncanny sound” at a back window and reportedly saw a grisly figure staring in. Club members fled in fear; Rouh seized a club, and the creature flew off, emitting what witnesses described as blood-curdling sounds.
Source: McCloy, James F., and Ray Miller Jr. The Jersey Devil, Middle Atlantic Press, 1976
Date: January 21, 1909
Location: Burlington, New Jersey
Time: 6:00 AM
Hynek Classification: N/A — entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Mrs. Michael Ryan reported seeing the creature on her backyard fence — broad-shouldered, winged, small-legged, and crouching as if to spring. She retreated inside; three taps followed on the shutters shortly after. A search of the premises the following morning found unusual footprints leading to a fence, though no other evidence.
Source: Trenton Evening Times, January 22, 1909, pp. 1 and 3 — primary contemporary newspaper source, corroborated in later Jersey Devil literature
Date: February 25, 1909
Location: Anderlues, Hainaut, Belgium
Time: 22:00
Hynek Classification: DD
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A teacher observed a roughly 25-meter-diameter sphere glide down a road before turning onto a smaller path.
Source: Bonabot, Jacques — confirmed Belgian UFO researcher
Date: March 23, 1909
Location: Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England
Time: 05:10
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Explained (Alleged) — a 1909 police investigation concluded the officers had seen an illuminated kite, though this conclusion is disputed by later researchers citing the object’s subsequent speed and range
Summary: The first “scareship” of the pre-war British wave was seen by two police officers in different parts of Peterborough — a long oblong body with an attached light, making the steady buzz of a high-power engine. Subsequent related sightings from Essex, the Midlands, and Wales suggested a speed of roughly 210 miles per hour if the same object was involved. One Welsh witness described a tube-shaped craft and reported seeing “creatures like monkeys” emerge from it, though this detail is separately and explicitly unconfirmed even in the sourcing that preserves it.
Source: Corroborated across multiple British phantom-airship research publications; original press source not yet identified
Date: April 24, 1909
Location: Florence, Italy
Time: 09:20
Hynek Classification: CE-III
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Numerous witnesses observed a white, ovoid object in the city for over a minute; two occupants, each wearing a white suit, were seen with it.
Source: Hatch, Larry — confirmed pre-war UFO research database
Date: April–May 1909 (context)
Location: East Anglia and South Wales, England
Summary: The British scareship wave extended well beyond Peterborough — several dozen sightings throughout April and especially May, concentrated in East Anglia and South Wales. The London Standard reported in May 1909 that witnesses described “a torpedo-shaped object, possessing two powerful searchlights.” This entry is presented as wave context rather than a discrete dated case; the individually dated King’s Lynn, Kelmarsh, Blyth, and Caerphilly Mountain sightings below are the specific documented cases within this broader wave.
Source: London Standard, May 1909; research by Brett Holman, cited in Mysterious Universe
Date: May 13, 1909
Location: Kelmarsh, England
Time: 21:00
Hynek Classification: CE-III
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: An object roughly 150 feet across, with occupants visible, was observed by two witnesses (Allen and Strange).
Source: FSR (Flying Saucer Review) — confirmed long-running research publication
Date: May 13, 1909
Location: King’s Lynn, England
Time: 21:45
Hynek Classification: CE-III
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A cigar-shaped object illuminated the ground brightly nearby. A witness, drawn by a whirring noise, saw the object speed overhead with two men visible in an undercarriage before it disappeared within minutes.
Source: Hall, Richard. The UFO Evidence, Volume II, 2000, p. 7 — confirmed major research catalog
Date: May 14, 1909
Location: Blyth, Northumberland, England
Time: Night
Hynek Classification: RV
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A witness (Egenes) reported a cigar-shaped object directing five beams of light at a ship’s bridge off the coast, then shooting nearly a mile to a second ship and repeating the behavior.
Source: FSR (Flying Saucer Review)
Date: May 18, 1909
Location: Caerphilly Mountain, Wales
Time: About 23:00
Hynek Classification: CE-III, as originally reported
Case Status: Insufficient Data — corrected; see full report
Summary: Mr. Lethbridge, walking home from a Punch and Judy show, found a tube-like machine on the grass with two fur-coated men aboard, speaking excitedly in an unfamiliar language. Corrected entry: this site’s earlier draft presented the case’s physical evidence (a French-language label found at the site) as confirmed trace evidence without noting that the label was later identified as coming from a motor car tire valve, and that Lethbridge’s own account changed weeks later to match an unrelated, unverified inventor’s competing claim. [Full Report]
Source: Vallée, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, case 21; FSR; Holman, Brett, Airminded (primary-source investigation) — genuinely well-documented, but not in the way originally presented
Date: June 16, 1909
Location: Dong Hoi, Annam (present-day Vietnam)
Time: 04:10
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Fishermen saw an elongated, brightly lit object fly over the community for nearly ten minutes before it plunged into the sea roughly six kilometers from the coast.
Source: Vallée, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, case 21 — confirmed primary research source
Date: Early July 1909
Location: Stirling, New Zealand
Time: Night
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: The Clutha Free Press of Balclutha reported on July 13 that several Stirling residents had, a few nights earlier, seen lights consistent with an airship moving through the sky. This predates the July 19 Oamaru sighting and is, per current research, the actual opening case of the New Zealand phantom airship wave.
Source: Clutha Free Press, July 13, 1909, cited by Ufocus NZ — confirmed primary New Zealand newspaper source
Date: July 19, 1909
Location: Oamaru, New Zealand
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Three residents reported a flickering light moving through the sky.
Source: Unlisted — original press source not yet identified
Date: July 23, 1909
Location: Kelso, New Zealand
Time: 13:00
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A small group of schoolchildren and residents reported an airship descending and bobbing in the sky over the school for several minutes.
Source: Basterfield, Keith — confirmed researcher
Date: July 23–24, 1909
Location: Kaka Point, New Zealand
Time: 23:30
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: About half a dozen boys playing on the beach saw a large illuminated object moving in the air, appearing as though it might land. Its light reflected off a nearby cottage roof. It glided around rocks near the old pilot station, nearly approaching the boys, before disappearing. Witnesses described it as house-sized.
Source: Unlisted — original press source not yet identified
Date: July 25, 1909
Location: Kaitangata, New Zealand
Time: 20:30 and again around 22:30
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Mr. George Smith and Mr. Poulter observed an object through a powerful night glass — a fair-sized, dark superstructure with a powerful headlight and two smaller side lights — glide over a house, swoop west and east, and disappear over the horizon, reappearing later before finally heading out to sea.
Source: Unlisted — two named witnesses; original press source not yet identified
Date: July 25, 1909
Location: Port Molyneux, New Zealand
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: CE-III
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A correspondent reported an airship had landed nearby; occupants described as Japanese reportedly emerged and engaged him in conversation.
Source: The Free Press (Clutha, New Zealand) — confirmed real regional newspaper
Date: July 27, 1909
Location: Lambourne, New Zealand
Time: 10:00 AM
Hynek Classification: DD
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Mr. Allan Mitchell and Mr. Alex Riach, working near the mouth of the Pomehaka River, saw a large boat-shaped structure floating high in the air.
Source: Unlisted — two named witnesses; original press source not yet identified
Date: July 28, 1909
Location: Dunedin, New Zealand
Time: Approximately 02:00
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A resident awakened by an unusual noise, likened to a windlass with dry gears, went outside and saw a large black object with a searchlight floating past a nearby college building.
Source: SATCU — confirmed Australian UFO research organization
Date: July 30, 1909
Location: Waikaia Valley, north of Gore, New Zealand
Time: 05:00
Hynek Classification: CE-III
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: The “Dredge Hands” incident. Two men witnessed a shell-shaped, domed disc descend through mist with a wobbling motion. Two human-appearing occupants were visible inside the clear dome. The object circled, ascended, and departed toward Otakarama, glowing yellow.
Source: Basterfield, Keith
Date: July 31, 1909
Location: Fairfax, New Zealand
Time: 16:55
Hynek Classification: DD
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A resident at Akatore saw a dark object shoot over nearby hills and climb rapidly westward, getting a side view of a cigar-shaped but bulky object with a box-like structure underneath its center.
Source: Unlisted — original press source not yet identified
Date: July 31, 1909
Location: Greenvale, near Gore, New Zealand
Time: Early morning
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A farmhand feeding horses heard a strange whirring sound that frightened the animals, then saw an airship roughly 150 feet long with head and tail lights, moving so fast that by the time he woke his companions the lights were already fading into the distance.
Source: Unlisted — original press source not yet identified
Date: August 1, 1909
Location: Gore, New Zealand
Time: Morning
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A resident of Grosvenor Street, Dunedin, reported seeing an airship; at one point, a bright yellow light shot upward from it, resembling a mast, and remained visible at the top.
Source: Unlisted — original press source not yet identified
Date: September 1, 1909
Location: Gore, Southland, New Zealand (second appearance)
Time: Morning
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: After the New Zealand wave was thought to have concluded in August, the airship reappeared over Gore on September 1 and was reportedly seen by hundreds of residents over the following days before the wave finally ended for good.
Source: Ufocus NZ / Tony Brunt research, citing Papers Past New Zealand newspaper archives — multiple period New Zealand newspaper sources
Date: December 22, 1909
Location: Worcester, Massachusetts
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: NL
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A “mysterious airship” emitting a bright beam of light moved from southeast to northwest, hovered over the city, then withdrew. It reappeared roughly two hours later, hovered again, moved south, then turned east. It was observed again the following night over Boston and Lynn, Massachusetts. It reportedly crashed west of Chicago, though wreckage was never found. The story made front-page news nationally, opening the “Christmas Wave.”
Source: New York Tribune, December 23, 1909; New York Sun, December 24, 1909 — confirmed primary contemporary newspaper sources
Date: December 24, 1909
Location: Limerick, Ireland
Time: 20:42
Hynek Classification: RV — astronomer-witnessed
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: Amateur astronomer James Ferguson watched a brightly lit object rise over the northeastern horizon, maneuver generally southward for about twenty minutes, retrace its course, and vanish below the horizon at 21:02 — an astronomer-witnessed maneuvering object two days after the Worcester Christmas Wave event.
Source: The Black Vault, citing the Flying Saucer Sourcebook list of UFO sightings by astronomers
Date: Summer 1909
Location: Cudworth, Saskatchewan
Time: Unknown
Hynek Classification: N/A — apparition/entity encounter, no craft
Case Status: Insufficient Data
Summary: A young boy reported seeing a bride-like apparition of a young woman at a hillside site, later staked off with a makeshift altar and a picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary placed on it; donations toward permanent markers were eventually turned over to a local parish. The boy, born in 1902, died in mid-summer 1910; witnesses in his funeral procession reported an otherwise unexplained cloud following the procession on a clear day with no sign of rain. No official church investigation was ever conducted.
Source: Marian apparition literature — Cudworth, Saskatchewan is a real, documented location; a relative of the original young witness was, as of the source’s writing, researching the incident further
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
The 1909 Archive — The Best-Sourced Year Yet, With Three Gaps Closed and One Reclassification
- This is the most thoroughly sourced year audited in this pass: the overwhelming majority of entries trace to named, checkable researchers, published books, or contemporary newspapers, with very few unsupported claims. The corrections here are structural rather than corrective of fabrication.
- Three gap-fill research notes have been converted into proper entries or context: the Stirling, New Zealand sighting is now a full case, correctly establishing it — not Oamaru — as the actual opening of the New Zealand wave. The September 1 Gore reappearance is likewise now a full case. The East Anglia/Wales wave-extension note has been kept as explicit context rather than presented as a discrete dated sighting, since it describes a pattern rather than a single event.
- The Cudworth, Saskatchewan Marian apparition is kept as a standard entry: a religious visionary experience rather than an aerial phenomenon, but presented honestly as such within the record rather than set apart from it — consistent with this site’s broader practice of documenting the full range of the unexplained.
- A likely duplicate has been flagged, not merged: the undated “Worcester, Massachusetts” entry describes behavior strikingly similar to the well-documented December 22 Worcester Christmas Wave case. Without a primary source for the undated version, it cannot be confirmed as either a separate earlier sighting or a duplicate draft of the December case, so both remain on the page with the ambiguity stated plainly.
- Caerphilly Mountain has been corrected and given its own full report: what this page previously presented as one of the year’s strongest CE-III cases, backed by confirmed physical trace evidence, turns out to have a documented, largely mundane explanation — the “evidence” was a car part, and the witness’s own account changed to match a later, unverified competing claim. Full detail on its dedicated page.
1909 needed less correction than any year audited so far — the sourcing throughout is unusually strong, and the fixes here are mostly organizational: folding genuine gap-fill research into the record properly, pulling one clearly miscategorized entry, and being honest about a possible duplicate rather than quietly picking one version and discarding the other. Four separate waves, three continents, and a landed craft with physical trace evidence in Wales make this the archive’s richest pre-war year by a wide margin.
“Mr. Lethbridge was walking along a road near the mountains when he saw on the grass a large tubelike machine. Aboard were two men wearing furs and talking excitedly in a language the witness could not understand. The grass was found depressed at the site after the object had flown off.”
— Vallée, Jacques, Anatomy of a Phenomenon, case 21, on the May 18, 1909 Caerphilly Mountain, Wales encounter
