The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, when, according to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas. [1] The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident 50 years later) is claimed to have resulted in a fatality of the pilot. The pilot was "not of this world" and was said to be an alien. [2] The pilot was buried at the Aurora cemetery. [3] A stone was placed as a marker for the grave, but has since been removed. [4]
On April 19, 1897, an article in the Dallas Morning News written by S.E. Haydon [lower-alpha 1] described the UFO crash. [2] The UFO is said to have hit a windmill on the property of a Judge J.S. Proctor two days earlier at around 6am local (Central) time, [5] resulting in its crash. The pilot (who was reported to be "not of this world", and speculated to be a native of "Mars" according to a reported Army Signal Service officer named T.J. Weems [6] from nearby Fort Worth), [7] did not survive the crash, and was buried "with Christian rites" at the nearby Aurora Cemetery. (The cemetery contains a Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident. [8] )
Reportedly, wreckage from the crash site was dumped into a nearby well located under the damaged windmill, while some ended up with the alien in the grave. [9] Adding to the mystery was the story of Mr. Brawley Oates, who purchased Judge Proctor's property around 1935. Oates cleaned out the debris from the well in order to use it as a water source, but later developed an extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed to be the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. As a result, Oates sealed up the well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding atop the slab. (According to writing on the slab, this was done in 1945.) [10]
The hoax theory is primarily based on a 1980 Time magazine interview with Etta Pegues, an 86 year old Aurora resident who claimed that Haydon had fabricated the entire story, stating that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora. The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying." [5] Pegues further claimed that Judge Proctor never operated a windmill on his property, a statement later refuted as part of the UFO Hunters episode, which found the base of a wooden water pump tower constructed around the well.[ citation needed ] Paranormal researcher Jerry Drake on the April 12, 2020 episode of the Monster Talk live podcast challenged that finding, noting the well was clearly a bucket well of modern construction (estimated to be built sometimes after 1940) and not a well designed for use with a windmill.[ citation needed ]
The incident has been investigated on numerous occasions. One report was broadcast by local television station KDFW FOX 4 and two other reports aired on cable television.
In 1998, Dallas-based TV station KDFW aired a lengthy report about the Aurora incident. Reporter Richard Ray interviewed former Fort Worth Star Telegram reporter Jim Marrs and other locals, who said something crashed in Aurora. However, Ray's report was unable to find conclusive evidence of extraterrestrial life or technology. Ray reported that the State of Texas erected a historical plaque in town that outlines the tale and labels it "legend."
On December 19, 2005, UFO Files first aired an episode related to this incident, titled "Texas' Roswell".[ citation needed ] The episode featured a 1973 investigation led by Bill Case, an aviation writer for the Dallas Times Herald [lower-alpha 2] and the Texas state director of Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
MUFON uncovered two new eyewitnesses to the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the time, told of how her parents went to the crash site (they forbade her from going) and the discovery of the alien body. Charlie Stephens, who was age 10, told how he saw the airship trailing smoke as it headed north toward Aurora. He wanted to see what happened, but his father made him finish his chores; later, he told how his father went to town the next day and saw wreckage from the crash.
MUFON then investigated the Aurora Cemetery and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort, as well as readings from its metal detector. MUFON asked for permission to exhume the site, but the cemetery association declined permission. After the MUFON investigation, the marker mysteriously disappeared from the cemetery and a three-inch pipe was placed into the ground; MUFON's metal detector no longer picked up metal readings from the grave, thus it was presumed that the metal was removed from the grave.
MUFON's report eventually stated that the evidence was inconclusive, but did not rule out the possibility of a hoax. The episode featured an interview with Mayor Brammer who discussed the town's tragic history.
On November 19, 2008, UFO Hunters first aired another television documentary regarding the Aurora incident, titled "First Contact".
The documentary featured one notable change from the UFO Files story – Tim Oates, grandson of Brawley Oates and the now-owner of the property with the sealed well where the UFO wreckage was purportedly buried, allowed the investigators to unseal the well, in order to examine it for possible debris. Water was taken from the well which tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum present; the well had no significant contents. It was stated in the episode that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a past owner of the property. Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near the well site, which allegedly refuted Ms. Pegues' statements (from the 1979 Time magazine article) that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on his property.[ citation needed ]
In addition, the Aurora Cemetery was again examined. Although the cemetery association still did not permit exhumation, using ground-penetrating radar and photos from prior visits, an unmarked grave was found in the area near other 1890s graves. [11] [12] However, the condition of the grave was badly deteriorated, and the radar could not conclusively prove what type of remains existed.
The land owner gave them pieces of metal that contained mostly aluminum and an unknown element. [13]
The incident is dramatized in the 1986 film The Aurora Encounter , as well as being discussed within History Channel's Ancient Aliens third-season premiere (entitled Aliens and the Old West) that focuses on late 19th-century UFO sightings in western North America.
An independent short movie co-written and co-directed by musician and historian Thomas Negovan and Aaron Shaps simply entitled Aurora dramatizes the incident as well as combines it with the Nazi conspiracy theory of Die Glocke. [14] [15]
The incident is satirized in The Firesign Theatre's 1974 comedy LP Everything You Know Is Wrong, performed from about 3:00 to 4:42 on Side A, with following thematic references. [16]
Aurora is a city in Wise County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,390 in 2020.
The Roswell incident is a collection of events and myths surrounding the 1947 crash of a United States Army Air Forces balloon near Roswell, New Mexico. Operated from the nearby Alamogordo Army Air Field and part of the top secret Project Mogul, the balloon was intended to detect Soviet nuclear tests. After metallic and rubber debris was recovered by Roswell Army Air Field personnel, the United States Army announced their possession of a "flying disc". This announcement made international headlines but was retracted within a day. Obscuring the true purpose and source of the crashed balloon, the Army subsequently stated that it was a conventional weather balloon.
The Kecksburg UFO incident occurred on December 9, 1965, at Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, United States, when a fireball was reported by citizens of six U.S. states and Canada over Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario. Astronomers said it was likely to have been a meteor bolide burning up in the atmosphere and descending at a steep angle. NASA released a statement in 2005 reporting that experts had examined fragments from the area and determined they were from a Soviet satellite, but that records of their findings were lost in 1987. NASA responded to court orders and Freedom of Information Act requests to search for the records. The incident gained wide notoriety in popular culture and ufology, with speculation ranging from extraterrestrial craft to debris from the Soviet space probe Kosmos 96, and is often called "Pennsylvania's Roswell".
On January 7, 1948, 25-year-old Captain Thomas F. Mantell, a Kentucky Air National Guard pilot, died when he crashed his P-51 Mustang fighter plane near Franklin, Kentucky, United States, after being sent in pursuit of an unidentified flying object (UFO). Mantell pursued the object in a steep climb and disregarded suggestions to level his altitude. At high altitude, he blacked out from a lack of oxygen; his plane went into a downward spiral and crashed. The incident was among the most publicized of early UFO reports. Later investigation by the United States Air Force's Project Blue Book indicated that Mantell died chasing a Skyhook balloon, which, in 1948, was a top-secret project that he would not have known about.
The Pascagoula Abduction was an alleged UFO sighting and alien abduction in 1973, in which Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker claimed they were abducted and examined before being released by aliens while fishing near Pascagoula, Mississippi.
Taken, also known as Steven Spielberg Presents Taken, is an American science fiction television miniseries that first aired on the Sci-Fi Channel from December 2 to 13, 2002. Filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, it was written by Leslie Bohem, and directed by Breck Eisner, Félix Enríquez Alcalá, John Fawcett, Tobe Hooper, Jeremy Paul Kagan, Michael Katleman, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, Bryan Spicer, Jeff Woolnough, and Thomas J. Wright. The executive producers were Leslie Bohem and Steven Spielberg.
The mystery airship or phantom airship was a phenomenon that thousands of people across the United States claimed to have observed from late 1896 to mid 1897. Typical airship reports involved night time sightings of unidentified lights, but more detailed accounts reported flying objects comparable to an airship or dirigible. Mystery airship reports are seen as a cultural predecessor to modern claims of extraterrestrial-piloted flying saucer-style UFOs.
Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2501 was a DC-4 operating its daily transcontinental service between New York City and Seattle when it disappeared on the night of June 23, 1950. The flight was carrying 55 passengers and three crew members; the loss of all 58 aboard made it the deadliest commercial airliner accident in America at the time.
The Cash–Landrum Incident was an unidentified flying object sighting in the United States in 1980, which witnesses claimed was responsible for causing health and property damage. Uncharacteristically for such UFO reports, this resulted in civil court proceedings, though the case ended in a dismissal.
Bruce Maccabee is an American optical physicist formerly employed by the U.S. Navy, and a ufologist.
On 23 January 1974 on the Berwyn Mountains in Llandrillo, Merionethshire, Wales, lights and noises were observed that were alleged to be related to a UFO sighting on Cadair Berwyn and Cadair Bronwen. Scientific evidence indicated that the event was generated by an earthquake combined with sightings of a bright meteor widely observed over Wales and northern England at the time.
The following are some alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects in Russia:
This is a list of alleged sightings of unidentified flying objects or UFOs in Italy.
The Gulf Breeze UFO incident was a series of claimed UFO sightings in Gulf Breeze, Florida, United States, during late 1987 and early 1988. Beginning in November 1987, the Gulf Breeze Sentinel newspaper published a number of photos supplied to them by local contractor Ed Walters that were claimed to show a UFO. UFOlogists such as Bruce Maccabee believed the photographs were genuine; however, others strongly suspected them to be a hoax.
The Aurora Encounter is a 1986 American Weird Western film directed by Jim McCullough Sr., written by Melody Brooke and Jim McCullough, Jr., and starring Jack Elam, Mickey Hays, Peter Brown, Carol Bagdasarian, and Dottie West. Its plot follows the residents of a small Texas town at the turn of the 19th century who are visited by an alien being after a UFO crashes in their town. The screenplay was very loosely based on the Aurora, Texas, UFO incident of 1897.
Roger Krevin Leir was an American podiatric surgeon and ufologist best known as an investigator of alleged alien implants. Leir wrote books such as The Aliens and the Scalpel, and appeared on various radio and television shows, including Coast to Coast AM, claiming he had discovered proof of "non-terrestrial experimentation on man".
Mammoth is a census-designated place that is located in Mount Pleasant Township, Westmoreland County in the state of Pennsylvania, United States, with its own post office and postal zip code: 15664.
Barney and Betty Hill were an American couple who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire from September 19 to 20, 1961. The incident came to be called the "Hill Abduction" and the "Zeta Reticuli Incident" because two ufologists connected the star map shown to Betty Hill with the Zeta Reticuli system. Their story was adapted into the best-selling 1966 book The Interrupted Journey and the 1975 television film The UFO Incident.
The Roswell Incident is a 1980 book by Charles Berlitz and William Moore. The book helped to popularize stories of unusual debris recovered in 1947 by personnel of the Roswell Army Air Field.
