• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Historic UFO Encounters: Newspaper / Magazine Articles

1897(?)
F1CqJtX_d.jpg
 
The Austin weekly statesman., April 22, 1897, Page 5

image_681x648_from_41,2007_to_1797,3679_kindlephoto-467618860.jpg


image_681x648_from_436,3681_to_2874,6003 (2)_kindlephoto-468890874.jpg

image_681x648_from_558,5989_to_2251,7602_kindlephoto-469225033.jpg
 

Attachments

  • image_681x648_from_436,3681_to_2874,6003 (1)_kindlephoto-468052148.jpg
    image_681x648_from_436,3681_to_2874,6003 (1)_kindlephoto-468052148.jpg
    80 KB · Views: 7
1897. Cigar-shaped UFO "Airship".
Salt Lake herald. (Salt Lake City [Utah) 1870-1909, November 15, 1897, Page 7

image_681x648_from_172,1339_to_1895,2980_kindlephoto-470552924.jpg
 
Thank you so much for putting in an epic, legendary, shift here.

Conclusions so far...

- It's a foundation of why we have the 'UFO phenomenon'.

- Were any of these reports ever explained?

- A fascinating miscellany, with, 'cigar shaped' objects notably prominent.

- The absence of any reports - except the one I mentioned earlier - which is comparable with what Kenneth Arnold claimed to have witnessed.

Great stuff, more study of same as time permits - that's a helluva lot to take in!
 
Some of them are, but then with some, great pains are taken to describe how they are not like meteors. And when some are observed through binoculars, maneuver, hover for long periods, buzz folks in their cars etc., they are not meteors. Cigar shaped objects with lights maneuvering, or in formation, are not meteors. Objects coming out of the ocean and flying in formation are not meteors. I actually weeded out ball lightning, sprites, Auroras, comets, most meteors and other natural phenomena; there was a lot. In one case a huge ball of blue fire came out of the sky and sheared off the masts of a ship.
 
Ditto with objects seen at close range by pilots or those on the ground. In Australia there seems to be an occasional ball of red plasma that moves about --I didn't include that.
 
The thing that strikes me about the earliest reports is the recurrent allusion to astronomical items (stars, planets, comets, meteors, etc.).

These reports occurred at a time when ordinary people were more familiar with the night sky than their techno-drone descendants are today.
 
An older friend of mine used to work for the Israeli government and was in Portland in the '50s. He was an astronomer, and helped start the Rose City Astronomers. When he was a tween walking with his parents in a stadium parking lot in Portland he looked up and saw this formation of silver discs very high flying in formation over Portland. I've asked many older folks I've met about the wave in Portland, OR. Almost all remember it, about a third actually saw the saucers... Many thought it was "amazing" but were reticent to talk about it.
Tover_0001.png
 
That one sounds like sprites. There aren't many reports of sprites from the period before their discovery, but this might be one.
 
Zigel mentions objects seen in Ukraine were flanked by "first magnitude stars" --like the "star" above the crown.
 
Back
Top