The Martin Lowth account of the Rex Ball story (the link I cited earlier) is itself based on a 2006 article by one Martin S. Kottmeyer.
I've finally found Kottmeyer's article. It appears in the January / February 2006 edition of
The REALL News - "The official newsletter of the Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land." This is an admitted rationalist / skeptic organization based in Springfield, Illinois.
The Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) educational and scientific organization. It is dedicated to the development of rational thinking and the application of the scientific method toward claims of the paranormal and fringe-science phenomena.
http://www.reall.org/newsletter/v14/n01/reall-news-v14-n01.pdf
Having set the background ...
Kottmeyer acknowledges the 1968 Chase book (
Document 96) as the story's source, and gives no hint of identifying, seeking, or suspecting any earlier source. He then launches into telling the Rex Ball story, giving the reader the impression he's simply relating what he found in Chase's book.
Kottmeyer relates Ball's story with more details than most, if not all, the other accounts I've found. The extent to which Kottmeyer's retelling is faithful to the Chase account is anybody's guess.
Kottmeyer goes on to critically review and analyze the story. He doesn't state his conclusions all that clearly or firmly, but it seems he considers the Rex Ball story to be a composite or fabrication that probably originated in the 1960's. He is pretty clear in claiming the 1940 setting is a false memory or dream feature reported as if it were fact.
Some miscellaneous comments ...
Kottmeyer's account never mentions anything about Georgia, never mentions Ball's residence location, and cites Geneseo solely as the place where Ball woke up after the incident. It's reasonably clear Kottmeyer is operating on the presumption Ball lived and worked in Geneseo, but there's nothing that confirms this in the text.
Kottmeyer relates the story as having occurred to Ball "in the middle of" a long drive from Detroit to (presumably) Geneseo. Geneseo IL is in northwest Illinois, and a drive from Detroit to Geneseo is on the order of 400 miles nowadays, rated for a probable drive time of circa 6+ hours on modern expressways. In 1940 it wouldn't be unreasonable to estimate this trip could easily take 150 - 200% as long to complete (i.e., circa 9 - 12 hours).
I find it odd that the incident is described as occurring sometime "in the middle of" the trip, with Ball remembering nothing between the close of the anomalous series of events and his waking up in Geneseo. My point is that this account still gives us no idea where the incident actually occurred. The only area along that route which
doesn't match the story would be the greater Chicago metro area. If the incident didn't occur near the trip's end in or near Geneseo it could have happened in Michigan, Indiana, or Illinois.
The Kottmeyer account is published with an image copied from the Chase book. It shows a classic saucer craft hovering near the ground. There's no confirmation this drawing was made by, or even reviewed by, Ball. This purported allusion to a saucer-like craft is one of the features that Kottmeyer takes as evidence the story was fabricated - or at least embellished - with elements dating from later than 1940.