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The Joe Simonton / Alien Pancakes Case (Wisconsin; 1961)

bob61 said:
i'll have to pick up a copy of his books , might be interesting reading
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Passport to Magonia is a very good place to start - the general depth of thinking about fairies is shallower than you might expect.
 
^Dr Vallee also has a newer one out called 'Wonders in The Sky' which documents many historical 'sightings' that seem similar to what we call ufo events today...some of the events mentioned could easily be atmospheric phenom and I suspect many were..but it still makes for interesting reading imho.
'Passport To Magonia' is similar in listing older events but also develops the 'fairy theme' early on. I enjoyed the other books more in that they not only look into that aspect but also the cult aspects of orgs and people involved with the more mysterious side of the enigma. There have been some very shady people and groups connected to the ufo phenom over the decades.
 
dr wu said:
^Dr Vallee also has a newer one out called 'Wonders in The Sky' which documents many historical 'sightings' that seem similar to what we call ufo events today...some of the events mentioned could easily be atmospheric phenom and I suspect many were..but it still makes for interesting reading imho.
'Passport To Magonia' is similar in listing older events but also develops the 'fairy theme' early on. I enjoyed the other books more in that they not only look into that aspect but also the cult aspects of orgs and people involved with the more mysterious side of the enigma. There have been some very shady people and groups connected to the ufo phenom over the decades.
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Strangely, I liked the later books less because of their inward drift into the UFO discussion process - which was doubtless the territory many found themselves in, once they were played with fake information from various security agencies.

Wonders in the Sky makes a nice catalogue, but again with lack of depth. I think the forward is by Dr Vallee.

The best book I have read on the whole subject is Angels and Aliens, by Keith Thompson. Which puts UFO's in a deeper mythic context. I strongly recommend it.
 
Fahrenheit 451 said:
Strangely, I liked the later books less because of their inward drift into the UFO discussion process - which was doubtless the territory many found themselves in, once they were played with fake information from various security agencies.

Wonders in the Sky makes a nice catalogue, but again with lack of depth. I think the forward is by Dr Vallee.

The best book I have read on the whole subject is Angels and Aliens, by Keith Thompson. Which puts UFO's in a deeper mythic context. I strongly recommend it.
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I have read Angels and Aliens (1991)...many years ago.....interesting one, but I still think for me the single most interesting book is Dimensions(1988)(Invisible College and Messengers were both earlier) by Dr Vallee. IMHO many who wrote books on the subject after him were influenced by his books.
 
Robbrent said:
One of the most insane UFO stories I ever read was about the farmer who got some pancakes off an alien visitor (it's quite a famous one) but it's so bizarre it has to true
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What's most amazing about that is the fact that aliens would eat something with the flavour and texture of cardboard.
You'd think they'd bring some kind of seasoning with them.
 
Mythopoeika said:
What's most amazing about that is the fact that aliens would eat something with the flavour and texture of cardboard.
You'd think they'd bring some kind of seasoning with them.
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Surely depends on what resources their home planet(s) have? Our food would have been much more limited in flavour before we discovered the Spice Islands.

And it might well be in future, if we keep banning / taxing things because they are allegedly bad for us. I can quite get a future where all the population is allowed to eat is a sort of chemically enhanced porridge. Fortunately I won't be there, although I'm already having to carry my own salt and pepper around with me.
 
Cochise said:
Surely depends on what resources their home planet(s) have? Our food would have been much more limited in flavour before we discovered the Spice Islands.

And it might well be in future, if we keep banning / taxing things because they are allegedly bad for us. I can quite get a future where all the population is allowed to eat is a sort of chemically enhanced porridge. Fortunately I won't be there, although I'm already having to carry my own salt and pepper around with me.
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I fear that you may be right. I find myself having to carry around a small jar of chilli sprinkles, and I keep a bottle of Lea and Perrins sauce at work.
 
Mythopoeika said:
What's most amazing about that is the fact that aliens would eat something with the flavour and texture of cardboard.
You'd think they'd bring some kind of seasoning with them.
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It's why they are thinking of invading. Water and minerals are plentiful in space but cardboard..... :bthumbup:
 
Tunn11 said:
It's why they are thinking of invading. Water and minerals are plentiful in space but cardboard..... :bthumbup:
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Maybe that's the reason why the WEF and all governments are strongly advocating a veggie diet? Because the aliens have told us to stop eating meat? Yes, that must be the only possible explanation! :D
 
The Simonton pancake episode is one of my long time favorites, too. Old Joe was quoted as saying his odd visitors "looked like Italians" which makes the bland, flavorless fare all the more, um, improbable. Apparently they were cooking with fire, another novel aspect in UFO lore.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Maybe that's the reason why the WEF and all governments are strongly advocating a veggie diet? Because the aliens have told us to stop eating meat? Yes, that must be the only possible explanation! :D
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Or it could be a misunderstanding:
"No, we meant we're from the star you call Vega. Keep the cows standing about they're very handy when we want to chop a few bits off for a tasty snack."
 
Bannik said:
I always loved the Joe Simonton case. I'm surprised he's never been mentioned on this board.
The embedded link is dead. See later post for the content from the MIA webpage.
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Here is the text from the MIA webpage ...

Frying Saucer​

  • Classification (Hynek): CE5.
  • Witness: Joe Simonton.
  • Time & Place: 11am, April 18 1961; Eagle River, Wisconsin.
  • Entity Type (Lawson): Human.
  • Craft: Flying saucer.
  • Summary: Farmer unimpressed by alien cuisine.

The Interrupted Breakfast​

On the morning of April 18, 1961, sixty-year-old Wisconsin chicken farmer Joe Simonton was eating breakfast when he heard a strange rumbling sound "like knobby tires on a wet pavement".

Stepping outside to investigate, he discovered a 30ft-long flying saucer, "brighter than chrome", hovering in his front yard. A hatch was open in the side of the craft, revealing an interior lined with "extremely beautiful" instrument panels that were humming like electric generators. ...

Inside the saucer sat three dark-skinned humanoids "resembling Italians", who were clad in blue knitted turtleneck uniforms complete with knitted helmets. Stranger still, they were gathered around a "flameless grill" busily cooking something.

One of the men came to the hatch and held out an empty jug. Guessing that he was being asked for water, Simonton took the jug into his kitchen and filled it up. Handing it back to the humanoid, he received three small pancakes in return.

Their business with him apparently concluded, one of the entities attached a line to a hook on its clothing and pulled the hatch shut. The craft rose slowly into the air to a height of 20 feet, then sped away at breakneck speed, bending some nearby pine trees with the force of its backdraft.

Eating the Evidence​

Simonton reported the incident to the US Air Force, who had one of the pancakes analysed by the Department of Health. They concluded that it was a perfectly ordinary buckwheat pancake, although lacking in salt. Another of the pancakes was tested the UFO research group NICAP, with identical results.

Simonton analysed the third pancake himself - by eating it! "It tasted like cardboard," he declared, adding ruefully "If it happened again, I don't think I'd tell anybody about it".
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SALVAGED FROM THE WAYBACK MACHINE:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060720175124/http://graylien.buildtolearn.net/simonton.html
 
One of my favourite cases of all time, if only as it made nuts-and-bolts ETH types very uncomfortable precisely by being almost incredibly nuts-and-bolts. The fact that Simonton had not only physical evidence but also a corroborating witness, an insurance salesman who was driving nearby, makes it even more remarkable. It's also nice to see occupants doing something logical and understandable, rather than just menacing the witness or acting incomprehensibly.

I think that if it was at all possible - and it isn't - to crack exactly what happened here, whether that was a massive leg-pull by the witness, a waking dream, a hallucinatory episode, a 'screen' experience for something stranger, or a genuine interaction with a spacefaring chip van, you'd have cracked the UFO mystery.

I wonder what happened to the two pancakes that Simonton didn't eat? Is one still mouldering in an Air Force file somewhere?
 
You could do a great cinematic treatment of the Simonton story. I'd cast Gene Hackman as Simonton and John Turturro would make a convincing pancake chef
 
BS3 said:
You could do a great cinematic treatment of the Simonton story. I'd cast Gene Hackman as Simonton and John Turturro would make a convincing pancake chef
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They'd each need to do a long monologue while cooking the pancakes.
 
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one of the entities attached a line to a hook on its clothing and pulled the hatch shut
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This detail from the sighting is really quite odd. That aliens would have to close the door of their spacecraft with a bit of string seems....unlikely; I mean I'm pretty sure that power assisted boot (or trunk) lids were available on American cars by that point. If Simonton made up the whole thing, why not a futuristic power assisted hatch? Is there anything here which might provide a clue, however slight, to what he was seeing?
 
BS3 said:
This detail from the sighting is really quite odd. That aliens would have to close the door of their spacecraft with a bit of string seems....unlikely; I mean I'm pretty sure that power assisted boot (or trunk) lids were available on American cars by that point. If Simonton made up the whole thing, why not a futuristic power assisted hatch? Is there anything here which might provide a clue, however slight, to what he was seeing?
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Good point.

Many contactee/CE3/4 cases from the 20th Century tell of UFO control panels with “levers” and “dials”, hardly the cockpit technology we have now, never mind an advanced alien race capable of travelling between stars/dimensions.
 
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WeirdExeter said:
Good point.

Many contactee/CE3/4 cases from the 20th Century tell of UFO control panels with “levers” and “dials”, hardly the cockpit technology we have now, never mind an advanced alien race capable of travelling between stars/dimensions.
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It's clear that witnesses are drawing on their existing understanding of the world, even during a 'novel' experience. But details such as the string-operated hatch surely cannot be intentionally made up, unless the people making up such stories are incredibly naive. I think Martin Kottmeyer pointed out a 50s case with almost impeccable details - corroborating witnesses, possible physical traces etc - 'classic' material, in any case. But the saucer had propellers, so no present day ufologist would touch it with a bargepole.

The stock photo of Simonton below (pity about the watermarks) to me suggests someone with a puckish sense of humour. Not very scientific, but still...

https://www.alamy.com/ufo-unidentif...ieces-of-bread-or-pancake-image179660253.html
 
The propeller-powered saucer was William Squyres, Pittsburgh, Kansas, 1952:

https://web.archive.org/web/20051224230545/http://www.magonia.demon.co.uk/arc/00/ms28.html

The craft supposedly left a large circle of flattened grass, confirmed by other witnesses; Squyres was considered a "completely reliable" individual and best of all, had a wooden leg, so would have been unable to even get into the field where the grass was flattened, let alone flatten it. Squyres himself thought it was a secret government project.

These really are the sort of cases which make you speculate whether something is...fooling..with us, to put it politely.
 
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So what would your reaction be if you had a Joe Simonton event ?

Would you keep it to yourself fearing ridicule from people ?

Be angry because you have no one to back up your story ?

Wanting to tell everyone about seeing an UFO and not caring what they think ?

I believe Joe because he told it like it was without fear.

Most people in ufology like Joe never change their story because they are sure this happened to them.
 
The Simonton case was brought to the attention of the USAF, NICAP and CUFOS.

The largest cache I've found of documentation on the Simonton investigation is the CUFOS archive.

Here is the CUFOS archive on NICAP involvement, which is available as a single PDF file:

http://www.cufos.org/cases/1961_04_18_US_WI_Eagle-River_NICAP_Simonton-CE-III.pdf

The correspondence contained in this archive illustrates how analysis of the pancakes was delayed time and again. The process often stalled because someone didn't have the money to pay for the analytical services.
 
Mythopoeika said:
I fear that you may be right. I find myself having to carry around a small jar of chilli sprinkles, and I keep a bottle of Lea and Perrins sauce at work.
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I have Franks Red Hot sauce at work. Everything is so bland now.
 
EnolaGaia said:
The largest cache I've found of documentation on the Simonton investigation is the CUFOS archive. ...
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Here are 3 additional compilations of documentation archived at CUFOS. All are accessible as single PDF files.

Miscellaneous case documentation from Hynek investigation
http://www.cufos.org/cases/1961_04_18_US_WI_Eagle-River_HYNEK_Simonton-CE-III.pdf

Miscellaneous correspondence and record documentation: Analyzing the pancake
http://www.cufos.org/cases/1961_04_18_US_WI_Eagle-River_MEBANE_Simonton-CE-III.pdf

International UFO Reporter, Vol. 21, no. 1 (Spring 1996)
Summary article on the Simonton incident and investigation.
http://www.cufos.org/cases/1961_04_18_US_WI_Eagle-River_CLARK_IUR.pdf
 
EnolaGaia said:
The Simonton case was brought to the attention of the USAF, NICAP and CUFOS.

The largest cache I've found of documentation on the Simonton investigation is the CUFOS archive.

Here is the CUFOS archive on NICAP involvement, which is available as a single PDF file:

http://www.cufos.org/cases/1961_04_18_US_WI_Eagle-River_NICAP_Simonton-CE-III.pdf

The correspondence contained in this archive illustrates how analysis of the pancakes was delayed time and again. The process often stalled because someone didn't have the money to pay for the analytical services.
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So was ot a myth or sort of true
 
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