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

[EnolaGaia]

The CUFOS archive includes two photographs taken by Hynek's party when they first arrived at Simonton's home. Simonton wasn't there when they arrived. One illustrates Simonton's house with his driveway in the foreground. The other was taken in the opposite direction - in the driveway looking away from the house toward an outbuilding. I don't know whether the outbuilding is Simonton's chicken house.

 

[BS3]

Yes - something along that line.

To my mind the the most telling bit was Simonton's mention of the 'spokesman' visitor closing the 'hatch' by pulling it closed with an attached cord or rope. It instantly reminded me of a food / concession truck that used a large swing-open closure for its service window.

Good idea - I mentioned upthread that this strange detail could possibly be key to identifying what Simonton saw.

I suppose the question is whether Simonton saw, and somehow misidentified, a chrome food truck or whether a chrome food truck perhaps formed part of his mental library of imagery which then became incorporated into a waking dream, hallucination or (if you want to get a bit weirder) cover memory. At this distance I doubt it's possible to tell though it might be worth checking if any fairs or other events of that type were taking place in Wisconsin at the time.

One point that probably isn't relevant, but might just have a bearing is that the judge who seems to have acted as the promoter of this case apparently also had a party sideline as a magician and 'stage hypnotist'.

 

[Paul_Exeter]

Good idea - I mentioned upthread that this strange detail could possibly be key to identifying what Simonton saw.

I suppose the question is whether Simonton saw, and somehow misidentified, a chrome food truck or whether a chrome food truck perhaps formed part of his mental library of imagery which then became incorporated into a waking dream, hallucination or (if you want to get a bit weirder) cover memory. At this distance I doubt it's possible to tell though it might be worth checking if any fairs or other events of that type were taking place in Wisconsin at the time.

One point that probably isn't relevant, but might just have a bearing is that the judge who seems to have acted as the promoter of this case apparently also had a party sideline as a magician and 'stage hypnotist'.

It would be very useful to know if he underwent hypnotic regression

I accept the criticism that this case is too bonkers to have been true and thus trying to rationalise it is clutching at straws. However, I am a subscriber in the Distortion Theory and it is very possible what he saw was just so alien that he could only relate it to the food truck (parallels with the Alan Godfrey UFO and the Futuro house in Todmorden) or the 'other intelligence' drew on this memory to disguise itself and its true intensions.

Unsalted pancakes are the stuff of 'little people' lore and many researchers have drawn parallels between tales of being abducted by the 'little people' and tales of UFO abduction (as already noted on this thread).

Ultimately, we will never know but it remains a small piece of the jigsaw

 

[Austin Popper]

The "little people" or trickster angles make some sense. Simonton's narrative sounds like a weird dream in some ways. There are many such UFO reports, and silly details that don't add up are often present. It's often suggested that many UFO reports are the result of what might have been seen as an encounter with the little people in past times. One interprets things in a way that makes sense, if possible. Anyone of reasonable intelligence in the US in 1961 would be well aware of the space race, as well as UFO reports, unless they lived deep in a forest and had severed all contact with the world at large, or were two years old.

Same with camper trailers, food trucks, shiny airplanes or whatnot. The idea that he got confused by an Airstream but showed no other signs of psychosis is just painfully over the top. I'd sooner believe it was aliens from a not very technically advanced planet. The idea that people on other worlds less technically capable, finding a way to travel to other dimensions, is one that's sometimes considered, and that's a lot less repulsive to me than assuming a farmer in Wisconsin was so foolish as to confuse a caravan with something to report to the air force or whatever. Then, we need the investigators to be so incompetent that they fail to notice the guy is prone to hallucinations or worse. I just don't get why people try to mangle, contort, and torture a person's story into some way they could have somehow been confused. Maybe Simonton was trying to figure out how to make pancakes, and decided to have some fun with the unfortunate results. The chances of our finding out are nil. The chances of our figuring it out are smaller yet.

 

[BS3]

It would be very useful to know if he underwent hypnotic regression

I accept the criticism that this case is too bonkers to have been true and thus trying to rationalise it is clutching at straws. However, I am a subscriber in the Distortion Theory and it is very possible what he saw was just so alien that he could only relate it to the food truck (parallels with the Alan Godfrey UFO and the Futuro house in Todmorden) or the 'other intelligence' drew on this memory to disguise itself and its true intensions.

Unsalted pancakes are the stuff of 'little people' lore and many researchers have drawn parallels between tales of being abducted by the 'little people' and tales of UFO abduction (as already noted on this thread).

Ultimately, we will never know but it remains a small piece of the jigsaw

I'd argue that rather than being too bonkers to be true, it's too bonkers to be a complete fabrication.

 

[EnolaGaia]

One point that probably isn't relevant, but might just have a bearing is that the judge who seems to have acted as the promoter of this case apparently also had a party sideline as a magician and 'stage hypnotist'.

I haven't found anything to indicate Judge Carter hypnotized Simonton, but Carter definitely exerted a personal influence on the affair.

It's clear from the various investigators' documentation that Judge Carter inserted himself into the process of publicizing the incident and serving as a sort of local stage manager for the story.

It's also clear that Judge Carter expected the organization in which he was a member (NICAP) would take the lead on investigating the incident and analyzing the pancake evidence, and he induced apprehension in Simonton and other townspeople toward any USAF / Project Blue Book folks who came to town.

In the end, it was the reverse - the NICAP folks and allies (e.g., CSI-NY) tripped over their own feet and fretted over finances, while the Blue Book contingent obtained analysis results.

Carter hounded NICAP and made no secret of his displeasure with their actions (or lack thereof), adding to the embarrassment NICAP confessed about their involvement and their overall aversion to the incident. Hynek's party had to overcome Simonton's and townsfolk's apprehensions just to gather basic details. In other words, Carter managed to obstruct or negatively influence both teams.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... At this distance I doubt it's possible to tell though it might be worth checking if any fairs or other events of that type were taking place in Wisconsin at the time. ...

I've done some scanning for event possibilities, but so far I haven't found any records for spring 1961.

It is clear that Eagle River's tourism-based economy placed a premium on drawing folks into town for winter sports and outdoor recreation activities. Eagle River is located centrally in a north woods / lakes region, with extensive national forests and wilderness areas to the north and east. It's ideally located to serve as a hub or gateway for recreational tourists.

The snowmobiling craze hadn't fully emerged as of 1961, but the hockey connection would have been a big deal locally and regionally. There's also the possibility that hunting and / or fishing activities were underway at the time.

One reason I'd like to know the exact location of Simonton's residence is to check whether his home was near any of the major routes running through Eagle River in all directions.

A second reason is to check whether he was situated outside of town to the north, which would place him near the town's airfield or within sight of the airfield's incoming and outgoing traffic.

 

[EnolaGaia]

A note about this photo:

The versions of the documented story that mention where around Simonton's home the object was located state that it was in or around his driveway. The car in this photo is almost certainly in the area of Simonton's "driveway."

Notice the two sets of windows in the house's wall overlooking this driveway area. I'd be willing to bet the set of paired windows on the left are the kitchen windows through which Simonton said he first saw the object either descending or already parked outside (depending on the version of the story).

As to the orientation of the house as illustrated in this photo ... Hynek documented that these pictures were taken circa 1830 local time, while there was still sufficient sunlight. The shadows suggest this side of the house faces west or southwest.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... Maybe Simonton was trying to figure out how to make pancakes, and decided to have some fun with the unfortunate results. ...

About that ... In going through the CUFOS archive documentation I learned that Simonton was in fact married. However, his wife was living and working in the Chicago area at the time. There were no clues as to what type of work she did or how long this work-related separation had been in effect.

If the wife's work-related absence was a new situation it may well have been that Simonton was having to perform cooking chores he hadn't been recently accustomed to doing on his own.

 

[Lb8535]

I'm wondering if what the man actually saw was an Airstream trailer, with ordinary human occupants on board (like the following):

They do have a 'spaceship' aesthetic about them. Maybe the witness had never seen one before?

Exactly what I was thinking except that those in use are rarely that clean.

 

[Lb8535]

Oh for fucksake! I know his story can't possibly be true, so therefore it is not, but a trailer? Really? Was this trailer somehow not towed by a vehicle of some type? Really, the lengths people go to in order to rationalize things around here sometimes astound me. I expect it on sited populated by (apparently) less intelligent people, but here? Christ on a crutch.

Not necessarily. The bright shiny food truck up a few posts is self-driving. I don't know anything about Simonton's background, education, did he stick close to home, did he work in town, did he drink to excess. But I'd bet on unusual looking trailer before I'd start talking about aliens.

 

[Austin Popper]

I haven't found anything to indicate Judge Carter hypnotized Simonton, but Carter definitely exerted a personal influence on the affair.

It's clear from the various investigators' documentation that Judge Carter inserted himself into the process of publicizing the incident and serving as a sort of local stage manager for the story.

It's also clear that Judge Carter expected the organization in which he was a member (NICAP) would take the lead on investigating the incident and analyzing the pancake evidence, and he induced apprehension in Simonton and other townspeople toward any USAF / Project Blue Book folks who came to town.

In the end, it was the reverse - the NICAP folks and allies (e.g., CSI-NY) tripped over their own feet and fretted over finances, while the Blue Book contingent obtained analysis results.

Carter hounded NICAP and made no secret of his displeasure with their actions (or lack thereof), adding to the embarrassment NICAP confessed about their involvement and their overall aversion to the incident. Hynek's party had to overcome Simonton's and townsfolk's apprehensions just to gather basic details. In other words, Carter managed to obstruct or negatively influence both teams.

NICAP was, apparently, notorious for being very squeamish about "occupant" reports. According to one author (I don't recall who it was) they were all about objects, physical evidence like radar records, and the physics of apparent propulsion, but they seemed to fear the idea that the saucers might contain beings would bring ridicule on them. They did seem to enjoy a high standing in the field in those days, and had quite a few active military officers in their membership, so they may well have been loathe to endanger their status. It has been quite a while since I read that, but I have not seen anything since that time to make me think the author was wrong about it.

As for Carter, don't you just love self-appointed expert publicists? It's interesting to consider that Hynek could have taken his august presence and his boxes of Blue Book files to NICAP or anywhere else when he quit working for the Air Force, but he chose to start his own organization.

 

[Austin Popper]

Not necessarily. The bright shiny food truck up a few posts is self-driving. I don't know anything about Simonton's background, education, did he stick close to home, did he work in town, did he drink to excess. But I'd bet on unusual looking trailer before I'd start talking about aliens.

So now it's a time-traveling, self-driving food truck. Perfect.

We're talking about some sort of road vehicle pulling in a few feet from Joe's house, and Joe subsequently calling the Air Force or whoever to report strange looking people in a flying saucer. Believe whatever you like. We all have to sleep at night.

 

[Lb8535]

So now it's a time-traveling, self-driving food truck. Perfect.

We're talking about some sort of road vehicle pulling in a few feet from Joe's house, and Joe subsequently calling the Air Force or whoever to report strange looking people in a flying saucer. Believe whatever you like. We all have to sleep at night.

I'd still bet on an unusual looking trailer (at least to him) before I'd go for aliens.

 

[Austin Popper]

I'd still bet on an unusual looking trailer (at least to him) before I'd go for aliens.

So alien visitors are impossible? I'm not willing to assume Joe was a moron, which he would have to be in order to make that kind of "error", without some evidence. I don't see any.

 

[Fluttermoth]

So alien visitors are impossible? I'm not willing to assume Joe was a moron, which he would have to be in order to make that kind of "error", without some evidence. I don't see any.

They're not impossible, but we know that humans are not very reliable witnesses, and that people can be mistaken in many circumstances.

On the other hand, we have zero reliable evidence of any alien visitors, ever.

I find it much more credible that one man could be mistaken about an unusual encounter, than that we're being visited by an alien intelligence, against all current scientific knowledge.

 

[Austin Popper]

This place seems to be an arm of NICAP. I have to wonder why some of y'all are here. Well, OK, ghosts are pretty safe.

 

[EnolaGaia]

NICAP was, apparently, notorious for being very squeamish about "occupant" reports. According to one author (I don't recall who it was) they were all about objects, physical evidence like radar records, and the physics of apparent propulsion, but they seemed to fear the idea that the saucers might contain beings would bring ridicule on them. They did seem to enjoy a high standing in the field in those days, and had quite a few active military officers in their membership, so they may well have been loathe to endanger their status. ...

If you plow through the CUFOS archive documentation you'll see there was similar self-referential second-guessing among the Blue Book folks as well.

If it weren't for the pancakes, Hynek probably wouldn't have bothered to investigate the incident at all. He mentions multiple times that their policy was to downgrade their evaluation of any incident that relied solely on the testimony of a single witness with no corroborating evidence or third-party testimony. It seems that the alleged physical evidence represented by the pancakes was the key to his decision to investigate.

More broadly ... Both the NICAP and Blue Book files provide interesting insights into the investigation as a personal experience for the investigators, as well as citing contextual factors (e.g., their organizations' perceived purpose and status) that were concerns in guiding their inquiries and actions.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The CUFOS PDF archives each contain a copy of a brochure or flyer authored by Simonton and sold as a souvenir. It's not clear when this document was created and first sold nor how and when NICAP and Blue Book obtained their (different) specimens.

The flyer consists of a single card or sheet with 3 mini pages of content on each side.

Here are images of one specimen.

 

[Aether Blue]

This alleged encounter, taken at face value, is actually far more mundane than people make it out to be.

A small group of people in a private vehicle with limited supplies get turned around and run out of potable liquids. Approaching a local, they gesture for water, and receiving some, offer a gift of food prepared on a camp stove as recompense.

Has nobody ever been in a similar situation?

Yes, the witness could be lying, mistaken, or a complete idiot. But how much more psychologically natural could an encounter with travelers be? People who are going about their business are usually too preoccupied to start vaporizing natives, or to demand audiences with local leaders.

Up until very recently, humans hand-picked the best of the best of the best of us for missions off of our planet. Once a whole civilization acquires the means to travel between inhabited worlds, whether via outer space, parallel universes, or ways that we can't even imagine, their ordinary folks get around too.

I often refer to the possibility of encounters with alien Beavises and Buttheads, but more likely still are encounters with alien Joe and Jane Q. Normal out on holiday. Quite a few alleged encounters smack heavily of banality. For example, the Lonnie Zamora sighting reminds me of a time when I had to get out and help push a car to jumpstart the engine.

How would YOU react when out of supplies in an unfamiliar place, and perhaps coping with engine trouble, and the local wildlife gathers around to watch your struggles?

Of course, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. This event remains unproven. My point is that the alleged behavior of the alleged travelers is perhaps the most natural part of the whole story.

 

[BS3]

The CUFOS PDF archives each contain a copy of a brochure or flyer authored by Simonton and sold as a souvenir. It's not clear when this document was created and first sold nor how and when NICAP and Blue Book obtained their (different) specimens.

The flyer consists of a single card or sheet with 3 mini pages of content on each side.

Here are images of one specimen.

View attachment 51748

View attachment 51749​

Interesting to see Simonton's comment that he didn't actually intend to ask for the pancakes, but was just trying to convey the idea of eating by way of communicating with the visitors. I'd actually wondered about the plumber / chicken farmer confusion as well!

 

[EnolaGaia]

The little brochure / flyer was evidently written circa two months after the incident (see the uppermost paragraph above Simonton's signature).

Another point that wasn't mentioned in the earlier / original reports was the bit concerning two "cable-like" things connecting one of the control panels and the grill to the visitor attending to each of these items. These things apparently connected to the attending visitor's mid-section, and Simonton described them as resembling a safety belt.

 

[stu neville]

I'd argue that rather than being too bonkers to be true, it's too bonkers to be a complete fabrication.

Yeah - that's one of the things that makes me unwilling to dismiss it wholesale.

 

[BS3]

I've done some scanning for event possibilities, but so far I haven't found any records for spring 1961.

It is clear that Eagle River's tourism-based economy placed a premium on drawing folks into town for winter sports and outdoor recreation activities. Eagle River is located centrally in a north woods / lakes region, with extensive national forests and wilderness areas to the north and east. It's ideally located to serve as a hub or gateway for recreational tourists.

The snowmobiling craze hadn't fully emerged as of 1961, but the hockey connection would have been a big deal locally and regionally. There's also the possibility that hunting and / or fishing activities were underway at the time.

One reason I'd like to know the exact location of Simonton's residence is to check whether his home was near any of the major routes running through Eagle River in all directions.

A second reason is to check whether he was situated outside of town to the north, which would place him near the town's airfield or within sight of the airfield's incoming and outgoing traffic.

As far as roads go the best I can find is that the claimed corroborative sighting was from State Route 70, about a mile from Simonton's house. This doesn't tell us how close the road came to the Simonton residence however.

I also note that he is described in some places as living "south of town"; however the leaflet you posted suggests that he was underneath a flight path.

 

[EnolaGaia]

... I also note that he is described in some places as living "south of town"; however the leaflet you posted suggests that he was underneath a flight path.

In the leaflet / flyer he refers to aerial refueling operations and jets, which almost certainly refers to military aircraft. These would be USAF ops associated with either Sawyer AFB (circa 80 - 100 miles to the east / northeast) or Kincheloe AFB (much farther east in Michigan's Upper Peninsula). Both bases were affiliated with SAC and operated bombers, fighters, and tankers around the time of the incident.

 

[EnolaGaia]

As far as roads go the best I can find is that the claimed corroborative sighting was from State Route 70, about a mile from Simonton's house. This doesn't tell us how close the road came to the Simonton residence however. ...

State Route 70 runs east / west and passes through the southern margins of Eagle River. If the Simonton residence was 4 miles out of town to the south it wasn't on or near Route 70.

 

[EnolaGaia]

The A.P.R.O. Bulletin (May 1961 issue) covered the Simonton incident in a headline article entitled "The Case Of The Interplanetary Cookies." The complete issue can be accessed as a PDF file at:

https://www.openminds.tv/pdf/apro/apro_may_1961.pdf

 

[EnolaGaia]

As far as roads go the best I can find is that the claimed corroborative sighting was from State Route 70, about a mile from Simonton's house. This doesn't tell us how close the road came to the Simonton residence however. ...

The A.P.R.O. Bulletin article describes the corroborating sighting as follows:

 

[EnolaGaia]

I found an early published account of the incident in The Saucerian Bulletin (Vol. 6, No. 1; Release Dec. 31 1961).
The headline for the issue was " 'Cakes' from Saucer Men."

The entire issue can be downloaded as a PDF file from:
http://www.cufos.org/Saucerian/1961_12_31_Saucerian_Bulletin_Vol-6#1(W#24).pdf

The featured article - entitled "Judge Avers Story True" - was written by Judge Carter. It relates the judge's account of being contacted by Simonton, his interviewing Joe, and various points about the scenario and the sighting / incident.

The incident occurred circa 1100 on Tuesday, 18 April. Simonton attempted to contact Judge Carter during the following days because he knew the judge was the leader of the local UFO study / discussion group. Simonton was unable to contact the busy judge until the night of Friday, 21 April. The judge's article was his report on the Friday night interview with Simonton.

The editor noted that the judge's report was mailed to The Saucerian Bulletin on 23 June. The editor apologized for circumstances having delayed his publishing the judge's report until the end of the year (i.e., circa 6 months later).

Miscellaneous Tidbits:

- Simonton's wife had spent the winter in Chicago.

- The Simonton home was west of Eagle River. Judge Carter wrote of Simonton:

He lives four miles out in the country, west of the city of Eagle River.

- Simonton's description of the object's arrival was reported as follows:

"About 11 O'Clock A.M., Tuesday, April 18, I heard a noise something like the screech of automobile wheels as a car goes around a sharp bend fast. I was in the house at that time and looked out the window and saw this object of shiny metal come to rest in my driveway near the rear of the house."

 

[BS3]

If you were looking for evidence of what, in this case, you'd have to call the 'Airstream hypothesis', "Come to rest" is very neutral compared to "landed" or "dropped onto". Maybe the completely unexpected sight of a shiny object in his driveway was enough to shock him into a trancelike state, explaining the slightly more exotic mode of departure? (The detail of the trees shaking as the object departs is something I've noticed in a few other narratives - eg Trans-en-Provence).

Anyway, it's great to see some contemporary documentation on this case.

One point that I have seen made is that Simonton refused to follow the familiar 'contactee' pattern of becoming a repeat experiencer - however I also understand that in an interview with a ufologist several years later, Simonton claimed that the visitors had since returned, but that the response to his first story had been so discouraging that he hadn't bothered telling anyone.