Aurora, Texas, UFO incident

The Aurora, Texas, UFO incident reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897. According to a contemporary newspaper account, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas,[1] resulting in the death of the extraterrestrial pilot.[2] Supposedly, the alien was buried in the Aurora Cemetery.[3]

Original newspaper article describing the incident, by S. E. Haydon, "A Windmill Demolishes It," The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897, p. 5.

Background
Main article: Mystery airship

During the last two decades of the 19th century, there were reports from around the world of mysterious airships.[4] In the United States, numerous newspaper accounts of airship sightings were published in late 1896 and early 1897. Some claimed that the occupants of the craft identified themselves as being from Mars.[5]

Original report
Aurora, Texas, UFO incident is located in Texas
Aurora, Texas, UFO incident
The location of Aurora, near Dallas, Texas

An article written by S.E. Haydon[lower-alpha 1] and published in the Dallas Morning News on April 19, 1897, described the crash two days earlier of "the airship which has been sailing through the country." The craft suddenly appeared over Aurora at about 6 a.m. local time on April 17, 1897. It was "much nearer the earth than ever before", and "evidently some of the machinery was out of order". The ship subsequently "collided with the tower of Judge [J.S.][6] Proctor's windmill and went to pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres". The pilot, presumed to be the sole occupant, was killed. Examination of his remains indicated that "he was not an inhabitant of this world." T.J. Weems, from nearby Fort Worth, whom Haydon described as "the United States signal service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy," opined that the pilot was "a native of the planet Mars." A funeral was planned for the alien on April 20. Papers found on his body after the crash contained writings "in some unknown hieroglyphics," which, according to Haydon, appeared to record the pilot's travels. Haydon noted that the ship was made of "an unknown metal".[2][6][7][8][9]

Later events
A Texas Historical Commission marker outside the Aurora Cemetery, alleged burial site of the UFO pilot, which briefly mentions the incident.

The alien was supposedly buried at the Aurora Cemetery nearby.[3][6][8][10] Reportedly, some wreckage from the crash was dumped into a well under the windmill, and some was buried with the pilot.[11] A Texas Historical Commission marker posted outside of the Aurora Cemetery mentions the UFO incident, characterizing it as a "legend".[8][10]

A brief Time magazine article on the Aurora incident, published in 1979, noted that Haydon's "tale ... was generally ridiculed at the time, and most citizens of Aurora still scoff". The article quoted 86-year-old Aurora resident Etta Pegues, who said that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora ... The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying. ... Why, the judge never even had a windmill."[6]

The Aurora incident is satirized on The Firesign Theatre's 1974 comedy album Everything You Know Is Wrong.[12]

The 1986 movie The Aurora Encounter is a dramatization of the Aurora incident.

Aurora (2019) is an independent short film co-written and co-directed by musician and historian Thomas Negovan and Aaron Shaps. It dramatizes the incident and combines it with the Nazi conspiracy theory Die Glocke.[13]

The Aurora incident is a key plot point in the BBC Sounds science fiction audio drama The Cipher (2020).

See also

Notes
  1. Haydon's name is spelled Hayden in some reports.

References
  1. "Aurora Texas Crash Part 1" (PDF). MUFON. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-02-04. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
  2. Haydon, S.E. (19 April 1897). "A Windmill Demolishes It". Dallas Morning News. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  3. McNabb, Max. "The 1897 Aurora, Texas, UFO Crash & the 'Alien' Buried in the Cemetery". Texas Hill Country. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  4. Clark, Jerome (1993), Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena, Detroit: Visible Ink Press, ISBN 0-8103-9436-7.
  5. Reece, Gregory L. (August 21, 2007). UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture. I. B. Tauris. pp. 11–13. ISBN 978-1-84511-451-0.
  6. "Close Encounters of a Kind". Time. 1979-03-12. Archived from the original on November 2, 2007. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
  7. "Aliens: a conspiracy out of this world". BBC News. 1998-10-02. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
  8. Fink, Mike (2004-02-17). "Alien country: Earthlings welcome". CNN. Retrieved 2007-04-12.
  9. Bills, E. R. Texas Obscurities: Stories of the Peculiar, Exceptional and Nefarious. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2013.
  10. "Space Alien Buried Here". Roadside America. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  11. Murphy, Neal. "The Texas UFO". Shelby County Today. SCT Online News Source. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  12. YouTube. Everything You Know Is Wrong (Side A) – The Firesign Theatre . Retrieved 2018-12-3.
  13. Aurora: A film by Thomas Negovan. Retrieved 2019-12-3.
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