The Aurora Airship
In 1897, a Texas newspaper reported that an airship had crashed into a windmill, and its pilot was 'not an inhabitant of this world'.
What was reported
In 1896 and 1897, newspapers across the United States carried reports of mysterious 'airships' with bright lights crossing the night sky, years before the first aeroplane flew.
On 19 April 1897, the Dallas Morning News printed a report from S.E. Haydon, a correspondent in the small town of Aurora. He wrote that two days earlier an airship had struck a windmill on a judge's land and exploded, scattering strange metal with unreadable writing, and that its small pilot was 'not an inhabitant of this world'.
Explanations offered
Historians think Haydon invented the story, perhaps to draw attention to Aurora, which was declining after the railway passed it by. The judge's farm reportedly had no windmill, and other newspapers of the time ran many similar tall tales during the airship wave. Searches of the town since then have not turned up any proof.
- When
- 17 April 1897
- Where
- Aurora, Wise County, Texas, USA
- Witnesses
- As reported by a local newspaper correspondent
- Status
- Probably a hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.