Mike Kelley

What was it, anyway?

Almost 100 years later, people are still trying to figure that out. Was it a craft from another planet? Was it the first successful flying machine for which, inexplicably, no one came forward to take credit? Or was it just some sort of mass hallucination?

In late 1896, there were reported sightings of an "airship" along the West Coast. These spread, in the early months of 1897, to the Midwestern states and down into Texas. This, remember, was several years before the Wright brothers made their historic flight in December 1903.

My colleague Billy Porterfield has done considerable research on reports during this period that a spaceship supposedly crashed in the town of Aurora, up in Wise County, with its occupant being buried there. Perhaps he will tell you about that.

For a complete accounting of all this, you may want to read The Great Texas Airship Mystery by Texas author Wallace O. Chariton.

On a few occasions, there were practically simultaneous sightings of the craft at widely removed locations, leading some to speculate that there were more than one and perhaps as many as five.

Typically, the ship was described as being cigar-shaped, usually with an extremely bright light that shone on the ground. Often, it was reported to have what appeared to be lighted windows along either side.

It (or they) seemed to land often to take on water. In most instances in which people said they actually had seen the ship on the ground, and in a few cases in which people reported talking to the entirely human occupants, the landings were for getting water or making mechanical repair.

No close encounters of that kind were reported here. But Austin had a couple of sightings in April 1897.

The Austin Daily Statesman of April 26 reported that three young men, whom the newspaper named, had gone camping on Bull Creek, pitching their tents at Huddle's Point.

 

"About 3 o'clock yesterday morning, it began to rain and the young men were compelled to get up and fasten their tent. It was at this time they saw the mysterious air craft. They claim it was in sight fully fifteen minutes and are positive they could not have been mistaken. At intervals of every few seconds it would throw its searchlights, and the boys said the light looked as big as four ordinary arc lights. It made its appearance from behind Mount Bonnell and traveled north."

Three days later, "The airship, carrying a large headlight, passed over the city yesterday morning, apparently about 300 or 400 feet above the earth."

The newspaper quoted one Otto F. Porsch, "an intelligent and wholly reliable gentlemen living at the corner of Colorado and Second Streets."

Porsch said that he was awakened early in the morning by his dogs barking. He went outside, looked up and "'saw a great light slowly moving over the Salge Hotel. It was coming from the southeast and moved in a northwesterly direction.... It traveled very slow, the light being so blinding that I could not see the shape of the vehicle. ...After it had passed me, I could see the shape of the rear end of the vessel, and it appeared to be in this shape,' and Mr. Porsch arranged his hands in a V shape, somewhat like the tail of a fish."

The Statesman, as did many newspapers, took all this less than seriously. The paper reported that its "mystery man," who claimed inside knowledge of the phenomenon, explained that the ship was a military reconnaissance craft from Mars, investigating to see what reinforcements we'd need when the country was invaded by the allied armies of Europe. "The city editor and telegraph man were profoundly impressed," the newspaper said, "and last night they slept under a table in the editorial rooms."

In early May, the sightings tapered off and then ceased altogether. Leaving us, 97 years later, to wonder as so many people did back then, was something really there? And if so, what was it, anyway?

Mike Kelley writes a humor column on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Austin American-Statesman.