FIntroduction to the Airship wave of 1896-97                           F                                                                      FFrom November of 1896 to mid 1897, there was a wave                   Fof sightings across the United States of lights in the                Fsky.  These lights were said to be from some type of                  Fairship. This was more than four years before the first               Frecorded flight of an airship on Earth.  This has led                 Fa number people to believe that this wave of sightings                Fwas the result of UFO activity over the U.S.  This is                 Fprobably incorrect.  There is a very high degree of                   Fprobability that these sightings resulted from test flights           Fof one or more airships being built at the time.  By                  Fcarefully analyzing sighting reports of the time, it                  Fmight be possible to outline a general flight path of at              Fleast one airship.  The problem with this approach is                 Fthat at the time, telegraphs were new and many small                  Ftown telegraph operators might have invented airship                  Fsightings in order to transmit them up and down the                   Ftelegraph lines.  Also, many newspapers, always on the                Flookout for sensational stories, might have invented                  Fthese stories as well.  In this section, we have tried                Fto include only those reports which seem to have some                 Fbasis in fact.                                                        F                                                                      FAnother possible theory which has been put forth is that              Fthe airships really were UFO's but that the people of the             Ftime used the only words that they knew to describe what              Fthey were seeing.  In other words, they tended to describe            FUFO's as airships.  This is called cultural tracking.                 F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Merkel, TX                                                   F                                                                      FThroughout the airship wave of 1896-97, there are several             Freports of airships trailing anchors across the ground as             Fthey flew.  One such report comes from Merkel, TX where a             Fman found an airship with an anchor caught on a railroad              Frail.  There was a person descending the rope in order to             Fcut the anchor free.  After the airship had gone on its               Fway, the anchor was retrieved from the rail and became an             Fexhibit in the local blacksmith's shop.                               F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Barclay, John M.                                             F                                                                      FOn April 21, 1897, John M. Barclay's attention was drawn              Fto an airship by its whining noise and the barking of his             Fdog.  He watched the airship circle several times and then            Fland.  The most striking feature of the airship was its               Fbright light.  A man disembarked from the airship and                 Fapproached Barclay, asking for tools, equipment and oil,              Foffering american money in exchange.  Mr. Barclay went                Finto town and purchased the items.  He returned and gave              Fthem to the man from the airship who called himself Smith.            FAfter a short repair time, the airship lifted off and sped            Faway at high speed.  Another report from the same area and            Fabout thirty minutes later came from a man named Frank                FNichols who reported hearing a deep whirring noise and                Fseeing a brilliant light in the sky.                                  F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Benjamin, Dr. E.H.                                           F                                                                      FDuring the airship flap of 1896-97, there was much                    Fspeculation as to the origin of the airship(s).  Many                 Fpeople believed that the airships were the invention of               Fmen who were ahead of their time.  One likely candidate               Fwas a Dr. E.H. Benjamin, a dentist who was identified by              Fan attorney named Collins who stated that he was                      Frepresenting Dr. Benjamin.  As likely as this sounds, it              Fmust be remembered that during the time of the airship wave,          Fthe hobby of trying to identify the inventor was quite                Fwidespread.                                                           F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Hamilton, Alexander                                          F                                                                      FIn April of 1897, a Kansas farmer named Alexander Hamilton            Fwas awakened one night by a loud noise coming from one of             Fhis fields.  When he went out to see what it was, he saw              Fa strange sight.  An airship which he described as being              Fcigar shaped and about 300 feet long was attacking his                Fcattle.  A rope had been lowered from the undercarriage of            Fthe airship and had lassoed one of his cattle around the              Fneck and was flying off with it.                                      FThe following morning, another farmer found the remains of            Fthe cow in one of his fields.  Apparently, the crew of the            Fairship had butchered the cow and dropped the remains                 Foverboard.                                                            F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Hibbard, Robert                                              F                                                                      FIn March of 1897, Robert Hibbard, a farmer near Sioux City,           FIowa, found an airship with its anchor dragging along the             Fground.  Somehow he became intangled in it and was dragged            Fa considerable distance before he was able to free himself.           FThere was apparently a farmer who watched as one of his               Fcattle became entangled in and airship anchor in a similar            Ffashion.                                                              F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Hough, Professor George W.                                   F                                                                      FDuring the airship wave of 1896-97, Professor George W.               FHough of the Deerborn Observatory at Northwestern                     FUniversity announced that he believed that the current                Fairship wave was attributable to misidentifications of the            Fstar Alpha Orionis.  This explanation seems a little                  Funlikely given the sheer number of reports of a large,                Fflying structure and the detailed sightings that some                 Fpeople made of the craft(s).                                          F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Humbert, Pierre                                              F                                                                      FThere is a report of an SOS which was dropped from an                 Fairship.  Three crew members including Pierre Humbert of              FBoston, MA and C.D. Novina placed a note in a bottle and              Fthrew it at a witness on the ground.  The note said that              Fthe airship had not been able to land for more than two               Fweeks since landing in Kansas and that they had run out of            Ffood.  It appeared that they had lost control of their                Fvehicle and did not know whether they would survive the               Frest of the flight.  It was not clear what the observer               Fon the ground was expected to do.  There is no report of              Fan airship crashing anywhere in that year, so the final               Fdisposition of the crew is unknown.                                   F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Mclenore, Deputy Sheriff                                     F                                                                      FOn May 6, 1897 a deputy sheriff in Arkansas by the name of            FMcLenore was riding horseback with Constable Sumpter when             Fthey witnessed an airship landing.  It began as a bright              Flight in the sky which disappeared and then reappeared                Fcloser to the ground.  The airship was cigar shaped and               Fabout 60 feet long.  The officers rode near where the ship            Fhad landed and saw several people moving around near it.              FWhen the officers asked who they were and what they were              Fdoing, it was explained to them that they were travelling             Facross the United States in the airship.  The officers                Finquired about the bright light and how they saw it go on             Fand off.  They were told that the light used a lot of power           Fand they only used it when they had to.                               FGiven the credibility of the witnesses, this is proabably a           Ftrue account.                                                         F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 Pennington, E.J.                                             F                                                                      FDuring the airship wave of 1896-97, there was much                    Fspeculation as to the origin of the airships.  One likely             Fcandidate was E.J. Pennington who developed an airship in             F1891.  The first acknowledged flight of an airship was in             F1901, however, there is proof of the existence of the                 FPennington airship as it was seen resting on the ground               Fin Brown county Indiana.  This airship could not have                 Faccounted for all of the sightings, however, it was in all            Flikelihood, responsible for a large number of them.                   F/                                                                     FUSA 1896 W.A. "Martian"                                               F                                                                      FThe Sacramento Bee, a local newspaper printed a letter from           Fan alleged martian known as W.A. which stated that the Lord           FCommissioner of Mars had sent one of his electric aircraft            Fon an exploratory mission to earth and that it was this that          Fpeople were seeing around the country.  This was an obvious           Fhoax which was printed for amusement.  The writer of the              Fletter made it apparent that he was, himself, from Mars.              F/                                                                     FUSA 1897 April 17                                                     F                                                                      FIn the small town of Aurora, Texas, on April 17, 1897, it is          Fsaid that a strange airship came crashing to the ground,              Fexploding upon impact.  The single occupant of the craft was          Fsupposedly a martian and the crashed vehicle was said to              Fcontain papers covered with a strange sort of hieroglyphic            Ftext.  The body of the "martian" is supposedly buried in a            Flocal cemetery and this airship case is widely regarded as            Fa hoax.  There is one piece of interesting evidence which             Fcame to light much later, however.  A small piece of a                Fpeculiar metal alloy was found at the site many years later           Fand resisted attempts at metallurgy.  The fragment was sent           Fto the McDonnell Aircraft Company for further analysis.               F/                                                                     FUSA 1896 Sacramento, CA                                               F                                                                      FOn November 17, 1896, the daughter of the Mayor of                    FSacramento at that time, reported seeing a rather large               Fglowing globe moving over Sacramento.  Other witnesses of             Fthis sighting reported the object to be moving against the            Fwind at an altitude of 400 feet.  There was an impression             Fof machinery behind the light which suggested there was a             Fhuge dark colored object.  There were other reports at this           Fsame time of voices being heard from the object and even              Fthe sighting of a crew inside the craft.                              F/                                                                     F/                                                                     