The 1897 Airship Cow Abduction

 

Back in the spring of 1897 the United States was obsessed with phantom airships. Tales came from across the nation involving unidentified flying machines, often piloted by strange individuals doing some strange stuff. In one tale out of Kansas, that strange stuff involved what some claim is the first modern connection between UFOs and cattle mutilations!

We've all seen the images of UFOs abducting cows, like the one shown above. While a popular trope in pop culture, the idea dates back to at least the strange case of Alexander Hamiliton from Kansas and his poor, unfortunate cow. 

On the night of April 17th, 1897, Alex Hamilton, a farmer in Woodson County, Kansas was awakened around 10:30pm by his cows making noise. Thinking it was a dog messing with them, he got up to check and was astounded to see an airship hovering over his field. The cigar-shaped craft was an estimated 300 feet in length with a glass paneled carriage hanging below it. It was a deep reddish color, and had three lights, including a red one, a green one, and a very bright white light that acted like a search beam. 

Hamilton went to get his son, Wall, and his hired hand Gid Heslip, and the three men grabbed axes from the barn and started to approach the craft, which was now hovering about 30 feet above the field. As they got closer, they noticed the inside area was well-lit. They could see six passengers, including two men, a woman, and three children, all speaking in an unintelligible jibberish. The men were able to get within 50 yards of the craft before a large turbine wheel, 30 feet in diameter started whirring and making noise.

The men noticed a 2-3 year old heifer was under the craft, and making quite a fuss, trying to jump over a barbed wire fence. They noticed that around the cow's neck was a thick chain, made from the same reddish material as the ship. They tried to cut it off, but when they couldn't, they instead cut the wire fence that the cow had become entangled in. Freed from the wire fence, the cow was now able to easily be carried off the airship into the great unknown.

The next morning, Link Thomas, a farmer in neighboring Coffey County found the hide, legs and head of a cow in his field. Thinking the cow had been poached and dumped, he contacted local authorities. Hamilton's brand was still visible on the hide. The remains found in Thomas' field were indeed the abducted heifer from the night before. 

Newspaper articles at the time made note that Hamilton was a very trustworthy, upstanding citizen. There was even a signed affidavit attesting to his character. And, for decades, this story remained a mystery. However, the 1960s and 1970s saw the beginning of a wave of modern cattle mutilation cases being tied to UFOs and this story was rediscovered by researchers. That's when the story started falling apart. 

A woman had come forward and claimed that she had heard Hamilton bragging to his wife about this made-up tale he had concocted and was going to report to newspapers. Then, a newspaper editor from Buffalo, Kansas uncovered the fact that Hamilton was a member of the Yuma Township's Liar's Club! As with other such clubs, the idea was for members to come up with the biggest, craziest stories they could. What's crazier than a phantom airship (which had a level of credibility as these things were being reported all over) abducting your cow? I mean, he had an affidavit signed by other trustworthy, prominent local citizens (whom I'm guessing were also in on the joke). 

Apparently, the club disbanded not long after, and honestly, I can't blame them. Tricking a nation into believing your cow had been abducted by people from Mars or Mercury certainly can't be beat. 

Sources and Further Reading:

Le Roy Cow Abduction: Spooky Valley Website

1897 Cow Abduction Hoax: How Stuff Works

30 April 1897
The Neosho Falls Post

1897 Gallipolis Phantom Airship

Gallipolis, OH ca. 1914

As previous discussed here on Theresa's Haunted History, 1896-1897 was a huge couple of years for phantom airships flying mysteriously over the continental United States. In April of 1897, the phenomenon finally reached the Ohio Valley, when nearly the whole town of Sistersville, WV saw a strange craft over the town (Sistersville Airship). Two days later, it was reported that 12 foot tall humanoids had invaded the small town of Ogden in Wood County, only about 35 miles south of Sistersville (Ogden Humanoids). But...apparently the phantom airships weren't done traveling South down the Ohio River just yet!

I recently ran across an article published in the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette, dated 31 October 1984. The article relates the experience of Jacob Soden, a man who claimed to have seen a phantom airship over the skies of Gallipolis, OH (directly across the river from Point Pleasant, WV) way back in the year 1897. 

Although no specific date was given, I'm going to tenuously guess that Soden's experience came around the time of the Sistersville airship experience. As the story goes, Soden was coming home from church one Sunday evening. He was downtown, near the Hotel Laska/Gallia Hotel, when he heard a noise like a traction engine blowing steam. He looked up, and about 20 feet over the hotel, he saw what he described as a locomotive with wings, coming out of a train tunnel through a rift in the clouds. The vision temporarily paralyzed him, yet unfortunately he was the only person to have allegedly seen the aerial anomaly. 

So, what do you think? Did Jacob Soden witness the same unexplained aerial phenomena that plagued the citizens of Sistersville in April...or did he witness something else entirely? And why was he the only one to have reported seeing it?  I think its important to point out that Jacob Soden had passed away sometime prior to 1911, so the article in question (which was published in several different newspapers around Ohio) wasn't him reminiscing something that had happened almost 90 years before. Rather, it apparently was quoting an article from the Gallipolis Tribune from the time of the original sighting. 

And...it wouldn't be the only time that Gallipolis was the site of a phantom airship! In 1931, quite a few witnesses saw a phantom airship in both the Gallipolis area and across the river, just outside of Pt. Pleasant (Pt. Pleasant Phantom Airship). I'm not sure what it is about the Ohio River that seems to attract these types of things, but along with Mothman, MIB, and traditional UFOs, we can certainly include phantom airships into the area's collection of High Strangeness! 

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
31 October 1984

Pt. Pleasant's Phantom Airship

Photo from the movie, The Dirigible (1931)

During the latter part of 1896, into spring of 1897, the United States was experiencing a really weird phenomenon: phantom airships! People from coast to coast were reporting strange lights in the sky, which they believed to be some type of prototype dirigible. West Virginia even had its own sighting of this strange aerial phenomena when these strange lights were reported over Sistersville in April of 1897. 

West Virginia had a similar encounter with an early unidentified flying object over thirty years later, an incident that would take its rightful place in one area's history with high strangeness. 

On Saturday, October 10, 1931, half a dozen witnesses in the town of Gallipolis, Ohio reported an alarming incident. Around 2:50pm, a dirigible was seen flying over town. Dr. Charles E. Holzer noticed the craft going over his hospital at about 300ft in the air. A few moments later, Robert P. Henke and his wife, along with Dr. and Mrs. Claude Carter, all of Gallipolis, watched in horror as the dirigible crossed the Ohio River into West Virginia, broke into two, and fell to the earth in flames. 

Mr. Henke had been observing the craft, which he reported as being about 100-150ft long, with field glasses when it went down. Although other witnesses reported seeing what they believed to be three human figures parachute out of the dirigible as it began to go down, Henke could only say for sure that he saw something white, which looked like a parachute, leave the craft. 

A search party was organized that evening, but was unable to find any proof of the wreck. It was seen falling over a sparsely populated area of Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia---just a short distance from Pt. Pleasant. And, as any student of Fortean phenomena knows, Pt. Pleasant has quite the long history with the strange and unexplained!

It was assumed at the time that the dirigible was en route from Akron, Ohio (home of the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation) to Huntington, WV. US Senator H.D. Hatfield had put in a request with the Navy to have one of their airships fly over the field during a football game between Huntington's Marshall College and Washington and Jefferson. Unbeknownst to the witnesses of the crash, however, was that Hatfield's request was denied. Not only was his request denied, but when contacted, the airfield at Akron, the US Army, AND the US Navy all reported that each one of their airships was safe and accounted for. 

Dr. Holzer, who also owned the airport in Gallipolis helped carry on the search the next morning, sending out pilot Lt. Eckford Hodgson to search the area by air. Once again, no sign of the wreckage or its potential crew was found. In fact, nothing was ever found and to this day, the incident remains a mystery. Just what happened to fall out of the sky over Mason County, West Virginia that autumn day, and what became of the person or persons who piloted the craft? 

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
11 October 1931
Source: Chronicling America

Additional Sources:

"Crash of Blimp Near Ohio Town Investigated." The Richmond Item (Richmond, Indiana). 11 October 1931

"Blimp is Believed Down in Wooded Section of State." The Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV) 11 October 1931

Sistersville Phantom Airship 1897

Happy World UFO Day! 

To celebrate World UFO Day 2021, I thought it'd be fun to share with you this story of perhaps West Virginia's FIRST UFO?

Beginning in late 1896 and lasting through 1897, the United States was plagued with a very unusual unidentified aerial phenomenon. Starting in California and steadily moving eastward across the country, sightings of strange lights in the sky attached to what many believed was a dirigible were reported by everyday citizens. On April 19th, 1897, the mysterious airship had made its way to the small town of Sistersville, West Virginia! 

The following newspaper article comes from the Philadelphia Inquirer, dated 20 April 1897. A series of red, white, and green flashing lights were observed heading into town from the northwest. When looked at through 'strong glasses,' a cone-shaped craft, 180 feet long, with large fins on either side, could be seen. It was observed for about 20 minutes. So sure that they didn't see just a mere star, the citizens of Sistersville who witnessed the strange phenomena passed around and signed an affidavit declaring what they saw. 

Interestingly, earlier that day, reports of a phantom airship crash in Aurora, Texas made headlines across the country. The airship had crashed into windmill/sump pump on Judge Proctor's farm, killing the lone pilot. The strange little body was given a Christian burial in a local cemetery. To this day, permission to exhume the body has been denied, cementing the tale's place in Fortean society forever. 

Were the citizens of Sistersville simply influenced by the strange events in Texas, and thus turned their own unexplained experience into something similar...or was there really a barrage of phantom airships traveling across the continental United States in 1897? Who were piloting these strange craft---beings from another planet, or simply men from our own planet, operating under a secret mission to advance air travel? We may never know, but to the people who witnessed the events of April 19th, 1897, there's no doubt in their minds that they had witnessed something extraordinary.