Jefferson Airship - 1897

To fully understand a case, it is necessary to return to the original source. I had the opportunity to do that just the other day. Andy McGinn of the Jefferson Herald, which had been the Jefferson Bee, called to ask about an entry in Crash: When UFOs Fall from the Sky. He was interested in an entry for April 15, 1897 which

Greene County Courthouse, Jefferson,
Iowa

discussed a crash near Jefferson.

Frankly, I didn’t remember it off the top of my head. It was a short entry and gave the bare bones of the story. I had written:

The Jefferson Bee reported that an airship had crashed in a farmer’s field on the north edge of town. Most of the town’s residents gathered around the huge, smoking hole. The next day, a man was lowered into the ole on a rope, along with a Volapak [sic, Volapuk] dictionary, which is the second time that this artificial language has been mentioned in connection with an airship crash. Once in the hole, the man claims he entered the airship that seemed neat and clean, despite the violent crash.

McGinn and I discussed the airship stories that had been circulating at the time. He said that he had pulled the newspaper for that date, April 15, 1897, and read to whole story. It was more detailed than what I had reported. He also mentioned that the last paragraph seemed to suggest the tale, which had been printed on the front page, was a hoax. I was interested in what that last paragraph said.

In the world today, there are lots of sources of information available that don’t require trips to libraries or newspaper morgues. I found, online, a short article about the crash in the Omaha Bee on April 17, 1897. It said:

JEFFERSON, Ia. April 16 – (Special Telegram) – A local paper this morning printed a lurid story concerning the airship which was alleged to have plunged into the earth north of town. Before noon a number of people had actually visited the place to see the hole.

That certainly didn’t clarify anything and added nothing to what I already knew. I did find an entry in Jerome Clark’s UFO Encyclopedia, Second Edition, but his information had been drawn from the Omaha newspaper, so he had even less information than I did about this crash.

What I really needed was to see the original article. McGinn was kind enough to send me a pdf. of the front page which carried the story. Rather than paraphrase it, and in keeping with the idea that the original source would be better than my interpretation of it, I thought I would provide the text.

FATE OF AN AIR SHIP

CAME TO GRIEF IN GREENE CO.

The Mystery of the Aerial Visitor Solved at Last.

Details of Accidents Important Discoveries

Up to the hour of going to press five air ships have been located by the enterprising citizens of Greene county. Air ships know a good thing when they see it, and so when wo heard of a flock of aerial pilgrims in Kansas, Nebraska, Omaha, Cedar Rapids, North wood, Evanston, St. Paul and Marshalltown, it became a settled conviction with us that it was only a question of time until they should be with us and taste the Joys of our Incomparable mud.

Two hundred nervous Jefferson people scanned the horizon Saturday night. They looked for an air ship. Along about 9:30 one came cavorting (sic) along the etherial (sic) domain like a wash tub on a mill pond. It was a giddy thing, evidently fresh from the shops, and after arriving within two or three miles of the earth, began cutting all sorts of pigeon wings, grapevines and doubledutch (sic) rolls. The sight was bewitching and cheer after cheer ascended as the airship executed some difficult selection.

Part of the time the great white light at the bow was visible and then the green light suddenly appeared and the ship would reverse itself. Then it evolved into a monstrous pin wheel, the green, red and white blending into a circular disc beautiful beyond compare, followed by an undulating, weaving motion as though flouting on a heavy swell.

Suddenly the great boat seemed to steady itself; the white light became fixed and gradually increased in size.

The Airship that landed in Waterloo, Iowa, 1897.

Somebody shouted, "the airship is headed for the earth," and sure enough.

Rapidly the great ball of purest white grew until it assumed the proportions of a full moon; then to the size of a wagon wheel and in the sky dim outlines of the great hull could be seen rushing downward at a rate of speed simply incalculable.

When within a thousand yards of the earth a distinct roar could be heard which Increased to the proportions of a cyclone us with ajar like an earthquake the mighty engine plunged into the earth.

The concussion was so terrific that houses trembled, children were thrown from their beds, dishes fell in showers from cupboards and hundreds of panes of glass were shattered.

Men rushed hatless out upon the street shouting for Information as to the whereabouts of the airship. There was a wild scurrying around to locate the point of contact but the search was fruitless—the earth had evidently swallowed the aerial visitor and sealed the opening.

Sunday morning, however, hundreds of men joined in the search and about nine o'clock a huge circular hole, twenty feet in diameter was discovered on the cast side of Mahlon Head's celery patch adjacent to the Northwestern depot. The hole was as clean cut and smooth - as though made by expert well-diggers, and was apparently bottomless. Ropes were secured, a heavy iron weight attached to one end and lowered into the abyss. A hundred feet had been played out when there was a sound us If a metallic object had been struck.

The airship had been sounded. [Yes, that is what it said. I don’t understand it.]

The next problem was what to next.

Finally it was decided that someone must descend and investigate. The rope was hauled up, a noose made and volunteers called for.

A hush fell upon the great throng, which by this time numbered over a thousand. It looked as if the scheme must fail when a local newspaper man, clad In a Prince Albert and with n huge $1 25 diamond flashing alternately with his eyes, strode forth and grasped the rope. A lantern, cold chisel, hammer and drill were tied about him, and with a clubbing list, and a Volupuk (sic) dictionary in his inside vest pocket, he gave the word.

It will be a long time before we forget the peaceful expression that lit up his alabastine (sic) face as he disappeared — in fact we don't think we will ever forget it.

Down, down sped the rope until lack of tension showed the explorer had landed. Soon after hoarse, guttural tones in the Volupuk tongue were wafted upwards and then hammer were heard. In the course of half an hour there was a pull at the rope and willing hands hauled away with vim. It seems that the rear portion the ship was blunt like the hot end of a cigar, but a door, apparently fastened on the inside, eighteen inches square was found. The hinges were chiseled off and the door pried open. The Interior was found to consist of an oblong chamber or room eight feet square and eighty feet in length This room, which was situated in the upper part of the ship, was elegantly appointed; finished in plush fancy woods and provided with every convenience. About forty feet from the rear end was a square tower that could be raised and lowered, after the manner of a conning tower upon a submarine torpedo boat. This had been drawn down leaving the ship in the form of a cylinder. At the extreme end toward the bow the bodies of four persons, probably men, were discovered, jammed almost to a pulp by the terrific force of the concussion. The beings were somewhat larger' than earthly inhabitants, and each seemed to have a face on each side of the head, two sets of arms and legs, evidently so as to locomote forward or back without necessitating turning around.

It would be quite interesting to go into the details concerning these strange people, but we must defer that until a future time. At all events they were dead—both sides.

Further Investigation revealed that the ship, except the eight feet occupied by the salon, was perforated, horizontally by tubes about the size of a stove pipe. At the rear was a great propeller (sic), having eight blades. This was connected with a small electric motor, which evidently merely served to start the ship, as when motion has been secured the air rushes through the tubes at such a rapid rate that the propellor was driven at high speed and this forced the ship ahead like greased lightning.

The speed was regulated by means of a brake on the rim of the propellor.

Two plans are suggested. One to build a permanent ladder down to the air ship; another to ascertain if the monster can be raised. It is probable a meeting will be held within a few days to determine upon the best course. Meanwhile a sort of windlass has been erected at the mouth of the opening and hundreds of people have examined the wonderful craft that evidently slipped a cog, somewhere on that fatal Saturday night.

It seems to be the general Impression that the ship hailed from Mars, and if this Is the case, other ships of which there seem to be several hundred, will eventually alight without fatal results to the operators and the secret of aerial navigation will be solved.

Green county is the rendezvous of the fleet of air ships operating in this part of the state, is very evident. The following messages from men of unquestioned veracity, prove this fact and at the same time throw considerable light upon the Interesting topic.

This tells us, in great detail, what happened, or was alleged to have happened. One thing that came out of this is that the crash occurred on April 10 rather than the fifteenth. The date given by many of us for the crash was based on the date of the newspaper story rather than the date of the actual incident. There was very little follow up.

Roswell Recanted?

Well, here is something that is interesting. It seems that an off-hand comment I made about the lack of skepticism in some avenues of UFO research has blown up into a debate on what I said about the Roswell case. It began with Robert Sheaffer making a few comments on his blog, Bad UFOs, which was based on the very nice review that Jerome Clark had published in Fortean Times about my book Roswell in the 21^st Century. From that interview, Robert extrapolated a point of view that might not be exactly what I had do say… though the headline in the Fortean Times suggests a recanting of the Roswell case.

On the positive side, for me, it seems to have sparked a debate online and drove a few people to Amazon and other ebook sites which helped sales. I certainly don’t want to do anything to stop the traffic because it is good for me.

But the question being asked about me, but never actually put to me, is if I have abandoned the alien model for the Roswell crash. The short, flip answer is, “Read the book.”

The more lengthy answer is, “Well, sort of.”

The book was meant to be a “cold case” look at the Roswell crash, starting at the beginning and shifting through the mountains of evidence that has been gathered by a number of researchers… all of whom seemed to have a biased opinion from “Yes, it was alien” to “No, it was a Mogul balloon.”

To all of them (which at one time included me with some of them), I say, “I don’t know.”

To quote Jerry Clark, “So what did happen? Here Randle, in conceding a truth so many avoid speaking, will infuriate believers on both sides. There is ‘no real answer,’ he says.”

And there you have it… I go through the whole story, document it as best I can, and in the end, I have to say that the case is built on testimony gathered decades after the fact and that everything we know about memory is that it really is no good when it comes to something like this.

I was going to point out some of the interesting things that I learned by going through all this material, but whatever I say will not be heard by one side or the other because they will be too busy formulating their counter arguments to listen. I did find mistakes such as the Lee Reeves tale of accompanying Dan Dwyer to the crash site that is contradicted by so much testimony and documentation that it shouldn’t even be discussed… and if we want to challenge testimony, Charles Moore provides many examples in his ever shifting tale about Mogul.

To understand my conclusions, however, it is necessary to read the evidence as has been gathered and the mistakes that have been made. This is a mystery that seems to have no solid conclusion except the skeptics will say that it can’t be alien because interstellar flight is impossible to believers who say there are so many witnesses that something alien must have happened.

And to give away just one thing that I learned in the reexamination of all the material was that the Air Force was not originally investigating the case in the 1990s… they were searching for documentation about the crash from all the various agencies that might have had some involvement in the original story.

As I say, it is interesting that much of this has blown up around me without anyone actually asking me anything. I have seen some of the Internet discussion but certainly not all of it. Before it goes much further, I would merely say, “Why not read the book and then we can talk about what it all means.”

The Demise of Ufology

(Blogger's note: Ufologist Chris Rutkowski posted this at http://www.uforum.blogspot.com/ and I thought it an eloquent description of our UFO world today. I'm afraid he's all too right about this and that doesn't bode well for Disclosure or our acceptance into the mainstream world. I'm afraid that I share his view.)

I caused a bit of a stir several months ago when I called UFO case investigation a lost art. I'll go further this time: ufology looks like it's near death.

The bad news is: I'm an optimist.

I was having a conversation with Brian Savage recently, and he made the observation that the UFO phenomenon has been derailed. He was formerly with the Alberta UFO Study Group, an earlier incarnation that produced in-depth investigation reports and scoured government documents for historical Alberta cases. Brian's comment was in reference to the many popularized UFO-related developments over the past 20 years which have destroyed the legitimacy of serious UFO research.

Examples of these derailments include the alien autopsy film, Lazar's Element 115, the strawberry ice cream nonsense, Greer's telepathic vectoring of UFOs, crop circles, exopolitics, Nibiru, and the resurgence of the contactee phenomenon. These and others have served to draw public and popular attention away from serious UFO case investigations and into the realm of wild arm-waving speculation and wide-eyed fanaticism.

It's too bad; it really looked like there was something developing there, for a while.

UFO cases themselves have radically shifted characteristics. Things seemed so simple when Hynek formulated his Close Encounter classifications: CE1 was a sighting at close range; CE2 was a trace case; and CE3 involved seeing occupants. There was no CE4 or CE5, as adopted by some ufologists now, reflecting abductions and contactee incidents. Only three categories, nicely defined and delineated.

The CE2s went extinct first. Ted Philips had several thousand physical trace cases documented by the time crop circles arrived on the scene. Then - poof! No more CE2s. People stopped seeing UFOs landing and taking off; aliens stopped landing their scout craft and leaving behind scorched patches and tripod marks in fields. Instead, mysterious circles (and later, patterns) appeared, almost always without accompanying UFO sightings, and it was assumed that the aliens were using some kind of "rotating vortex" to power their ships.

Then the CE3s went AWOL. No more sightings of landed UFOs where entities were seen exiting and re-entering their crafts. Instead, abductions ballooned in number, eventually overtaking classic CE3s. Really, have you heard of a decent CE3 case recently? No bedroom visitations, no alien faces in windows, no telepathic instructions about saving the human race. Just a simple CE3 observation. No? No.

Even CE1s are mostly gone now, too. Instead, we have YouTube videos of "mysterious orbs" and "Galactic Lightships" seeming to dance all over the pace because the witness couldn't hold the video camera steady. On the other hand, we have goofballs with too much time on their hands using video toasters to create obvious hoaxed UFO videos that experienced UFO investigators can tell are not worth bothering with but go viral anyway, getting retweeted and reblogged everywhere by UFO fans.

But a well-witnessed, well-investigated CE1 case? Rarer than a straight-talking politician or oil executive. Sure, if you look at popular UFO websites that list UFO reports, there are dozens and dozens from all over the world, posted by witnesses. But follow-up to get additional details to make an evaluation, such as direction of movement, where the UFO was in the sky compared with other things, and even an accurate time? Forget it. Onsite investigation? Impossible. Referral to one of the few reliable UFO investigators who lives nearby the witness, to allow proper investigation? Can't, sorry; privacy of witnesses is guaranteed.

So what we have in ufology today is the maintaining of a high number of UFO sighting reports, but a decrease on information content of the cases. Public attention surges when UFO stories in the news go viral, but critical thinking goes out the window.

Part of this is because no one person is viewed as someone who can speak for ufology today. Following the death of Allen Hynek, no one was easily identifiable as someone to take his mantle. (Not even Philip Mantle.) Not Stan Friedman, not Jerome Clark, Mark Rodeghier, not Jenny Randles, not Kevin Randle, not Bill Birnes, not any other of the dozen or so who might (or might not) fit the bill.

(Similarly, who speaks for debunkery? After Phil Klass passed away, is it now Phil Plait? James Oberg? James Randi? Bill Nye? Even Larry King can't decide who is an authority and whom to have on as guests to debate UFOs.)

Poor MUFON and CUFOS, the few remaining doggedly determined UFO groups. They're hanging on, with declining revenue, losing staff and trying desperately to carry on with serious UFO study, when UFO fans have not the slightest interest in that.

Ufology is greatly fractured. With thousands of UFO-related web pages, everyone (and anyone) can be an expert. Anyone can tell you the "REAL Truth" about the aliens' presence on Earth and their nefarious dealings with the government and how Obama is an alien and why I've been chosen as their emissary and why alien hybrids have pale skin and why aliens will arrive in 2012 and where the underwater alien bases are in the Gulf of Mexico and why the hundreds of orbs in my photograph are mental images of aliens and not dust particles and why some UFO craft disguise themselves as airplanes and why chemtrails are not just contrails and why this blog is passing through into another dimension....