1880 very descriptive UFO sighting

How could this be debunked with such a descriptive report? It took place in May of 1880 when there were no airplanes, helicopters or any flying machines. This was taken from the book Anatomy of a Phenomenon by Jaques Vallee 1965. Curious to know what skeptics think of this sighting. What alternatives can you think of that might explain away this sighting?

This kind of reminds me of another wheel that was seen in the sky, only much earlier in time.

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First!

Told ya people, alien exist!

reply to post by virraszto


Yep. It certainly seems like another credible eyewitness account of an object/'s that could only have been manufactured by an advanced alien civilization from another solar system, or our own advanced future civilization.

reply to post by virraszto


I love these sightings/reports from before there was all kinds of stuff in the air.
Completely different frame of reference, gives a completely different, new, way to envision what they have seen.
Nice.

reply to post by Dogdish


I completely agree, no comparisons to any known aircraft, no way to say it must have been new stealth technology being tested by skunkworks. the visual it creates is very precise, i can actually picture this in my minds eye much better thanmany modern reports.

Great topic! Here is one from my area. My dad was born and raised in Hollis (just about 7 miles N of Jessieville) and people see UFOs all the time still. I will look for a news clipping from the local paper about a different sighting BRB....

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/baf5cc10ec41.jpg[/atsimg]

Forgot how little it shows, sorry about the missing parts...


www.ufoinfo.com...

1897: ARKANSAS DEPUTIES MEET SOME ALIENS

One of the strangest close encounters of the "airship era" took place 101 years ago, on May 6, 1897, near Blue Ouachita Mountain, just northwest of Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Constable John J. Sumpter Jr. and Deputy Sheriff John McLemore of Garland County left Hot Springs on horseback to investigate reports of cattle rustling. They rode north on what is now Highway 7 to Jessieville. Here is their story in their own words:

"While riding northwest from this city (Hot Springs) on the night of May 6, 1897, we noticed a brilliant light high in the heavens. Suddenly it disappeared and we said nothing about it, as we were looking for parties (suspects--J.T.) and did not want to make any noise."

[edit on 4-9-2010 by ljtg123]

[edit on 4-9-2010 by ljtg123]


MOD EDIT: Removed excessive copy/paste and added the proper source tags. Please read: Posting work written by others.

[edit on September 4th 2010 by greeneyedleo]

reply to post by virraszto

Wow OP! Great find I love these excellent accounts of U.F.Os from 100+ years ago so fascinating to think of what the witnesses from then were thinking.



reply to post by ljtg123

Wow that's awesome!! Star for that story!!


[edit on 4-9-2010 by Solar.Absolution]

It's a shame there's no hand drawn picture to go with the story to give us a better impression of what it looked like. Interesting though how he relates what he saw to the tech of the time by inferring it was like a wheel with spokes.

Interesting wiki article here on "mystery airships" from 1800's

en.wikipedia.org...

Flight was possible back then though in the form of hot air balloons, although the account sounds nothing like what a hot air balloon of the time would look like. It's also worth noting that electric light bulbs had been invented although we're talking a matter of years.

However I don't know what to say on this as all things point to advanced tech for the time.

This isn't a new phenomenon apparently, especially in the Persian gulf, it's called marine phosphorescent wheels

'Marine phosphorescent wheels' come in many appearances, often together with 'luminous parallel bands' or 'luminous rotating spokes'. Sometimes one, sometimes multiple wheels, rotating clockwise or counter clockwise, with a diameter between 3 and 200 metres, sometimes virtually stretching out to the horizon. At times the spectacle appeared to be under water, sometimes it seemed to be above the surface. Also in this context, 'under water rising and at the surface exploding balls of light' and 'submarine light rays' were observed sometimes together with the 'wheels'. Altogether, a wide-ranging, but very intriguing phenomenon.

www.knmi.nl...

Here's another similar report from 1879:

www.xs4all.nl...

They probably have quite a mundane explanation, although still very interesting:

There are other unusual patterns of light that appear at sea such as Auroral Pillars, and phosphorescent seas. Berlitz (1975), mentioned that, “glowing streaks of ‘white water’ in the Gulf Stream” were witnessed by Columbus (p 16). However, while Berlitz described these as a “baffling mystery” as Corliss (1982) points out, they are a quite natural phenomenon. The result of bacterial or phytoplankton phosphorescence on the surface of the water, they can often appear as bars of light or moving wheel-shaped patterns. Fort (1973) mentioned an example of these. Huge luminous wheel shapes appeared on both sides of the steam ship Patna in 1880. With the spokes of these wheels, some 180 to 275 metres long (200 to 300 yards), they were observed to whirl around, brushing the sides of the ship, and in that position continued alongside the ship for about twenty minutes

www.skepticssa.org.au...

[edit on 4/9/10 by Chadwickus]

I do find it odd that the witness describes the object as a wheel with spokes. I have never heard of a ufo described like this(unless you count ones from the bible).

Maybe he was just using his own limited knowledge to describe what he say.

But the one about a bearded man and the cigar shape craft interest me very much. Do you happen to have any more info on this?

[edit on 4-9-2010 by davidwaters84]

Thanks ljtg123 for adding that great story! I love these old reports and this one book is full of them.

Chadwickus, I wasn't aware of marine phosphorescent wheels and it certainly seems like that is what it could have been.


How about this one? It doesn't sound like the cattle mutilations of today, but it shows an apparent interest in cattle.

This happened in 1897 in Kansas.

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Originally posted by virraszto
This happened in 1897 in Kansas.

Although I don't have a source at the moment, I believe most researchers consider this to be a hoax. (EDIT: Source. It is interesting that the craft and the method it steals the cow is at the limits of what the rancher can imagine; it is not lifted via tractor beam or what-have-you, but a simple wire.

This was part of the late 19th-Century Airship Flap. Jerome Clark, writing many decades later, said of the flap...

comes up against some unhappy realities: newspaper coverage was unreliable; no independent investigators ('airshipologists') spoke directly with alleged witnesses or attempted to verify or debunk their testimony; and, with a single unsatisfactory exception, no eyewitness was ever interviewed even in the 1950’s, when some were presumably still living."

Source

Newspapers of the era would publish almost anything with little to no fact-checking.

[edit on 5-9-2010 by DoomsdayRex]

reply to post by virraszto


marine phosphorescent wheels

I searched these and its a shame no on seems to have any pics.

Just diagrams to explain away sightings..

Most on ATS say "show me the pic or it didn't happen"

So, does anyone have a pic of these things??

www.science-frontiers.com...

reply to post by DoomsdayRex


I agree. Newspapers of that era would post anything for news. Whether it was non news or real news....or no matter how ridiculous it sounds.

reply to post by CheapShotArtist


Probably true but does that mean we should just ignore anything written pre say 1950??

Tough call though, especially since very few carriede cameras around back then..

Seems like the paid debunkers have an excuse for everything - including the 19th Century sightings. We have solid evidence of UFOs in our past, as shown on ancient cave paintings, the Egyptians, the work of Klaus Dona and his artifacts from unknown civilisations, there's that strange painting from around 1600 that looks just like the Sputnik satellite, there are numerous examples in medieval art, the Australian aborigines, Africa.. all over the world.

Why is it so difficult to accept that we humans have seen these things in our skies over the entire course of our existence?

reply to post by RiotComing


No no no, the aborigines in Australia painted pictures 20,000 years ago of Chinese Lanterns, or was it swamp gas??
I know, kites with neon lights.

reply to post by RiotComing


I fully believe that people have seen things in the skies since man literally had the ability to perceive and recognize them.

What I have yet to see proof of is that they were anything other than naturally occuring phenomena.

reply to post by Hefficide


Fair enough, my problem with that is , like in this thread, it appears they makeup a new "naturally occuring phenomena" to suit the occassion...

Unless you can do what I have posted above which is show me a pic of this so called naturally occuring phenomena?

I looked and couldn't find one..
The sites just had drawing..Is that proof??

reply to post by CynicalM


I actually had to hit the Google and do a little research just to find out what "marine phosphorescent wheels" are. And, no, I could not find a single image of one anywhere. I did look.

So personally I am leaning toward being skeptical of that explanation as well. All the evidence for it that I could find was anecdotal.