Aurora Airship Crash (1897)



The Aurora Airship Crash was an alleged aviation accident of unusual character that was reported to have taken place on 17 April 1897 near the town of Aurora in Wise County, Texas. According to the account, received by the Dallas Morning News by wire from S. E. Haydon, the airship in question was piloted by an extraterrestrial man, and the crash was likely caused by mechanical failure, leading to its sudden descent over the town square and collision with a windmill tower on the property of a Judge Proctor, whereupon it exploded violently. Haydon further reported that the pilot did not survive, and the remains were badly disfigured but that a T. J. Weems gave the opinion the man was "a native of the planet Mars", and that papers written in unknown hieroglyphics were salvaged. The body was to have been buried at noon on 18 April 1897 in the Aurora cemetery.

Dramatis Personae
As far as we have been able to ascertain...
 * Samuel E. Haydon (1854 - 1928), a Kentucky-born businessman and farmer, husband of Sarah E. (Parker) Haydon, resident of Aurora for some years before relocating with his family to Kings County, California in the area of Grangeville and Lucerne.
 * James Spencer Proctor (1837 - 1917), owner of the windmill and property reported as destroyed by the crash.
 * T. J. Weems, cited as Fort Worth authority, "U.S. Army Signal Service officer", amateur astronomer; reported by the Wise County Historical Society to have been a blacksmith. Likely candidate to fill this role: T. J. Weems (July 4, 1842 - June 26, 1925), former private in the Confederate Army (1861-5), Well's Regiment, Texas Cavalry, Company B; teamster in the Choctaw Nation.
 * The Pilot, a Martian gentleman, now buried in the Aurora town cemetery.