Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode, we're talking about the Springfield, MO UFO
airship of 1897. That's correct.
Springfield MO UFO airship of 1897.
Got this in the news again. Thought it'd be kind of fun to
go back over it. I got a little bit of a summary
from ChatGPT. They're pretty good at getting
this stuff gathered up and put together for you.
They've got some cool pictures I think we've seen before.
Interesting how these things all seem to look like these
futuristic blimps kind of mixed together with a with a steampunk
theme. It says the Springfield, MO UFO
sighting of 1897 is part of the famous 1896 to 1897 mystery
airship wave, one of the earliest and most intriguing
mass sighting events in American UFO lore.
It occurred decades before airplanes were widely used and
long before the modern UFO era. And then it goes on and says
below is what's known about the UFO, about the Springfield
incident, and how it ties into the larger national wave.
The Springfield, MO Airship Report April 1897 Newspapers
across Missouri, including in Springfield, reported sightings
have a strange cigar shaped airship traveling across the
region in April of 1897. These reports typically describe
here's the common features. A bright light or Searchlight on
the front of the craft. You know now a Searchlight would
be pretty rare back then. 1897 a long dark cigar shaped body,
wings or propellers seen by some witnesses.
Movement that was silent, slow or hovering unlike any
technology of the time. The ability to accelerate
quickly and change direction suddenly.
Now to me that's going to rule out any kind of a blimp or
airship. Witness descriptions, though
exact wording varies depending on the paper.
Missouri witnesses, including those in Springfield, often said
the craft appeared quote like a great cigar with lights at each
end. Moving against the wind is if
propelled by some unknown force. So apparently people were seeing
these things move against the wind and they weren't seeing any
propellers on them or anything like that.
Several newspapers also claimed that two airship operators were
seeing landing near farms in Missouri and speaking to locals,
though these stories tended to be highly embellished.
Well, I guess we can assume they're embellished.
I don't know. It says context.
The 1890 airship wave. The Springfield sighting didn't
occur in isolation. Between March and May of 1897,
hundreds of reports appeared in newspapers from Missouri,
Kansas, Texas, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
So all through the Midwest here and even down into Texas, people
were seeing these things. The Midwest was hit spatially
hard, and Missouri, particularly around Springfield, Kansas City
and Joplin, produced some of the most detailed accounts.
Newspapers at the time were known for sensationalism, but
the sheer number of consistent reports across states has kept
the wave alive in UFO discussions.
Well you got to think. I mean lots of people are
reporting these things. After all Missouri is a show me
state now It says what did people actually see?
There are 4 main theories. 1 misidentified stars, planets.
Then they give this one a low probability.
Some reports describe complex mechanical features making pure
astronomical confusion unlikely. And when someone tells you that
they see something that they describe as like I said, one of
these. Steampunk themed blimps.
It's not going to look like a star.
Hoax is a newspaper exaggeration.
Sensational journalism was common in the 1890s.
I think it still is today. Some interviews with airship
pilots were obvious fabrications.
Now they're making a little bit of a leap there.
I'd say early experimental aircraft.
Oh this is a funny one here. A popular idea is that inventors
were secretly testing dredigables before the Wright
brothers. However, no documented inventor
claimed responsibility. Many maneuvers reported were far
beyond 1897 aviation. We've talked before on the
podcast about how much went into making, how many materials and
technology went into making a blimp, say that was used in
World War One. The old German blimps, and
you're now talking about they had to use hundreds of cows.
I think they use the stomach, the stomach casings and stuff
like this to to cover the framework of the blimp.
This, these things were so expensive to make.
It was something that had to be undertaken on a national level.
It wasn't like somebody could just be tinkering around in a
garage and make one of these things a genuine unexplained
phenomena. This is a view held by many UFO
researchers who point out that who point out multi state
consistency, physical descriptions similar to modern
UFOs, and reports from credible witnesses including lawmen and
businessmen. And it goes on and says
Springfield's role in the wave. Springfield sets right in the
corridor where the airship was seen moving eastward across
Kansas into Missouri. Reports from the area describe a
craft catching the broader pattern of sightings that week.
Some local papers treated the event seriously, while others
blended humor with observation, a typical style for the area.
Then ask why the Springfield 1890 UFO is still discussed
today. It's one of the earliest large
scale UFO waves in American history.
The descriptions match modern aeronautical UFO sightings.
Despite occurring before powered flight, the case remains
unresolved, with no proven hoaxer or aircraft builder ever
identified. Well, just imagine what?
Imagine the value of these sayings if somebody was able to
cheaply build one of these blimps in 1897 and they were
able to control it and guide it, take it from point A to point B.
That's the kind of thing that they're going to be that they're
going to be wanting to patent. They're not going to want to
hide this. They're going to want to exploit
it and basically just become instant millionaires.
Now I went ahead and took a look at this article here from
yahoo.com. It says Springfield's forgotten
UFO, the bizarre 1897 airship seen over Missouri, written by
Catherine Skopic. It stated December 9th, 2025.
It's got a pretty cool illustration here, almost like
this dragonfly looking blimp. It's got these four giant wings
coming off of it and lights along the side of it.
Like portals along the ship. Different multiple colors, but
these really bright lights shine down.
This what looks like a steam powered train, says Springfield,
MO. In the spring of 1897, residents
across southwest Missouri describe sightings of a
mysterious airship, a craft they said resembled a giant
mechanical dragonfly and appeared to drift silently over
trains, towns and backyards. This was years before the
powered airplane was invented. The reports, published in the
Springfield Weekly Republican, contains detailed descriptions
from Judge JA Frank, a respected and trustworthy man who told the
newspaper he spotted the craft on the night of April 21st,
1897, near Kabul. Fink was riding a train when it
stopped so abruptly that it roused sleeping passengers and
startled the more nervous ones. Frank said he stepped onto the
platform to investigate. He reported that instead of
standing in the pale moonlight, he found himself in a Shadow 1
cast not by a cloud but by a large airship overhead.
With bright lights illuminating the craft.
Frank said he could compare its size to the train below.
He described 2 sets of wings shaped like those of a
dragonfly, an upper pair about twice as wide and six times as
long as a passenger coach, and a lower pair about half that size
extending to the rear. This thing's sizable.
The vessel's main body, he said, matched the length of a
passenger coach, but was not as deep and was cigar shaped with a
long, narrow extension in the rear.
So this thing's the size of a train car, frankly.
The tail section housed lighting and motive apparatus.
On either side of the tail were fixed wings that rose or fell as
a ship changed altitude. He speculated that aluminum
formed the hull and that hollow plates may have been filled with
hydrogen gas. He said there was no ballroom in
the usual sense, though a large canvas cover swayed in the
breeze and may have held a gravitation resisting gas.
Electricity appeared to power the craft, which with wires
running from what Frick described as a Dynamo room to
the rest of the to the rest of the vessel.
Two rotating searchlights were mounted at the front, capable of
instantly shifting collars between a clear green, red and
blue. Lamps with collared incandescent
globes lined both sides of the deck, and the tail could glow
like something phosphorescent, Things said.
A captain briefly appeared on deck as the vessel lifted above
the train. He reportedly carried a
horoscope with modifications allowing him to use it outdoors,
enabling him, witnesses said, to see through the darkness and
even through rooftops as easily as windows.
The craft made little noise, though a crackling like that of
a Troy car in rainy weather was heard when it passed.
Almost sounds like static electricity at rest.
The only sound was a gentle swing of its large wings.
The train had stopped because a horse had been mysteriously
struck and killed on the tracks. The track had been clear moments
earlier, leaving some to speculate that the horse may
have fallen or been thrown from the airship, the newspaper said.
Now that sounds just like the cattle mutilations.
These animals are picked up, they're dissected, tortured,
whatever, and then just dumped back on the ground somewhere.
The craft was reported over Springfield, where several
residents came forward with their own accounts.
George Pepperdine said he and his family watched the airship
for half an hour from their back porch.
As it approached, he said it descended to about 30 feet above
his yard, where he observed the captain and tipped his hat.
Pepperdine said he asked the captain his mission and the man
replied We are shooting ducks and canvassing for Bryan's book
on the first battle and Mimestelism.
According to Pepperdine, the captain tossed him a copy before
ascending. That literary gift is likely a
reference to William Jennings Bryan's 1896 book about the
years United States presidential campaign.
Where bymstellism. This is parentheses free silver
was a central issue. The book is a first hand account
of Byram's run against William McKinley.
OK, Well, William, William Jennings Bryan, he was a big
advocate of using silver for money.
And I think it was some kind of a coin, Jack, I believe 1873
where the federal government came in and basically said we're
on a gold standard only and silver is no longer going to be
considered money for extra large debts and that sort of thing.
It really, it really hammered the working class people and the
farmers in particular and consolidated the money in the
hands of the wealthy folks who had all the gold.
So that was, it was a hot, it was a hot button issue in the
1890s. Of course, another resident,
Charles J Wright, said he was on a Saint Louis St. porch in
Springfield when the machine passed within a few feet.
Wright said he spoke briefly with the operator at the
controls, who told him that President McKinley was
dissatisfied with reports from a recent municipal election in
Springfield's fourth warden had sent the airship to investigate.
The man added that his supply was limited.
Strange. JB Cunningham described hearing
music, horns and drums before he and his wife saw the ship
descending toward their home. Cunningham said it hovered about
15 feet above the ground and the captain called down asking
whether he had a Republican available because he wanted to
know how Springfield County Council had decided the slot
machine question. Cunningham said he invited the
captain inside, but the man declined, saying he had a pile
of Missouri presidential appointments on the ship.
Moments later, the vessel ascended.
Not everyone claimed to first hand view.
Frank B Parker said he didn't see the aerial visitor, though
he believed his friends consistent stories meant they
must have seen something or had been affected similarly as
something they had had for supper.
Parker added he believed there is something in the air over our
country since the 1st of March more of a substantial reality
than people imagined and something all would soon see, no
matter how blind to it they may be.
Whether the 1897 studies were misrepresentations or hoaxes,
the accounts remain one of several mystery airship reports
that swept across the Midwest that spring.
I find it very strange, the interactions they had with the
supposed captain very personalized about the politics.
And this may kind of go back to this whole notion of the
observer effect today. People seem to talk to aliens
about global warming or the environment or maybe nuclear
power, a lot of stuff like that. And for these people, I suppose
the important lessons were that they legalized gambling in
Missouri. Was the silver dollars in their
pockets going to be worth anything?
Who was going to be the elected president to come?
What kind of effect would that have on them?
So here again, we see things that people care about at the
time send me to dominate the conversations that they have
with whatever these things are. And maybe that's just a cover
for them. I don't I don't know.
Now I did look around and with the help of ChatGPT, I found a
couple original articles talking about this pretty well.
It's tough when you go back to these old these old written
accounts from 1897. This one is dated March 29th
1897. It says Omaha sees the ship the
airship viewed the third time by reputable citizens and it has
reputable citizens and quotes. I guess we can assume there were
reputable and non reputable Omaha March 29th says for the
dateline. The mysterious airship was seen
again last night for the third time by a number of Omaha's
reputable citizens. It Hove insight about the time
that church was over and in half an hour had traversed the
heavens and had once more disappeared.
It was seen by people in all parts of the city.
This time the airship in quotes came into view in the
southeastern portion of the horizon.
It was in the shape of a big bright light, too big for a
balloon, and glowed steadily. It sailed over the city to the
North East, and there disappeared behind the houses
and Bluffs. It moved very slowly and seemed
to be quite near the earth. Nothing but the light was
visible. A big crowd at 24th and Lake
streets watched the trip of the visitor and speculated upon it.
Now, that does sound very much like an orb sighting we would
have today. No one's talking about it being
an airship or, you know, talking to a captain or having, you
know, moving parts on it. They just described as this
large glowing light moving slowly across the sky.
This is no time before airplanes.
Very, very interesting. And that article is from the
Topeka State Journal, if you want to look that up.
Pretty cool. I mean, to compare the
contemporary accounts at the time to what we know about these
things today. I did find a few other reports
around this is what's weird trying to get to this stuff,
man. Like ChatGPT listed several
articles from like Dallas, San Francisco, I think even and
Nebraska. And they're just not, they're
not going to let you see the newspapers for free or some of
them have been taken over by the state, the in the archives.
And then you've got to contact them and e-mail them for a copy
of, of an article written about a UFO sighting 130 years ago.
Weird. This is a pattern you see over
and over again. This is stuff that happened 100
and what, 28 years ago or something?
And we still can't get to source material.
We're being told that it's being kept in the confines of a state
vault somewhere. This is the sort of stuff that
Google seems to have no problem copying every book out there and
sharing it with the world, but they can't get a hold of these
newspaper articles from 1897 and copy those and make those
publicly available. Somebody still owns the
trademark or the patents or whatever on these sayings.
Does that seem strange to you? It's the same thing that you
went into when we try to get FOIA's from things that happened
back during the Korean War or before.
And the DoD sends blacked out pages about UFOs 7080 years ago.
It's like there's there's a total blackout in this stuff.
And if the government had a hand in it, they just make a top
secret and you're never going to see it again.
And if you do get the files or just blacked out, and if it's if
there's a account written in the newspaper about it, these
newspapers have been defunct for 4050, sixty years.
But somehow the state ends up with the original newspapers and
locks them away in a vault somewhere.
And then you have to go through all kinds of hoops to see if you
might have a chance at reading the article.
I mean, isn't the whole point about having the state library
to make stuff publicly available for people to read?
Wow, Crazy stuff, man. Yeah, what a great sighting that
was back in 1897. It seems to me like all these
years later, we're still up against a brick wall and we're
trying to find out what really happened and what these things
were. You know what they say, the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
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Until next time. This is UFO warning over and
out.