Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode we're looking at the Aurora, Texas UFO crash.
That's correct, the Aurora Texas UFO Crash.
As you might know, this crash happened clear back in April on
April 17th, 1897 with this UFO just came flying out of a clear
blue sky in a small town of Texas crashed into a windmill.
The the locals responded. They found the dead pilot, which
they buried in a local cemetery and that marker that eventually
disappeared. This whole thing is surrounded
by all kinds of of conjecture stories and parallel narratives.
It's really, it's really strange how even clear back, you know,
over what, 120 years ago, the way these stories run seem to be
the way they run the day. Now even we can go to Wikipedia.
The story's been around for so long and it says the Aurora,
Texas UFO incident occurred on April 17th, 1897 when, according
to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas.
The incident, similar to the more famous Roswell UFO incident
50 years later, has claimed have resulted in a fatality of the
pilot. The pilot was not of this world
and was said to be an alien. The pilot was buried at the
Aurora Cemetery. A stone was placed as a marker
for the grave but has since been removed and that's where the
sketchiness really kicks in at, so it says.
On April 19th, 1897, an article on the Dallas Morning News
written by SC Hayden described the UFO crash.
The UFO is said to have hit a windmill on the property of
Judge S Proctor two days earlier at around 6:00 AM Central Time,
resulting in his crash. The pilot who was reported to
be, quote not of this world in a quote Martian, according to a
reported army signal officer named TJ Weems from nearby Fort
Worth, did not survive the crash and was buried with Christian
rights at the nearby Aurora Cemetery.
The cemetery contains the Texas Historical Commission marker
mentioning the incident. While I like the fact that they
did these Christian rights, this is kind of the same thing we
heard about in that crash in Missouri when they reportedly
were multiple dead aliens was at Cape Girardeau and you, you had
the pastor called out to pray for the dead aliens that were
that were dead or dead and dying.
I guess it just points to the humanness of people, at least
back then. Reportedly, wreckage from the
crash site was dumped into a nearby well located under the
damaged windmill, while some ended up with it with the ailing
in the grave. Now remember these these
windmills would have been used to pump water, not just to kill
birds like today. So it would be natural that
there was a well, there was a well under there.
Maybe this was a shallow well that wasn't really putting a lot
of water or whatever, but it was, it was considered serious
enough situation. They just want to get rid of
this stuff and the quickest way to do it was to put it in a hole
that had already been dug, goes on, it says.
Adding to the mystery was the story of Mr. Brawley Oats, who
purchased Judge Parker's property around 1935.
Oats cleaned out the debris from the well in order to use it as a
water source, but later developed an extremely severe
case of arthritis, which she claimed to be the result of
contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well.
As a result, Oats sealed up the well with a concrete slab and
placed in an outbuilding atop the slab.
And if you've seen picture of this guy's, his hands just look
like they're, I mean, they're all swollen and and gnarled.
It's just terrible. Now, there's a theory says here
that that was based on a 1980 Time magazine.
Wow, look at this. So the actual crash happens in
1897, and it takes these debunkers 83 years to get around
to writing a parallel narrative. It's hilarious.
I mean, they're not quick thinkers.
The Hook series primarily based on a 1980 Time magazine
interview with Etta Pigs, an 86 year old or resident who claimed
that Hayden had fabricated the entire story, stating that
Hayden wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora.
The real bypassed us and the town was dying.
Think about this is 83 years after the fact.
This woman's 86. She would have been three years
old. What would she have known about
this as? A three-year old other than
hearsay passed on down here by the people.
So to me you're calling somebody an expert witness who was a
three-year old. Really.
Pegs further claim that Judge Proctor never operated.
The windmill launched property, a statement later refuted as
part of the UFO hunters episode which found the base of a wooden
water pump tower constructed around the well.
So, you know, they can't even get their story straight.
You know, the Democrat has to go out there 83 years after the
fact, talked to an 86 year old woman who was 3, three years old
at the time. She repeats some incorrect
information and some speculation and there's your theory.
Wow, doesn't take much to satisfy these guys.
And then it says investigations. The incident has been
investigated on numerous occasions and one report was
broadcast by local television station KDKDFW Fox 4 and two
other reports aired on cable television.
Yeah, there's some good content out there about this stuff on
YouTube even, it says. In 1998, Dallas based TV station
KDFW aired A lengthy report about the Aurora incident.
Reporter Richard Ray interviewed former Fort Worth Star Telegram
reporter Jim Mars. What Jim Mars?
Let me miss him the late, great Jim Mars and other locals who
said something crashed in Aurora.
However, Ray's report was unable to find conclusive evidence of
extraterrestrial life or technology.
Ray reported that the State of Texas erected an A historical
plaque in town that outlines the tale and labels it legend.
Well, what else could they do, I suppose.
And then it says that UFO Files investigates.
On December 19th, 2005, UFO Files first aired an episode
related to this incident titled Texas Roswell.
The episode featured a 1973 investigation by Bill Case, an
aviation writer for the Dallas Times Herald and the Texas State
Director of MUFON. MUFON uncovered 2 new
eyewitnesses of the crash, and one was Mary Evans, who was 15
at the time, and she told about her parents, went to the crash
site but wouldn't let her go. And then she also told about the
discovery of an alien body. Now Charlie Stephens, who was
age 10, told how he saw the airship trailing smoke as it
headed north toward Aurora and he wanted to see what happened,
but his father made him finish his chores.
Later, he told how his father went to town the next day and
saw the wreckage from the crash. Now, these guys, this would have
been from, I suppose, a 1973 investigation, so that would
have been, what, 70-6 years after the fact?
So the one old boy would have been 86 and the other guy would
have been 91, so I would find that a little bit more
believable now, it says. Mufon then investigated the
Aurora Cemetery and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to
show a flying saucer of some sort, as well as readings from
its metal detector. So there you've got two sources
of information coming in here. MUFON asked for permission to
exhume the site, but the cemetery association declined
permission and the MUFON invest, and after the MUFON
investigation, the marker mysteriously disappeared from
the cemetery and a three inch pipe was placed into the ground.
Mufon's metal detector no longer picked up metal readings from
the grave. Thus it was presumed that the
metal was removed from the grave.
Wow, that is, that is sketchy is all get out.
So they go there, they run the metal detector over, they tell
the authorities, hey man, there's metal buried in this
grave. Something weird is going on.
There's a marker there with a spaceship on it, you know?
And what happens? Well, the authorities deny them
position, deny them permission to open the grave, which you can
almost understand that. But then the grave marker
disappears and they come back and there's no more metal
detected. Mufon's report eventually stated
that evidence was inconclusive, but did not rule out possibility
of a hoax. The episode featured an
interview with Mayor Brammer, who discussed the town's tragic
history. Well, you know you can never
disprove a negative Canyon when you talk about ruling out the
possibility of a hoax. I mean, that would be a pretty
elaborate hoax. On November 19th, 2008, UFO
Hunters first aired another television documentary regarding
the Aurora incident titled First Contact that was pretty good
too, if you can catch that on YouTube somewhere.
The documentary featured 1 notable change from the UFO file
story. Tim Oates, grandson of Brawley
Oates and the now owner of the property with the sealed well
where the UFO wreckage was reportedly buried, allow the
investigators to unseal the well in order to examine it for
possible debris. Water was taken from the well
which tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum
present. The well had no significant
contents. It was stated in the episode
that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well
by a past owner of the property, But you know, aluminum has
value, somebody might just hold that stuff off his junk.
Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near
the well, which allegedly, well, it doesn't do nothing alleged
about it. That refutes Miss Pegasus
statements from the 1979 Time magazine article that Judge
Proctor never had it when the launch property, so they proved
that she was mistaken about that.
Or maybe this reportage lied about it, who knows.
In addition, there were cemetery was again examined.
Although the cemetery association still did not permit
exhumation using ground penetrating radar and photos
from prior visits, an unmarked grave was found in the area near
the other eighteen 90s graves. However, the condition of the
grave was badly deteriorated and the radar could not conclusively
prove what type of remains existed.
So either this has been dug up and remains have been taken out,
or whatever was in there is just totally decomposed.
The landowner gave them pieces of metal that contained mostly
aluminum and an unknown element. How was that?
Not a big deal. An unknown element.
What? Can't find it on our periodic
tables. Well, it must not have come from
here, then, huh? Not talking about an unknown
molecule or an unknown combination of metals.
An unknown element. There's only so many elements,
right? Where did this one come from?
It's unknown. Oh, well, we'll just ignore it.
And then it talks about the fact that this instance has been, you
know, popularized in culture and they've had some different
movies done on it. I just think it's one of the
most fascinating cases out there.
Now I want to look at another article on this.
Now I found this article here on scttx.com, SC scttx.com, and
that's Shelby County today. It looks like it's a website
maybe originating out of here in Texas and it says it's submitted
by Neil Murphy. Now they add the title says the
Texas UFO by Neil Murphy and he begins he says April 18th, 2023.
Unidentified flying objects have been around for a long time now,
the most notorious of these being the Roswell, NM event.
On July 7th 1947, a UFO crashed northwest of Roswell on a cattle
ranch, scattering debris over a white area.
Several bodies of extraterrestrial beings were
more reportedly recovered and autopsied.
The event was explained by the military as a weather balloon
crash. There were no beings, and thus
began the most notable cover up in American history.
Got to say, I like this guy's writing style.
The New Mexico event, however, was not the first of its kind.
Some 50 years earlier, a UFO crashed in Aurora, Texas, but
never received much notoriety. Around 6:00 AM on April 17th,
1897, a cigarshaped UFO crashed near the small town of Aurora,
Texas. The UFO had been seen flying
over Missouri and Arkansas earlier before it crashed.
We must remember that this event happened some five years before
the Wright Brothers successful airplane flight at Kitty Hawk,
NC. I'll just interject here for
people who could who might want to say, well, this is some sort
of blimp, Just imagine the amount of work and resources and
cash that would be involved in creating a blimp of this size in
1897. I think we can rule that out.
It says there were a number of eyewitnesses of this UFO crash.
In fact, one of them, SC Hayden, wrote an article for the Dallas
Morning News on April 19th, 1897.
Mr. Hayden reported about 6:00 this morning.
The early risers of Aurora were astonished at the sudden
appearance of the airship which has been sailing through the
country. It was traveling due north and
near the earth than ever before. Evidently some of the machinery
was out of order, for it was traveling at a speed of only 10
or 12 miles an hour and steadily settling toward the earth.
It sailed directly over the public square and when it
reached the north part of town, collided with the tire of Judge
Parker's windmill and went to pieces with a terrific
explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground,
wrecking the windmill and water tank and destroying the judge's
flower garden. The pilot of the ship is
supposed to have been the only one on board, and while his
remains are badly disfigured, enough of the original has been
picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world.
Mr. TJ Weems, the United States Signal Service Officer at this
place and an authority on astronomy, gives it as his
opinion that he was a native of the planet Mars Papers found on
his person. Evidently the record of his
travels are written in some unknown hieroglyphics and cannot
be deciphered. The ship was too badly damaged
to form any conclusion as to its construction or motive or motive
power. It was built of an unknown metal
resembling somewhat a mixture of aluminum and silver, and must
have weighed several tons. The town is full of people today
who are viewing the wreck and gathering samples of the strange
metal from the debris. The pilot's funeral will take
place at noon tomorrow. Wow, now think about that, he
says. Here.
This is written at the time it was made of aluminum, must have
weighed several tons. I think that would rule out any
known blimps or zeppelins or anything like that, that could
have possibly remotely existed at that time.
Even today, we don't have anything like this.
Records indicate that the pilot was indeed buried in Aurora
Cemetery with Christian rights. Today, the cemetery contains the
Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident.
Reportedly, wreckage from the crash site was dumped into the
well located under the damaged windmill, while some ended up
with the alien, while some ended up with the alien in the grave,
a large stone was placed at the head of the grave to mark the
spot. That's interesting that they say
here. That would explain why I guess I
should say that there was there were hits for metal at that
grave site and then of course they go back.
No metal found. Wow, some clandestine grave
digging going on there. Adding to the mystery was the
story of Mr. Bradley Oates, who purchased Judge Parker's
property around 1945. Oates cleaned out the well in
order to use it as a water source, but later developed an
extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed to
be the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped
in the well. As a result, Oats sealed up the
well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding atop the
slab in 1957. The event was eventually
forgotten for many years. In fact, there there, in fact,
there was a developed hoax theory.
Well, yeah, you give them 50 years and they'll come up with a
parallel narrative. The hoax theory is primarily
based on historical research performed by Barbara Brammer, a
former mayor of Aurora located 30 miles northwest of Fort
Worth, TX. In the months prior to the
alleged crash, Aurora had been beset by a series of tragic
incidents. First, local cotton cop was the
local cotton crop was destroyed by a bullying infestation.
Second, a fire on the town's main West side claims several
buildings and lives. And 3rd a spotted fever epidemic
hit the town, nearly wiping out the remaining citizens and
placing the town under quarantine.
Finally, a planned railroad got within 27 miles of Aurora but
never made it into the town. You know, a lot of times these
UF O's seem to be attracted to places where there's an awful
lot of trauma happening. The theory was that Mister
Hayden was known in the town to be a bit of a jokester, and her
conclusion is that Hayden's article was the last titch
attempt to keep Aurora alive. Yeah, so you look back, you
know, 50 years after the fact or whatever, and determine what
somebody's motives were. It was not until 1998 that the
event was re was resurrected by Dallas TV station KDFW, who
aired A lengthy report about the Aurora incident.
The investigation revealed that something had crashed in 1897,
but could find no evidence of extraterrestrial life or
technology. Well, since people weren't
flying and this thing came out of the air, you got to assume
that it probably wasn't people. Now, yes, they did have hot air
balloons and that sort of thing, but you know, hot air balloons
don't work that well when you're trying to use a giant metal
craft that weighs hundreds if not thousands of pounds.
In 2005, UFO Files aired an episode related to this incident
titled Texas Roswell then covered 2 new eyewitnesses to
the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the
time, told about her parents, went to the crash site and the
discovery of the alien body. Now remember, this is the 2005
investigation that was in that was based on the 1973
investigation, so it wasn't like they were interviewing these
guys in 2005 that have been like 95 years.
Should have been 110 I believe. And someone can correct me if
I'm wrong, but I believe that these sightings they're doing
are based on 1973 interviews. So that those would have been,
what, 70-6 years after the fact? Still, they were quite old.
Mary Evans was 15th the time. Told her how how her parents
went to the crash site and the discovery of the alien body.
They refused to allow her to go with them.
Charlie Stevens, who was 10, told how he saw the airship
trailing smoke as it headed north toward Aurora.
There you go. There's your eyewitness right
there. He wanted to go see what had
happened, but his father made him finish his chores.
He later went to the site and saw the wreckage from the crash.
What would he have to lie about? In 2008, UFO Hunters aired
another documentary regarding the Aurora incident titled First
Contact. This film featured 1 notable
change from the UFO file story. Tim Oates, nephew of Brawley
Oates and the new and the now owner of the property with the
sealed well where the UFO wreckage was purportedly buried,
allow the investigators to unseal the well in order to
examine it for possible debris. That's a great episode.
I can't think of the young guy's name that always had to do all
The Dirty work, but they lowered this dude down in that well and
I think there might have been a snake down there or something.
And this would have been really not my favorite place to be at
at the bottom of well in Texas like that, but it's a great
episode. Water was taken from the well
and tested normal and tested normal except for large amounts
of aluminum present. Not sure that could be good for
you. The well had no significant
contents as any large pieces of metal had been removed from the
well by a past owner of the property.
Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near
the well site, as earlier reported by witnesses.
In addition, the award cemetery was again examined, although the
cemetery association refused exhumation of the body.
An unmarked grave was found in the area near other 1890s
graves. However, the condition of the
grave was badly deteriorated and radar could not conclusively
prove what types of remains existed.
Well, you wouldn't be able to. Although the Aurora UFO incident
was never commercialized, as was a Roswell event, there still
remains questions as to exactly what happened over 116 years ago
in the tiny town. Today in the town of 1044,
people about half believe that a real UFO crashed and an alien
was buried there, and half believe the event was one huge
hoax. What do you believe?
What a great article, man. Thank you very much to the
fellow that wrote this, Neil Murphy.
I wish we just had more material like this online because he just
puts it out there. Anyway, that is the Aurora UFO
crash from April 1897. What a strange trip it is.
Until next time this is UFO warning.
Over and out.