-
- Head for Aurora, Texas, "the town that almost was"
as their tiny town history book states, to take a look at the burial site
of an alien pilot that crashed its UFO there in 1897. The town is just
off US 287 west of Rhome heading toward Bridgeport on 114. Look for the
sign saying CEMETERY pointing south. There is a historical marker that
includes the word "spaceship" at the site. Newspapers from April
1897 reported that the alien craft hit a windmill and was torn to pieces,
along with its occupant. A 1986 movie, "Aurora Encounter," tells
the tale. The official historical marker was installed by the state, although
nobody knows exactly where the grave is. Here is the text of the marker
as seen in the photo below.
-
- Aurora Cemetery
-
- The oldest known graves, here, dating from as early as
the 1860s, are those of the Randall and Rowlett families. Finis Dudley
Beauchamp (1825-1893), a Confederate veteran from Mississippi, donated
the 3-acre site to the newly- formed Aurora Lodge No. 479, A.F. & A.M.,
in 1877. For many years, this community burial ground was known as Masonic
Cemetery. Beauchamp, his wife Caroline (1829-1915), and others in their
family. An epidemic which struck the village in 1891 added hundreds of
graves to the plot. Called "Spotted Fever" by the settlers, the
disease is now thought to be a form of meningitis. Located in Aurora Cemetery
is the gravestone of the infant Nellie Burris (1891-1893) with its often-quoted
epitaph: "As I was so soon done, I don't know why I was begun."
This site is also well-known because of the legend that a spaceship crashed
nearby in 1897 and the pilot, killed in the crash, was buried here. Struck
by epidemic and crop failure and bypassed by the railroad, the original
town of Aurora almost disappeared, but the cemetery remains in use with
over 800 graves. Veterans of the Civil War, World Wars I and II, and the
Korean and Vietnam conflicts are interred here.
-
- Aurora is located West of Rhome and 1/4 mile South of
SH 114.
-
- Aurora brings up images of high-speed space travel. In
fact, our new space plane is named 'Aurora' for a UFO incident that took
place in 1897.
-
- Last year was the 100th anniversary of the crash of an
unknown airship in Aurora, TX. The TV show "Sightings" had a
special called '100 years of UFO Cover ups,' that featured the recovery
of an alien body in Aurora, Texas.
-
- This incident has been covered up by the Government and
was then widely reported to be a hoax (a weather balloon?). Sounds a lot
like Roswell in 1947? The US government has a long history of cover-ups
in regards to things like this. I hope this investigation will clear up
the Aurora event for good.
-
- Here is the story as written in 1897 in the April 19
edition of the Dallas Morning News is as follows:
-
- About 6 o'clock this morning the early risers of Aurora
were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship which has been
sailing around the country. It was traveling due north and much nearer
the earth than before. Evidently some of the machinery was out of order,
for it was making a speed of only ten or twelve miles an hour, and gradually
settling toward the earth. It sailed over the public square and when it
reached the north part of town it collided with the tower of Judge Proctor's
windmill and went into 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 aboard and, while his remains were badly disfigured,
enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant
of this world.
-
- Mr. T.J. Weems, the U.S. Army Signal Service officer
at this place and an authority on astronomy gives it as his opinion that
the pilot was a native of the planet Mars. Papers found on his person --
evidently the records of his travels -- are written in some unknown hieroglyphics
and cannot be deciphered. This ship was too badly wrecked to form any conclusion
as to its construction or motive power. It was built of an unknown metal,
resembling somewhat a mixture of aluminum and silver, and it must have
weighed several tons. The town is today full of people who are viewing
the wreckage and gathering specimens of strange metal from the debris.
The pilot's funeral will take place tomorrow.
-
- The article was written by E. E. Haydon who was a part-time
reporter for the Morning News. As startling as the news was, no other newspapers
in the world ran the story in their paper. News of the incident remained
dormant for almost a century (May 24, 1973) when newspapers around the
country published the following United Press International account:
-
- "Aurora, Tex. -- (UPI) -- A grave in a small north
Texas cemetery contains the body of an 1897 astronaut who "was not
an inhabitant of this world," according to the International UFO Bureau.
The group, which investigates unidentified flying objects, has already
initiated legal proceedings to exhume the body and will go to court if
necessary to open the grave, director Hayden Hewes said Wednesday.
-
- "After checking the grave with metal detectors and
gathering facts for three months, we are certain as we can be at this point
[that] he was the pilot of a UFO which reportedly exploded atop a well
on Judge J.S. Proctor's place, April 19, 1897," Hewes said. ÒHe
was not an inhabitant of this world."
-
- A few days later, another UPI account datelined Aurora
quoted a ninety-one-year-old who had been a girl of fifteen in Aurora at
the time of the reported incident. She said she "had all but forgotten
the incident until it appeared in the newspapers recently." She said
her parents had gone to the sight of the crash, but had refused to take
her along. She recalled that the remains of the pilot, "a small man,"
had been buried in the Aurora cemetery.
-
- Not to be outdone, the Associated Press, in a story datelined
Denton, Texas, reported that "a North Texas State University professor
had found some metal fragments near the Oates gas station (former Proctor
farm). One fragment was said to be 'most intriguing' because it consisted
of primarily of iron which did not seem to exhibit magnetic properties."
The professor also said he was puzzled because the fragment was "shiny
and malleable instead of dull and brittle like iron."
-
- The Aurora Cemetery Association was successful in blocking
the attempts to dig up the grounds in search of the "Martian pilot."
The incident will probably go underground again (pun intended) until its
centennial in 1997 will bring another round of widespread press coverage.
-
- Last year we made a field investigation in the small
town of Aurora, Texas, just north of Fort Worth. The results of our research
are weird to say the least... One of the first things you might notice
when arriving in Aurora is that there are military traces everywhere in
town. It even boasts a small military type airport, circa 1940's. Even
the streets of town are laid out in typical "base" fashion. To
anyone who ever served in the military, the signs of military habitations
are clear.
-
- Why would the military want to have a base in Aurora?
I asked myself... back in the '40's? hmm... let's see. If my memory is
correct, I believe that the Roswell crash debris was flown directly to
Ft. Worth, TX, (which is less than 10 miles as the crow flies from Aurora.)
Coincidence? I don't think so. Could the military have had an "alien"
recovery base set up and running from clear back 100 years ago? I am beginning
to wonder as we continued on our tour of Aurora, the city.
-
- As we continued through town, we found the famous old
Judge Proctor's place and we visited the town square. Of course almost
the entire town from those days is gone, replaced by modern buildings.
Nearby is the town cemetery, where it is alleged by some that a small visitor
from space was buried over 100 years ago. A quick visit to the cemetery
showed a very neat, well kept place, with no sign of the tombstone. It
was stolen some years ago and never recovered. There are picture records
of its existence, and above is a photo of it.
-
- There is a movement in town to exhume the body of the
alien, replace the headstone and do a complete search for remains of the
crash. Also, there have been several interesting pieces of metal found
in the area that have been confiscated for analysis by the military and
never returned.
-
- Aurora, another unsolved mystery
-
-
- © Copyright 2000 by The Hickman Report. All rights
reserved worldwide.
-
-
- MainPage
http://www.rense.com
-
-
-
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|