Aurora (Texas) UFO incident

Saturday 17th April 1897, 6:00am

The incident that occurred at Aurora in Texas on 17th April 1897 is one of the earliest documented UFO incidents in history. According to locals, a UFO crashed on a farm near the town, and is supposed to have resulted in the fatality of the pilot. The pilot was ''not of this world'' and has since been referred to as an alien being. The supposed extraterrestrial was buried at Aurora cemetery, with a stone being placed as a marker for the grave. This stone has since been removed. Lets have a look at this incident in greater detail:-

On April 19th 1897 an article was written in the Dallas Morning News, a daily newspaper, reporting a UFO crash. The UFO was said to have struck a windmill on the property of Judge J. S. Proctor two days earlier at around 6am local time. The pilot, who was reported to be ''not of this world'', did not survive the crash and was buried ''with Christian rites'' at the cemetery in Aurora town. The wreckage from the crash site was reportedly dumped into a nearby well which was located under the damaged windmill, while some of the wreck ended up in the grave in the alien. Adding to the mystery was details given by Brawley Oates, who purchased Mr Proctor's property circa 1935.  Oates cleaned out the well in order to use it as a water source, and came across the debris. He later developed an extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed was the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. As a result, in 1945, he sealed up the well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding on the top.

The incident has been investigated on a number of occasions, one of which was broadcast on a local television station, KDFW FOX 4, with two other reports being aired elsewhere. In 1998, KDFW broadcast a long report regarding the Aurora incident. Reported Richard Kay interviewed locals, who all said something had crashed at Aurora. His report was unable to find conclusive evidence of extra-terrestrial life or technology however. In 2005, 'UFO Files' aired an episode related to the incident and referred to the event as the ''Texas Roswell''. This would be a reference to the Roswell incident of 1947, which is very similar in a number of ways to that of the crash at Aurora.
MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, found two new eyewitnesses to the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the time, told of how her parents went to the crash site, having forbade her from going, and discovered the alien body. Charlie Stephens, who was 10 at the time, told of how he saw the craft trailing smoke as it headed north, towards Aurora. He wanted to see what has happened, but his father made him finish his chores. The next day, his father went to the town and saw the wreckage from the crash.
MUFON continued their investigation, and visited the Aurora cemetery, and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to show a flying saucer, as well as readings from its metal detector. The cemetery authorities declined permission to exhume the grave. After the investigation by MUFON, the stone marker 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, and it has since been presumed that the metal was removed from the grave. 

In November 2008, UFO Hunters aired a television documentary, titled ''First Contact''. The documentary featured a major change from the UFO Files tv show. Tim Oates, the grandson of Brawley Oates and the owner of the property where the crashed occurred, allowed the investigators to unseal the well for the first time since 1945, in order to examine it for possible debris. Water was taken from the well and tested, and was found to be 'normal', except for large amounts of aluminium. The well reportedly has no significant contents. It was stated that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a previous owner. Furthermore, remnants of a windmill base were found near the well. During the 2008 investigation, Aurora cemetery was investigated again. Again the cemetery association did not allow exhumation. Ground-penetrating radar and photos were used to locate the now unmarked grave, which was near other 1890 graves. The condition of the grave had badly deteriorated, and the radar could not conclusively determine what remains still existed. A land owner gave the investigators pieces of molten metal that contained mostly aluminium and and unknown element. The craft allegedly was made of a metallic material that contained silver and pieces of aluminium, as well as unknown elements. 

There have been claims that the crash at Aurora was a hoax, but there has been no conclusive evidence to suggest as such. MUFON's report did not rule out the possibility of a hoax, stating that the evidence they collected was inconclusive. Another hoax theory is based primarily on an interview conducted in 1980 by Tome magazine. Etta Pegues, an 86 year old Aurora resident, was interviewed who claimed that S. E. Heydon, the author of the original 1897 article published 2 days after the crash, had fabricated the entire story, stating that he ''wrote it as a joke to bring interest to Aurora. The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying''. There is no reference to the fact that Etta Pegues would have been 2 or 3 years old at the time of the incident, and almost certainly too young to remember anything being said at the time about the alleged hoaxing of the Dallas newspaper article. During any of the above claims of  a hoax, there was no reference to the fact that in 2008, the remains of a windmill were found near the site of the well, which contradicted claims by Etta Peagues that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on the site.