Aurora Texas UFO Incident

The Aurora UFO Incident is an alleged UFO crash that occurred on April 17, 1897 in Aurora, Texas.cite web| title =Aurora Texas Crash Part 1| publisher=MUFON|url=http://www.mufon.com/famous_cases/Aurora%20Texas%20Crash%20Part%201%20MUFON%20Case%20File.pdf| accessdate =2007-04-12] A UFO is said to have hit Judge J.S. Proctor's windmillcite web| title =Close Encounters of a Kind| publisher =Time |date = 1979-03-12| url =http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948461,00.html| accessdate =2007-04-12] resulting in its crash, and the burial of the dead pilot at an unmarked grave at the Aurora cemetery. The Aurora cemetery contains a Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident. [cite web| last =Fink| first =Mike| title =Alien country: Earthlings welcome| publisher =CNN|date=2004-02-17| url = http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TRAVEL/02/16/hln.hot.road.alien.country/| accessdate =2007-04-12] A portion of the second paragraph on the marker states, “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.” At the time of the incident, the Dallas Times Herald reported that the pilot of the craft was "not of this world" and that the "being" was buried at the local cemetery. [cite web|title =Aliens: a conspiracy out of this world| publisher =BBC News|date=1998-10-02|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1998/09/98/conspiracy_-_radio_5_live/179221.stm|accessdate =2007-04-12]

A MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) investigation in 1995 uncovered a piece of metal that was 95% aluminum, and 5% iron. This is very uncommon in nature, leading to the assertion raised in MUFON's report that, given the presumption that it originated in 1897, the sample could not be of terrestrial nature. However, even MUFON's report does not discount the explanation that the sample was simply left there at some point during the last century. The graveyard was also searched, where a marker was uncovered that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort. MUFON asked for permission to exhume the site, but the community resisted.The report speculated that the people of Aurora did not want to lose the notoriety that the alleged crash had brought them. The previous owner of the land where the crash allegedly had taken place is known to have discarded the metal from the wreckage by throwing it into his well. Having subsequently developed severe arthritis that he blamed on contaminated well water, the same previous owner sealed over the well with a concrete slab.cite web |url= http://ufo.whipnet.org/xdocs/aurora.texas/|title=(UFO.WHIPNET.ORG) "The Aurora Encounter. UFO Crashes in early morning hours April, 1897." |accessdate=2008-01-28] cite web |url= http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4587362.html|title=(The Houston Chronicle) "Can a space alien rest in peace? " |accessdate=2008-01-28] According to the original newspaper account of the event, a document with unknown hieroglyphics was also found after the crash. Numerous details of this article have been shown to be fabricated (for example, there was no Judge Proctor or T. J. Weems in the town).Fact|date=July 2008

In an interview with Time magazine in 1979, Etta Pegues claimed that S.E. Hayden, the local correspondent who sent the news of the incident to nearby newspapers in Dallas and Fort Worth, "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora. The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying."Location map|Texas|label=|marksize=6|mark=Blue_pog.svg|lat_dir=N|lat_deg=33|lat_min=03|lat_sec=30|lon_dir=W|lon_deg=97|lon_min=30|lon_sec=58|position=right|width=175| float=right|caption=Location of Aurora, near Dallas, Texas

In popular culture

*The 1985 movie "The Aurora Encounter" is based in part on the story of the UFO incident in Aurora, Texas.
*The incident was featured in an episode of the show "UFO Files".

References

External links

* [http://botulus.net/blog/non-fiction/aurora-tx/ Historical UFO Tour of Aurora]
* [http://www.ufocasebook.com/Aurora.html Aurora Texas UFO Incident - UFO casebook study]
* [http://www.ufocasebook.com/haydonarticle.jpgOriginal newspaper article by S.E. Haydon]
* [http://www.alienationsam.com/historic_ufo/aurora_texas_crash.html The Aurora Texas UFO Crash (www.alienationsam.com)]
*" [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090675/ The Aurora Encounter] " on IMDb