Explore Trailblazing History!

Victorian UFOs Stirred Newspaper Frenzy

Victorian UFOs were all the rage in the late 1800s with news articles sparking interest in alien beings. It was a time of Yellow Journalism when big-city papers battled for readers with outlandish stories and illustrations. The Associated Press (AP) distributed stories to member publications that reprinted them. Like today, the lines of truth quickly blurred in the retelling. With little more than anecdotal evidence, people gazed skyward with hope or fear of spotting Victorian UFOs.

The term Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) was not coined until the 1950s. But during the late 1890s, a wave of celestial sightings entertained and terrified readers across America. Before long, dozens of Victorian UFOs were reportedly seen sailing through skies coast-to-coast.

Accounts ranged from dirigible-like cigar-shaped contraptions moving at high speed to luminous balls of fire. Some described saw colored lights and some saw passengers on the mysterious airships. Others described brilliant nocturnal lights similar to arc lights, moving rapidly across the sky.

The Wright Brothers 1903 success with powered flight was still in the future.

So what triggered this late 19th-century news cycle featuring Victorian UFOs? Did Jules Verne’s science-adventure novels, several of which featured mysterious airships, inform these sightings? Did Nikola Tesla’s conviction that he received communications from alien beings at his Colorado laboratory expand the stories? Were small towns left behind by railroads anxious to attract tourists?

Were The Accounts Fact Or Fiction? Or A Little Of Each?

Like today, people wanted stories that delivered a high-octane adrenalin rush. Many nineteenth-century content creators and publishers built followers by delivering news that engaged eyeballs, whether true or not. Following are just a few of the news stories.

The Daily Nebraska State Journal, June 8, 1884

The headline read “A Celestial Visitor, A Blazing Aerolite Falls To The Astounded Earth.”

According to the article, on June 6 rancher John Ellis and several of his cowboys witnessed the impact of “a blazing meteor of immense size” crash near Benkelman in the southwestern corner of Nebraska. It was “about 50 or 60 feet long, cylindrical, and about 10 or 12 feet in diameter.” It left “fragments of cogwheels and other pieces of machinery lying on the ground,” with temperatures so intense they could not approach the crash site. The heat allegedly blistered the face and singed the hair of local cowboy Alf Williamson.

Over the years, many people searched for remains of the UFO, but turned up empty handed.

According to Patricia Gaster in History Nebraska (formerly the Nebraska State Historical Society) newspaper hoaxes have been around as long as newspapers. In the late 19th century editors needed stories to entertain readers and fill space.

This strange story was succeeded on June 10 by one still more bizarre in which the Journal announced that the aerolite had completely dissolved in a rainstorm: “The Magical Meteor. It Dissolves Like a Drop of Dew Before the Morning Sun. The Most Mysterious Element of the Strange Phenomenon.” The remnants of the mystery vessel had supposedly melted with the rain into “small jellylike pools,” which soon disappeared.” (History Nebraska)

The newspaper’s managing editor, James D. Calhoun, was well known for his humorous tales and storytelling. Since he once had a weekly column called “Nothing But Lies” it is likely that he assumed readers would understand this story was a fabrication. Clearly, he overestimated some readers.

The Stockton Evening Mail November 27, 1896

This editor led with the headline, “THREE STRANGE VISITORS, Who Possibly Came From the Planet Mars, Seen on a Country Road by Colonel H.G. Shaw and a Companion”

For more than a week newspapers up and down the coast had been reporting the presence of an alleged airship or flying machine. Many reputable people claimed to have seen it on several occasions in the night sky.

According to the this article, Colonel Shaw, a former editor at the Mail, and a young man named Camille Spooner were riding a horse-drawn buggy back from Lodi when they encountered what seemed to fall under the category of Victorian UFOs.

We were Jogging along quietly when the horse stopped suddenly and gave a snort of terror. Looking up we beheld three strange beings.” (Stockton Mail)

These aliens resembled humans in many respects’ -but still they were not like anything either man had ever seen.

They were nearly or quite seven feet high and very slender. We were both somewhat startled, as you may readily imagine, and the first impulse was to drive on. The horse, however, refused to budge, and when we saw that we were being regarded more with an air of curiosity than anything else we concluded to get out and investigate.” (Stockton Mail)

Shaw asked the strange looking beings where they were from.- They seemed not to understand him, but began “warbling” as if they were talking.

Each held in his hand something about the size of a hens egg. Upon holding them up and partly opening the hand, these substances emitted the most remarkable, intense and penetrating light one can Imagine. Notwithstanding Its intensity it had no unpleasant effect upon our eyes, and we found we could gaze directly at it.” (Stockton Mail)

As the beings flashed their lights towards the bridge Shaw and his companion beheld a startling sight.

There, resting in the air about twenty feet above the water, was an immense airship. It was 150 feet In length at least, though probably not over twenty feet in diameter at the widest part. It was pointed at both ends, and outside of a large rudder there was no visible machinery. The three walked rapidly toward the ship, not a9 you or I walk, but with a swaying motion, their feet only touching the ground at intervals of about fifteen feet.” (Stockton Mail)

Shaw theorized that the beings were inhabitants of Mars, who were sent to the earth for the purpose of securing one of its inhabitants.

The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897

This story led with the headline, “A Windmill Demolishes It.” According to the author, S.E. Haydon, the citizens of Aurora were astonished by the 6 a.m. appearance of what might be filed under Victorian UFOs. The airship appeared suddenly sailing across the sky.

It was traveling due north, and much nearer the earth than ever 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 directly over the public square, and when it reached the north part of town collided with the tower of Judge Proctor’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.” (Texas State Historical Association-TSHA)

Mr. T.J. Weems, allegedly the local United States signal service officer and also an authority on astronomy deemed the pilot a native of the planet Mars. The article claimed that papers found on the pilot were possibly a record of his travels. But they were written in hieroglyphics that no one could decipher.

Aurora’s citizens crawled the area of the wreck to gather specimens of the strange metal from its debris.

Locals later buried  the pilot who they called Ned in the Aurora cemetery.

Years later, a woman who was a child in Aurora during the days of Victorian UFOs, claimed that Haydon had fabricated the story to bring interest to Aurora.

According to the Texas State Historical Association:

“...when the Burlington Northern Railroad abandoned its plan to lay tracks through Aurora, most of the few remaining inhabitants moved to Rhome, the site of a new railroad stop two miles to the southeast. Hayden’s story succeeded in causing a sensation because tales of UFOs near Fort Worth were already current. Aurora remained comatose, however. In 1901 postal service was discontinued.” (TSHA)

Hoaxes and attractions of all types were common ways for small towns left in the dust by railroads to attract tourist dollars. Among them were a few of our favorites:

– Old Rip, beloved pet horned toad, allegedly survived 31 years in a time capsule buried at the Eastland, Texas courthouse in 1897.

Did Jules Verne Spark Space Ship Sightings?

Jules Verne remains second only to Agatha Christie as most translated author since 1979. With more than 60 books and numerous short stories, plays and scientific essays, he was one of the most successful authors in history. He is often credited as the pioneer of science fiction. At the leading edge of scientific thinking and innovations in his day, he foreshadowed numerous “modern” developments including holographs, television news, moon landings and submarines.

Alberto Santos-Dumont said that Verne inspired his flying machines (1890s to early 1900s). The U.S. Navy named the first nuclear-powered submarine after Verne’s Nautilus from Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870). Igor Sikorsky credited Verne’s book Robur the Conqueror (1886) for his invention of the helicopter.

Verne’s works also inspired cultural and social changes. One shining example was Verne’s book, Around the World in Eighty Days (1872), which inspired Nellie Bly to challenge his fictional record on a real-life global race in 1889. Elizabeth Bisland then challenged Nellie Bly in the opposite direction. Although no Victorian UFOs were involved, the race between rivaling journalists became a popular world spectacle.

Verne’s books were translated and famously pirated and reprinted as well as mimicked by lesser authors, making his stories wildly popular across the United States. It is not difficult to imagine that Jules Verne also inspired similar sightings of Victorian UFOs across America.

At the center of Robur the Conqueror stands Robur the Conqueror, captain of the airship Albatross. Robur who challenges members of the Weldon Institute who support unpowered, lighter-than-air flight with his powered-flight airship. The giant invention looks like a clipper ship in the sky (hence the renaming) with rotors attached to vertical poles that give the ship lift. The large propellors in front and back offer directional thrust.

In scenes that could be blueprints for alien abductions, Robur captures members of Weldon and tours them in the Albatross.

Read the full text of Robur the Conqueror here

Nikola Tesla Believed The Truth Was Out There

In 1899 while conducting experiments in wireless telegraphy in his research facility in Colorado, NikolaTesla was convinced he received radio communications from Mars. In 1901, he made the astonishing claim public. His story was reported broadly in the press.

The Richmond Times (Virginia) printed an extensive description and commentary on his alleged discovery.

“As he sat beside his instrument on the hillside in Colorado, in the deep silence of that austere, inspiring region, where you plant your feet in gold and your head brushes the constellations — as he sat there one evening, alone, his attention, exquisitely alive at that juncture, was arrested by a faint sound from the receiver — three fairy taps, one after the other, at a fixed interval. What man who has ever lived on this earth would not envy Tesla that moment!” (The Times)

The public was wildly interested in Tesla’s alleged communications with Mars and newspapers across the nation picked up the story. Tesla did not elaborate on Victorian UFOs, but his story fueled readers’ imaginations.

Racing Nellie Bly
Victorian Secrets From Footnotes In History
Know The Past To Invent The Future

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Related Products

This shirt is LIT! As in loaded with references to the earliest science fiction literature with quotes from Jules Verne and more. High-quality 100% cotton, this T-shirt is perfect for eco-conscious shoppers. BUY!