It was built of an unknown metal, resembling somewhat a mixture of aluminum and silver.” “The ship was too badly wrecked to form any conclusion as to its construction or motive power. “Papers found on his on his person – evidently a record of his travels – are written in some unknown hieroglyphics, and cannot be deciphered," the newspaper reported. signal service officer who“gives it as his opinion that he was a native of the planet Mars.” The Dallas Morning News, taking at face value that it was indeed an extra-terrestrial event, linked Ned's ship to a series of UFO sightings around the country and quoted a U.S. So when this crash happened here, you know, people had heard of that, and that’s why they assumed the pilot was from Mars.” “It was the first serious discussion of maybe there being life. Bills, an author who wrote about the Aurora incident in his book Texas Obscurities. New telescope technology had allowed people to see the face of Mars more clearly than ever, though maybe not quite clearly enough.Īn Italian astronomer in 1888 announced he’d seen evidence of canals on the red planet. This wasn’t the only UFO sighting in Texas in the spring of 1897. “And that’s how the cemetery association got the court injunction in 1972 to keep them from exhuming the remains.”Īuthor Tui Snyder gave a presentation on the numerous reports of mysterious airship sightings in Texas in the spring of 1897. “You cannot exhume a grave unless you notify the next of kin,” Wheeler says with a smile. In the 1970s, Wheeler says people even tried to exhume the remains. Researchers have looked into the story for years, testing water in the well where the wreckage was said to be stored, digging metal out of trees at the crash site as proof something exploded, and using radar to see if there really is a Ned in Ned’s grave. It was part of the Aurora Alien Encounter conference she helped organize. On Saturday, Wheeler spent the day leading bus trips to the crash site and the old town cemetery. She’s been Aurora’s city administrator for more than a decade. Wheeler’s family has been in Aurora for several generations. Wheeler came up with the name - and it stuck. He's the extra-terrestrial pilot that is said to have been buried in in the town. He loved to tell tall tales anyway, and he really got on telling all kinds of stories, and Ned’s story was one of them.” “And my grandmother said 'it’s hogwash.' But my uncles would discuss it. “Then I started asking my grandfather about it and he would snicker about it,” Wheeler said. An older neighbor would sit on his porch and tell stories. Toni Wheeler first heard the story of the crash when she was a kid growing up in Aurora. Folks have different opinions about what happened nearly 120 years ago. The Wise County town recently hosted a conference to commemorate the UFO crash. The pilot – from Mars, people thought at the time – was allegedly buried with Christian rites at the nearby Aurora Cemetery. The airship, it is said, was not of this world. According to legend - and a Texas historical marker - early in the morning on April 17, 1897, something strange happened in the small town of Aurora, about 30 miles northwest of Fort Worth.Ī cigar-shaped airship was seen falling from the sky when it crashed through a windmill and exploded.
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