by Judith Present
Who doesn’t like an old west story and a mystery to boot; yet this is an unsolved mystery. Well, long before the Roswell Incident of aliens, a similar incident occurred in Aurora, Texas. Aurora isn‘t too far from Fort Worth and around 6:00 a.m. on the morning of April 19, 1897 a strange craft, described as an “airship” sailed over the Aurora public square and continued northward toward the home and property of Judge J. S. Procter. Flying low, the craft struck the Judges’ windmill, toppled it and destroyed the adjacent water tank and then it exploded.
The Dallas Morning News stated that the pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only one aboard and while badly disfigured, enough of his remains had been recovered to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world. The Reporter went on to say that U. S. Army Signal Corps officer T. J. Weems provided the opinion that the pilot was the native of the planet Mars, yet how he knew such a thing is not very clear. lol There were papers found on the pilot described as “unknown hieroglyphics” and could not be deciphered. The craft was made from some unknown metal and weighed tons, nor could anyone figure how the craft was powered.
The people of Aurora took the pilot’s little body to the Cemetery and gave it a Christian burial. Today there is a marker giving the history of the incident. Most of the debris from the wreckage was dumped into the well beneath the windmill and some in the coffin with the alien. Military personal said they would analyze it, but never did it.
In 1945 Brawley Oats purchased Judge Proctor’s property and was determined to use the old well as a water supply and even though he had taken out all the debris from the airship he eventually, from drinking that water, got a severe case of Rheumatoid Arthritis, which he claimed he got from drinking that water and had the well sealed shut. And life went on in Aurora.
But in May 1973 a United Press International revived the incident and proceedings got underway to exhume the pilot of the craft. People who lived at the time of the incident still remembered it and the remains of a “small man” who had been buried in the town cemetery.
A Professor from North Texas State discovered a fragment of the debris intriguing because it consisted primarily of iron but exhibited no magnetic properties and was too shinny to be iron. Over the years debris was still being found even though at this point some were thinking this was a hoax made up by the reporter to sell papers. Yet over the years the military comes and confiscates some of the debris. But during the early 2000’s an investigation team arrived with the goal of disinterring the body as they could also see through x-rays there was something under the body, but they were denied permission to excavate the site and exhume the body and any pieces of metal. They found that markers were constantly being taken along with grave robbers over the years, who took debris. But that’s not the end of the story folks.
In 2008 Tim Oates a descendant of the original Oates was the current owner now of the property where it took place. He allowed investigators to unseal the well and examine the water, which they found had very high concentration of aluminum. And even though many who thought it a hoax claimed there was never a windmill on the Judge’s property the investigators found parts of it.
Many who spent time studying this incident rule out it’s a hoax. Yet on the other hand what actually happened at Aurora in 1897 has never been very clear. If it had been a clear attempt to put the little town of Aurora on the map there probably wouldn’t have been military personal involved. But what happened in Aurora in the early morning of April 19, 1897? No one seems to know for certain.
