Perhaps it’s the pretty girls. Perhaps it’s the Mexican food. Perhaps it ZZ Top. Whatever it is, aliens seem to be drawn like a magnet to Texas. Reports of UFO sightings have been recorded as early as 1897. Of course, in 1897, the term “UFO” hadn’t been dreamed up yet, so they were called “Mysterious Airships” (and they were reported looking somewhat like a zeppelin). A UFO crash in the little town of Aurora, Texas, predated Roswell by 50 years.
Watch Out For That Windmill
According to newspaper reports of that time, in the wee hours of April 19, 1897, a UFO had a really bad day and crashed into a windmill at the break-neck speed of ten to twelve miles an hour. (Perhaps the aliens were from a planet ruled by Don Quixote?) Among the wreckage was found a little alien corpse and a strange object with what looked like hieroglyphs on it.
Being decent Texans, the citizens buried the body (which is a mark of great respect.) Unfortunately, that grave has been either been lost, vandalized or robbed since then. The only thing that definitely remains of the remains is a photograph of the headstone.
The military visited Aurora not long after the crash appeared in the news to check the place out. There is a theory that they are the reason why the body disappeared. This has helped start a great tradition of the military doing some shenanigans when there’s a reported dead alien lying around.
Mexican Roswell
But that’s not been the only weird UFO crash in Texas. On August 25, 1974, near the Texas border town of Presidio (which may or may not have been on the Mexican side), a thunderous noise was heard in the sky. At an estimated speed of 2000 miles per hour (estimated from radar tracking), a flying saucer (in the classic disc shape) collided with a small Earth airplane. They both exploded and flaming wreckage rained on the countryside.
Military unites from both Mexico and America investigated the wreckage. It as originally thought the UFO was an unexploded ICBM. Perhaps both were trying to decide where to deport any aliens that they might have found. A sixteen foot disc is reported to have been retrieved, as well as bodies.
Sadly, the bodies belonged not to aliens but to 24 Mexican soldiers, who were the first to arive on the scene. Authors Rueben Uriate and Noe Torres, in their book “Mexico’s Roswell” suggests that exposure to the debris killed them. Things get a little weird after that. But what would a Texas UFO story be if not weird? The US government supposedly became involved and “disinfected” the area and may have stolen the UFO or bought it from the Mexicans. Remains were thught to be taken to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
Like all good tall tales, there are many different versions of these popular Texan UFO sightings. But somehow, they all sound really good after the listener eats a hash brownie.
Resources:
About.com “1897 – The Aurora Incident.” Billy Booth. http://ufos.about.com/od/bestufocrashcases/p/aurora.htm
“Mexico’s Roswell: The Chihuahua UFO Crash.” Rueben Uriate and Noe Torres. Roswell Books. 2008.
UFOencounters.co.uk: The Mexican UFO Crash. http://www.ufoencounters.co.uk/the-mexican-ufo-crash.html
