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 Texas : Features : Columns : Bob Bowman's East Texas

Visitors from space?

by Bob Bowman
Bob Bowman
Mysterious objects supposedly visiting Texas aren’t new. In the late 1800s, several towns in East Texas experienced aerial phenomena.

An account in the Dallas Morning News on October 5,1898, reported that a 12-year-old boy saw “a great ball of fire” hovering about three feet over the ground with a buzzing sound before it took off again.”

At Denton, the Galveston News reported in 1897 that a “mysterious ship” was seen “cavorting” through the sky in North Texas.

Another mysterious airship passed over Bonham at 3:15 a.m. in April of 1897.

In 1889, as Dr. J.M. Stephen's was going to Emerson from Paris, he saw an object that he said looked like a large balloon, about 100 feet in length, reported the Dallas Morning News.

From the Dallas newspaper came another report in 1889: “Last night (at Grandview) about 11 p.m., a party fishing on Chambers Creek perceived the elements and the earth round about them as bright and luminous as noonday splendor...when three extra large meteors were traversing the heavens in a northern direction...

”Just as they vanished and the iridescent beauty with them, three heavy sounds...nosier than the noisiest anvil firing were distinctly heard...”

At Navasota in 1894, people were startled by a loud report...originating in the northwest, and immediately across the heavens there extended a narrow line of smoke of dazzling whiteness so bright that it was painful to the eyes. Immediately, it began to fade to the color of burning sulfur and spread out over the heavens in various colors--violent, purple blue. Then the script letters MMTUW formed and the heavens became clear...”

The Dallas Morning News said “dozens of people witnessed the event and inquiries developed that it had been seen in parts of Brazos and Washington counties. The negroes were very much frightened...”
The account of these events were reported by “Hidden Headlines of Texas,” a collection by Chad Lewis of strange, unusual and bizarre newspaper stories from 1860 to 1910.

Bob Bowman's East Texas
July 5, 2009 Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 70 East Texas newspapers

Related Topics:
UFOs in Texas, Ghosts & more
(Bob Bowman of Lufkin is the author of more than 40 books about East Texas. He can be reached at bob-bowman. com)

Related Topics:
Texas
East Texas
Texas Towns
Texas Ghost Towns
Bob Bowman's "All Things Historical"

The Forgotten Towns of East Texas, Vol. I
By Bob and Doris Bowman
66 stories about forgotten town in 45 counties
 
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