This Day in History: A funeral was being planned for an alien on this day (April 20) in 1897. A few days earlier, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, Texas, resulting in the death of the extraterrestrial pilot according to a contemporary newspaper account.
An article written by S.E. Haydon and published in the Dallas Morning News on April 19, 1897, described the crash two days earlier of "the airship which has been sailing through the country." The craft suddenly appeared over Aurora at about 6 a.m. local time on April 17, 1897. It was "much nearer the earth than ever before", and "evidently some of the machinery was out of order". The ship subsequently "collided with the tower of Judge Proctor's windmill and went to pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres". The pilot, presumed to be the sole occupant, was killed. Examination of his remains indicated that "he was not an inhabitant of this world." T.J. Weems, from nearby Fort Worth, whom Haydon described as "the United States signal service officer at this place and an authority on astronomy," opined that the pilot was "a native of the planet Mars." A funeral was planned for the alien on April 20. Papers found on his body after the crash contained writings "in some unknown hieroglyphics," which, according to Haydon, appeared to record the pilot's travels. Haydon noted that the ship was made of "an unknown metal"
The alien was supposedly buried at the Aurora Cemetery nearby. Reportedly, some wreckage from the crash was dumped into a well under the windmill, and some was buried with the pilot. A Texas Historical Commission marker posted outside of the Aurora Cemetery mentions the UFO incident, characterizing it as a "legend".
A brief Time magazine article on the Aurora incident, published in 1979, noted that Haydon's "tale ... was generally ridiculed at the time, and most citizens of Aurora still scoff". The article quoted 86-year-old Aurora resident Etta Pegues, who said that Haydon "wrote it as a joke and to bring interest to Aurora ... The railroad bypassed us, and the town was dying. ... Why, the judge never even had a windmill."
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