The First Flying Saucer to Make News
The Denison Daily News reported what Texas farmer John Martin witnessed fly over him one fine day in 1878.
People interested in anomalous phenomenon may be familiar with the story of Kenneth Arnold. Airborne on a business trip and sidetracked in search of a missing military transport plane, the civilian pilot reported watching nine shiny objects fly in formation at supersonic speed between two mountains in the State of Washington.
In the lead was one crescent-shaped and apparently metallic object. It was followed by a string of eight shiny objects that seemed to be shaped somewhat like the heel of man’s shoe as seen from above, but thin and resembling a disc when viewed in profile.
The objects seemed to move through the sky “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water,” Mr. Arnold was quoted as saying. He also said the objects seemed to move in a coordinated matter, perhaps linked by radio control, as he watched them bob and swing together “like the tail of a kite.”
The date was June 24, 1947. While he never mentioned the phrase, “flying saucer,” in his initial interview, reporters and editors around planet earth did. Russell Lee of the The National Air and Space Museum detailed the episode: Newspapermen took the words of Kenneth Arnold and a historic phrase was born.
The phrase “Flying Saucer” also created a sensation and helped popularize the idea that is was possible for beings from other worlds to visit the earth. In fact, the summer of 1947 was a time when many people across the United States sighted what seemed like remarkable and unknown objects flying through the skies. Their number includes several who reported UAP before Mr. Arnold.
The Original
Kenneth Arnold’s report, however, is not the first time the term “saucer” had been used in newsprint to describe a mysterious traveler crossing the sky overhead. That distinction goes to the writers and editors of the The Dennison Daily News of Dennison, Texas, who published what farmer John Martin reported seeing cross over his head near his farm, about 80 miles north of Dallas, near the border with Oklahoma on January 22, 1878.
The sighting was reported under the headline, “A Strange Phenomena” in the Denison Daily News of January 25, 1878. Ufologist B. J. Booth of the UFO Casebook provides an excellent transcription of the article and important analysis of the episode. (The Residium broke up the article, reproduced below, into paragraphs for improved readability.)
From Mr. John Martin, a farmer who lives some six miles south of this city, we learn the following strange story:
Tuesday morning while out hunting, his attention was directed to a dark object high up in the southern sky.
The peculiar shape and velocity with which the object seemed to approach riveted his attention and he strained his eyes to discover its character.
When first noticed, it appeared to be about the size of an orange, which continued to grow in size.
After gazing at it for some time Mr. Martin became blind from long looking, and left off viewing it for a time in order to rest his eyes.
On resuming his view, the object was almost overhead and had increased considerably in size, and appeared to be going through space at wonderful speed.
When directly over him it was about the size of a large saucer and was evidently at great height.
Mr. Martin thought it resembled, as well as he could judge at such a distance, a balloon, which seemed to him to be the most reasonable solution of the strange phenomena, though he is of the opinion that it was possibly some of the heavenly bodies.
It went as rapidly as it had come, and was soon lost to sight in the southern sky.
Mr. Martin is a gentleman of undoubted veracity, and this strange occurrence, if it was not a balloon, deserves the attention of our scientists. — Dallas Herald
Above from The UFO Casebook.
Please know, Dear Reader, the editor of The Residium only knows about this report due to the work of author John Spencer, of BUFORA, the British UFO Research Association, who described the report in his “UFO Encyclopedia” published in 1993.
Notes that Last
After decades of public fame and its associated notoriety, along with abuse from the more uninformed members of the public, Mr. Arnold said: “If I ever saw a ten story building flying through the air, I would never say a word about it.”
Going from how the public often treats those who tell the truth, I don’t blame him for feeling that way. And while I still don’t know what UFOs are, or what Mr. Arnold saw flying over the Cascade Range of Washington that day, I am most grateful he decided to share what he saw. Like a good public education, learning from other people saves one a truly great amount of time.
My appreciation also goes to the hundreds of thousands — if not millions — of witnesses who have braved to step forward and report what they experienced in just the 73 years since Kenneth Arnold. Led by farmer John Martin 147 years ago, they have opened a new universe for us to explore.