In a small cemetery in Aurora, Texas, a sign informs visitors about the unique history of the graves found within. Among the somber stories of victims of a “spotted fever” epidemic, civil war veterans, and a tragic epitaph in memory of an infant who passed too soon, one curious sentence stands out:
“This site is also well known because of the legend that a spaceship crashed nearby in 1897 and the pilot, killed in the crash, was buried here.”
In April 1897, the Dallas Morning News published the unusual tale. An airship, shaped like a cigar, sailed over the public square and smashed into the windmill of Judge James Proctor. The resulting explosion destroyed the spaceship, the windmill, and the judge’s flower garden. (Proctor’s Find a Grave memorial, while sparse on personal details, has more on the story and the resulting History Channel production about the incident.)
The airship’s pilot—said to be the only person on board—was killed in the accident. The article describes the body pulled from the wreckage as “not an inhabitant of this world” and, according to the local signal service officer, “a native of the planet Mars.” Papers recovered from the wreck were written in “some unknown hieroglyphics” and were undecipherable.
The town gave the mysterious pilot a Christian burial in Aurora Cemetery. But the legend only grew.
The incident was one of hundreds reported across the United States during the late 1890s. Common theories for what these objects could be stayed close to home—usually (human) technology and secret projects were believed to be the culprits. Some decided they were hoaxes—and firmly terrestrial ones at that.
It wasn’t until the “UFO wave” of the 1940s that more fantastical possibilities took center stage. In May 1947, Brian Byers Savage claimed a shiny, silvery colored machine flew over his house in Oklahoma City. Just over a month later, pilot Kenneth Arnold watched disc-shaped objects soar past Mt. Rainier, Washington (articles reporting on his story gave us the term “flying saucer”). And that July, PIO Walter Haut’s initial press release about the now-famous Roswell Incident drew public fascination that lingers decades later. While skepticism certainly prevailed, theories about alien visitations flourished.
Back in Aurora, the whole airship mystery had been mostly explained away by a very down-to-earth theory: S. E. Haydon, writer of the original 1897 article, invented the whole thing to boost interest in a dying town. Even so, the airship pilot’s grave had become a local attraction. By then, he was known as “Little Traveler,” or simply “Ned.”
At some point, a tombstone etched with a crude spaceship drawing was placed where his grave was thought to be. When that tombstone later disappeared, it was replaced with a boulder where visitors left gifts in his memory—or in appreciation of Haydon’s creative bit of storytelling.
If you visit Ned today, you’ll find all markers and mementos have been moved to discourage tourism on holy ground. Ned’s unmarked grave—if it was ever truly there—lies undisturbed, and no other evidence remains to prove the tale of the crashed airship true or false. Only that single, unexpected sentence on Aurora Cemetery’s historical sign marks this as a place where worlds once collided.
Whatever happened that April day in 1897, it seems fitting that Ned’s story lives on in a town named after a marvel of the sky.
“Little Traveler” isn’t the only grave with out-of-this-world connections. Visit this virtual cemetery to see more memorials for those whose lives were impacted by alien sightings, stories, or straight-up skepticism.
Have you found other interesting gravestones relating to UFOs or extraterrestrial life? Let us know in the comments!
Never knew. What interesting stories found by visiting cemeteries.
There’s a movie about it called the Aurora Encounter.
I love visiting cemeteries, especially old ones.
You forgot the main contactee, George Adamski, Memorial ID
8789255.
Thanks, added!
George was my Wife’s Great Uncle From Dunkirk,NY
Why would a space ship, designed by beings far superior to humans, ever need propellers? There is no air in space to “propel”.
It sounds like a derigible to me and the man flying it was wearing some type of space suit. Very Jules Vernian.
Perhaps they know when they come into our atmosphere they’ll need them…
Why don’t they use an xray or something to see what’s in the ground or just dig it up?
Nancy, awesome idea!
Years ago I read that the local residents would not allow the body to be exhumed.
Because it is still a cemetery where the remains of human beings are buried in accordance with their wishes and religious belief. These people believe that a cemetery is a portion of their deity’s creation sanctified to steward their mortal remains in anticipation of a return to life to spend in the presence of their beloved Almighty. Human decency requires that honestly-held religious beliefs must be respected and accomodated wherever possible.
We should not just go and dig it up for no compelling reason, but merely to satisfy ghoulish, foolish, rubbernecking curiosity.
That’s why.
Well said.
What about for scientific interest and to improve knowledge in general – y’know, the reason ‘they’ exhume Egyptian mummies, mummies from the Tarim Basin, and buried murder victims.
That is the very reason WHY we should go and dig it up. Our bodies are just empty vessels when we die, our souls are already gone. For the purpose of science and curiosity, I believe we should find these alien graves and study them. Their remains could hold the keys to the future, “if they actually exist “.
Loved it.
I think a DNA test would be good for little Ned.
But they don’t know exactly where it is.
I’ve loved cemeteries since my young years in SW Philadelphia. I feel whether it’s a famous persons gravesite or just the everyday person, cemeteries and the graves within tell a story of our countries history and in some cases the persons history.
There was a documentary on TV about this incident several years ago and supposedly the alien body and headstone disappeared.
John Mack!!!
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/129801337/john-edward-mack
Added to the virtual cemetery, thank you!
It is kind of interesting when you consider that the first air plane wasn’t invented till 1903, but you have to agree with Revis Bell, why would a space ship need propellers ?
For when navigating in earth’s atmosphere?
Balloons and other airships have been used since the mid-1800s. Powered gliders didn’t arrive until later.
It is a common phenomenon for people to see what they expect, especially in a frightening or confusing experience. While running, the propellers would have to be inferred rather than directly observed anyway – they would otherwise be invisible unless windmilling or stopped.
Folks, We are all space travelers, on a round ball shaped space ship, with its own surrounding atmosphere, and without propellers. What’s so unusual?
Sometimes we forget the Earth is not our home. We are her for a little while to gather wisdom through experience. Heaven is our home.. We are spiritual beings having an Earthly experience.
Why does the “Find a Grave Team” waste time with this old airship hoax?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora,_Texas,_UFO_incident
Because it’s fun! Lighten up a little, find something that makes you smile!
I don’t think explaining the unusual information reported on the cemetery’s Historical Sign qualifies as “wasting time.” I think it’s because the information is on the cemetery sign and some explanation is a good thing.
Not cemeteries but UFOs in the sky at Big Island and Kaui. They were not seen by the naked eye but only when I uploaded my files to my photo external hard drive.
Regarding the references to propellers as printed in the 1967 account of the 1897 Aurora
incident, the use of a ‘propeller’ for powering aircraft had not yet been invented by 1897, which raises a point of how such a [verbatim] description could have been supplied by a
witness in 1897. I’d want to question the 1967 writer about why he used such an
anachronistic reference. Lacking access to the actual wording of the 1897 witness[es], we
cannot assume that they saw the type of propeller that is commonly used in winged aircraft
that had not yet been invented. Perhaps the witness’s description was something like
“circular things that turned and whirred were mounted on the flying machine in ways that
appeared to promote propulsion”. But, in 1897, it’s a sure bet the witness wasn’t referring to
airplane propellers.
The June 11, 2024 Smithsonian Magazine article by Erik Ofgang titled “Twenty-Five Years Before the Wright Brothers Took to the Skies, This Flying Machine Captivated America” states that for Charles F. Ritchel’s dirigible, first exhibited in 1878 in Hartford, Connecticut, “The aeronaut would sit on this framework as though it were a bicycle, controlling the craft with foot pedals and a hand crank that turned a four-bladed propeller.”
The article also states “After rising into the air, Quinlan [the pilot] managed to steer the craft out over the Connecticut River. To onlookers, it was clear that the aeronaut was in control. But as he flew, the wind picked up, and it began to look like a storm was gathering. To avoid getting caught in the poor weather and facing an almost-certain disaster, Quinlan steered the craft back toward the field, cutting through the “teeth of the wind until directly over the ball ground whence it had ascended, and then alighted within a few feet of the point from which it had started,” as the New York Sun reported. The act was hailed far and wide as a milestone. An illustration of the impressive-looking flying machine was featured on the cover of Harper’s Weekly.”
Your statement “the use of a ‘propeller’ for powering aircraft” makes no sense since even in modern aircraft, the propeller provides forward propulsion of the aircraft and the propeller is powered by the engine. In the case of Ritchel’s dirigible, the propeller also provides the forward propulsion, but the propeller was powered by the pilot rather than an engine.
Thus, contrary to your claim, the propeller had been invented and used to propel an airship forward before 1897.
Furthermore, people at the time would have been familiar with the concept of a propeller from their use on boats and ships since the concept of the marine propeller was patented and practically applied in the 1830s by British engineer Francis Pettit Smith and Swedish-American engineer John Ericsson, and the efficiency of the marine propeller led to its widespread adoption in the 1840s, eventually replacing paddle wheels on steamships. Since dirigibles were likened to ships, hence being called airships, it is natural that people would give the name of the familiar propeller used on ships to the similar device that served the same purpose on an airship.
Do you accept submissions of weird or unusual cemetery stories? I have one.
Hi Laura, you can contact us through our Contact Us page.
Call Jack Reacher, he’ll get to the bottom of it. 😉
In 1994, we were living in AR. one night we ere putting wire over our attic vents. The bats were a problem, we waited for them to fly out and then covered both sides of the house vents. As Bill was on a ladder and I steadied it, looking up at him, we both saw a light coming slowly down in the clear blue sky. There was no street lights, we lived in the lake area, very dark and peaceful on a high point. We both saw the light, watched it as it hovered in the dark sky, then it flew up at a speed faster than any aircraft we had. I believe it wasn’t one of us. A good friend and writer, wrote about seeing the same thing while driving at night in AZ going to CA. Both she and her mother saw this and, later she reported it in one of her books. They are out there. Susan
Another case of ‘there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreampt of in your philosophy, Horatio’ Susan. Observant and open-minded people probably have anomalous experiences with great frequency. Most, probably never get publicized for fear of ridicule or scornful dismissal. Much of it gets pretended away (even in scientific circles – like the row of huge ancient beautiful oaks cut down because it was realized they would have to have been planted prior to first claimed contact with Europeans). But you are far from alone. One of my own [to me, staggering and non-plussing] sighting reports, together with my ‘has anything like this ever been reported before?’ elicited: ‘this is the most common type of report we receive!’
Whatever type of “propellers” they were, they could have been turned off while in space itself. In our own atmosphere, they might well have been needed.
Darn it. I wish I heard this story before this summer started. I was in Wise County to see my 3GG’s grave just North of Decatur in June. My 3GG was the Sheriff of Wise County in the 1870’s and died 4 years before the little fella crashed. I guess I’ll have to stop by and check it out the next time I visit.
I think the show “Real People” did a segment on this back in the 1970s or ’80s. They talked to a very old woman who remembered seeing the crash; she was in her 80s or 90s and wouldn’t come out to be filmed but talked to the interviewer through her screen door. But she described the crash and how the town buried the victim.
Are we so foolish to think that we are the only beings in this universe?
Agreed Michele. According to Dr. Brian Cox, there may be two trillion or more galaxies, and maybe an average 400 billion stars per galaxy. So what are the odds?
I think it is arrogance. How can we be so self absorbed that we think we are “it?”
The description of the airship sounds like the description of a dirigible or a zeppelin.
By the late 19th century, flying via lighter-than-air gases was already close to 100 years old. But free-floating balloons were, and still are, at the mercy of the winds. Mid-1800s aviation enthusiasts dreamed of fixing this problem, which led to the development of dirigibles—powered, steerable airships that were inflated with lighter-than-air gases.
Henry Giffard built the first dirigible in France in 1852. It was the first powered and steerable airship to fly. The craft featured a cigar-shaped hydrogen-filled envelope. On 24 September 1852, Giffard flew the airship from the hippodrome at Place de l’Etoile to Élancourt, covering the 27 km (17 mi) in around 3 hours, demonstrating maneuvering along the way. The engine, however, was not sufficiently powerful to allow Giffard to fly against the wind to make a return journey.
Charles F. Ritchel exhibited a dirigible on June 12, 1878 at a baseball field in Hartford, Connecticut. In the demonstration, the airship rose 50 feet, then 100 feet, then 200 feet. Such a sight was uncommon but not unheard of at the time. After rising into the air, the pilot managed to steer the craft out over the Connecticut River. To onlookers, it was clear that the aeronaut was in control. But as he flew, the wind picked up, and it began to look like a storm was gathering. To avoid getting caught in the poor weather and facing an almost-certain disaster, the pilot steered the craft back toward the field, cutting through the “teeth of the wind until directly over the ball ground whence it had ascended, and then alighted within a few feet of the point from which it had started,” as the New York Sun reported. The act was hailed far and wide as a milestone. An illustration of the impressive-looking flying machine was featured on the cover of Harper’s Weekly.
Ferdinand von Zeppelin first formulated the concept of a rigid frame airship in 1874 and had detailed designs by 1893, with a patent issued in 1895 in Germany and in 1899 in the U.S.
The 1897 airship crash in Aurora could have been from a test run of a prototype dirigible or zeppelin.
Thanks Find A Grave for the Aurora, TX story. I have contributed to Find A Grave for my own family members. How fortuitous that I got your Aurora story – I am a UFO historian and researcher and have been working on an history of UFO sightings world-wide since the beginning of time and there are many – I am well over 900 plus pages, am still writing, and am very familiar with the Aurora case. I emailed you what I wrote about the stories I reviewed relative to Aurora. Yes, Glenn Bradley is absolutely right – UFOs are very, very real and so are NHI (non-human intelligence – aliens). No surprise and nothing to fear. We are not, and have never been alone in this vast, vast universe…the history is out there if one is willing to be open to possibilities. For me, it is not a (religious) belief, it is knowing from reading historical materials. Never seen one, never been visited by one, but knew as a small child that they were out there – don’t ask me how or why but I just knew…the UFO books stacked about my desk tell the stories…”To this day the UFO incident in Aurora Texas of 1897 remains one of the most compelling cases in UFO history.”