DETROIT – A year before H.G. Wells’ iconic “The War of the Worlds” was published in hardcover, thousands of Americans saw mysterious lights in the sky.
Related: ‘I’ll believe this to the day I die’: The Michigan UFO craze of 1966
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The earliest UFO sightings in Michigan date back to April 10, 1897.
An Unidentified Flying Object is defined as any aerial object or optical phenomenon not readily identifiable to the observer. Feds now refer to them as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs.
The Phantom Airship
From November 1896 to May 1897, thousands of people claimed to have seen strange lights they believed were airships. Hot air balloons date back centuries and the precursor to blimps began to show up before this period, but these were different.
It started in California, where most reports came from people who said they saw lights moving east in the sky, but some people claimed they saw occupants inside the crafts who appeared human, but had unnatural movements and mannerisms. Some people said they had encounters with the pilots and crew, who told them they came from Mars.
The sightings moved east across the country. Newspapers at the time speculated it must have been an inventor who was flying a new experimental vehicle cross-country to apply for a patent in Washington, D.C. Others speculated it was a top-secret government project.
A witness in Arkansas claimed to have spoken with an airship pilot who said they were flying to Cuba to “kill Spaniards.”
Michigan sightings
Michigan’s first sighting of the mysterious airships was April 10, 1897, in Alma, roughly 50 miles north of Lansing. Sightings then were reported the next day in Benton Harbor, Holland, Niles and Mendon. Residents reported seeing colorful flickering lights over Lake Michigan.
The lights were then spotted over Battle Creek and Kalamazoo and Pavilion -- where an explosion reportedly spread airship debris across the area. A witness said they saw an object with a bright light on the front, smaller lights on the sides and propellers. It quickly sped across the sky before they heard a large explosion.
“People of Pavillion have made some startling reports, and, if true, then the much talked of airship was not only a reality, but is something of the past,” wrote The Copper Country Evening News, April 21, 1897. “In one place, there was found a large coil of heavy wire, evidently a part of some electrical appliance. At another point, a propeller blade of some very light material was discovered in a partially fused condition.”
Rumors of the craft’s demise were greatly exaggerated as lights in the sky continued to be reported across the state -- including Flint, Saginaw, Battle Creek -- well into May.
The truth? Fake news?
Around the time that the lights were seen over Lansing, the truth became known: flying paper lanterns. Well, partially. There was definitely a mixture of stars, planets and swamp gas that explained most of the sightings and the rest? Just run-of-the-mill mass hysteria!
All the sightings that described the craft matched how airships were described in fiction, and -- again -- this was before The War of the Worlds was published as a book. Similar things happened decades later when people started seeing flying saucers because that’s how they were described and shown in popular culture.
Related: That time a jet disappeared chasing a UFO over Lake Superior
Additionally, this happened just after the Industrial Revolution and more than two decades before Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” led to the first regulations in the country. Industrial waste was discharged into the drinking water and the air was filled with dense smoke and soot. I’m speculating here, but there’s a chance these people were absolutely riddled with lead or something else that maybe impacted their mental capabilities.
But what about all the newspaper reports that talked about this as a definite thing? What about the reports of inventors going on a massive country-wide trip in experimental aircrafts?
Here’s the thing: Newspapers back then lied. Like a lot. They basically published anything anyone told them. The idea of fact-checking was absurd, they had papers to fill!
If you look at newspapers from the day, it’s basically rumors and mundane nonsense. So-and-so bought a new goat, a pony walked down Main Street, look at this new carrot -- when you had a large, interesting story, not only did newspapers run it, they doubled down on the nonsense and embellished things as much as they could to make sure people purchased their newspaper and not a competitor’s.
I mean, what’s the worst that could happen? Is a Martian going to sue the paper? I find that unlikely, considering his spaceship exploded near Kalamazoo on the way to Cuba.
Read: That time a jet disappeared chasing a UFO over Lake Superior
