Sistersville Phantom Airship 1897

Beginning in late 1896 and lasting through 1897, the United States was plagued with a very unusual unidentified aerial phenomenon. Starting in California and steadily moving eastward across the country, sightings of strange lights in the sky attached to what many believed was a dirigible were reported by everyday citizens. On April 19th, 1897, the mysterious airship had made its way to the small town of Sistersville, West Virginia! 

The following newspaper article comes from the Philadelphia Inquirer, dated 20 April 1897. A series of red, white, and green flashing lights were observed heading into town from the northwest. When looked at through ‘strong glasses,’ a cone-shaped craft, 180 feet long, with large fins on either side, could be seen. It was observed for about 20 minutes. So sure that they didn’t see just a mere star, the citizens of Sistersville who witnessed the strange phenomena passed around and signed an affidavit declaring what they saw. 

Interestingly, earlier that day, reports of a phantom airship crash in Aurora, Texas made headlines across the country. The airship had crashed into windmill/sump pump on Judge Proctor’s farm, killing the lone pilot. The strange little body was given a Christian burial in a local cemetery. To this day, permission to exhume the body has been denied, cementing the tale’s place in Fortean society forever. 

Were the citizens of Sistersville simply influenced by the strange events in Texas, and thus turned their own unexplained experience into something similar…or was there really a barrage of phantom airships traveling across the continental United States in 1897? Who were piloting these strange craft—beings from another planet, or simply men from our own planet, operating under a secret mission to advance air travel? We may never know, but to the people who witnessed the events of April 19th, 1897, there’s no doubt in their minds that they had witnessed something extraordinary.