There is very little doubt that "Martians" stories were great for attracting readers and therefore sales money in the latew 19th century. It is often stated that the accounts of "mystery airships" were created after H. G. Wells' The War of The Worlds was published. In fact The War of the Worlds was originally published in parts in the UK in Pearson's Magazine and in the United States in Cosmopolitan both in 1897.
Therefore the serial and book (published in 1898 by William Heinemann could not have inspired reports from 1896. It was a popular serial/ Astronomer Percival Lowell had previously inspired the idea of intelligent life on Mars, picked up on by Wells in three books -one preceding the Martian craze: Mars (1895), Mars and Its Canals (1906), and Mars As the Abode of Life (1908).
There was the well proven hoax known as the Aurora, Texas, UFO incident where on 17th April, 1897 reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897, a UFO crashed on a farm near Aurora, There were claims of a body and even debris. Not one single shred of evidence has ever been presented and the whole story appears to be yet another small town that was dying out trying to attract attention, visitors and money.
Above: “A Windmill Demolishes It,” The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897
a contemporary illustration of the Hamilton "cow-napping"
Next, on 23rd April, 1897, The Yates Center Farmer's Advocate, a Kansas newspaper, reported an incredible story that, on the evening of 19th April, local rancher Alexander Hamilton, his son, and a hired man saw a giant cigar-shaped UFO hovering above a corral near the house. Hamilton claimed that in a carriage underneath the structure were "six of the strangest beings I ever saw." Just then, the three men heard a calf bawling and found it trapped in the fence, a rope around its neck extending upward. "We tried to get it off but could not," Hamilton said, "so we cut the wire loose to see the ship, heifer and all, rise slowly, disappearing in the northwest."
It goes on and on and the belief that no one existed who could build airships and fly them at the time is a nonsense.
And look at this Dirigible airships compared with related aerostats, from the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1890–1907:
Yes, it is very possible that some early inventors tested out their craft and that these involved landings and encounters is also very likely.
But it is the fact that the accounts are still cited in 2025 despite all of the hoaxing of "Martian crashes" and monsters designed to revive a small towns' fortunes being well documented -but I suppose that involves reading and researching and Ufologists are not really into all of that- that this report is still accepted as being genuine, Colonel Henry Glenville Shaw was, after all, a respectable man in the community -why would he hoax a report.... d'uh!
I find it interesting that one or two people have even made the "Martians" in this account into "Greys" or "Tall Whites"!
Col. Shaw in his younger days (c)2025 respective copyright holder
Shaw'saccount “Three Strange Visitors, Who Possibly Came From the Planet Mars” comes from The Evening Mail of Stockton, California,
The story was related by a Colonel Henry Glenville Shaw (1843-1907), a Civil War veteran and news correspondent who had apparently belonged to the Mail’s editorial staff prior to his encounter. At any rate, Col. Shaw’s unusual story "carried some weight" at the time and, of course, there was a second witness who we are assured was real -which does not stop him from being "in on it"!.
Col. Shaw recounted what happened:
THREE STRANGE BEINGS
“Were it not for the fact that I was not alone when I witnessed the strange sight I would never have mentioned it at all. Wednesday afternoon I went out to Lodi and Lockeford in company with Camille Spooner, a young man recently arrived from Nevada…We left Lodi on the return trip, I should judge, shortly before 6 o’clock, and we were jogging along quietly when the horse stopped suddenly and gave a snort of terror. Looking up we beheld three strange beings. They resembled humans in many respects, but still they were not like anything I had ever seen. They were nearly or quite seven feet high and very slender. We were both somewhat startled, as you may readily imagine, and the first impulse was to drive on. The horse, however, refused to budge, and when we saw that we were being regarded more with an air of curiosity than anything else we concluded to get out and investigate. I walked up to where the strange looking persons were and addressed them. I asked where they were from. They seemed not to understand me, but began—well, ‘warbling’ expresses it better than talking. Their remarks, if such you would call them, were addressed to each other, and sounded like a monotonous chant, inclined to be guttural. I saw it was no use to attempt a conversation, so I satisfied myself with watching and examining them. They seemed to take great interest in ourselves, the horse and buggy, and scrutinized everything very carefully.
WEIGHED LESS THAN AN OUNCE EACH
“While they were thus engaged I was enabled to inspect them as well. As I have already stated, they were seven feet in height and very slender. I noticed, further, that their hands were quite small and delicate, and that their fingers were without nails. Their feet, however, were nearly twice as long as those of an ordinary man, though they were narrow, and the toes were also long and slender. I noticed, too, that they were able to use their feet and toes much the same as a monkey; in fact, they appeared to have much better use of their feet than their hands. I presently discovered that this was probably a provision of nature. As one of them came close to me I reached out to touch him, and, placing my hand under his elbow, pressed gently upward, and lo and behold I lifted him from the ground with scarcely an effort. I should judge that the specific gravity of the creature was less than an ounce. It was then that I observed him try to grasp the earth with his toes to prevent my lifting him. You can readily understand that their slight weight made such a provision necessary, or they might be blown away.
“They were without any sort of clothing, but were covered with a natural growth hard to describe; it was not hair, neither was it like feathers, but it was as soft as silk to the touch, and their skin was like velvet. Their faces and heads were without hair, the ears were very small, and the nose had the appearance of polished ivory, while the eyes were large and lustrous. The mouth, however, was small, and it seemed to me that they were without teeth. That and other things led me to believe that they neither ate nor drank, and that life was sustained by some sort of gas. Each of them had swung under the left arm a bag to which was attached a nozzle, and every little while one or the other would place the nozzle in his mouth, at which time I heard a sound as of escaping gas. It was much the same sound as is produced by a person blowing up a football.
OF INDESCRIBABLE BEAUTY
“From the description I give I do not want you to get the idea that these creatures were hideous. In appearance they were markedly the contrary. They were possessed of a strange and indescribable beauty. I can express myself in no other way. They were graceful to a degree, and more divinely beautiful than anything I ever beheld.
“The strangest part of this story is yet to come. It is the lights they carried. Each held in his hand something about the size of a hen’s egg. Upon holding them up and partly opening the hand, these substances emitted the most remarkable, intense and penetrating light one can imagine. Notwithstanding its intensity it had no unpleasant effect upon our eyes, and we found we could gaze directly at it. It seemed to me to be some sort of luminous mineral, though they had complete control of it.
“Finally they became tired of examining us and our horse and buggy, and then one of them, at a signal from one who appeared to be the leader, attempted to lift me, probably with the intention of carrying me away. Although I made not the slightest resistance he could not move me, and finally the three of them tried it without the slightest success. They appeared to have no muscular power outside of being able to move their own limbs.
STRANGE AIRSHIP
“Well, after trying in vain to move either of us they turned in the direction of the Woodbridge canal, near which we were, and as they flashed their lights towards the bridge we beheld a startling sight. There, resting in the air about twenty feet above the water, was an immense airship. It was 150 feet in length at least, though probably not over twenty feet in diameter at the widest part. It was pointed at both ends, and outside of a large rudder there was no visible machinery. The three walked rapidly toward the ship, not as you or I walk, but with a swaying motion, their feet only touching the ground at intervals of about fifteen feet. We followed them as rapidly as possible, and reached the bridge as they were about to embark. With a little spring they rose to the machine, opened a door in the side, and disappeared within. I do not know of what the affair was built, but just before it started I struck it with a rock and it gave no sound. It went through the air very rapidly and expanded and contracted with a muscular motion, and was soon out of sight.
“I have a theory, which, of course, is only a theory, that those we beheld were inhabitants of Mars, who have been sent to the earth for the purpose of securing one of its inhabitants…”
Shaw The Human Weighing Machine" for an ex-military man and former journalist (things are a tad sketchy on his part in the said newspaper at the time this story broke but a local publisher had a vested interest in rejuvenating the fortune of his town if not in publishing a story that brought in the cash).
There are some nice touches and I have noted more than one person jumping on "sent to the earth for the purpose of securing one of its inhabitants…” as being evidence of an early attempted alien abduction. This does the investigation and study of CE3K reports no favours and it is something a debunker can get their teeth into and shout "See! This is what these idiots believe!"
If this account had come from a fully documented official report from the time it would have been interesting. If it had been found in a private diary that could have its ink and paper, etc., analysed (that can be easily done these days) then the interest factor would be higher.
The sad truth is (although I would have loved for this to have been a genuine incident from the 1890s) that this is highly likely a made up story as it fitted into, and added more to, the Martian craze of the period. What we will likely never find out, unless someone in the Shaw family kept a diary, is whether Col. Shaw later confessed to making the story up but that would mean tracking down descendants, searching for (probably lost) documents and more. Easier for some to claim that this was a genuine CE3K.
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