The following is some information I found on this.The Aurora UFO Incident is a UFO incident that reportedly occurred on April 17, 1897 in Aurora, Texas. The incident (similar to the more famous Roswell UFO Incident 50 years later) reportedly resulted in a fatality crash; however, unlike Roswell, the government did not engage in any systemic cover up, and the alien body is reportedly buried in an unmarked grave at the local cemetery.
During the 1896-1897 time frame (some 6–7 years before the Wright Brothers' first flight), numerous sightings of a cigar-shaped flying machine were reported across the United States.
One of these accounts appeared in the April 19, 1897 edition of the Dallas Morning News. Written by Aurora resident S.E. Haydon, the alleged UFO is said to have hit a windmill on the property of a Judge J.S. Proctor two days earlier at around 6AM local (Central) time, resulting in its crash. The pilot (who was reported to be "not of this world", and a "Martian" according to a purported Army officer from nearby Fort Worth) did not survive the crash, and was buried "with Christian rites" at the nearby Aurora Cemetery. (The cemetery contains a Texas Historical Commission marker mentioning the incident.
Purportedly, wreckage from the crash site was dumped into a nearby well located over the damaged windmill, while some ended up with the alien in the grave. Adding to the mystery was the story of Mr. Brawley Oates, who purchased Judge Proctor's property around 1945. Oates cleaned out the debris from the well in order to use it as a water source, but later developed an extremely severe case of arthritis, which he claimed to be the result of contaminated water from the wreckage dumped into the well. Thus, Oates sealed up the well with a concrete slab and placed an outbuilding atop the slab (according to writing on the slab, this was done in 1957).
On December 2, 2005,
UFO Files first aired an episode related to this incident, titled "Texas' Roswell". The episode featured a 1973 investigation led by Bill Case, an aviation writer for the
Dallas Times Herald and the Texas state director of
Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).
MUFON uncovered two new eyewitnesses to the crash. Mary Evans, who was 15 at the time, told of how her parents went to the crash site (they forbid her from going) and the discovery of the alien body. Charlie Stephens, who was age 10, told how he saw the airship trailing smoke as it headed north toward Aurora. He wanted to see what happened, but his farmer father made him finish the chores; later, he told how his father went to town the next day and saw wreckage from the crash.
MUFON's investigation uncovered a piece of metal, reportedly from the wreckage, that upon further analysis was revealed to be composed of 95% aluminum and 5% iron, with no traces of zinc. This alloy is very uncommon in nature (and the lack of zinc, normally present with iron, even more uncommon), and combined with other analysis which stated that the metal was air-cooled on the ground, led to the assertion raised in MUFON's report that, given the presumption that it originated in 1897, the sample could not be of terrestrial nature. However, MUFON's report does not discount the explanation that the sample was simply left there at some point during the last century; as discussed in the episode, analyses performed on other purported pieces revealed iron-zinc alloys common to farms such as those around Aurora. Furthermore, Oates declined to allow MUFON to uncover the well.
MUFON then investigated the Aurora Cemetery, and uncovered a grave marker that appeared to show a flying saucer of some sort, as well as readings from its metal detector. MUFON asked for permission to exhume the site, but the cemetery association declined permission. After the MUFON investigation, the marker mysteriously disappeared from the cemetery and a 3-inch pipe was placed into the ground, and all the metal removed (MUFON's metal detector no longer picked up metal readings from the grave).
MUFON's report eventually stated that the evidence was inconclusive, but did not rule out the possibility of a hoax. The episode featured an interview with Mayor Brammer who discussed the town's tragic history.
"UFO Hunters" investigation
On November 19, 2008,
UFO Hunters first aired another television documentary regarding the Aurora incident, titled "First Contact".
The documentary featured one notable change from the UFO Files story – Tim Oates, nephew of Brantley Oates and the now-owner of the property with the sealed well where the UFO wreckage was purportedly buried, allowed the investigators to unseal the well, in order to examine it for possible debris. Water was taken from the well which tested normal except for large amounts of aluminum present; the well had no significant contents save for one large snake. It was stated in the episode that any large pieces of metal had been removed from the well by a past owner of the property. Further, the remains of a windmill base were found near the well site, which refuted Ms. Pegues' statements (from the 1979 Time magazine article) that Judge Proctor never had a windmill on his property.
In addition, the Aurora Cemetery was again examined. Although the cemetery association still did not permit exhumation, using ground-penetrating radar and photos from prior visits, an unmarked grave was found in the area near other 1890's graves. However, the condition of the grave was badly deteriorated, and the radar could not conclusively prove what type of remains existed.
I was at the Bowie Wal-Mart the other day and I could swear their prices are much higher than the Decatur Wal-Mart. I noticed some of their prices were the same or higher than our little grocery store. I said this was nothing about nothing, but I just wonder if any one else has noticed? It's a little strange that Wal-Mart prices has spiked so high.
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