Aurora, Texas

I, and other members of the ghosthunting group I belong to, were invited along to a lecture by Jim Marrs. Jim Marrs is probably most famous for his book, Crossfire , of which the Oliver Stone directed movie, JFK is based in part on. He is also the author of other books, such as Alien Agenda, which I really enjoyed.

Jim Marrs, in my opinion, is the most knowledgeable person alive on the subject of the 1897 Airship crash in Aurora, Texas. He was a reporter at the Fort Worth Star Telegram and helped break the story to the world's attention in 1973. The story is astonishing. In 1897, several credible witnesses saw a craft, seven years before the Wright Brothers, crash have some kind of flight trouble, and then crash into a "windless" style mill. The story gets even more crazy. There was a small pilot, apparently an extraterrestrial. The occupant of the strange craft died. Many people used to have pieces of the craft, and even used to sell bits of it at Flea Markets. One elderly woman, who Jim talked to, reportedly had a chicken coop that was built in part with the unknown metal.

We met at the Tater Junction, which I think is a marvelous name for a diner. Jim was quite an engaging speaker, and I might have annoyed the rest of the group, which was mostly ghost hunting enthusiasts, with my questions on non-Aurora crash subjects, such as MJ-12 documents, Peak Oil, the controversial theories of Zecharia Sitchin, and some 9-11 conspiracy theories. This suited Jim Marrs style of speaking just fine. Jim was gracious enough to take us out to the actual spot where the crash happened, as well as the cemetary where the body used to be buried.

Being a proud Texas native, and a fan of Marrs' books, I was somewhat familiar with this tale, which I thought quite honestly, was more on the level of folklore, than actual historical fact. Jim presented a pretty solid case that something happened that day. He produced a copy of the front page of the Dallas paper, and every front page article dealt with this subject in small 8 point type. Other people, all across Texas, saw something that day. One redneck actually shot at the object, which feels with me Texas pride.

Special thanks to Lance of D.A.P.S. for organizing this whole thing!