COLORADO'S 'VAGRANT AIRSHIP' SIGHTINGS

A vigilant woman named Mrs. Mead, residing at 1365 South 8th Street in Denver, and a neighbor, Mrs. Herner, were scanning the midday sky amid widely circulated reports of an "aerial apparition" or "vagrant airship" in April 1897.

"Mrs. Mead uttered an exclamation and cried out to her companion that there was something in the air that might be the celestial wanderer," the Rocky Mountain News said. "The object was tumbling over and over, to all appearances, like an aerial body without a rudder or a balloon that had lost its basket."

"It occurred to Mrs. Mead that she had a pair of opera glasses in the house, and she rushed in after them, leaving Mrs. Herner to watch the vanquishing sailor of the skies," the News reported on April 21, 1897. "The latter lost the object in the clouds before Mrs. Mead returned with the glasses."

People across the U.S. reported similar aerial phenomena, starting in California in 1896. Historians note popular science fiction novels of the era of rapid technological change spoke of aerial flying phenomena, suggesting a sort of hysteria. Some people speculated about Martians. 

Beyond Denver, the Florence Daily Herald reported on April 20, 1897: "Charles Bates, the well-known businessman, adds his testimony to the Cripple Creek airship story. He saw some strange object high in the sky when returning home on Sunday night. The airship must have passed lowly south and hovered directly over Florence."

Then on April 24, 1897, the Aspen Times reported: "The mysterious airship passed over Aspen yesterday morning at a few minutes after 1 o'clock. This fact is attested by over twenty miners on the Aspen and Durant mines.

"It was seen in the direction of Smuggler Mountain nearly a mile high and was moving in a westerly direction," the Times said. "The only thing visible was a bright light resembling the headlight of a locomotive only larger."

There were no known experimental dirigible flights over Colorado at that time, though The Victor (Colorado) Record carried a report in Aril 23, 1897, suggesting gas-powered miniatures, sort of an early version of today's model aircraft.

The San Francisco Call published illustrations of a mystery craft over California on Nov. 22, 1896 (middle and lower image). The Saint Paul Globe of Minnesota another on April 13, 1897 (top image).