Episode 7
Wisconsin UFOs - Part One
Wisconsin has played an outsized role in the history of ufology.
Mike and Jeff discuss the early years of Wisconsin UFO sightings with the "airship" flap of 1897. Can these be dismissed as hysteria or was something otherworldy appearing in the skies over Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, and as far north as Wausau?
How did a solitary building on the shores of Lake Geneva play a role in the life of the "Father of Ufology"?
How did a chance sighting in Barron, WI directly inspire the work of MUFON?
Did aliens really bring pancakes to a plumber in the Northwoods?
We cover all of this in more on Wisconsin UFOs: Part One
- 1897 - Milwaukee Airship Mystery
- The Edge of reality : a progress report on Unidentified Flying Objects
- Eagle River Plumber (With Good Reputation) Tells of Flying Saucer
- A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUFON – MUFON
- The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs
- Ground Observer Coral Lorenzen UFO Flying Saucer - Green Bay Press Gazette Archive
- Report on the UFO Wave of 1947 by Ted Bloecher
Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.
Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.
Transcript
Welcome to the Wisconsin Legends podcast. I am Mike
Speaker:Huberty from American Ghost Walks, and I'm here with Jeff
Speaker:Finnop of Badger Land Legends. And today, we're gonna be talking
Speaker:about Wisconsin and UFOs. Now,
Speaker:Mike, we are both ghost guys. What are we doing talking about UFOs. I
Speaker:was talking to somebody from California last week. We're talking about, like I
Speaker:just mentioned, kind of what I do for a living, which is talk about ghost
Speaker:stories. And they said, oh, Wisconsin. I
Speaker:bet that's great for paranormal. Indeed. Yeah. You know what? It is great
Speaker:for paranormal. I mean, we have Plenty of ghost stories. We have
Speaker:serial killers. We have Native American myths and
Speaker:how those kind of co mingled with the European Settler mythology
Speaker:and stuff, he brought something new. And oh, yeah. And we have a bunch of
Speaker:UFO stuff too, but I did not realize how much UFO
Speaker:stuff we had. I mean, that person when they said, oh, that sounds like a
Speaker:good place for paranormal. You have no idea. It might be the best place for
Speaker:Oh, it might be, and I'm excited to see what Yen covered. I mean, just
Speaker:starting out with UFOs, you think that it starts in 1947
Speaker:with Kenneth Arnold and the flying saucers.
Speaker:Mhmm. But it actually starts 50 years before
Speaker:that. This is something that not a lot of people know. Like, I didn't know
Speaker:about this until a couple years ago when my sister, Alison
Speaker:Jornland, wrote an article for the americangostwalks.com
Speaker:website on the Milwaukee airship sightings
Speaker:of 18 97. So this is going back before
Speaker:flying saucers. This is going back before airplanes. Yeah. Flying
Speaker:almost like dirigibles or airships from my understanding. Right. So here's
Speaker:from our article. On the night of April 11, 18, 97 at around
Speaker:8 PM, Milwaukee had a visitation. Witnesses all over the city saw
Speaker:something strange in the sky, A mysterious object passed that night.
Speaker:They called it the airship because the terms flying saucer and UFO wouldn't
Speaker:be coined for another 50 years. 1 downtown police officer reported seeing the
Speaker:airship while standing on Broadway. He described it as looking like
Speaker:4 bright Stars put together. It flashed the colors of white, red, and
Speaker:green. Although a local astronomer argued the airship must have only been a
Speaker:star, this policeman stood by a story. He claimed that the craft
Speaker:dipped and bobbed wildly several times before it sped off toward the
Speaker:northwest and disappeared from view. Unusual behavior for
Speaker:a star. Many other witnesses concurred that its rate of
Speaker:speed was unmistakable for the movement of ordinary stars. A central police
Speaker:lieutenant, however, claimed the airship was the product Hoaxers flying a
Speaker:kite from the North Point Lighthouse. He contended the airship was nothing
Speaker:more than a kite with a light attached strung out on an incredible 2
Speaker:miles of string. Even a Milwaukee sentinel reporter questioned that
Speaker:explanation though. The airship was seen all over the city.
Speaker:How could it have just been a kite? We'd have to have the longest string
Speaker:in the world. Or several perpetrators flying kites, but it
Speaker:seems less likely almost. Right. Now this next section is
Speaker:from kevinabarnes.com And this is a a Milwaukee
Speaker:blogger. And funny enough, he wrote this particular thing after he
Speaker:was inspired by going on the Milwaukee ghost walk. And he
Speaker:said, oh, you know, I was just thinking about these Milwaukee airship sightings, and he
Speaker:went and did a blog article. There's more research on it. Great. It wasn't just
Speaker:in Milwaukee. The Milwaukee portion of the 18/97
Speaker:airship mystery was immediately preceded by a sighting in Chicago on
Speaker:Friday, April 9, 18 97. An initial crowd gathered on
Speaker:Oakley Street at Chicago's north side and watched what was described by
Speaker:various witnesses as a red light, a manifestation in an
Speaker:airship. Eventually, thousands of people saw the airship in Chicago.
Speaker:And later that evening, sightings were also reported in Evanston, Illinois,
Speaker:Lake Mills, Wisconsin, and finally, Wausau At 10 PM,
Speaker:creating the impression that a single mystery object was traveling north and
Speaker:west. Milwaukee's airship sightings began the next day, Saturday,
Speaker:April 10th, And we're very well documented at the time with coverage in
Speaker:the Milwaukee Journal, the Milwaukee Sentinel, the Daily News, and the evening Milwaukee
Speaker:Evening, Wisconsin. One of the most complete newspaper accounts of the Milwaukee
Speaker:sighting comes from the April 13, 18, 97,
Speaker:Burlington, Iowa Hawkeye, which is my favorite newspaper.
Speaker:It was first seen in Northern Horizon and about the only persons who were up
Speaker:at the time and were not seeing things double, as in they were drunk, were
Speaker:a few newspaper men, police officers, and a guard at the House of Correction.
Speaker:All of these are willing to make oath. They saw an airship come from the
Speaker:north a little before the break of daylight, then it disappeared again, reversing
Speaker:itself and fading from view in the north. Last night, the stranger made its appearance
Speaker:again in the heavens around 9 o'clock. It came from the northeast from out over
Speaker:the Lake Michigan. There was no possibility of a mistake this time. Thousands of
Speaker:people saw it, and in a few minutes, they were following the machine as it
Speaker:floated over the city. It traveled towards the southwest until it reached a point
Speaker:directly over the city hall where it stopped for a quarter of an hour. Then
Speaker:the excitement in the downtown districts became intense. It was reported that attempts
Speaker:were being made to actually anchor the machine.
Speaker:Now here's something interesting about city hall at that point. In 18/97,
Speaker:the Milwaukee City Hall was the tallest
Speaker:inhabited building in the world. Mhmm. Just the fact that it
Speaker:came above city hall and then that's where they're trying to, like, hook it or
Speaker:latch onto it. He continues. A mister mayor, a traveling
Speaker:man, had a field glass range on the machine and said he distinctly saw
Speaker:4 men in it. So had a telescope. Spotting scope or something like
Speaker:that. And he saw 4 men in the machine. Station keeper Harry
Speaker:Moore of the central police station saw it distinctly And was one of the few
Speaker:who at the same time did not lose his head. He says the
Speaker:machine or whatever it was, anchored or stopped directly over the city
Speaker:hall. The light which I saw was suspended from a large dark oval
Speaker:shaped object, the shadow of which could be distinctly seen. In
Speaker:fact, it Could be seen so plainly that I could discern the wheels
Speaker:working. I did not see anyone in it, but anyone who claims that the thing
Speaker:I saw floating over city hall is a star,
Speaker:Simply don't know what he's talking about. I saw it too distinctly to be
Speaker:fooled. It was, I should judge, about a 1000 feet over the
Speaker:city After hovering for 15 minutes, it went back and disappeared in the
Speaker:northeast. So that happens in Milwaukee. And it's
Speaker:funny, The Milwaukee Sentinel, April 10, 18, 97. So that
Speaker:day guess what the headline is? Airship
Speaker:coming this way. So the newspaper was kinda setting that up.
Speaker:From the sentinel, airship coming this way. Chicago sends
Speaker:word, but Milwaukeeans watch the heavens in vain. A report was
Speaker:received from Chicago last night that an airship had passed over that city traveling
Speaker:in the direction of Milwaukee. Dispatches were also received from towns and
Speaker:cities in Illinois in chronological order showing that the course of the
Speaker:mysterious aerial voyager, unless changed, would pass directly
Speaker:over the city. So the day that all of the
Speaker:people saw something, April 10, 18, 97
Speaker:was also the day that in the morning They had an announcement in the newspaper
Speaker:that an airship was coming this way. So they almost primed the
Speaker:witnesses to look to the skies. Just a bit. Yeah. Just a
Speaker:bit. Don't think that Milwaukee was the only place or Wausau or
Speaker:anything because the 1st UFO in Madison skies is
Speaker:also 18/97. This comes from a, a Capital Times
Speaker:article from the 19 eighties, September 17, 1986. There was
Speaker:an article called Frank Custer's Madison, talking about the old days.
Speaker:1st UFO spotted in Madison skies in 18/97.
Speaker:Madisonians tried to laugh it off When an unidentified flying object
Speaker:presumed to be an airship flew over the city back in the horse and buggy
Speaker:days. In a time when airships were in the experimental stage, None
Speaker:of them around here. And the airplane was seen in the northeast end of town
Speaker:on the night of April 11th and again on April 14th. Chicago in
Speaker:9th, Milwaukee in 10th and now Madison on 11th.
Speaker:The report of a cigar shaped object with a propeller at the rear
Speaker:And its lower portion composed of white metal shaped like a ship's keel
Speaker:caught the fancy of Madisonian. Overnight, Madison residents who had
Speaker:read about it in the newspaper became sky watchers. The state journal on
Speaker:April 12, 18, 97 carried a story in which unnamed
Speaker:townsmen told of their seeing an object like an airship. It was
Speaker:probably a star, said another. Brilliant lights were reported,
Speaker:especially by those who used opera glasses. The thing wavered up
Speaker:and down just as the boats boats of the aerial rapid transport line might be
Speaker:expected to do, the newspaper story said. A 5th
Speaker:ward man said the object was shaped like a catamaran. Another man
Speaker:said he read the name star tickler on the object
Speaker:side. A lady who was brought up with the Indians and has very
Speaker:sharp hearing Said she caught a glimpse of a face laughing as it would
Speaker:split and heard a voice say, has the sucker fishing began down there
Speaker:yet? Okay. So obviously, they
Speaker:were making a joke out of it by April by April 12, 18 97.
Speaker:But interestingly enough, this article goes on to say that there
Speaker:was a 2nd UFO phenomenon occurring in 1910 that was
Speaker:witnessed by a number of family members living in the North Livingston and North Greeley
Speaker:streets vicinity of Madison. The people, according to a state journal
Speaker:story, saw a, quote, a ship approaching from the north
Speaker:headed south across Lake Mendota. They described it as slowing
Speaker:down, descending, hovering as if seeking a place in the land, then flying
Speaker:off to the southwest. The witness says, missus
Speaker:Nils Stark, 218 North Livingston Street, widow of a local
Speaker:realtor, missus Mary Matany, 208 North Brearley,
Speaker:a clerk at the Keeley, Neckerman, and Kessenich store, and
Speaker:members of the families of Joe Ifflemeth, 210 North
Speaker:Livingston, a house painter. So they took that one a lot more
Speaker:seriously in 1910 than they did in 18/97.
Speaker:So that just leads me to kinda believe that the 18/97 airships,
Speaker:while I love the story of the dirigibles
Speaker:or whatever flying over the Midwest in 18/97.
Speaker:The fact that they were already making fun of it 2 days later. I remember
Speaker:finding a story saying that the the resident
Speaker:sea serpent in Lake Mendota, Bojo Yes. Was upset by the
Speaker:sightings because it was tracking all the attention away from him. Yeah. They
Speaker:were already kind of tongue in cheek Right. With the newspaper accounts.
Speaker:I just think that's interesting because When we look at a lot of these stories
Speaker:today, we look back like, okay. Well, they've been seeing these UFOs since
Speaker:18/97. And, you know, we'd look at Sea serpent
Speaker:articles, we look at airship articles and things from the late
Speaker:19th century. Mhmm. And they're not written really
Speaker:tongue in cheek. However, they might have been written to sell papers.
Speaker:And if you listen to our HoDang episode, we go into the snake
Speaker:editor and some of the other trickster ish characters
Speaker:that swap stories Right. Between different publications talking
Speaker:about unidentified animals or what we would
Speaker:characterized as cryptids or tall tales. And they
Speaker:certainly were not afraid of tall tales in the late 19th century in the
Speaker:newspaper. It it definitely sold papers. Yes. The airships come in this
Speaker:way warning the people of Milwaukee before the night where everybody saw
Speaker:1. And you can almost see the A little kid on the corner
Speaker:saying extra extra read about the airship coming in Hawken
Speaker:Newspapers. Right. Probably charging extra. Right. I'd buy it. If somebody
Speaker:said the UFOs are coming, you have my nickel. Yeah. And, again,
Speaker:this is long before there was any X Files or Any
Speaker:Kenneth Arnold? You know, this is 50 years before as you said. It is quite
Speaker:perplexing. And this was, what, 5 years before Kitty
Speaker:Hawk? Yeah. At least. So the manned
Speaker:aerial phenomenon, period, whether explained or not,
Speaker:was Not a common thing in a lexicon. Right. Probably the closest
Speaker:thing it'd be to the flying would be a hot air balloon. Yeah. Some kind
Speaker:of air balloon. Yeah. And that'd be about it. So that's
Speaker:kind of the start of Wisconsin's history of UFOs,
Speaker:at least the modern era, starts in 18/97
Speaker:With the invasion of the airships into Milwaukee,
Speaker:Madison, and even in a Wausau. So that's right. If you're from
Speaker:Wausau, the aliens were even interested in you.
Speaker:The next thing that happened in 18/97 though that I think is worth
Speaker:talking about is it's the year that the Yerkes
Speaker:Observatory in Southeastern Wisconsin in Walworth County
Speaker:is open. Yeah. I think it's Williams Bay just outside of Lake Geneva, just
Speaker:on the other side of Geneva Lake from Lake Geneva. And so
Speaker:Yerkes played a significant role in the study of astronomy in the late
Speaker:19th and early 20th centuries. It was established in 1897
Speaker:and housed the largest refracting telescope in the world at the time.
Speaker:The observatory's impressive telescope known as the Great Yerkes
Speaker:Fraktur had a 40 inch aperture and was designed and built
Speaker:by Alvin Clark and Sons. This telescope provided astronomers with a
Speaker:powerful tool to observe and study celestial objects. The observatory
Speaker:itself was renowned for its magnificent grounds and architecture, the renaissance
Speaker:esque design of the buildings, as well as the beautifully landscaped surroundings,
Speaker:And it gives it a castle like appearance. Yeah. It's still a sight to see
Speaker:today. And, the grounds were designed by the famous landscape architect,
Speaker:Frederick Law Olmstead, who is known for his work on none other than
Speaker:Central Park in New York City. One of the notable achievements at
Speaker:Yerkes was the discovery of the Atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
Speaker:Astronomer Gerard Kuiper, who what do you think they named
Speaker:after him, the Kuiper Belt? Made which is not like, Hoberbelt is in
Speaker:space, doesn't use to, like, keep up your pants. Made this groundbreaking
Speaker:discovery while working at Yerkes. This finding would later be confirmed and further
Speaker:explored by space missions such as Voyager 1 and the Cassini Huygens
Speaker:spacecraft. In addition to its scientific contributions, the Yerkes Observatory
Speaker:was Hub for advancements in astrophotography, the observatory's
Speaker:telescopes and equipment enable astronomers to capture detailed images of
Speaker:nebulas and different types of stars.
Speaker:Even Albert Einstein visited Yerkes Observatory.
Speaker:And in the Lake Geneva Museum, they have the newspaper articles and pictures
Speaker:From when Einstein visited Yerkes. Now Einstein is great.
Speaker:However, there's also somebody who used to work at the Yerkes
Speaker:Observatory That I think we're gonna find is much more
Speaker:important in the history of UFO. It might be the father
Speaker:of ufology. That's right. So this is from
Speaker:the book, The Close Encounters Man, and that's
Speaker:written by our friend, Mark O'Connell. Mark
Speaker:O'Connell is a writer from my hometown, Big Bend, Wisconsin. Yeah.
Speaker:And he wrote a couple episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation and then
Speaker:Deep Space Nine. Really great science fiction writer and screenwriter.
Speaker:And he's also always been fascinated with UFOs, was a member of
Speaker:MUFON in Wisconsin for a long time. And then he
Speaker:wrote the biography of j Allen Hynek called The Close
Speaker:Encounters Man. And so in 1932,
Speaker:J. Allen Hynek, who would eventually become the head
Speaker:of Project Blue Book Mhmm. Which was the air
Speaker:force investigation into the UFO phenomena. He was professor of
Speaker:astronomy at Northwestern University. I was gonna say he's a Chicago guy that
Speaker:moved up to Wisconsin. So Lake Geneva, not far Nope. From
Speaker:Chicago. And so this is Too close if you ask me. Right. But
Speaker:this is before he even earned his PhD. So in 1932,
Speaker:you know, 20 years before the air force taps him to start going in
Speaker:and investigating UFOs. He moves to the Yerkes Observatory
Speaker:to earn his PhD, and he got married. Did he get married at
Speaker:the Observatory? I do not believe so. I do not believe so. But this is
Speaker:from Mark O'Connell's book, The Close Encounters Man. It was noted
Speaker:by Yerkes staff that Hynek, in his 1st weeks at the observatory,
Speaker:was a very industrious worker to the point that he was quickly driving himself
Speaker:to exhaustion. The doctor said he was run down due to
Speaker:overwork and improper eating. A concerned staffer wrote to doctor
Speaker:Otto Struve, Who had recently replaced the retired Frost's
Speaker:director. It seems he ate very infrequently and worked half or more the
Speaker:night. But overwork and malnutrition We're not the only dangers
Speaker:faced by a young grad student like Hynek. As beautiful as it was,
Speaker:the brown brick Romanesque observatory building With its riotous
Speaker:terracotta decorations commemorating the zodiac and ancient
Speaker:astronomical mythology, provided the housing for the underpaid students.
Speaker:The roof leaked and the room became cold, a dark tomb on winter
Speaker:weekends when the electric power and heat were turned off in the building. So
Speaker:all the power was turned off except to the telescope. This is reported by the
Speaker:University of Chicago historian, Donald Osterbroek. Water
Speaker:dripped in during summer thunderstorms and snow drifted in during the winter.
Speaker:But one man's, quote, cold dark tomb, quote, is another
Speaker:man's fortress of solitude And as Hynek worked in his measurements of
Speaker:stellar spectra as the, quote, lonely Yerkes
Speaker:Observatory on the tranquil shores of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.
Speaker:He found solace in his isolation. You go to this observatory with just
Speaker:a few other people there, and you feel like you might be a monk looking
Speaker:at the heavens, learning the secrets of the universe, Said Hynek's colleague,
Speaker:doctor Mark Roediger. You can see how that
Speaker:would lead to spiritual feelings in the right personality. Night
Speaker:after night, Under the 90 foot main dome, Hynek peered
Speaker:into the firmament, studying the ancient light given off by distant
Speaker:yellow white dwarf stars and forgetting that Anything else ever existed
Speaker:or ever would. Science and mysticism came together every night
Speaker:in the eyepiece of his telescope. Time vanished. Dimensions
Speaker:contracted. The whole thing had sort of a mystical
Speaker:quality, Hynek confessed later in life. One shouldn't say that in
Speaker:connection with science, I guess. But I was so utterly
Speaker:absorbed in the life of the observatory that I had hardly heard of Hitler.
Speaker:Remember this is the 19 thirties we're talking. Mhmm. Hitler comes to power in 1933.
Speaker:Okay. So actually he did not get married at the Observatory. He gets married to
Speaker:Martha Doon Alexander in Fayetteville, Arkansas on Christmas Eve of
Speaker:1932. So he heads down to the saw to tie the
Speaker:knot. Although very little information about this romance exists
Speaker:today, it does prove that Hynek's existence wasn't entirely monastic.
Speaker:Hynek admitted to being a reader of Rudolf
Speaker:Steiner, a theosophist. And we talk
Speaker:about theosophy extensively in the Frank Lloyd Wright episode because
Speaker:theosophy was a major influence on on Wright. So that's
Speaker:the late 19th century, early part of 20th century, and that's
Speaker:when Rudolf Steiner is doing his writing. And Heinrich read that as
Speaker:a boy as well. And so in in Mark O'Connell's book, he says it's not
Speaker:difficult to imagine that during his nights of mystical seclusion at
Speaker:Yerkes, Hynek continued to read Steiner and wondered about how
Speaker:he might access the quote unquote super
Speaker:sensible realm. So Rudolf Steiner, a
Speaker:lot of his stuff was about education. Waldorf
Speaker:schools Yep. Come from, like Steiner's philosophy,
Speaker:And the idea of the super sensible realm. What what does
Speaker:that mean? From dictionary.com. Beyond
Speaker:the reach of the senses, above the natural powers of external
Speaker:perception, supersensual, applied either to that which is
Speaker:physical, But of such a nature as not to be perceptible by any normal
Speaker:sense, or to that which is spiritual and so not an object
Speaker:of any possible sense. So you can see
Speaker:the super sensible realm, that's where UFOs exist.
Speaker:We perceive them. It's something that you you can't understand them because We
Speaker:don't know who's in them or what's happening. Spirits are like this,
Speaker:but so are atoms, so are viri, You know, the
Speaker:plural of virus. Mhmm. So are germs, so are genes.
Speaker:They're there, but they're beyond the reach of perception. And so
Speaker:that It was just a little waxing poetic, I think, that Mark did
Speaker:about Yeah. So I I never knew that about Hynek that he was
Speaker:esoterically inclined and actually, Red Steiner.
Speaker:He probably didn't wanna talk about it too much when he was the professor astronomy
Speaker:at Northwestern. Also, funny enough, another
Speaker:connection to the paranormal, from J. Allen Hynek is
Speaker:that doctor Lloyd Auerbach, Parapsychologist who
Speaker:wrote a whole bunch of classic parapsychology books
Speaker:was a consultant on the one of my favorite TV shows from 19 eighties
Speaker:called, shadow chasers. One of the things that inspired
Speaker:him to go into the paranormal growing up in Chicago
Speaker:is that he was one of doctor Hynek's students Mhmm. At
Speaker:Northwestern. Okay. And he's like, if there's somebody I respect so
Speaker:much, who was brilliant at astronomy, And
Speaker:straight astronomy, straight science could also have this
Speaker:interest in something more. Someone this
Speaker:brilliant also has a thirst for this kind of knowledge. Then it's okay
Speaker:for him. 1932, the father of ufology is
Speaker:in Wisconsin at Yerkes Observatory looking at the sky at night.
Speaker:That's so cool. Now we're gonna talk about the godmother
Speaker:of ufology. Exactly. And, you know, this is another person that I
Speaker:had hardly you know, just like I didn't know about the 18/97 Milwaukee airships.
Speaker:I didn't know that, Coral and Jim Lorenson existed Until, like, a
Speaker:couple months ago. I knew about them a few years ago. I
Speaker:know about the legacy they led, but I don't know about anything
Speaker:personally. So I'm excited see what you uncovered. We're gonna get in that. So now
Speaker:we're in an of 1934. So it's 2 years after Hynek
Speaker:comes to Yerkes. Cora Lorenzen has this
Speaker:experience in 1934 that leads her down this path. She was a
Speaker:prominent figure in the field of ufology. She, along with her husband, Jim,
Speaker:Cofounded the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization,
Speaker:APRO, in 1952. APRO was one of the first
Speaker:civilian organizations dedicated the scientific study of UFOs.
Speaker:And in her book, The Great Flying Saucer Hoax, The UFO
Speaker:Facts and Their Interpretations, this is how she describes her original story.
Speaker:The beginning of the mystery of UFOs was, for me at
Speaker:least, on a sunny summer day in Barron, Wisconsin in 1934.
Speaker:The details of that sighting are still fresh in my mind. And although I was
Speaker:only 9 years old at the time, I was very much impressed by what I
Speaker:saw. Barron in 1934 was a small town of about
Speaker:1500 population. Airliners were rarely, if ever seen. It
Speaker:would be safe to say weather balloons were never seen, And indeed, even
Speaker:a small monoplane was an event in that area. The
Speaker:thing was in the west southwest when I first noticed it. I called
Speaker:it to the attention of my 2 playmates, and one said she thought it was
Speaker:a parachute. Its color was a glowing white. The object was bought
Speaker:as large as a dime held at arm's length. There were no ropes or lines
Speaker:suspended from it, and therefore, no parachutist. It could
Speaker:best be described as resembling an open umbrella without the ribs or
Speaker:spurs. It made no sound as it wobbled in a northwest direction
Speaker:across the clear, cloudless sky. It wasn't going fast, rather was
Speaker:poking along at a leisurely rate of speed With a rather strange motion.
Speaker:That which has been described in recent reports as
Speaker:undulating. Almost like a jellyfish. Yeah. Right. The way she
Speaker:makes it described, like a sky jelly. Sky jellyfish. We watched the
Speaker:object for perhaps 20 seconds, then it appeared to go over the horizon
Speaker:Or perhaps it came to rest north of Barren in the vicinity of a body
Speaker:of water referred to locally as the upper dam. I went home and told
Speaker:my father who made inquiries and the matter was dropped. No one had
Speaker:seen the object except we 3 children. And there was no
Speaker:news of a parachutist landing north of the dam. That
Speaker:1934 UFO sighting in Barron. And she was 9 years old
Speaker:at the time. Right. We also talked about Barron, Wisconsin because that's
Speaker:where Kids saw the in the Haunchyville
Speaker:episode, we discussed, like, the the marching
Speaker:and and Little People. Yeah. Was that that was near Barron, I believe. Near Barron
Speaker:Wisconsin. This is in Northwoods of Wisconsin. And like Mike said in the
Speaker:article, 1934, It was a rarity and probably
Speaker:a spectacle to even see just a monoplane. Right. Flying
Speaker:overhead. Now we got 2 weird things Happened in Barron, Wisconsin. I
Speaker:gotta see what's happening there. This is before
Speaker:UFOs kinda take over the consciousness.
Speaker:Mhmm. And really, it's in
Speaker:1947 where we have another
Speaker:craze. I mean, I I've read about this original sighting
Speaker:a 1000 times as a kid Mhmm. And I didn't realize that it
Speaker:wasn't just in Mount Rainier, Washington,
Speaker:where people were seeing u f o's in that same month
Speaker:of June to July of 1947. The big one,
Speaker:Kenneth Arnold. His UFO sighting is one of the most famous and influential
Speaker:in history. It occurs June 24, 1947. Kenneth
Speaker:Arnold, an experienced pilot and businessman, is flying his private plane near
Speaker:Mount Rainier in Washington state. Arnold reported seeing a
Speaker:formation of 9 unidentified objects Flying in a crescent like
Speaker:shape at incredible speeds. He described the objects as saucer
Speaker:like or disk like and estimated their speed to be over 1200 miles
Speaker:per hour, much faster than any known aircraft at the time.
Speaker:Arnold's description of the movements like a saucer skipping on
Speaker:water Led to the popularization of the term flying saucer
Speaker:to describe unidentified flying objects. His sighting
Speaker:Is considered the beginning of the flying saucer era. Mhmm.
Speaker:Now this happens June 24, 1947.
Speaker:What happens 2 weeks later. Roswell. Right.
Speaker:Roswell happens just in July of 1947. But
Speaker:what else is happening? This makes the news. This
Speaker:hits Kenneth Arnold sees the flying saucers.
Speaker:Who else is seeing flying saucers? From Ted Blucher,
Speaker:report on the UFO wave of 1947. UFO wave.
Speaker:So now we have these it's interesting that It doesn't seem like just one
Speaker:place has a sighting. It seems like once a sighting happens somewhere,
Speaker:sightings start happening everywhere. Mhmm. Ted Bletcher is
Speaker:a New York singer and actor who was fascinated with UFOs and was a founding
Speaker:member of the UFO group, Civilian Saucer Intelligence.
Speaker:He wrote up all these different reports that came in in June July of
Speaker:1947. Case 277, July 4th, Madison,
Speaker:Wisconsin. Mister and missus William Ecker of 2071
Speaker:Winnebago Street reported they had watched far from you. That's
Speaker:right by, where I live, so I'm gonna have to keep my eyes out. They
Speaker:had watched a strangely maneuvering object over Madison at 9:30
Speaker:PM CST. The object was first seen by missus Ecker who
Speaker:called her husband out to see it. According to the witnesses, the object
Speaker:appeared to be flying in circles over Madison's downtown section a mile
Speaker:south of their home. It would fly in a circle for about 5 minutes, reported
Speaker:the Ekers, then shoot off a mile to the south, tear back again, stand still
Speaker:for half a minute, then start circling again. The Eckers said the
Speaker:object described as round and bright repeated this maneuver 3 times
Speaker:before it finally disappeared to the south in a straight course going very
Speaker:fast. Case 373, July 5th, Janesville,
Speaker:Wisconsin. A disk like object performing similar
Speaker:maneuvers to those observed the previous night in Madison was reported by 4 people in
Speaker:Janesville. Mister and missus Al Siewert and mister and missus
Speaker:Howard Roth told radio station WCLO At 11:35
Speaker:PM Central Standard Time, they had seen a disc shaped object flying
Speaker:northwest just like a plate on edge. The object was then
Speaker:said to have circled counterclockwise in a wide oval flight pattern at
Speaker:terrific speed, stopping abruptly and then flying out of sight at great
Speaker:speed. The object then came back into view, hovered momentarily for 2
Speaker:minutes, and then resumed the same counterclockwise circling as before.
Speaker:July 4th, Madison. July 5th, Janesville. Now case
Speaker:12, 1947. About June
Speaker:17th. So a couple weeks earlier. But also
Speaker:before Kenneth Arnold at Mount Rainier. Madison, Wisconsin,
Speaker:doctor EB McGillivray, Professor Emeritus of philosophy at
Speaker:the University of Wisconsin had spent the evening playing cards at the
Speaker:home of missus Mary North on Middleton Road. He
Speaker:had hardly left the house quite late when he saw a bright
Speaker:round object about 2 thirds the size of the full moon moving to the
Speaker:sky from the southwest to northeast. Professor McGilvery
Speaker:described the speed of the object as quite rapid, but not as fast as a
Speaker:meteor. It left no trail of light as a meteor usually does And
Speaker:did not appear to be fiery, but looked more like an illuminated
Speaker:body. He called to missus North to come look at it, but by the time
Speaker:she came out, the object had vanished in northeast. This
Speaker:happens. There's a UFO sighting in Madison by a University of
Speaker:Wisconsin professor a week before, Kenneth
Speaker:Arnold, but also a week after, July 3, 1947.
Speaker:Now this is from the w files classic website, which we've
Speaker:used a dozen times here. Definitely. Three Madisonians
Speaker:driving to Milwaukee were among the 1st in the state to see a UFO.
Speaker:The flying saucer craze had only begun a month earlier and was still so new
Speaker:that they hadn't even heard about it. The witnesses were Ted Boyle, a member of
Speaker:the Madison Common Council, his mother, and Ruth Donard.
Speaker:Boyle described the UFO as a bright silvery object high over the north
Speaker:horizon. It was shinier than the dickens, he said. It was
Speaker:oval shaped. We watched it for 2 or 3 minutes And then it disappeared all
Speaker:of a sudden. It kept the oval shape and then it seemed to flatten out
Speaker:into a circular shape like a platter and then it disappeared.
Speaker:After arriving in Milwaukee, Boyle learned about the flying
Speaker:saucer phenomena and reported the sighting.
Speaker:So 1947, it's not only
Speaker:Mount Rainier. It's not only Roswell. There's sightings in Wisconsin. And
Speaker:this is 50 years before the Internet really took storm.
Speaker:Right. So the dissemination of information was peer to
Speaker:peer or newspaper readers telling other newspaper
Speaker:readers Right. What they're reporting. So for this to
Speaker:be reported as It is shows that
Speaker:there's a larger phenomena at work, and it's not just a mass
Speaker:hysteria because The information
Speaker:just couldn't move that quickly from Mount Rainier to Madison or vice
Speaker:versa. And it, you know, and it goes to the state. It goes to all
Speaker:these different places. You know, Madison, Jamesville, Wartichert, the 3rd, the 4th,
Speaker:the 5th. Mhmm. That's what I think is fascinating about these particular
Speaker:things is that I I always remember reading about the Kenneth Arnold
Speaker:sightings. Like, oh, that was the start of a UFO era. Like, oh, I didn't
Speaker:realize Kenneth Arnold was just the beginning in that particular year. So that this is
Speaker:another UFO wave.
Speaker:Now few years later, people are fascinated with UFOs,
Speaker:Mhmm. Including Coral and Jim Lorenson.
Speaker:And so in 1952, they start APPRO,
Speaker:That area phenomenon research organization. And they started
Speaker:in Sturgeon Bay. From The Great UFO
Speaker:Hoax book that Quarrel wrote, In November 1947, we moved to
Speaker:Phoenix. And in 1949, we left for Los Angeles. UFO
Speaker:sightings were not receiving the publicity they had in the previous 2 years, And except
Speaker:for the occasional wire service story, things were pretty quiet.
Speaker:In 1951, a Burbank acquaintance who was also very interested in
Speaker:UFOs Suggested I attempt to organize a civilian
Speaker:research group. I was considering it when we moved to Sturgeon Bay,
Speaker:Wisconsin in August 1951. And in January
Speaker:1952, after contacting other amateur astronomers who were interested in
Speaker:the subject of UFOs, the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization came
Speaker:into being. In July 1952, our 1st
Speaker:mimeographed bulletin was mailed to 52 members. And in the
Speaker:fall of 19 52, I started doing news correspondent work and
Speaker:feature writing for the Green Bay Press Gazette. And consequently, I met
Speaker:a lot of people who were great assistance to me in Tracking down early unpublished
Speaker:sightings in Wisconsin. Here's an article about her from,
Speaker:the Victoria, Texas Advocate Newspaper February
Speaker:18, 1954. Private group evaluating flying
Speaker:saucer reports, Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. Did you ever see a flying
Speaker:saucer? If so, Coral Linson of Sturgeon Bay would
Speaker:like to hear about it, provided the object can't be explained away as a natural
Speaker:phenomenon. The 28 year old housewife and mother heads the Aerial
Speaker:Phenomena Research Organization, a nonprofit group that gathers, studies, and
Speaker:evaluates data on flying saucers. Missus Lorenson abhors
Speaker:crackpots and others who think that every light in the sky that doesn't come from
Speaker:a heavenly body is a spaceship hurtling from Mars bent on destruction.
Speaker:She and members of her far flung organization are intent upon discovering
Speaker:what apparently inexplicable objects really see And why
Speaker:there's been a rash of flying saucers. Reports of
Speaker:saucer sightings are forwarded by members of April to the organization's main chapter here,
Speaker:And chapters are spread around the country as far away as Australia. We
Speaker:try, said missus Lorenzen, to fit any sighting into one of the following
Speaker:categories before labeling it as a bona fide Aerial phenomena.
Speaker:Unidentified balloons, conventional aircraft reflections, meteors,
Speaker:or atmospheric phenomena. So she's the 1st
Speaker:to bunker. So she's debunking
Speaker:and classifying the sites. I'm trying to give some context to what people
Speaker:are seeing, and this is from a 28 year old housewife in Sturgeon Bay,
Speaker:Wisconsin. So that's quite the accomplishment. Yes. Now Jim does
Speaker:her husband is working for the armed services. That's why they're traveling around so much.
Speaker:Okay. And it sounds like she's also a freelance writer for the Press Gazette Right.
Speaker:Green Bay. But she joins just so she can do
Speaker:UFO research. And in fact, she even goes and joins this
Speaker:organization which was probably there to look for Soviet
Speaker:issues at the beginning of the space age. I suppose this is
Speaker:post World War 2 Right. But on the build up to the
Speaker:Cold War. Right. Remember the Soviets get the bomb, like, at the
Speaker:very end of the forties, The Rosenbergs and stuff like that, they get the nuclear
Speaker:secrets. And in the mid to late 19 fifties, you
Speaker:have the Soviets launch Sputnik and things, and so the space
Speaker:becomes the next battlefield after the Second World War.
Speaker:The air force is looking for Civilian observers of the
Speaker:sky. And this is from the Green Bay Press Gazette, January
Speaker:21, 1953. Observation tower dedicated in
Speaker:Sturgeon Bay ceremonies. Tuesday, major general Ralph j Olson,
Speaker:state director of Civil Defense, Dedicated Sturgeon Bay's ground observer core
Speaker:observation tower on the city hall here at 11:30 AM. At the same
Speaker:time, 2 f 86 saber jets from Madison Airfield roared
Speaker:over the city saluting the ground observation core here. Almost every
Speaker:person in Sturgeon Bay heard the jet planes, but very few saw them, Which
Speaker:highlighted the need for civilian observers on 24 hour watch for
Speaker:complete air security. The Sturgeon Bay Air Defense Ground
Speaker:Observer CORE has a 110 volunteer observers who keep an
Speaker:average watch of 16 hours a day. Missus Coral
Speaker:Lorentzen, Sturgeon Bay is supervisor of this unit, and Clifford
Speaker:Willis is the chief observer. The city underwrote the $500
Speaker:cost of erecting the sky watching post for this area, And numerous
Speaker:establishments have furnished and equipped the tower. So they built her a
Speaker:tower even. Right. So Coral, She becomes on staff
Speaker:of the Green Bay Gazette so she can research and write about UFOs. And there's
Speaker:a whole bunch of stories in the Green Bay Gazette in the 19 fifties just
Speaker:on UFOs from different Conventions and and different sightings across the
Speaker:country. And then she joins the ground
Speaker:observer corps for civilian defense We have 16 hours a
Speaker:day. They have people looking at the skies. And she's like, what better
Speaker:way to see UFOs Then we have a
Speaker:dedicated team where they have a report or something they see. She's
Speaker:have an official purpose and then also Corals also like, well, while you
Speaker:got your eyes on the sky, you can look for anomalous area
Speaker:phenomena. Right. So this is why she's great because
Speaker:she's a bulldog about it. She sees that thing when she's 9 years
Speaker:old, and then 20 years later, she's like, you know what? I'm gonna Start an
Speaker:organization, and then I'm gonna do all I can to to learn about it, and
Speaker:then I'm gonna do all I can to see 1 another one myself. Mhmm. So
Speaker:she's fascinating. Definitely. No. Eventually, the
Speaker:Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, after being in Sturgeon
Speaker:Bay For decades, in the late sixties, her and her husband moved out to
Speaker:Tucson, Arizona. And by that point, their
Speaker:organization changed a little bit. And so they were paying attention to all these West
Speaker:Coast sightings and stuff in the desert in Arizona while they had
Speaker:these observers in the Midwest. Mhmm. And
Speaker:so like Illinois, Michigan,
Speaker:Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and they have this whole group of
Speaker:people that felt that The Lorenzens were no longer paying
Speaker:enough attention to them since they moved to Tucson. Mhmm. So they
Speaker:form the Midwest Unidentified Flying Object
Speaker:Network, which eventually becomes The
Speaker:Mutual. So MUFON Yep. Comes from
Speaker:April Mhmm. Which Lorenzens created, and so and and
Speaker:MUFON's still going, and now it's a Full United States organization.
Speaker:So went from Midwest to mutual UFO
Speaker:network, and that's the the more national chapters and organization. Right.
Speaker:It's funny because they felt that the Lorenzens who had they started the whole thing
Speaker:and they were running it, but when they moved to Tucson, they just weren't paying
Speaker:enough attention to the Midwest people anymore. So since they felt left out, we're
Speaker:start to sting ourselves. Alright. And and really, when you look at
Speaker:the Tucson newspapers when Cora Lorenzen dies, it's just
Speaker:how, Like, she had even turned Tucson into
Speaker:like a UFO center of research. So her
Speaker:dedication, even in her obituary in the newspapers, Talked about how
Speaker:she had kinda transformed the town into a place that was people were interested
Speaker:in UFOs and keeping their eyes on the sky. And what we know from modern
Speaker:day, whether it's Roswell or Area 51. We
Speaker:got Art Bell just outside of Las Vegas and Pahrump Yeah.
Speaker:Or the Phoenix lights. The desert is a place
Speaker:of high strangeness and with clear desert skies. It's a great
Speaker:place to observe this phenomenon. The Lorenzens were interesting
Speaker:characters. Now part of me also says like, well, if he was working in the
Speaker:armed services and they were so into this kind of
Speaker:thing and she was So he's single-minded about it. Was she a
Speaker:fed? Did she have a covert op? Was she, an agent of
Speaker:sorts? Was she feeding us The Cold War kind of stuff. The Cold War
Speaker:counterintelligence. You never know. But either way, I really admire
Speaker:her. And the fact that Mufon started right
Speaker:in Sturgeon Bay. Mhmm. The father of
Speaker:ufology, he's in Wisconsin as he's in this renaissance
Speaker:style building like a monk Studying the sky. We have the
Speaker:godmother of eufology who starts classifying different
Speaker:sightings and starts the 1st organization to take in everybody's reports
Speaker:and collect Them together in one place. That starts in Wisconsin. Anyway,
Speaker:that's really cool. What other great sightings happen in Wisconsin?
Speaker:Well, I know which one you're getting to next, and it is my absolute
Speaker:favorite from all of ufology, and it happens in Eagle
Speaker:River, Wisconsin and Wisconsin's Northwoods. Tell us a little bit more
Speaker:about the Simonton encounter. Right. So everything's
Speaker:pretty serious so far, and you're like, wow. This is really great. And then
Speaker:There's Joe Simonton. And so this is from the Chippewa
Speaker:Herald Telegram, April 24, 1961.
Speaker:Eagle River Plumber with good reputation tells a
Speaker:flying saucer trades jug of water for 3 cosmic
Speaker:cookies. This is from Associated Press. A plumber told
Speaker:authorities Saturday he traded a jug of water for 3 cosmic cookies in a
Speaker:silent bid of swapping with 3 men in a flying saucer.
Speaker:Joe Simonton told the story to district attorney Calvin a
Speaker:Burton of Vilas County. The saucer landed on his property shortly
Speaker:before noon last Tuesday. It was a gleaming silver, brighter
Speaker:than chrome machine and appeared to hover over the ground instead of
Speaker:landing. It was about 12 feet from top to bottom and about 30 feet in
Speaker:diameter. Out of the hatch that opened popped 1 man
Speaker:dressed in a black suit who held up a jug and indicated that he wanted
Speaker:it filled with water. There were 2 other men inside the saucer, and
Speaker:Simonton saw an instrument panel. All the men were about 5 feet tall and
Speaker:weighed about a 125 pounds. Not one spoke a word to
Speaker:Simonton or each other. Simonton filled the jug with water and gave it to
Speaker:the man who remained outside the ship. 1 of the saucer trio then
Speaker:gave him 3 cakes about 1 eighth inch thick and 3 or
Speaker:4 inches in diameter. The man got into the ship with a jug of
Speaker:water, the hatch snapped shut, and it took off. Simonton said the ship
Speaker:had exhaust pipes 6 or 7 inches in diameter. Burton said
Speaker:that Simonton, quote, sounded sincere, unquote, and added that the plumber had
Speaker:a good reputation in the community. Simonton told the district
Speaker:attorney He was reluctant to talk about the incident earlier because some
Speaker:people might think it's preposterous. Simonton gave one of
Speaker:the cakes The county judge Frank Carris senior. The judge was supposed
Speaker:to have sent the cake somewhere for analysis, but no one knows
Speaker:where. I think Carter ate it. He probably wanted to try. I'd wanna
Speaker:try alien cakes. I wanna try an alien cake tonight.
Speaker:Obviously, this is ridiculous. He also described them
Speaker:as Italian looking too? Like, he described him as
Speaker:kinda swarthy. Yeah. The accounts kinda varied, and
Speaker:Simon went on to produce a 1 page
Speaker:pamphlet on the encounter. In his own words, I think he sold it for a
Speaker:dollar. So he wasn't making money off of this per se. I mean, a
Speaker:dollar pamphlet. I don't know how he he moved, and I was actually able to
Speaker:track down a PDF of the original pamphlet. Yeah. So if you want a copy
Speaker:of that, Hit me up at badgerland legends or jeff@badgerlandlegends.com,
Speaker:and I'll send it to you. Okay. Yeah. I can count on that. Interesting to
Speaker:read his he didn't have an editor. It's very colloquial the way that
Speaker:he describes things in there. The way a man from the river in 1961 would
Speaker:speak. It seems preposterous, But he seems
Speaker:sincere, so that's where it makes me pause. Well,
Speaker:like you said, he wasn't making a lot of money on it. And this May
Speaker:3, 1961, this is the Green Bay Press Gazette,
Speaker:aerial study unit not high on Eagle River Space Cake.
Speaker:Plumber Joe Simonson went back to catch basins today and said the
Speaker:next flying saucer he sees, he'll keep it to himself. I haven't been
Speaker:able to work for 3 weeks now, and I'm gonna have to start making some
Speaker:money, Simonton said. The 3 week layoff began when Simonton
Speaker:Announced 3 visitors in a flying saucer traded some space pancakes for a jug of
Speaker:water. It ended Tuesday when the National investigating Committee For
Speaker:Aerial Phenomena Refused to investigate the pancakes. He said
Speaker:he's been deluged by letters including one from Australia
Speaker:and not many from skeptics and cranks. I don't know when I'll get
Speaker:around to answering them, he said. I don't care what anybody else believes. I just
Speaker:know what I saw. If it happened again, I don't think I'd tell anybody about
Speaker:it. However, Simonton has not lost hope that the true contents of the case will
Speaker:be discovered. He said both the air force and Northwestern University are planning
Speaker:to analyze the case. Simonton said that a man he identified as
Speaker:doctor Hynek of Northwestern has agreed to investigate one of the
Speaker:cakes and let him know the results in about 2 weeks. As for the air
Speaker:force, well, Simonton said that they're always gonna analyze a cake, but have
Speaker:indicated that they will keep their results secret. So there he
Speaker:is. Joe Simonton is now dealing with the father of
Speaker:ufology. Doctor Hynek comes up to Eagle River
Speaker:To get the pancakes. And this is 30 years after his work
Speaker:at the Air Keys, and he's coming back up to the Northwoods to check
Speaker:out the come back to pancakes from outer space. I gotta come back to
Speaker:Wisconsin because this plumber had a weird encounter with 3
Speaker:swarthy aliens about 5 foot tall and a £125
Speaker:who hate disgusting pancakes. Well, Hynek did have an opinion about it,
Speaker:and he talks about it with Jacques Vallee, Great
Speaker:UFO writer and researcher. Probably the premier writer on
Speaker:ufology today. One of the most highly regarded with
Speaker:Passport Port of Magonia and some of his other works is thought
Speaker:as kind of an out of the box thinker Definitely. On the phenomena. Right.
Speaker:He doesn't just go as Whether they're nuts and like, UFOs are nuts and bolts
Speaker:or they're aliens, he doesn't try to speculate anything. He goes right into
Speaker:just different ideas of what they could be, But also not
Speaker:committing to anything. He's a great analyst and and UFO
Speaker:writer. In the seventies, he had a discussion
Speaker:With J. Allen Hynek that was moderated by one of their friends, and it's
Speaker:called the Edge of Reality, a progress report in unidentified flying
Speaker:objects. And they have a chapter called The Landing at Eagle River,
Speaker:Jacque Vallee. What about situations like the Eagle River case that was mentioned
Speaker:earlier, where the occupants were Ordinary men. You remember the man in
Speaker:Wisconsin with the pancakes? Heinec. Oh, good old
Speaker:Joe Simonton. Valet, Joe Simonton. Now he wasn't
Speaker:in the same psychological category as Adamski. George Adamski
Speaker:was a California guy that said that he was talking to Venusians
Speaker:and things like that in in the 19 fifties. And he was
Speaker:definitely trying to make money, like the UFO phenomena. He
Speaker:said he got pictures of aliens and things like that. He was always trying to
Speaker:sell them. Heinecke. No. I'm beginning to think more of Joe
Speaker:Simonson than I did at the time. Valet. I think
Speaker:he is telling the truth, frankly. Hi Nick. So do I.
Speaker:He was. The things he said fit now, whereas they didn't
Speaker:fit. At least they didn't fit to me at the time. I thought it was
Speaker:just sheer nonsense. You know the story of Joe Simonton? Well, suddenly the air force
Speaker:hears that a UFO has allegedly landed at Eagle River, Wisconsin And some
Speaker:pancakes had been given to this guy by the occupants. I went up there and
Speaker:I talked with him and I took pictures and so forth. First of all, I
Speaker:was not at all impressed with him personally or with his surroundings. He lived by
Speaker:himself. He'd been divorced. He lived in a sort of a shack on the outskirts
Speaker:of town, and there was nothing to give you a feeling of confidence. This man
Speaker:could have been a wino. The yard was sort of unkempt bottles
Speaker:and so forth. Not wine bottles necessarily, but just untidy.
Speaker:Yeah. He was a plumber, Not the most cleanliest trade. Right?
Speaker:And then he was also a chicken farmer too. So imagine he had chickens
Speaker:roaming around the property. You go up to the Northwoods and you get
Speaker:Satter Rhinelander. And it can get pretty redneck pretty quick. And
Speaker:I can imagine 1961, it was no different
Speaker:except for maybe they have indoor plumbing now. Right. Heineken meets him. He's like, the
Speaker:man could have been a wino. His story was that he was having breakfast 1
Speaker:morning. He heard a whining noise Side, he looked out the window and there was
Speaker:a silvery ship descending. It was hovering. It didn't land. Hovered in the backyard, and,
Speaker:of course, he went out to see what was happening. The door opened and a
Speaker:creature beckoned to him. And then as he got close, one of them handed down
Speaker:the most beautiful thermos jug he'd ever seen. He said that the creature didn't
Speaker:talk, but indicated by sign language, Water, you know. So he got the
Speaker:idea. He went inside, filled it with water. He brought it out and indicated now
Speaker:you can drink. But they must have misunderstood him because they thought he wanted
Speaker:something to eat. So they handed him these pancakes. I kept the sample
Speaker:of the pancake and I took it back to Dayton. My interpretation at that time
Speaker:was that he'd been having pancakes himself for breakfast And had suddenly had a waking
Speaker:dream or what known as psychology, I believe, as an isolation
Speaker:hypnosis or isolation delusion. And if he'd had his family with him or
Speaker:other people around, it would have been quite different. A delusion could then have been
Speaker:ruled out. That's why I don't like single witness cases. As they used to say
Speaker:in Roman law, 1 witness is no witness.
Speaker:Then he said it just took off and in 2 or 3 seconds it was
Speaker:gone. And I said, no sonic boom? No. The
Speaker:trees waved a little bit but no. Well, I just put it down as a
Speaker:sheer delusion at the time, but hell, certain little things hit.
Speaker:No nuts and bolts and no rivets. Everything very smooth, rapid
Speaker:disappearance, no sonic boom, and the trees being disturbed. I don't know. He
Speaker:certainly wasn't reading any UFO literature. The moderator says,
Speaker:well, what about the pancakes? Hi, Nick. Those were examined
Speaker:and were found to be ordinary grain pancakes. The moderator.
Speaker:I meant the air force wasn't able to say, well, this is processed pancake batter
Speaker:from Aunt Jemima's. Hynek, they couldn't tell in great
Speaker:detail. Although I think they said it was wheat germ pancake. Well, you
Speaker:wouldn't get anywhere using a story like that and I wouldn't use it. First of
Speaker:all, on the general grounds of a single witness, And then Jacque Vallee is like,
Speaker:we disagree about that, you know. Hynex like, we do. It's an honest
Speaker:disagreement. I recognize this point, but I think you misunderstand me. I may believe
Speaker:a single witness, But I think there's little positive value in presenting the case
Speaker:outside because they'll say it's just a single witness and you might have been lying.
Speaker:Now Hastings, the the moderator, he brings something Also
Speaker:in that's kinda outside the idea of aliens. Isn't there like some
Speaker:Joshua Cutchin stuff that we're getting into here. Isn't there a
Speaker:fairy bread precedent for that? If the fairy is giving food, of
Speaker:course, then it's not just an ordinary pancake. Ballet.
Speaker:The exchange of food and fairy lore is a very common symbolic gesture. And with
Speaker:elves, it's a consistent way of making contact. They often give you
Speaker:pancakes. The moderator, in Tolkien's ring books, the fairies
Speaker:give flat pancake like objects. And ballet, well, in Irish poetry,
Speaker:they live on crispy pancakes and yellow tied foam. The moderator.
Speaker:Maybe they did come from Aunt Jemima. I don't know. They've gotta get it from
Speaker:somewhere. Maybe steal it from a local warehouse. Hynek, bringing things back
Speaker:down to earth. The only thing that I'm uneasy about, and I expect the
Speaker:2 of you are also, is that we recognize that the subject is much more
Speaker:complex than we present. Jacques has called this the
Speaker:megonia syndrome, the whole craziness of the thing, the whole absurdity.
Speaker:It's another world, another realm That seems to have some interlocking
Speaker:with ours, and what we're describing here is just that interlocking.
Speaker:You know, I didn't know about this interview, but I am so glad That this
Speaker:was documented because I didn't know that valet spoke with
Speaker:Hynek about this Right. And getting into this weird world of
Speaker:the wu with the Ferrier Lord and everything. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Speaker:Yeah. And when I saw that, I was like looking for different stuff on Joe
Speaker:Simonson. It may be stuff that I hadn't heard in other places. And I'm like,
Speaker:when I heard Hynek was there, I'm like, why did he write about it? And
Speaker:then when I saw this, I was like, wow. That's amazing. Them having a conversation.
Speaker:So that's 1961, and That's a big thing that
Speaker:makes the newspapers. Obviously, people are talking about it 15 years. We're talking about it
Speaker:60 years later. We know how successful The Hodeg
Speaker:Heritage Festival was this past year. Yes. Mothman Festival and all of
Speaker:these hometown festivals. The Eagle River Chamber of Commerce
Speaker:Mhmm. Needs to have an alien pancake breakfast
Speaker:fundraiser in honor of mister Simonson. I think they're missing a huge opportunity. I'd
Speaker:go. I'd make some very land pancakes to represent the Space
Speaker:Brothers. There
Speaker:was also So a big case that Hynek was involved in
Speaker:in 1966, and it started in Michigan
Speaker:And it also has a Wisconsin connection. March 14,
Speaker:1966 is from the Ann Arbor News, and it describes the area's
Speaker:initial UFO sighting in Ann Arbor. Strange flying objects sighted.
Speaker:Many witnesses see them zoom, explanation sought. Washtenaw County
Speaker:sheriff's deputies are working with civil defense officials and air force officers In an
Speaker:attempt to find an explanation for 4 strange flying objects sighted over this
Speaker:area early this morning, deputy Buford Bushrow called the
Speaker:objects The weirdest things I ever seen. Bushrow and deputy
Speaker:John Foster first saw the objects at 3:50 AM as the officers were
Speaker:cruising on Waters Road near Lima Center in Lima Township.
Speaker:They said there was a single red green object at first moving at which described
Speaker:fantastic speed. The object appeared like a distant star and appeared in the
Speaker:northwest part of the sky, the deputy said. The officers notified the county
Speaker:jail headquarters of the object. And moments later, police agencies
Speaker:Livingston County, Monroe County, and the city of Ypsilanti were in contact with the
Speaker:jail to report sightings of the strange object. Okay. This is in Michigan.
Speaker:And first of all, What I like here is that the cops see
Speaker:something and they called it, and everybody else is like, holy crap. Let's go look.
Speaker:Sure. This is the also the 19 sixties. We're in the middle of the Cold
Speaker:War. They see something in the sky.
Speaker:Are they gonna think it's a UFO, or they think it's Soviet? Right. So Yeah.
Speaker:To me, this is interesting because now we immediately would think, oh,
Speaker:UFO, where Back then This is the Russians.
Speaker:They take it serious. They were going to attack. In 1961,
Speaker:Nikita Khrushchev banged his True. At the table at the UN and
Speaker:said we will bury you. Mhmm. That's something to worry about.
Speaker:And so the fact that They see something in the sky and they don't just
Speaker:laugh it off. Oh, I don't know what it is. They call it in. And
Speaker:a whole bunch of people see this in Ann Arbor. And this is the famous
Speaker:one that Hynek, He has a specific explanation for, and then people end
Speaker:up kinda making fun of it for years. From Michigan NPR in 2017,
Speaker:quote, the official explanation, Flares caused by the
Speaker:burning of gases bubbling up from the area's swamps was unsatisfactory
Speaker:to those involved. Then congressman Gerald
Speaker:Ford called for a congressional investigation that never
Speaker:happened, unquote. J. Allen Height called it swamp
Speaker:gas, And or at least that he was saying the potential
Speaker:explanations that were worldly. Yeah. And I always thought that was kind of a cop
Speaker:out because they're saying that this gas is being
Speaker:released, But then something ignites it and creates that, and
Speaker:then they talk about ball lightning, but that's really also kind of a
Speaker:mysterious phenomenon that's not necessary explained. So So Swamp
Speaker:Gestimate is just mysterious as a UFO. Yeah. Exactly. Situation. That's exactly what I'm
Speaker:saying. Thing is, he wasn't trying to make fun of it or just say, like,
Speaker:that's all you saw. He was presenting specific Things it's like, okay.
Speaker:Here's other things it could be. And not saying like, oh, this is all you
Speaker:saw. And so the swamp gas kind of gets doesn't get in everybody's
Speaker:head. Now this also starts to wave. Green Bay Press Gazette.
Speaker:Green Bay, Wisconsin 1966. Wide area of state reports UFO
Speaker:lights. Monroe County officer gives chase, Sightings multiply in
Speaker:Michigan. Residents in a wide area of Wisconsin reported seeing mysterious
Speaker:moving lights in the sky Thursday night and early today. Descriptions of this phenomena
Speaker:range from white to bluish green to flashing red. Tomah police were
Speaker:told by several persons around 7 PM Thursday of a round white light with
Speaker:occasional flashes of red and greenish blue traveling eastward. Monroe
Speaker:County traffic officer Dale Trowbridge said he drove his squad car
Speaker:70 miles and following the light, losing sight of the Verano County.
Speaker:Portage County Sheriff's Office at Stevens Point said a squad car reported
Speaker:around 11 PM seeing a red and greenish light in the sky at a
Speaker:point believed the west of Marshfield. At about the same time, squad
Speaker:cars of the Monroe and Jackson County Sheriff's Departments reported seeing
Speaker:Similarly colored lights, which, however, stopped in reverse directions
Speaker:traveling very fast. The Clark County Sheriff's Office at Nellsville
Speaker:reports sightings at 432 this morning, a flashing light south and
Speaker:west of Marshfield. Other reports of lights came from Waukesha and
Speaker:Milwaukee counties. It's also in Wausau. You know, they they keep going on it as
Speaker:reports of flying saucer whizzing through Michigan skies continue to multiply as
Speaker:air force investigator called a news conference at Detroit Today to discuss his
Speaker:probe with unidentified flying objects, doctor J. Allen Hynek of
Speaker:Northwestern University astrophysicist Called the
Speaker:conference after spending almost a week interviewing people in the nearby Ann Arbor and
Speaker:Hillsdale areas where most of the sightings have originated. Hynek, who
Speaker:has studied and investigated UFOs for the past 13 years, called the conference a day
Speaker:after the air force said it would have an explanation of the sightings Within
Speaker:24 hours. That's why it's swamp gas. Because the air force
Speaker:said I mean, all these cops see it. Yeah. And these cops are probably vets
Speaker:too. 19 sixties. Right? So these cops are probably people that fought either in in
Speaker:World War 2 or Korea. Yeah. And so, I
Speaker:mean, just look at Monroe County officer, he files it for 70 miles.
Speaker:That's crazy. So swamp gas, how does that travel 70
Speaker:miles? Bingo. And the thing is, why is Hynek pressured To give
Speaker:that kind of explanation, it's because the air force is like, we got to explain
Speaker:it to these people. Yeah. They're trying to explain it away. Yeah. I just I
Speaker:did not realize it was a Wisconsin connection to those Michigan sightings
Speaker:in 1966. And so what I'm finding is
Speaker:you have all these big sightings and things that are
Speaker:big in ufology over time. And somehow, Wisconsin
Speaker:gets in the mix all the time. Mhmm. And that's just
Speaker:great. It's great for us who like to study and write about Wisconsin.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:Coming up on part 2 of the Wisconsin Legends
Speaker:podcast, Wisconsin UFOs. We have 3
Speaker:different UFO capitals. If you think Simonton was
Speaker:crazy, this won't even get nuttier. One of the things we
Speaker:missed from this episode and a special guest to tell us
Speaker:more. John Keel put in a title in a
Speaker:40 times article in 1982 that Palmer
Speaker:was the man who invented flying saucers. Mike and
Speaker:I share our own UFO encounters. One time in Puerto Rico, I
Speaker:saw something that I thought might be an unidentified flying object. I
Speaker:looked up over at the train line, and I saw
Speaker:3 glowing orbs. They're amberish red
Speaker:color. Now that And so much more on the conclusion
Speaker:of the Wisconsin Legends podcast, Wisconsin UFOs.
Speaker:The Wisconsin Legends This podcast is presented by American Ghost
Speaker:Walks, hosted by Mike Huberty and Jeff Finnop, recorded at
Speaker:Sunspot Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, edited by Jeff
Speaker:Finnop, audio engineer Mike Huberty, music by
Speaker:Sunspot, and various artists. Find out more about the show, including
Speaker:show notes at wisconsin legends podcast.com. Follow the
Speaker:guys at American Ghost Walks and Badgerland Legends on Instagram
Speaker:Facebook. We'll see you
Speaker:next time.
