Some time ago, I posted a thread and no one responded. I'm surprized at all of you, because I think it was a facinating story, and Last night I thought about posting it for the second time, but with a more interesting twist. Had I done so, It would have been exactly 111 years (by chance) the story first appeared in News Papers around the country and eventually around the world.

The story begins of a man by the name of H.G. Shaw (a former Colonel in the US armed forces). Who was a former editor of the Stockton California's "Evening News".

What is facinating about this story is.. it is the first of a wave of "Mysterious Airships" stories that swept the nation between 1896 to 1897. Most sightings were seen on the East Coast but it seems to have started in Stockton California central valley in the town of Lodi and Woodbridge.

Another facinating thing about this story is it predates H.G. Well's "War of the World" by 2 years.

Goerge Bernard Shaw who is not related to H.G. Shaw, was an author of books on Socialism and once and editor, and once worked with H.G wells. (I found this to be funny, since His last name is Shaw and H.G. Wells shared the frist 2 initials as Colonel H.G. Shaw.)

Both HG Shaw's story of his eyewitness accounts of November of 1886 and H.G. Wells novel "War of the Worlds", talk about invaders from planet Mars.

H.G. Shaws Talks about 7 foot creatures who appeared naked but had a fur or growth of fine velvet. Large black luminous eyes, Small or thin fingers that seemed to act as suction cups, Large feet that were more like that of a monkey with long toes, Small ears and a very small mouth that seemed to have no teeth.

They carried egg shaped objects that glowed for light.

The creatures seemed to be almost weightless (Shaw states he picked one up.. and it seemed to weight about an ounce).

They had a Cigar Shape airship and hovered above the woodbridge canal (part of the Sacramento Delta) in the town of Woodbridge which is north of Lodi.

They seemed to speak but without moving their mouth (my link doesn't state this, but I came across the actual news artical at one time) making "warbling" expresses" and a "monotonous chant".

My guess is the thing was trying to communicate by telepathy by using a sort of sound frequency? :shrug:


For me, this is the classic Cigar shaped UFO with the taller species of greys. Somehow he knows they're from Mars (doesn't say how) and that this would technically be the first case I have come across in which a human has had a "close encounter of the third kind".

On the same evening, reports coming from as far south as San Diego and east as Reno and small towns in the south west had seen a simular airship. The following day, People from the central US and the east coast had numerous sightings for thousands of miles. The night this happened was November 25th 1886 but did not get released in the paper until November 27th of that year.

On Novermber 26th, People saw a simular craft for thousands of miles on the eastern side of the US.

Also, People in San Francisco and Oakland california reported seeing a long cigar shape object in the week that led up to Shaw's story.

Even if these were pranksters, how could have they have flown 3000 miles in one day, let alone 1200 miles in a few hours?

Please respond this time :mad:

-Trog






here is a link to the story

http://ufologie.net/airship/25nov1896-lodi-california.htm

Trog.....that is an excellent find.....I'd also think that is the only time when the visitors let us pick them up....at least that I have heard......:headscrat
makes me wonder what war HG Shaw fought in?.....anyway well done!

I've heard of these before. It would be interesting to find more information on this.

It's interesting, but Trog, please don't get upset if people don't reply. It doesn't mean people didn't read it or didn't find it interesting ... it just means they didn't have anything to say about it.

Even this story: it's interesting, but basically, the only thing I have to say about this post is:

Comments like these:





Might get people to reply, but I don't think it earns you the respect that you want and deserve.

If people don't reply ... Hey! At least they didn't knock you down!

To leave on a positive note: Interesting stuff. I'd love to read more.

Interesting read Trog thanks for posting....

Another great story making History! Thanks. It is people stories and photo's, videos etc.,etc. That are so important to history so we can figure things out.
If you didn't know already, UFO's are reported as far as the bible.

I read a more detailed article on him with a bio but I couldn't find the link last night. He was probably in his early 70s and it wasn't uncommon for men to have faught in the civil war as early as 14.. so I'm guessing the Civil War?

I didn't want to turn this into a drama series, and I do get a little offended no one responds, but... I sometimes deal with depression by saying stuff with a facetious overtone. Only problem is you can't convey that in text without emotes and I tend to use text faces alot instead of the emotes that come here. By the way, Dingo we need a neutral emote. It's my favorite for some reason.

I do feel like I'm getting the cold shoulder at times, but in all honesty, I often post in threads that don't interest me, but I do so just to give feedback to the post starter. Not all threads, but most. I'll just stick to what interest me from nowon.. as I mentioned in another thread.

Thanks fen and Dak.. I think these stories mean more today because it shows people either had interest in life on other worlds prior to the dawn of the industrial revolution or people actually saw stuff. I think it happened a lot more but people didn't know how to deal with it. Unlike today where it is common to talk about ufology without being laughed at to much, In those days you would have been placed in a rubber room for doing so.

Mysterious Airships of the late 1800’s (cigar shaped objects) have been viewed by many to be simply, Zeppelins, Blimps, Dirigible Airships etc

Apparent erratic flight characteristic attributed to atmospheric anomalies etc.

Interesting to note that theses sightings depict elongated objects (as blimps are configured) and later sightings in the 1900’s depict ‘saucer’/V-shaped objects.

In both cases, what is depicted is also what was available in terms of the development of Human flight in the World at the respective time.

Late 1800’s and early 1900’s sightings depict elongated UFO’s which corresponds to the Human development of the Dirigible Airship (Zeppelins et al).

And many of the later sightings depict a ‘saucer’/V-shaped object which corresponds with the Human development of smaller ‘silvery’ “fast” objects, like the Flying Wing concept spearheaded by John K. Northrop. By 1940, flight tests on the first Flying Wing the N1M "Jeep" commenced and flew in over 200 test flights, lasting through 1941.
Note: The Kenneth Arnold sighting on 24 June 1947 saw the use of the term Flying Saucer come to National/World attention and this is 7 years after the Flying Wing was a tested reality.

Arnold did not describe the UFO’s as “Flying Saucers”.
Buuuut…lol Arnold did describe the objects shape as “reminiscent of crescents or flying wings”!!!

The concept, interest and testing of the Flying Wing aircraft idea never really died and eventually became realized with the B-2 Spirit stealth heavy bomber et al...

It’s curious to me how, in the USA, UFO sightings changed in nature as Human Flight changed in concept and development… ~rore

trog.....he could easily been an officer in the Civil War as the war had ended 20 years earlier and as a man in his 50s he (at the time of the war) it is easily where he had served.

they did have generals and Colonals in their early 20s in the Civial War...as well as junior officers in their teens.

He said they were from mars, and had a cigar shaped ship. Sounds alot like the phobos mission, and how they might have a space station inside of mar's moons. Maybe greys really do live as close as mars.

We also had here in Australia the 1880's airships

w2b.....it was just his own personal theory.....reading the original report would tell more.....and knowing more about HG Shaw would also help

This is what got me interested in the whole thing, my mother age 40 saw a cigar shaped ship when she was young, and to boot the whole phenomena was in the news, so there's no way she could've made it up!

She saw a cigar shaped UFO, and the next day the whole newspaper raved about it!

Thats my mothers story and I'm sticking to it!

rore....excellent post.....and bear in mind the XB-49 and the B-2 have the exact same wing span.....and Jack Northrop was given special clearance before he died to let him know how right he was about the flying wing

What is essentially a saucer actually goes way back to roman times.
They were described as flying shields or wheels.
Cigar shaped ones were flying pillars.

I wasn't really arguing against it. I understand what you're saying and it looks as if the civil war did end 31 years prior. SO even at 50 (I must have misread, I thought he was in his 70s) he would have been 19 or 20ish.

And rorechof, You make a good point. I just thought it was interesting because you can't use "War of the Worlds" as an excuse for his over imagination, since the book wasn't released for another 2 years. I don't know if there are other stories or books in which talk about alien invasions from Mars or other planets, but I'm sure HG Wells wasn't the first.

trog.....do you know anything else about this hg shaw?.....I can't seem top find out anything else about him....besides thius sighting....:confused:

trog.....it appears he was a Civil War officer in the medical service.....it seems he would be a credible source....but then he could have misinterpated what he saw.