This article was published in the daily newspaper The Champaign Daily Gazette, Champaign, Illinois, Friday, April 16, 1897.
Warning: the airship stories must not be taken at face value as "UFO sightings." Evaluation of such stories is under way here.
It Still Makes the People Talk And Wonder and Speculate
Scores of Champaign and Urbana people were out scanning the heavens, between showers last night, in hope of getting a glimpse of the mysterious air-ship; but it must have been taking a vacation, for it was nowhere to be seen. That the object, whatever it might be, was visible here Wednesday night [April 14, 1897], there cannot be the least room for doubt, for as was stated in yesterday's Gazette, a number of people in both Champaign and Urbana saw it appear from the northeast and disappear in the southwest. "It must have been a balloon or something of that sort," said one of the persons who saw it, "for I am satisfied that it could not possibly have been a star." The same light was seen at a number of other towns, a dispatch being sent out from Arcola that it was seen passing over that city early in the evening. J.H. Percival, who lives near Savoy, saw it pass over his farm and jumped on his horse, riding to this city to tell of it, only to find that a number of people here had seen it.
