This article was published in the daily newspaper Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, on April 6, 1897.
Warning: the airship stories must not be taken at face value as "UFO sightings." Evaluation of such stories is under way here.
South McAlester, I.T. [Indian Territory], April 5. -- A gentleman who came in from Denison last night says that at 3 o'clock this morning [April 5, 1897], when he was returning to his room he saw a large airship going in a northern direction. It was brilliantly illuminated, and was going at the rate, he supposed, of about fifty miles per hour. There was a peculiar swishing sound to it, and as near as he could judge it was a quarter of a mile up from the earth.
His attention was first directed toward the stars by the peculiar sound from the ship, or whatever it may be called, and he watched until it passed over the hills to the north.
The gentleman is a Mason and a K of P. and his reputation for truth is beyond question.
