This article was published in the daily newspaper The Evening Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 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.
Reynolds, it is claimed, not only had the pleasure of looking at the airship, but several people had the rare good fortune to become acquainted with the navigator. The thing swooped down from the sky and a half a dozen farmers immediately surrounded it. While they were examining the strange craft a creature nine and a half feet in height clambered over the side and grew eloquent in an unknown tongue. One of the farmers hospitably extended his hand, but in the country the visitor comes from this seems to be considered an affront. The big fellow swung one of his legs and the farmer retired in disorder with a broken hip. Then the unknown sprang into his aerial craft, turned on some strange power and the whole thing darted away. There is no still in the vicinity of Reynolds that is known to the revenue authorities and a sharp lookout is being kept for moonshiners.
