This article was published in the daily newspaper The Evening News, Saginaw, Michigan, Saturday, April 17, 1897.
Warning: the airship stories must not be taken at face value as "UFO sightings." Evaluation of such stories is under way here.
Three Citizens of Saginaw Claim to have been Favored
Speculation Continues to be Rife Concerning the Thing And the Reason it Doesn't Quit Fooling
The airship or whatever it is which has been bobbing all around the country and acting in a most mysterious manner is attracting much speculation. Many people are inclined to treat it as a fake or a good joke, while others are firm believers in the existence of the machine and that the course is directed by human brains. However that may be, the thing which is kicking up such a fuss has not been examined in this State by a reliable authority and the identity of the person of persons running the thing if indeed there is a person on board of it has not been established.
Roundsman Halsey and Patrolman Foley of the police force are sure that they saw the machine. They were standing on the corner of Astor and Jefferson avenue yesterday morning about 2:45 o'clock and were attracted by a noise which sounded like the rattle of a drum. Looking in the direction from which the sound came, the officers saw something which is described by Roundsman Halsey as a cigar shaped affair about 30 feet long with nothing above it and something hanging about ten feet below the main body of the thing and carrying a red and yellow light which seemed to be shining through canvas. The affair was traveling about 25 miles an hour in a southerly direction.
Thomas S. Prentice, connected with the telephone company, reports having seen the machine the same night from the West Side of the river. A report was circulated that Asa W. Field and V. A. Goddard had seen the machine but Mr. Field said that it was simply a report concocted by Mr. Goddard to stuff a newspaperman with.
