When Wicker Was King
Before flying saucers and other UFOs took their places in Western culture, they did not figure in many hoaxes—reasonably enough. That’s not to suggest, however, that the pre-1947 period did not produce any trickery predicated on unidentified flying objects. UFO hoaxes in the United States date to the 1880s, and were concentrated in the west and southwest.
The year 1897, which fell at the peak of the so-called airship craze (see chapter four), encouraged pranksters, including a group of locals in Aurora, Texas, who ginned up a tale about a crashed airship—complete with a deceased nonhuman pilot. In Omaha, a pair of idlers attached a wicker basket to a helium balloon, set the basket ablaze, and released the balloon. Meanwhile, a Leroy, Kansas, rancher named Alexander Hamilton insisted that he, his son, and a tenant farmer witnessed the abduction of a Hamilton cow by a hovering airship.
According to the older Hamilton, much earthbound tugging on the body of the bawling, levitating cow was insufficient to prevent its kidnapping. A day later, Hamilton and a friend found portions of the cow’s miserable remains, and were, according to Hamilton, “greatly mystified.” The story was sufficiently colorful to warrant mention in the Yates Center, Kansas, Farmer’s Advocate. When saucer buffs uncovered the account in the 1960s, further research showed that Hamilton was a member of a local liar’s club, and concocted the tale to get a leg up on other members.