2009 Welcome to Wise.indd - Wise County Messenger

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AURORA Alien
MESSENGER PHOTO BY JOE DUTY
PARTICIPANTS IN AN ALIEN COSTUME CONTEST
Residents of Aurora will tell you that the story of what happened in a small
town in Wise County on April 17, 1897, is either the truth or a remarkable hoax.
Whether true or false, Wise County has received international attention because of it, and
people from around the world have
arrived to investigate the story for
themselves.
According to legend, a “cigar
shaped” alien ship crash landed in
the town of Aurora in the late 19th
century. Several residents of the town
were said to have witnessed, or at
least heard, the crash during the early
morning hours, and children in the
community were told to remain at
their homes while the adults examined
the wreckage.
The residents of the town who were
brave enough to approach the ship
found a deceased extraterrestrial
being, and they later gave the alien
a Christian burial at the Aurora Cemetery,
where the body may still lie.
The Dallas Morning News reported
the crash two days later, but most
residents forgot the story until current
Wise County resident Jim Marrs,
then a reporter, resurrected the tale
in the early 1970s and created a media
sensation.
“People back then approached me
and said they were around at the time
of the crash. They told me they’d had
pieces of the spaceship since they
were kids, and some even used those
pieces for their chicken pens,” Marrs
said.