John A. Keel WHY UFOS

noise, and it was gone "like a shot," according to Barclay.The newspapers in Rockland, Texas, said that he was"perfectly reliable."That same night "a prominent farmer" near Josserand,Texas, also had a confrontation with the airship pilots. Mr.Frank Nichols claimed that he was awakened aroundmidnight by the whirring of machinery. "Upon lookingout, he was startled upon beholding brilliant lightsstreaming from a ponderous vessel of strange proportions,which rested upon the ground in his cornfield." LikeBarclay, he went outside to investigate.Before he'd gotten very far he was met by two men withbuckets who asked for permission to draw water from hiswell. He told them to go ahead, and they invited him to visittheir ship. There he said he conversed freely with six oreight individuals and apparently was shown the machinerywhich "was so complicated that in his short interview hecould gain no knowledge of its workings."Nichols said that they told him that "five of these shipswere built in a small town in Iowa. Soon the invention willbe given to the public. An immense stock company is nowbeing formed and within the next year the machines will bein general use." The motive power was supposedly"condensed electricity." Mr. Nichols, the newspapers said,was "a man of unquestioned veracity."This "invention" story spread, as you will see, andappears to support the possibility of an unexpected hoax.But before we explore the hoax question, there are twomore contact cases that deserve examination.An apparently well-known and highly reputable manidentified as "Ex-Senator Harris" said that he had beenawakened at 1 A.M., Wednesday, April 21,1897, by a strangenoise, and he was astonished to see the celebrated airshipdescending on his property outside of Harrisburg,Arkansas. He stepped outside and was met by the craft'soccupants, conversing with them as they busied themselves"taking on a supply of fresh well water." Senator Harrissaid there were two young men, a woman, and an elderlyman on board."The old gentleman," the Senator is quoted as saying(Harrisburg, Arkansas, Modern News, April 23, 1897),"wore a heavy set of dark, silken whiskers, which hungdown near his waist. He had jet black eyes and a deep, firmexpression."Whereas the airship occupants did not seem especially