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Europe. News traveled slowly in those days, so it is unlikely that the witnesses in one area had ever heard of the identical sightings that had occurred thousands of miles away. As is still the case today, no newspaper or journalist made an effort to collect all of these reports and collate them into a whole. In March and April 1897, the airship reports began to spread across the country but seemed to concentrate in the Midwest from Texas to Michigan, the same areas that still account for the largest number of reports. We are indebted to Dr. Jacques Vallee, Lucius Farish, Charles Flood and Jerome Clark, who have spent many tedious hours examining dusty newspaper files and microfilm collections throughout the country in their search for the published accounts of the 1897 flap. They have unearthed hundreds of forgotten reports, many of them quite startling in content. A study of these reports reveals the same patterns that seem to be present today. Many of the local newspapers assumed that only one airship was involved and that it was the product of some secret inventor who was taking it out for a trial run across the country. But we find that many of the airship sightings took place on the same day in dozens of widely scattered areas, indicating that a whole armada of these objects must have been in the air at the time. Quite a few of these accounts are as incredible as the reports of modern witnesses. Yet many of the 1897 witnesses were distinguished members of their communities and often signed sworn affidavits to back up their beliefs in what they had seen. There were a number of remarkable consistencies in the reports, and many detailed contactee stories. Judge Lawrence A. Byrne was, to quote a reporter for the Daily Texarkanian, Texarkana, Arkansas, “‘known here for his truthfulness by his fellowmen.’’ On April 25, 1897, that paper published this amazing story: I was down on McKinney bayou Friday looking after the surveying of a tract of land and, in passing through a thicket to an open space, saw a strange-looking object anchored to the ground. On approaching I found it to be the airship I have read so much about of late. It was manned by three men who spoke a foreign language, but judging from their looks, would take them to be Japs. They saw my astonishment and beckoned me to follow them, and on complying, I was shown through the ship. 70 / Operation Trojan Horse The judge then explained ‘‘about the machinery being made of