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that we were being visited by Martians or Venusians at that time. This not only seems unlikely; in view of these stories it seems impossible. No, there has to be another answer to all of this. Working purely from newspaper accounts is not easy, particularly because the standards of journalism in 1897 left much to be desired. But we weeded out 126 accounts that seemed reliable, named witnesses, and appeared to be responsibly written. All of these sample cases were reported in April 1897, and came from fourteen states. Actually the spring flap began in March in several states and tapered off in May. There were mass sightings in Omaha, Nebraska, in March, and in April an airship passed directly over Chicago, Illinois, and was reportedly viewed by thousands. A few days before that sighting (April 9) the Chicago papers had carried articles ridiculing the reports that were coming in from other sections of the country. Maybe the bearded “‘inventor”’ decided to put on a show for the skeptical Chicagoans. In my outline of the flap of March 8, 1967, in Chapter 1 of this book, you will note that case No. 16 was reported in Eldora, a small town of about 3,000 souls smack in the middle of Iowa. On April 9, 1897, they also had sightings in this unlikely place! In fact, if we compare the 1897 flap with the things that are going on now, we find that the sightings have been concentrated in many specific areas for many years. The area around Dallas, Texas, is one. Michigan is another. There was a well-publicized flap in Michigan in March 1966 around Ann Arbor and Hillsdale. There were sightings in Ann Arbor on April 17, 1897. Michigan had, in fact, 30.5 percent of all the sightings used in our 1897 study. There is still constant UFO activity in that state, despite the dearth of publicity. In 1897, when people saw actual objects they described them as being cigar-shaped or being large dark forms with lights attached. No flying saucers turned up in the reports I have collected. But the night-time observations then were exactly the same as they are now: bright lights with colored lights flashing around them, often moving in an erratic fashion but apparently controlled. It is possible that the airship was nothing more than a decoy—a cover for the real activity that was taking place in 1897. Certainly these objects did not consist of one or two clumsy balloons shuffling across the country. On the night of Saturday, April 17, 1897, alone, there were reported sightings in seven scattered towns and cities in Michigan. That same night, twelve towns in Texas, far, far from Michigan, had sightings, as The Grand Deception / 81 Analysis of the 1897 Flap