A Minnesota UFO? The 1897 Barnesville mystery ‘air ship’

FARGO — In my last couple few years of doing “Back Then” stories, perhaps no story has garnered more attention than this story from December of 2020 when we looked into one of the region’s most famous UFO sightings high above the skies of a North Dakota football stadium on a chilly October night in 1948.

It was shared and reshared many times. I even had the chance to talk about it on a UFO podcast out of Spain. That was a first.

The story was probably intriguing for a couple of reasons. First, the person who reported the unidentified flying object in north Fargo on Oct. 1, 1948, was a well-respected World War II aviator. His account was deemed so credible that government officials came out to talk to him about in person.

Another reason this story might have attracted attention? If you look at the time and location of the sighting it’s very clear that the alleged UFO would have been tearing through the skies just as a college football game between the North Dakota State University Bison and the Augustana Vikings of 1948 was carrying on below.

I tried my hardest to find anyone who might have played in or attended the game that night, but I wasn’t successful. The youngest players on the team that night would be about 93 years old. Would they remember anything weird going on in the sky above the scrimmage line? Or perhaps any children in the stands that day might still be around today to tell their story. If so, let me know.

Anyway, the story was so interesting and I loved doing every second of it. That’s one reason I was so glad to hear that Markus Krueger of the Clay County Historical Society is doing a presentation at the Moorhead Library that features this sighting, what led up to it and more.

“In the summer of 1947, hundreds of people started seeing what they call ‘Flying Saucers,'” Krueger said. “Nobody had ever seen one before, but once somebody came up with the concept of the Flying Saucer, everybody started seeing them.”

He’s taking a light-hearted look at how pop culture might have influenced what we thought we saw in the skies and even what we called it. For example, while the people in the 1940s called those specks in the sky “flying saucers,” more than 50 years earlier in Barnesville, Minnesota, people spotted mysterious “airships.” And those accounts are even wilder than what happened in north Fargo a half-century later.

In the late summer of 1896, North America was captivated by the “last great gold rush” when prospectors discovered gold in the Klondike region of Canada’s Yukon territory. But millions of Americans were less intrigued by what was in “them thar hills” than what was flying above their heads.

From late 1896 to early 1897, from the western United States to the east, America was enthralled by “mystery airships.” A precursor to what became known as unidentified flying objects (UFOS) or today’s preferred term of unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), mystery airships were described in many different ways. Some people saw them as strange lights in the sky while others said they looked like huge cigarlike dirigibles, birds or strange machines.

Newspapers.com/The Call

The first reports of mystery airships came out of California in November of 1896. In addition to seeing the ship itself, some people on the ground said they spotted occupants riding in the ships. Others said they actually interacted with the occupants, and while they appeared human, there was something “off” about them.

By the spring of 1897, the wave of sightings had spread to the central and eastern United States. Krueger says the airships were spotted in Nebraska by February of 1897, Kansas in March and Minnesota by April.

According to Robert Barthomew in his 1990 book, “The Airship Hysteria of 1896-1897,” the number of total sightings was in the thousands and the total number of witnesses might have exceeded 100,000.

“The more people who said they saw an airship, the more people across the country could swear that they saw airships, too,” said Krueger.

An airship was spotted in Barnesville, Minnesota, on April 14, 1897. Kruger shared two clips from the Barnesville Record-Review from April 15th and 16th.

Contributed / Markus Krueger

The first paragraph of the story from the 15th starts:

“The airship that has been frightening the people of the Twin Cities for the past week, passed over this place last evening between 8 and 9 o’clock and was visible for nearly thirty minutes and all sorts of ugly rumors are afloat this morning.” 

The story continues by claiming some people were confident they saw the faces of Minnesota state legislators gazing down upon them from the ship.

The story gets even more outrageous the next day claiming that the cigar-shaped object carried Martians who came to Barnesville to get a good deal on ladies’ skirts at a local store.

“By far the largest and handsomest assortment ever shown in the city at prices that are within the reach of all, a beauty at $1.75.”

It’s pretty clear, by this point, the journalists and the people supposedly spotting the airships were having a little fun with all of this. Some reporters even tagged out of their story claiming they were writing their account from “an insane asylum.”

But the question remains were any of the airships based in reality? You never know. If UFOs visited Earth in the 20th century, why couldn’t they have visited in the 19th century?

Contributed / St. Paul Globe via Markus Krueger

In his book “Borderlands; The Ultimate Exploration of the Unknown,” historian Mike Dash described and summarized the 1896–1897 series of airship sightings, writing:

“The general conclusion of investigators was that a considerable number of the simpler sightings were misidentification of planets and stars, and a large number of the more complex the result of hoaxes and practical jokes. A small residuum remains perplexing.”

If you’re perplexed and want to know more, check out Markus Krueger’s presentation Thursday, Oct. 26, at the Moorhead Library. Let me know if you discover the truth about the ships and why they might have come to Barnesville.

My money is on the ladies’ dress sale

What: A History of UFO Sightings in Fargo-Moorhead
When: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26
Where: Moorhead Public Library, 118 5th Street South
Cost: Free
Ages: All
Details: In 1897 and 1947, locals spotted unidentified flying objects in our skies. Was it aliesn? Mad scientists? Military secrets? Pop culture mass hysteria?

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STEP BACK IN TIME WITH TRACY BRIGGS

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Hi, I’m Tracy Briggs. Thanks for reading my column! I love going “Back Then” every week with stories about interesting people, places and things from our past. Check out a few below. If you have an idea for a story, email me at tracy.briggs@forumcomm.com.

Tracy Briggs is an Emmy-nominated News, Lifestyle and History reporter with Forum Communications with more than 35 years of experience, in broadcast, print and digital journalism.