A Strange Story--Remarkable Discovery

With the Pentagon's Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force reportedly preparing to release a report on UFO encounters, it seemed like a good time to take a look back at perhaps the earliest recorded UFO sighting In Montana, which happened just east of Lincoln near Cadotte Pass.

Montana is no stranger to UFOs. Today, Montana is ranked number two on a list of states with the most UFO sightings. One of the most notorious - and difficult to explain - UFO films comes from Great Falls in 1950, when a pair of disks were filmed over the city by Nick Mariana, using a handheld camera.

Throughout the 1960's, UFOs were reported over the nuclear missile fields throughout central Montana.

But it was in the 1860's that a trapper allegedly saw something unusual.

A Strange Story--Remarkable Discovery

From the St. Louis Democrat - Oct. 19, 1865

Mr. James Lumley, an old Rocky Mountain trapper, who has been stopping at the Everett House for several days, makes a most remarkable statement to us, and one, which if authenticated, will produce the greatest excitement in the scientific world.

Mr. Lumley states that about the middle of last September, he was engaged in trapping in the mountains, about seventy-five or one hundred miles above the great falls of the Upper Missouri, and in the neighborhood of what is known as Cadotte Pass. Just after sunset one evening he beheld a bright, luminous body in the heavens, which was moving with a great rapidity in an easterly direction. It was plainly visible for at least five seconds, when it suddenly separated into particles, resembling, as Mr. Lumley described it, the bursting of a skyrocket in the air. A few minutes later he heard a heavy explosion, which jarred the earth very perceptibly, and this was shortly after followed by a rumbling sound, like a tornado sweeping through the forest. A strong wind sprang up about the same time, but as suddenly subsided. The air was also filled with a peculiar odor of a sulphurous character.

These incidents would have made but slight impression on the mind of Mr. Lumley, but for the fact that on the ensuing day he discovered, at a distance of about two miles from his camping place, that, as far as he could see in either direction, a path had been cut through the forest, several rods wide - giant trees uprooted or broken off near the ground - the tops of hills shaved off, and the earth plowed up in many places. Great and wide-spread havoc was every-where visible. Following up this track of desolation, he soon ascertained the cause of it in the shape of an immense stone that had been driven into the side of a mountain. But now comes the most remarkable part of the story. An examination of this stone, or so much of it as was visible, showed that it had been divided into compartments, and that, in various places, it was carved with curious hieroglyphics. More than this, Mr. Lumley also discovered fragments of a substance resembling glass, and here and there dark stains, as though caused by a liquid. He is confident that the hieroglyphics were the work of human hands, and that the stone itself, although but a fragment of an immense body, must have been used for some purpose by animated beings.

Strange as this story appears, Mr. Lumley relates it with so much sincerity that we are forced to accept it as true. It was evident that the stone which he discovered was a fragment of the meteor which was visible in this section in September last. It will be remembered that it was seen in Leavenworth, in Galena, and in this city by Colonel Bonneville. At Leavenworth, it was seen to separate in particles or explode.

Astronomers have long said that it is probable that the heavenly bodies are inhabited--even the comets--and it may be that the meteors are also. Possibly meteors are used as a means of conveyance by the inhabitants of other planets, in exploring space, and it may be that hereafter some future Columbus,, from Mercury or Uranus may land on this planet, by means of a meteoric conveyance, and take full possession thereof--as did the Spanish navigators of the new world in 1492, and eventually drive what is known as the "human race" into a condition of the most abject servitude. It has always been a favorite theory with many that there must be a race superior to us, and this may at some time be demonstrated in the manner indicated.

In the last 20 years, Lumley's story has made the rounds on websites dealing with, UFOs, mysteries and the unexplained.

Many people point to similarities with other reported crashes, notably the Roswell incident, which likewise included reports of strange markings or writing, and unusual shards of metal or glass, as evidence the crash involved a spacecraft.

Others believe it was simply a large meteor impact, since meteors can have cavities and may even form obsidian in the heat generated by passing through the atmosphere.

Satellite images from around 2004 featured a large, rectangle blotting out imagery of the area to the north east of Green Mountain and Lewis and Clark pass, which has led some to speculate the federal government was hiding activity related to excavation of the crash site. However, based n Lumley's description, the 'easterly" trajectory would more likely have put it somewhere on the far side of Rogers Pass, probably north of Sunset Mountain.

The story leads to some intriguing questions. If it was an impact by a meteor large enough to be mistaken for a vehicle, shouldn't it have left a significant, and still noticeable crater? If it was some sort of craft, what became of it? Is it still embedded in a hillside somewhere east of Cadotte Pass, waiting to be discovered, or did the Men in Black already take care of that?

Although the St. Louis Democrat reportedly had a reputation as a conservative and sober publication, there's also the chance it was simply a tall tale, made up by a lone trapper to entertain the guests at Everett House and embellished by a bored reporter.

Nuggets of Lincoln's history, brought to you by the BVD and the Upper Blackfoot Valley Historical Society