It is 1890s California. Imagine living in an era before the first zeppelins hit the skies, before the first test flight of the Wright brothers, and witnessing a massive cigar-shaped craft emerging from the clouds. Long before the 1947 UFO sightings of Kenneth Arnold, or the discovery at Roswell, there were reports of strange craft which seemed to defy explanation in the skies above California and moving eastward across dozens of states. The first modern UFOs that straddled the line between human technological abilities and fantastical steampunkesque flying machines. Massive craft with bright lights and manned by sizeable crews were witnessed by hundreds of ordinary Americans across the country, hovering above crowds, emanating strange sounds, and even possibly travelling at speeds up to 150 mph. It's a case that has become known as the Phantom Airship Mystery.

Could this be epic advanced aviation? Alternatively, could it possibly be explained as early cases of foreign spies and espionage from the skies? Or, to go even further, could we be dealing with some kind of early extraterrestrial mimicry of zeppelin-like technology soon to be deployed? Join us as we explore a legend from yore, the mystery of the phantom airship.

Special thank you and shout out to Adam Benedict, author of Oddities in Print, the primary source of information for this episode!

 

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