Aurora, Texas airship 'crash' (1897).
folkloreclose_encounterScandinavian "ghost rockets"
The famous newspaper tale (Dallas Morning News, 19 Apr 1897) of an airship crashing into a windmill in Aurora, TX, with a dead 'Martian' pilot buried in the town cemetery.
A well-documented hoax/tall tale: residents later said there was no crash, and it was likely a promotional stunt for a dying, railroad-bypassed town. Endures as Texas folklore (a state historical marker, a 1986 film). Later MUFON-era 'witnesses' and metal-detector hits are alleged and do not overturn the hoax verdict.