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UFO crash, Cadotte, USA 1864:

A very interesting potential UFO crash story, showing how such a case has been described using the language, cultural behavior and scientific knowledge of year 1864. Of course there were no "secret aircraft" or "falling Russian satellite" to explain the event at the at the time.

THE ARTICLE

Newspaper: The Cincinnati Commercial.

Date: October 30, 1865.

Original article from the St. Louis Democrat, October 19 1865.

A STRANGE STORY - A Messenger from the Celestial Regions - A Stone Falls to the Ground with Characters Engraved Upon It 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.

CADOTTE CRASH INACCURACIES:

"Scott", on February 19, 2002, writes about the case:

Subject: Cadotte Pass crash inaccuracies. Date: Mar, 19 Feb 2002 From: () Did a search on Cadotte Pass Crash in google.com. Sure, Rocky Mountain fur trappers told "tall tales" about mountains of glass and hair-raising escapes from wild animals and hostiles, but not of compartmented charred "stones" with hieroglyphics falling out of the sky. This article is up there on my believability scale, however: Disheartening to note that the actual article has been so frequently interpreted by buffs as stating that this trapper saw the site in Missouri in 1865. On first scanning it, the following struck me right off: What could have been left for a Rocky Mountain fur trapper to trap in Missouri by the end of the Civil War? (Most of the Rockies themselves were trapped out decades before that, never mind places as far east as Missouri.) Might as well trap the Charles River, in Boston. "The upper Missouri" is a river is located in western Montana (with many once trapable tributaries such as [I later discovered] the Blackfoot River and Cadotte Creek). See mapquest.com (Cadotte MT) or at least check out http://www.uppermissouri.com/ But even assuming the vaguest knowledge of geography, how could Lumley get down to Saint Louis so fast if the sighting was in mid-September 1865 and the article was in mid-October, take a charter flight? Nope, pardner. Only way out of that area was by canoe, and they just didn't go that fast. Probably 1864 at the latest that the crash occurred. Reporter misinterpreted, or was doing the usual media bullshit, trying to tie the story into the local scene. I'd hate to think that, because of this, people were crawling through the bushes in northern Missouri looking for a crashed ship, when the whole time it's been stuck in the side of a, probably, quite locatable mountain up near the Blackfoot River in the Lincoln State Park in Montana. Probably the men in black buckskins have gotten to it by now, though... while excitable but undiscerning UFO buffs were missing the pirogue. But... maybe it's still there. Stranger things have happened. S:B

On 2/19/2002 I replied:

Scott: Thank you a lot for the research. The result will be in my page. Best regards Patrick Gross

Not much research, just a careful reading of the article, a childhood interest in mountain men and American western history, and a google search on Cadotte Pass, and "Cadotte Pass crash." I like your site, keep up the nice work. --Scott

MORE CADOTTE PASS INFORMATION:

Chris [-] wrote on April 28, 2007:

In response to your page: http://www.ufologie.net/htm/cadotte64.htm I live in Montana and have been on Cadotte Pass and Cadotte creek many, many times. I would like to comment on the response from the gentleman "()" > I What could have been left for a Rocky Mountain fur trapper to trap in > Missouri by the end of the Civil War? (Most of the Rockies themselves were > trapped out decades before that, never mind places as far east as > Missouri.) Might as well trap the Charles River, in Boston. I am not an expert on state history so I will quote from this web site: http://www.metnet.state.mt.us/teachmthistory "Fur trappers arrived in Montana hard on the heels of Lewis and Clark (1804-06). Although they tramped all of the state?s watersheds, there were only about 150 of them in Montana at any given time. They explored, hunted, trapped, and traded on the Montana stage into the 1860s." The area is still a rugged, remote part of the state. To think that trappers were there in that time period is quite likely. > III But even assuming the vaguest knowledge of geography, how could Lumley > get down to Saint Louis so fast if the sighting was in mid-September 1865 > and the article was in mid-October, take a charter flight? Reread the article: "Mr. Lumley states that about the middle of last September..." That is one year later. Even if it had not been a year after the event this was about the time the gold rush hit Montana and steamboat travel to the center of the state (Ft Benton) started becoming regular and quick (for the time period.) I think Mr Lumley's account can't be trashed based on the previous author's comments. Knowing the area (I grew up there!) I would also like to point out the high quantity of UFO and cattle mutilations in that general part of the state. There are many, many accounts. Great Falls, MT is only about 70 miles from Cadotte Pass. Many UFOs were reported in the Great Falls area even before Malmstrom AFB was built. Cheers, Chris

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This page was last updated on April 28, 2007