The First Recorded UFO Sighting inThe USA - 1639 Boston
Artist impression of UFO Over Boston in 1639
In 1639,
America's first UFO was sighted over the Charles River in Boston. Lights sped
back and forth across the Charles River from Back Bay Fens to Charlestown.
Governor John Winthrop made an entry in his journal regarding
this strange event. The primary witness was described as a man of good
reputation, activity and estate in Boston:
"In this year one James Everell, a sober, discreet man, and two others,
saw a great light in the night at Muddy River. When it stood still, it flamed
up, and was about three yards square; when it ran, it was contracted into the
figure of a swine: it ran as swift as an arrow towards Charlton [Charlestown],
and so up and down [for] about two or three hours. They were come down in their
lighter about a mile, and, when it was over, they found themselves carried
quite back against the tide to the place they came from. Divers other credible
persons saw the same light, after, about the same place."
Muddy River is
located at Back Bay Fens, opposite Cambridge, MA, and diagonally across from
Charlestown. Back Bay wasn't filled-in at that time, and a large area of open
water existed in the river that was then called Broad Bay. The distance to
Charlestown would have been more than two miles.
Scene
at the Charles River today
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James Savage
added the following footnote about the sighting in his early edition of
Winthrop's Journal (1825):
"This account of an ignis fatuus [pale light over marshy ground] may
easily be believed on testimony less respectable than that which was adduced.
Some operation of the devil, or other power beyond the customary agents of
nature, was probably imagined by the relaters and hearers of that age, and the
wonder of being carried a mile against the tide became important corroboration
of the imagination. Perhaps they were wafted [carry lightly], during the two or
three hours' astonishment, for so moderate a distance, by the wind; but, if
this suggestion be rejected, we might suppose, that the eddy [whirlpool],
flowing always, in our rivers, contrary to the tide in the channel, rather than
the meteor, carried their lighter back."
Being objective about the sighting, the Charles River, prior to being dammed,
had great tidal flow, and would drain much of Back Bay each day, and then
replenish it. Muddy River likely had a larger volume of water flowing through
it in 1639, but it is unlikely that a great eddy existed near its mouth. Thus,
it is unusual for witnesses to assert they were unmoved by tidal flow (in a
small boat) for more than two hours.
Witnesses also stated that the lights contracted into the shape of a swine.
Muddy River, the hamlet, eventually became the separate town of Brookline. Pigs
and other cattle were stored there during summer while corn was growing in
Boston. It is safe to deduce that the UFO witnesses had seen or heard swine on
the same day they observed the great light. Thus, the lights resembled a common
animal, making it probable they saw ignis fatuus mirage phenomena in the
darkness.
In any case, the event was observed by divers (many) people, and noteworthy
enough for the Puritan Governor to document it in his private journal.
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