Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

The unofficial motto of Austin, Texas is "Keep Austin Weird." In early 1964, someone or something certainly obliged. The "Austin American," January 29, 1964:

Can the mystery blast that shook Austinites Monday at noon be linked to puzzling reports of flying objects later the same day in Fort Worth and Dallas? Perhaps not, but the eerie events have one thing in common: none has been satisfactorily explained.

Most citizens who heard the "explosion" here had it figured for a sonic boom...until Bergstrom Air Force Base spokesmen solemnly declared there were no planes in this area at the time that could possibly make a sound blast.

City, county and state officials could offer no other explanation--construction dynamiting, oil tank fire, or anything. But there was an earth-trembling blast here.

"Just take a look at my ceiling," James Edward Wilson, 1806 Drake Avenue, told Austin police, "if you wonder how hard it shook." He estimated damages at $175 as ceilings sagged after the blast in two rooms of his South Austin home.

An East Dallas woman listed even more damage at her home caused by a mysterious object which came hurtling through the window Monday night. .Mrs. B.S. Fenlaw told detectives the projectile apparently knocked a piece of concrete from her driveway, then exploded into at least three pieces. One of these fragments about the size of a silver dollar sailed through her living room window, tore a hole in the dining room wall and came to rest on the kitchen floor. The fragment was imprinted with the word "Stockham."

Investigators were expected to study a possible connection between the projectile and a flaming object which fell from the skies west of Fort Worth Monday night. Mr. and Mrs. Ronald J. Jones said the Fort Worth object appeared from the north west, bobbing lazily through the skies.

"It hovered over a house," Jones said, "then fell and burst into flames, setting fire to a lawn."

The blaze was extinguished and astronomer Oscar Monnig was summoned. He quickly ruled out the possibility the object was a meteorite, gathered up particles of the "thing" from the yard and turned them over to members of the Texas Christian University physics and geology faculty to be analyzed.

"The TCU scientists hope have some preliminary results by Wednesday," Monnig said. He learned Tuesday that youths had launched plastic balloons in the area, but reported they were "rather amazed by the incident" since all their objects disappeared to the south.

Anyone for explanations?