Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Mysterious "fish rains" are a dime a Fortean dozen, but tales of falling fish bones are an interesting twist.  The "Eufaula Weekly Times," July 18, 1872 (via Newspapers.com):

If the statement of some of the residents of Louisiana are to be credited, Dame Nature has recently been playing strange pranks in that part of the country. A writer to the New York Journal of Commerce, whose veracity and good standing is vouched for by the editor of that paper gives the following particulars of a strange phenomenon that occurred in Carroll parish last month: 

He says that a heavy storm visited that parish some days previous to the date of writing, the 21st, and during the storm fish bones fell to the ground by the million. These bones seemed to come from an exceedingly large black cloud that was passing at the time. The shower of bones was attended by a heavy fall of rain. 

The correspondent says the bones rattled on the roof of his house like hail stones. This strange phenomenon extended over a belt of country ten miles in width by many miles in length. Accompanying the letter was seven of the bones, varying from one inch to two inches and one sixteenth in length, from seven sixteenths of an inch to twelve and a half sixteenths of an inch in breadth, from one inch to one inch and nine-sixteenths in length, and from one and a half to three sixteenths of an inch in thickness. 

They are of an irregular diamond shape. One side of the bones is nearly flat, having on the under side, which is worn smooth, three small apertures, as if veins or tendon had passed through them. 

These specimens have been shown to experienced coast fishermen and also to learned ichthyologists, but they are not able to ascertain to what particular kind of fish the bones belonged. They all agree, however, in the opinion that they are veritable fish bones. 

Several theories have been advanced in explanation of this strange phenomenon. It is generally conceded, however, that the bones must have passed through the air for hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of miles. The inhabitants of the parish believe that they were brought by a water spout or a whirlwind from the western coast of Mexico or Lower California, across the continent, as the wind was blowing at the time violently from the southeast. We have heard of its raining cats and dogs but fishbone showers are some thing altogether unprecedented.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

I always enjoy a good “anomalous falls from the sky” story, and this is one of the goofier examples I’ve found.  The “Tampa Bay Times,” September 3, 1969:

PUNTA GORDA - It rained golf balls Monday night. 

Well, not really, but it seemed that way to the Punta Gorda Police Department and the Charlotte County Sheriff's Department. 

The night began innocently enough; it was raining and had been raining but that's nothing new. Policemen are a hardy breed and are used to anything, almost, that is. 

But not golf balls, dozens and dozens and dozens of them, were in the gutters, on the street, along the sidewalks and at Punta Gorda Isles. 

Lt. Clarence Walter of the police department tried to convince people that it rained golf balls, not simply five inches, as he began to pick up golf balls.

Patrolman Wade Saurs and John Hause picked up golf balls and then more golf balls. Bill Moore of the security patrol brought in a satchel full and said he was tired of picking them up. 

A check of the country clubs turned up nothing, except more golf balls, but these were supposed to be there. 

So sheriff's department night dispatcher Coleman Naughton found himself staring at a basket full. Punta Gorda Policewoman Bonnie Zimmerman yesterday kept a basket full company. 

The mystery remains.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

It's time for another round of Anomalous Falls!  The "Jackson Clarion-Ledger," September 11, 1956:

MERIDIAN-P. F. Watkins, Meridian, Route 4, said here Saturday that during a light rain and a dead calm, a sweet-gum tree limb, 15 feet long and eight inches in diameter, fell into his yard Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. Weather Bureau reports that no stormy conditions were in the state at that time. 

Watkins is the father of H. C. (Mike) Watkins, Meridian attorney. No sweet gum tree is growing in that section. The limb had the appearance of being twisted off a tree, indicating that a heavy wind of cyclonic proportions, possibly hundreds or more miles away, twisted off the limb, whirled it into the sky and carried it until the strength of the wind died down and the limb dropped to earth.

I can't say I find that explanation terribly convincing, but it doesn't seem like anyone came up with a better theory.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

“Anomalous falls from the sky” stories are always fun, and the following is one of the better examples I’ve seen lately.  From the “New York Daily News,” August 19, 1950:

Five ironworkers atop the Empire State Building, 1,250 feet above the ground, fled for cover yesterday when they were struck by a barley storm. 

Experts in the grain, meteorological, navigation, and chemical fields were dubious at first, but became interested later. They were at a loss to explain the strange occurrence. 

The mysterious downpour of grain started at 10 A.M., two hours after the workers had begun their job of clearing away a stainless steel platform to make room for the new television tower. 

Bill Dunn, 30, of New Haven, felt something strike his face. Then pellets started to bounce off the metal flooring. 

"I think it's starting to hail," shouted Dunn. 

The foreman, Al Johnson, of 220-13 Jamaica Ave., Queens Village, Queens, peered at the hot, misty sky and ordered the men off the exposed platform. 

Within a couple of minutes the platform was carpeted with barley. Here and there were kernels of corn.

The fall lasted five minutes. It ended as suddenly as it started. 

Ernest J. Christie, meteorologist at the U. S. Weather Bureau, said that the slight winds prevailing at that time could not have carried the grain. At 20,000 feet, however, were winds of gale force. They were blowing from the direction of the Great Plains.

At LaGuardia Field it was indicated that the grain apparently was not loosed from a plane. The control tower at the field said that at the time of the barley downpour, air traffic was shut down, except for outgoing planes. The planes which left did not pass over the midtown area. 

Chemists said that local breweries using barley could not be blamed. While barley is blown into the air during processing at the breweries, it is always in the form of dust. The barley that fell on the Empire State tower was whole kernels. 

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

There are many reports of such anomalous things as fish and frogs raining from the sky, but I’m guessing this one is unique. The “St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” June 24, 1919:

Alton, in times gone by, had fishes rained upon it from the sky, but--

It rained wedding rings at Chain of Rocks [a series of rocky rapids north of St. Louis] Sunday.

Nelson Pearsall, bookkeeper in the Post-Dispatch composing room, having been duly sworn, deposes: That he, with a party of eight picnickers, was walking to the Broadway car from Chain of Rocks when rain began to fall; and that, in the midst of this rain, whiz went a wedding ring, falling from the sky, past his head to the ground.

Pearsall further testifies that he has queried all his companions and that none of these lost a ring. He also says that the district they were passing through was barren of habitation and vegetation and that he neither heard nor saw an airplane wedding party in the clouds above. The ring, unengraved, is in his possession.