The Forgotten humanoid and other encounters of the roaring 20’s.
During those turbulent times in between the two World Wars, right
before the Wall Street Crash and the beginning of the Depression, there were little known and mostly hidden encounters with ‘strangers’ among us.
For various reasons, I suspect mainly because of witness reluctance and faltering memories,
many of the encounters reported from 1920 through 1929 were mainly ignored and poorly
documented. But there is a core of incidents that appear to mirror what was going to occur in
the not too distant future. I will attempt to cover some of the least known incidents reported
during the time, not only ‘humanoid’ encounters but other high-strangeness events.
Sometime in 1920 a strange series of events took place in Bass Strait, Victoria, Australia. The
following narrative is directly taken from veteran Australian UFO researcher Bill Chalker article:
“UFOs sub-rosa down under: The Australian Military & Government role in the UFO controversy.”
“The Navy submarine depot ship, the Platypus, was involved in the search for a missing
schooner, the Amelia J., in Bass Strait. Mystery lights, thought at the time to be “evidently rockets,”
were observed. Two aircraft left the flying training school and aircraft depot at Point Cook to join in
the investigation. One was piloted by a Major Anderson and the other by Captain W. J. Stutt – an
instructor for the NSW Government Aviation School at Richmond…Stutt and his mechanic, Seargent
Dalzell, were last seen by Major Anderson flying into a large cloud. Their plane and the schooner
were never found.”
Figure 2. Australian researcher Bill Chalker.
Interesting account, what were those lights reported during the search for the schooner, what kind of a
cloud was it that the search aircraft fly into and never came out? I suspect we will never know these
answers. The area (Bass Strait) is a well known area for Australian anomaly researchers, where UFOs,
strange disappearances and other high strangeness incidents have been frequently reported. This case is
what I call perhaps a ‘permanent abduction’.
According to Ukrainian researcher, Dr. Anton Anfalov (he quotes UFO Liaisons of the Universe, Lugansk,
Ukraine) in the year 1920 during the bloody Russian Civil War and somewhere not specified in the
Crimean Peninsula a strange event took place:
A mobile Red Army group was moving along a local road in the rugged mountains of the Crimean
Peninsula. There were a total of five soldiers including one woman. They were moving in a cart wagon
and were armed with rifles and “Maksim” machine guns. Suddenly they noticed a lighted area on the
side of the road and then stopped near the road prepared their weapons and began to check the area.
They soon came upon a strange dome-shaped object on the ground and several tall figures walking
near the object. The figures were described as dressed in a kind of armored suit, resembling
chainmaille, The figures were about 2 meters in height, or taller. Thinking that these were foreign
enemies the group prepared to fire upon the strangers with their Maksim machine guns but were
suddenly blinded by a bright flash of light and knocked down losing consciousness. When they
returned to their senses again, the object and the strange figures had disappeared.
Another interesting event, one that it would have been classified as a CE3 in modern
‘Ufological’ parlance, the action taken in the part of the unknown entities was apparently a self
defense action. It is unfortunate that there is not a more precise location provided for this
extremely high strangeness event.
Figure 3. Luminous entities
According to veteran French researchers Joel Mesnard and Jean Marie Bigorne sometime
during the summer of 1920 near the town of Nontron in the Dordogne region of France the
following peculiar event took place:
On a Saturday evening, between 2300 and midnight, a group of young people was returning from a
dance when they saw in the sky, above a little wood, a strange spectacle; a group of beings of small
stature about in the air, and giving off “musical sounds.” The young people could see their little legs
move about, and noticed that surroundings the figures were a number of luminous balls that gave to
the group a “fiery aspect.” According to the accounts of two of the group, Louise and Marie Grasset,
they felt no fear at the strange sight.
It appears to have been an encounter with a sort of luminous and flying entity. The ‘musical
sounds’ reported is interesting as there have been many similar reports throughout the years
in which ‘musical tones’ have been connected with the appearance of UFOs and strange
entities.
According to published reports in the UFO electronic magazines, UFO Roundup Vo. 7 # 28 and
Filer’s Files (unknown volume) a ‘classic’ close encounter of the third kind took place in
September 1920 outside of Bethel North Carolina, the following is a summary of events:
Figure 4. Typical disc shaped UFO.
During the local cotton harvest 14-year laborer Nicora B. and her family were out in the fields plucking
the white bolls from the cotton plants and stuffing them in their trailing tote sacks when they saw
something large flying over the farm. They described it as an object resembling two pie pans placed
together lip to lip. The silvery object zigzagged across the sky and came to rest in the field in front of
the witnesses. Two little bald white men got out and pointed short stick-like implements at them.
They were the size of little boys but their faces seemed older. One of the little bald men began digging
and poking in the dirt with something like a shovel and put some dirt into a bag. He then took a small
plant and placed it in the bag also. Both little men then backed up one after the other and entered the
pie-pan shaped object, still pointing the sticks at them as they walked backwards. Presently the UFO
took off and zigzagged back in the direction it came.
In later decades hundreds if not thousands of similar events were to be reported, supposed
aliens collecting samples from the ground, also humanoids carrying stick-like implements.
Like I mentioned earlier I will be covering different types of encounters with all sorts of
humanoids during this time period, not all necessarily connected with a ‘UFO’ the following
case is an example.
According to the Fortean Times website (1993) sometime in 1921 at an unspecified location in
Hertfordshire, England the following encounter took place:
During daytime a man was driving down a rural road with nothing going on, when he spotted a
roadside tree stump up ahead. Sitting on the stump was a small (18” high) round-face being with a
pointed cap which slouched over to one side. Before being able to secure a better look, the being was
no longer there.
Of course this case can be classified as an encounter with a fairy, leprechaun, goblin, etc. Is
there a different between this sort of encounter and the landing of a disc-shaped craft from
which several short humanoids emerge and begin collecting soil samples? At first sight the
answer is no, but maybe there are more similar in nature than we think.
One of the earliest abduction type-scenario-incident was reported by several French Ufologists
among them, Joel Mesnard and Jean-Marie Bigorne, this case was said to have taken place in
the French city of Marseille in the Bouches du Rhone region it apparently took place one
afternoon in the summer of 1921 the following is a condensed narrative of the event:
“In 1921---a very hot year---I was playing one day among the hills of the North Canal. I was eight years
old and I love to lose myself in the moonlike landscape made by excavation, and from the First World
War. “Suddenly, two beings, wearing a sort of pliable helmet, literally leaped out from between some
acacia trees. Without preliminaries, they dragged me toward what I thought was an oddly shaped
tank. They took me up into the machine, without my being able to resist. I should say, ‘Without my
being able to want to resist.’ I suddenly began to cry; and I don’t know whether that moved them, but
after a while an opening appeared in the ceiling of the cabin, and in a few seconds I found myself on
the ground. “However, I had to walk most of the afternoon until I found myself near the road I had
left five minute before. “ When I got home that night, my parents treated me like a little liar, and no
one believed me. I can now hardly add much detail to the machine, or its cabin. Doubtless, I was too
astounded. I only remember two details; there were square or at least rectangular portholes. The
cabin had a kind of soft couch that I sat on.” I seem to recall that their helmets appeared metallic. I
don’t recall any anatomical details, except that the two beings were very tall and very slender.”
A bizarre tale to be sure and a rather crude abduction scenario, obviously the young witness
was let go by his strange abductors, but there is no further details available.
From veteran UFO/Bigfoot researcher, Peter Guttilla from his book ‘The Bigfoot File’ we have
the following event said to have taken place one night in August of 1921 in the area of Mount
Shasta, California, it includes some interesting details however brief the narrative is:
Elberta Payne was lying sick at her grandmother’s home when she saw two large black “furry
creatures” with large eyes, watching her through the bedroom window. Almost immediately she
recovered from what was thought to have been typhoid fever.
The apparent spontaneous healing of the witness following the encounter is interesting to
say the least since we have hundreds of similar events involving alleged healings after UFO
encounters.
Figure 5. Flying humanoid.
Renowned international researcher Jacques Vallee introduced us to one of the earliest reports of a flying
humanoid in connection to a UFO. The event reportedly took place at five o’clock in the morning on
February 22 1922 in an area near Hubbell Nebraska:
A hunter, William C. Lamb, was following mysterious tracks when he heard a crackling noise followed
by a high-pitched sound & realized that a circular object was flying overhead. He hid behind a tree &
saw this object, now brilliantly lighted, land in a hollow. Soon afterward a “magnificent” flying
creature at least 8 ft tall appeared that landed like an airplane & left traces in the snow. It passed by
the tree & disappeared; Lamb followed the tracks for 5 miles before giving up.
Stunning case, it was later reported that Mr. Lamb was involved in other encounters and
appeared to have been a ‘repeater’ witness.
Another very high strangeness case allegedly took place during another civil war, this time the
Irish Civil War and it is said to have taken place one early morning in April of 1922 in County
Donegal, Ireland. According to the INTCAT listing quoting the Watford and South Herts Post of
April 30 1964 this is a brief summary of what allegedly took place:
During the Irish civil war, soldier Lawrence Bradley came to a cave, the foliage at the entrance of
which was burned. Soldiers sheltering inside said they had been awakened in the early morning by a
‘whirring’ sound, and fired at an object. The object fired jets of fire at the cave. As the soldiers
emerged the object, circular and metallic, was beginning to ascend.
Strange indeed, did the exhausted soldiers perhaps mistake at tank (early version) for a more
unconventional craft? However the fact that it was reportedly ‘ascending’ does not make it a
mundane object.
From veteran researchers Ron Westrum and Ted Bloecher we have a more ‘typical’ (if that is
possible) CE3 event from the summer of 1922 said to have taken place around 22:00 in the city
of Detroit Michigan:
Mrs. Irma Hinz was walking home from a movie with a young friend when the two teenagers saw a
large disk shaped object hovering over a vacant lot on Dragoon Avenue. The sky suddenly lit up and
the object descended to the height of a large tree and slowly revolved as it hovered, around the
perimeter of the bottom of the object were rectangular windows, lit from within; seated at these
windows were approximately 20 entities that were seen only from the shoulders/neck up. They were
bald headed, with eyes set close together, and they were staring intently at the young couple. No
other features were observed, Mrs. Hinz and her date watched for several minutes, but left quickly
when they became frightened. Although Mrs. Hinz told her parents at the time, her mother tended to
believe it was a “vision” of some kind. She recalls her date’s name as William O’Brien.
According to Len Wells from the Evansville Courier there was another typical close encounter of
the third kind one afternoon in June of 1923 near the town of Mount Erie Illinois, the witness
being a 10-year old boy named Norman Massie, following is a summary of the incident:
Norman Massie was 10-year old when he went out to take his horses into a pasture. As he led his
horses through the gate he noticed an object with lights all around it nearby. He walked to within 50
feet of the object and noticed five men onboard the craft. He described the men as about 4 ft tall with
blond hair. As he got closer he could hear them talking. One of the men sat on a chair, & the others
called him the “Commander”. The other men made trips back & forth into the object. Massie then
overhead one of the men tell the commander that the repairs had been made. The object was
described as metallic and standing on three legs. It had a dome on top with holes in it. The top of the
object resembled melted glass. The object then rose up and hovered & the tripod legs telescoped up
into the belly of the craft, which went straight up then shot away towards the west at high speed.
Several Spanish Ufologists including Antonio Ribera unearthed a very strange incident said to
have occurred one afternoon in 1924 near the small town of Quero in La Mancha region, Spain.
The incident involves a lone humanoid without the presence of a UFO but using some kind of
‘apparatus’ in order to get around:
Figure 6. Depiction of humanoid maneuvering over a field.
The witness was standing near a local rural church when he saw a short humanoid figure about 1.20
meters in height wearing a tight-fitting green colored coverall, it had its arms and legs in a rigid
position and approached to within 2 meters of the witness. The humanoid seemed to have both feet
together and resting on some type of circular platform that apparently propelled him above the
ground. On his hands he carried an object or control panel that seemed to operate the floating
platform. The humanoid, which had human features, disappeared silently into some distance fields.
The late and groundbreaking Ufologist John Keel (John Alva Kiehl) reported a bizarre possible
crash & retrieval case which involved strange characters, perhaps precursors of the modern day
M.I.B. The incident is said to have occurred one afternoon in May of 1924 near the small town
of Gem, West Virginia:
A farmer outside Gem in monster haunted Braxton County reported seeing an ‘airplane’ crash in a
forest. Planes were a very rare sight in those days especially in West Virginia, and a crashing plane
was big news. According to the farmer, the plane was very odd in that it didn’t seem to have any
wings, didn’t make any noise and seemed unusually large. “As big as a battleship” is the way the
farmer described it. A party of men, including the local sheriff and local newsman John Cole
systematically searched the woods. Within hours they found the wreck in a small clearing. According
to Cole:
“We weren’t the first ones there, though. There were already five or six men in the clearing. Some of
them were dressed in black business suits, neckties and all, and that seemed damned silly in that neck
of the woods”. Others were dressed in coveralls of a funny color---some kind of very shiny material.
They were talking among themselves in a rapid-fire foreign language when they found them. They got
real excited when they saw the search party. The men in coveralls ran into the wreck---like they were
trying to hide. Some of the men in the search party were carrying guns and one of them said to Cole,
“By God, they’re spies!” and he raised his gun. The strangers were all small, just a little over five feet
tall, and they all looked like Orientals, with high cheekbones, slanted eyes, and dark skin. One of them
spoke English. He told the men nobody was hurt, that everything was all right. He said he would call
on the sheriff later and make out a complete report. There wasn’t much they could do. No crime had
been committed. Nobody was hurt.
According to Cole while he was looking around he spotted a ‘little thingamajig” on the ground. He
picked it up and decided to keep it. He doesn’t know why he just didn’t turn it over to one of
“foreigners”. He put it in his pocket. They all finally went away, leaving the foreigners to fuss with
their contraption. It didn’t look like much of a flying machine. It face, Cole didn’t think it could fly at
all. It was like a fuselage of a modern plane, with windows and all. But it didn’t have any wings, tail or
propellers. And like the farmer said, it was mighty big. According to Cole at least seventy five feet
long, it filled the whole clearing.
He went back home in Weston and went right to bed. He was pretty tired from all the day’s hiking.
About three a. m. somebody started pounding on his door. He got up and looked and there was an
army officer standing there. He was dressed in one of those broad-brimmed hats they used to wear,
with those leg wrappings and all. It was a U.S. Army uniform, but except for his clothes he looked just
like those foreigners from the airplane. Slant eye, dark skin, but he was maybe a little taller. ‘You
picked up something today,’ he said. ‘We need it back.’ Cole was half asleep and at first he couldn’t
think what he meant. Then he remembered the metal ‘thingamajig” It was still in his coat pocket. Cole
went and got it. “Is this what you mean?” He asked him. He didn’t answer; he just grabbed it and
walked off without a word. He didn’t, seem to have a horse or a car. Cole shuffled back to bed. But
the next day he started wondering about it. How had the supposed officer managed to track him
down? A couple of days later he went back to those woods and found that clearing. It was empty. The
grass and bushes were all crushed down where the airplane had been but there was no other sign of
anything or anybody. After the Army ‘officer’ came by Cole figured that maybe it was a secret Army
deal of some kind and he thought it was better to leave it alone.
Another report describing a ‘little man’ carrying a sort of stick was reported by author and
researcher Graham J. McEwan in his book “Mystery animals of Great Britain and Ireland” said
to have occurred in Cranagh, County Carlow, Ireland one afternoon in November of 1924. The
following is a summary of the events:
A young girl was standing by a farmyard gate tending some cows when she saw a little man appear
from behind one of the cows. He walked quickly and tapped one of the cows gently on the nose with a
stick he was carrying. He walked by the witness, staring at her, and then walked straight into a bank
of solid earth and vanished. He was described as four foot tall, young looking, & wearing a black cap, a
red coat, and tight trousers.
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