Pavilion Township, Michigan: Airship allegedly explodes, propeller blade and debris found
Early on 11 April 1897, George W. Somers and William Chadburn reportedly saw an airship explode over Pavilion Township, Michigan; part of an electric device and a propeller blade were said to have been recovered.
Background
In the early morning an airship allegedly exploded as it passed over Pavilion Township, Michigan. George W. Somers and William Chadburn saw it while staying up late tending a sick horse. Part of an electric device and a propeller blade were recovered, and carpenters found that the roof they were shingling was covered with minute fragments from the explosion. Eberhart cites the Detroit Evening News of 13 April 1897, the Saginaw News of 14 April, the Angola (Ind.) Herald and the Watauga (N.C.) Democrat, as well as Robert E. Bartholomew's article "Michigan and the Great Mass Hysteria Episode of 1897" (Michigan Historical Review, 1998) and Clark. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.