1897 Gallipolis Phantom Airship

Gallipolis, OH ca. 1914

As previous discussed here on Theresa’s Haunted History, 1896-1897 was a huge couple of years for phantom airships flying mysteriously over the continental United States. In April of 1897, the phenomenon finally reached the Ohio Valley, when nearly the whole town of Sistersville, WV saw a strange craft over the town (Sistersville Airship). Two days later, it was reported that 12 foot tall humanoids had invaded the small town of Ogden in Wood County, only about 35 miles south of Sistersville (Ogden Humanoids). But…apparently the phantom airships weren’t done traveling South down the Ohio River just yet!

I recently ran across an article published in the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette, dated 31 October 1984. The article relates the experience of Jacob Soden, a man who claimed to have seen a phantom airship over the skies of Gallipolis, OH (directly across the river from Point Pleasant, WV) way back in the year 1897. 

Although no specific date was given, I’m going to tenuously guess that Soden’s experience came around the time of the Sistersville airship experience. As the story goes, Soden was coming home from church one Sunday evening. He was downtown, near the Hotel Laska/Gallia Hotel, when he heard a noise like a traction engine blowing steam. He looked up, and about 20 feet over the hotel, he saw what he described as a locomotive with wings, coming out of a train tunnel through a rift in the clouds. The vision temporarily paralyzed him, yet unfortunately he was the only person to have allegedly seen the aerial anomaly. 

So, what do you think? Did Jacob Soden witness the same unexplained aerial phenomena that plagued the citizens of Sistersville in April…or did he witness something else entirely? And why was he the only one to have reported seeing it?  I think its important to point out that Jacob Soden had passed away sometime prior to 1911, so the article in question (which was published in several different newspapers around Ohio) wasn’t him reminiscing something that had happened almost 90 years before. Rather, it apparently was quoting an article from the Gallipolis Tribune from the time of the original sighting. 

And…it wouldn’t be the only time that Gallipolis was the site of a phantom airship! In 1931, quite a few witnesses saw a phantom airship in both the Gallipolis area and across the river, just outside of Pt. Pleasant (Pt. Pleasant Phantom Airship). I’m not sure what it is about the Ohio River that seems to attract these types of things, but along with Mothman, MIB, and traditional UFOs, we can certainly include phantom airships into the area’s collection of High Strangeness! 

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette 31 October 1984