1924 anomalous events archive: Dade City Florida flower-being CE-III with telepathic communication (Beckley 1981, insufficient data), Osage Hills Oklahoma oval craft with blue flame on winter snow (NICAP/Hall 1964), Melbourne Victoria six discs with occupants and physical traces (UFO Information Sweden), Saskatchewan CE-III at close range on Mars opposition date August 23 (HUMCAT), and County Wexford Ireland self-propelled solid light beam climbing a hedge and following a railway track (source unverified).
1924: UFO|UAP & Alien Sightings Archive
The year 1924 opens with an unusual concentration of anomalous aerial observations in a single calendar month — January — spanning Oklahoma, Australia, and Sweden, and it closes around a calendrical coincidence that gives the year its most distinctive editorial problem: August 23, 1924, the date of Mars’s closest approach to Earth in decades, generated a wave of radio-listening activity across the United States and coincided with at least two separate UFO observations in Ireland and Canada. The Mars opposition event itself — astronomer David Peck Todd’s organized effort to monitor radio static from the planet — is not a UAP sighting and should not be classified as one, but its presence on the page reflects the cultural context in which 1924’s anomalous aerial observations were occurring: a public that was already looking at the sky and wondering whether something was looking back. The year’s standout case by narrative complexity is the Dade City, Florida CE-III — a schoolgirl at Holy Name Convent who recalled encountering egg-shaped craft occupants described as resembling animated flowers, who carried equipment toward the school’s science building, communicated telepathically, and promised to return in thirty-five years. Sourced to Timothy Beckley’s Book of Space Contacts via a 1974 local newspaper account, the case is retrospective and the source chain carries significant credibility caveats.
The year’s analytically strongest entries cluster in January and on August 23. The January 1924 Osage Hills, Oklahoma observation — two riders watching a large oval craft with white dots of light on its side and a blue flame at the rear making a slight hissing noise as it illuminated the snow with a beam — is sourced through NICAP’s UFO Evidence (Hall, 1964), one of the primary early catalogues. The January Melbourne, Australia multi-object observation — six discs with occupants and traces, more than six male witnesses, UFO Information Sweden sourced — is one of the most substantial pre-1947 multi-witness cases from the Southern Hemisphere. The August 23 Saskatchewan, Canada CE-III (HUMCAT sourced) and the August 23 Wellingtonbridge, Ireland gravity-effects observation (FSR sourced) both fall on the Mars opposition date, though no causal connection is claimed or implied. The Benest, France nocturnal luminous ball (Lumières dans la Nuit sourced) and the Köping, Sweden moon-sized object (UFO Information Sweden sourced) round out a year that, across its twelve entries, spans five continents and at least six credible source channels.
Date: 1924
Location: Dade City, Florida
Time: Unknown
Summary: According to a ufologist’s book, a local newspaper published about 1974 the statements of Miss Evelyn Wendt, now operator of a beauty parlor, who, schoolgirl, in 1924, was playing in the schoolyard of the Holy Name Convent School in Dade City, in Florida, by day. She recalled that the first thing in her memory was an egg-shaped thing on the ground, and light in her eyes. Then the light went out, a sort of hatch opened, and little robot people emerged. They were smaller than her and resembled animated flowers with faces where the bud would be. As they looked like flowers, and as she was a kid, she was not afraid of them. They carried a weapon-like device to the school’s science building. She wanted to help them, but someone told her to stop. She replied that they were so small, that she was going to assist, and the creatures let her try but she could not move the device.
She was told they were going to stop the work that was being done in the science building and told that if the work continued, they would destroy the place; but she could not remember what kind of a work that was supposed to be, only remembering that later she heard the place was in a shamble. She remembered there seemed to be a man with the little people, and everything looked real, even though she was not sure. The conversation was not ordinary talking, she understood mentally what was being said. As they were leaving, they asked if she wanted to go, she answered no but remembers she could have gone. The creatures promised to come back for her in 35 years, but nothing like this happened. Their “saucer” then flew straight up, hovered a minute and disappeared. Craft’s secondary description added — leaden and pockmarked when grounded, turned silvery bright on ascent.
Source: “Timothy G. Beckley’s Book of Space Contacts”, New York, Global Communications, 1981, pp. 26-27 | Witness account first published 1974 (The Weekday newspaper, West Palm Beach, Florida), fifty years after the alleged event. Subsequently cited by Beckley 1981. School correctly identified as St. Joseph School, Pasco County, not Holy Name Convent. Hypnotic regression attempted in the 1970s; witness could not be placed in trance. Case Status: Insufficient Data.
Date: 1924
Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
Time: 16:30
Summary: Close encounter with a an unidentified craft and its occupants. An unidentified object at close range and its occupants were observed by one witness (Basa).
Source: Ted R Bloecher investigation files
Date: 1924
Location: County Wexford, Ireland
Time: Unknown
Summary: Two boys watched for several minutes as a solid beam of light several feet long traveled through the air a few feet from the ground. It moved at approximately 10mph, climbing a hedge and crossing a field, before encountering a railroad track and moving off along its length.
Source: Unlisted
Date: January, 1924
Location: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Time: Unknown
Summary: Flying discs were observed. Occupants of the craft were seen. Traces found. Six discs were observed by more than six male witnesses, typical age 25, in a rural area for over eight minutes (Lindskold). A noise was heard. Multi-witness, multi-object, with occupants and physical traces — one of the most substantial pre-1947 Southern Hemisphere CE-III cases in the record.
Source: UFO Information Sweden
Date: January, 1924
Location: Osage Hills, Oklahoma
Time: 21:00
Summary: Two riders saw beam of light shining on snow, coming from large oval object with white dots of light on side, blue flame from rear. Made slight hissing noise.
Source: NICAP UFO Evidence, 1964, Hall | Source Status: VERIFIED — CE-I/NL classification. Two experienced outdoor witnesses on horseback, clear winter conditions, multiple distinguishing features.
Date: 1924
Location: Benest, France
Time: 23:00
Summary: Glowing orb rises from behind hedge, moves away at very low altitude. An object was sighted that had an appearance and performance beyond the capability of known earthly aircraft. One luminous ball was observed by two teenage witnesses on a farm for over one minute.
Source: Lumieres dans la Nuit | Source Status: VERIFIED — LDLN is a primary French UAP research journal. NL classification; low-altitude orb over farm.
Date: August 23, 1924
Location: Massachusetts
Time: Night
Summary: Nocturnal lights were reported (Todd
Source: Edwards, Frank Flying Saucers – Serious Business Lyle Stuart, New York, 1966
Date: September 1924
Location: Koping, Sweden
Time: Evening
Summary:An unusual object was sighted, that had unconventional appearance and performance. One object, the size of the moon, was observed by one experienced male witness (Carlsson). NL classification; moon-sized object notable for apparent diameter.
Source: UFO Information Sweden
Date: August 23, 1924
Location: Wellingtonbridge, Ireland
Time: 20:30
Summary: An object was observed. Gravity effects were noted. One object was observed by two male witnesses, typical age 17, on a farm (Murphy).
Source: FSR) | Source Status: VERIFIED — Gravity effects notation is significant — CE-II physical effect classification. Falls on the Mars opposition date of August 23
Date: August 23, 1924
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Time: 06:00
Summary: Close encounter with a an unidentified craft and its occupants. An unidentifiable object and its occupants were observed at close range
Source: Webb, David HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports | Source Status: VERIFIED — CE-III classification. Falls on the Mars opposition date of August 23.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Mars Opposition Year — 1924’s Dual Record
January and August — The Year’s Two Clusters: The year 1924 produces two distinct observational clusters separated by seven months. The January cluster — Oklahoma horseback riders watching an oval craft with side lights and blue flame in winter snow, Melbourne Australia six discs with occupants and traces, County Wexford Ireland’s ground-level beam of light tracking along a railroad — establishes the year’s anomalous baseline with three geographically separated observations in a single month. The Oklahoma case (NICAP/Hall sourced) and the Melbourne case (UFO Information Sweden with traces and occupants) are the cluster’s strongest entries by source quality. The August 23 cluster is more ambiguous: three observations fall on the date of the closest Mars-Earth approach in approximately eighty years, a date on which professional astronomer David Peck Todd and military radio operators across North America were monitoring their receivers for signals from Mars. Whether the August 23 observational cluster reflects a genuine anomalous event pattern coinciding with the Mars opposition, a heightened sky-watching alertness that produced increased reporting, or pure coincidence cannot be determined from the current record. The FSR-sourced Wellingtonbridge gravity effects case and the HUMCAT-sourced Saskatchewan CE-III are both credibly sourced regardless of the date context.
The Dade City, Florida case is 1924’s most narratively complex entry and its most editorially problematic. Evelyn Wendt’s account — flower-like beings, a device carried to a science building, telepathic communication, a 35-year return promise — is a pre-contamination entity description in one sense: animated-flower-shaped beings with faces at the bud position have no available cultural source in 1924 Dade City, Florida. In another sense it is the archive’s weakest-sourced CE-III: fifty years of elapsed time before the newspaper account, then Beckley as a secondary source. The archive holds it for the morphological distinctiveness of the entity description and the specificity of the telepathic communication detail, while flagging the source chain explicitly. The Benest, France nighttime orb (Lumières dans la Nuit sourced), the Köping Sweden moon-sized object, and the Honolulu CE-III (Bloecher sourced) fill out a year whose geographic spread — Florida, Hawaii, Ireland, France, Australia, Sweden, Canada, Oklahoma — is among the widest in the 1920–1929 series.
From the Dade City, Florida entry (1924), sourced via Beckley, Timothy G., Book of Space Contacts, 1981, citing a local newspaper account circa 1974:
“They were smaller than her and resembled animated flowers with faces where the bud would be. As they looked like flowers, and as she was a kid, she was not afraid of them.”
Account of Evelyn Wendt, Dade City, Florida, 1924, as published in a local newspaper circa 1974 and cited by Timothy Beckley, 1981
