In the winter of 1915, the Franklin Journal reported a “mysterious airship haunting Western Maine.” Residents out late at night were spooked by the sound of humming overhead and a beam of light illuminating the ground.

Herbert Parker saw the airship from West Farmington. He said he could plainly see the beam of light pierce the night sky as the machine dove in various directions “rising and falling and cutting big circles in the air.” Parker watched until it finally disappeared, heading in the direction of New Sharon.

Later that same evening, John Higgins and his wife watched the airship for more than an hour as it maneuvered over Clearwater Pond. Higgins claimed that just before it flew out of sight, it was joined by a second airship.

Just a dozen years after the Wright Brothers’ landmark flight from Kitty Hawk, the sight of any airship in the sky was worth noting. An unidentified airship buzzing overhead under the cover of darkness, circling Clearwater Pond and diving over Farmington Falls, was downright scary.

Mainers were abuzz and came up with all kinds of theories to explain these strange sightings. A prevalent one centered around the war time concern that much of Maine’s railway system was controlled by British interests and was consequently susceptible to German attack. Across the Atlantic, the Great War was raging, and while America was still two years away from becoming officially involved, New Englanders were already feeling the threat.

But in retrospect, their concern doesn’t seem plausible. The idea that German tactics would include attacking America with airplanes, still in experimental stages, seems preposterous. Western Maine was probably safe from the Germans since it would be another four years before any airplane would fly across the Atlantic.

Still, the newspaper reports that the rumor was taken seriously enough to “cause shivers of apprehension to chase up and down the backs of the Grand Trunk Railway managers.”

Another rumor, circulated by the Portland Press, was that two aviators were hidden in the mountains of Oxford County where they were secretly developing a new airplane. The press did not speculate that Wright Brothers’ protg Harry Atwood was involved, but about that time the aeronautical pioneer disappeared from public view to move to an undisclosed location somewhere in the hills of New England. Three years earlier, Atwood had piloted the first plane to land in Maine. Maybe in 1915 Atwood and other early aviators were testing new designs alone in the darkness high above the lakes and mountains of western Maine. Yet to do this, they would have had to build a secret runway in their remote mountainous hideout, not an easy feat in itself.

Reports of sightings continued to trickle in that winter, but most could be explained away. Another flying object caused a stir the next Saturday evening, but then word got around that it was a hot air balloon. Whatever had been inhabiting the skies over Western Maine disappeared into the night, and the mysterious airship could never be explained.

Luann Yetter has been researching and writing about local history for the Sun Journal for 11 years. She teaches writing at the University of Maine at Farmington and may be reached at [email protected]. Additional research has been provided by UMF student David Farady.