Nilwood landing encounter — April 12, 1897

At about 2:30 p.m. in April 1897, Edward Teeples, William Street and Franklin Metcalf reportedly watched an unusual object on Z. Thacker's property near Nilwood, Illinois. Vallée's catalogue dates the episode 12 April and describes a cigar-shaped craft with an upper dome. The three men tried to approach, but it rose slowly before they reached it and moved away toward the north. Historical summaries add that it remained in the field for approximately fifteen to twenty minutes. A later local history drawing on the Macoupin County Enquirer gives 13 April and describes a boat-like body, a picnic-canopy appearance and oar-like projections. These variations should not be flattened into a precise technical design or a settled day of occurrence. The common sequence is a reported field landing followed by an unhurried departure. The event belongs to the 1897 airship wave, when newspapers mixed witness reports, speculation, jokes and demonstrations with toy balloons. Local editors advanced a publicity-stunt explanation for the wider excitement, but that does not by itself identify what these three men saw. Nor does the catalogue's landing label verify a physical vehicle. No occupants are described in the Nilwood account. A separate Girard/Green Ridge report concerns a man apparently repairing an airship; that figure and its alleged traces must not be imported into this entry. The plate therefore uses the three farm witnesses and an unresolved cigar-and-canopy object.