Paragould, Ark being encounter — January 15, 1910

A newspaper report placed an illuminated airship over Paragould, Arkansas, on the evening of January 15, 1910. In the reproduced Galveston Daily News dispatch, the object approached from the north and continued south at an estimated height of 1, 000 feet. It carried a powerful forward light and what observers interpreted as three or four passengers. The report said the object appeared to pause and circle over the southern part of town. Its appearance was compared to a dirigible balloon apparently under control, and no signals were reported. A later summary of Arkansas Gazette coverage adds a white appearance. Neither account describes unusual passenger anatomy, a landing, communication with townspeople or anyone being taken aboard. The claim that thousands saw it belongs to the newspaper story; the accessible material does not supply a roster of interviewed witnesses. Likewise, the 10 p.m. time found in later databases is more precise than the reproduced contemporary dispatch. Later suggestions involving meteors, lanterns or other airship-wave stories are possible interpretations, not a demonstrated identification of this object. The plate uses period townspeople and indistinct human passenger silhouettes, keeping its airship construction interpretive rather than turning this early aviation report into a described alien encounter.