UFO sightings in Nebraska have been common throughout the state’s history. Here are some of the freakiest encounters.
UFO, by definition, means “unidentified flying object.” The term was first used in 1952, when the Air Force reported on a mysterious sighting made by Kenneth Arnold, a private pilot who claimed to have seen nine objects flying in what appeared to be a chain over Mount Rainier in Washington state in 1947.
In the roughly 74 years that have passed since the term was originally coined, thousands of alleged UFO sightings have taken place across the world. Between 1995 and 2024, 133,717 were reported in the US, with approximately 761 of those strange encounters happening in Nebraska. Most of these failed to make local news, as seemingly fewer and fewer people feel genuine alarm when they hear the words “UFO sighting” nowadays.
This wasn’t always the case, though. Throughout American history, experiences with unidentified flying objects used to drive the news cycle for weeks or months on end. Folks harbored an earnest sense of fear over these encounters and what it would mean if we found out that we’re not alone in the universe.
For Nebraskans, grappling with this idea has been relatively common since the late 1800s. The first time it was posed as a possibility came in 1884, when a group of cowboys from Dundy County supposedly saw a “blazing aerolite” careen through the sky. While that specific sighting turned out to be a hoax, it set the scene for what would become a long stretch of freaky experiences that would plague Cornhuskers to this day.
The Dundy County UFO Hoax
When you mention UFOs to anyone in Nebraska, the first occurrence they’re likely to recall is the 1884 Dundy County UFO Hoax. On June 6 of that year, several local cowboys reportedly saw a strange object sail through the night sky and crash into the earth below. They ventured over to see what had happened and felt a wave of heat roll over them. Scattered pieces of metal were dotted across the surrounding prairie, and they chose to honor their fear and head home without investigating further.
All of this was detailed in the Daily Nebraska State Journal, which ran continuously from 1867 until 1951. The first story about the sighting was published on June 8 and ran under the headline: “A Celestial Visitor. A Startling and Curious Story from the Ranges of Dundy County. A Blazing Aerolite Falls to the Astounded Earth. It is Evidently a Machine of Human Manufacture.”
Two days later, a follow-up was printed, “The Magical Meteor. It Dissolves Like a Drop of Dew Before the Morning Sun. The Most Mysterious Element of the Strange Phenomenon.” This time, the writer claimed the bits of scrap metal seemingly disintegrated during a recent rainstorm. In its conclusion, the article stated, “The whole affair is bewildering to the highest degree, and will no doubt forever be a mystery.”
And for many years it did remain a mystery. Locals would often try to pinpoint the exact location of the crash site in an attempt to dig up any remaining wreckage. It wasn’t until 1927 that it became clear that the events reported on in 1884 had been completely fabricated. Cowboys certainly existed in Dundy County back then, but none of them ever (as far as we know) reported seeing unidentified flying objects.
According to the Nebraska State Historical Society, a journalist from the Nebraska State Journal discovered that James D. Calhoun, the newspaper’s managing editor in 1884, came up with the stories on his own. Horace W. Hebbard, who previously worked as Calhoun’s assistant, shed light on the situation, saying, “The story was written by J. D. Calhoun, managing editor, and among those who read it was Charles W. Fleming, an employee of the business office of the Journal. Mr. Fleming saw visions of a fortune if he could obtain this meteor or whatever it was and exhibit it for a fee to the curious throughout the country.”
Hebbard went on to say, “Accordingly, he took the train for Benkelman the morning the story appeared bent on obtaining possession of the wonder and bringing it home with him. He was disillusioned when he arrived at Benkelman and found no one who had heard anything about the thing.”
Evidently, the only thing of human manufacture in Dundy County was Calhoun’s tale of a mysterious object burning through the atmosphere overhead.
1897’s mysterious airships
In the years between the Dundy County sighting and when it was reported as a hoax, several other unidentified objects were spotted over Nebraska. Notably, in 1897, a series of “ghostly airships” were seen in Hastings between Jan. 25 and Feb. 5. When these objects were first spotted, people claimed they appeared to emit a halo of illumination like a bright spotlight and traveled quickly through the air. More details emerged with subsequent sightings, with Nebraskans claiming the odd aircraft were cone-shaped and stretched over 30 feet.
Some residents reportedly heard voices coming from the ghostly airships, whereas others said they saw blinking lights and strange wings. Whether this all really happened is up for debate, as the Omaha Bee was the primary newspaper reporting on the incidents at the time, and the publication was known for fabricating paranormal stories to frighten and entertain its readers.
The Kearney encounter
Perhaps one of the most commonly referenced UFO encounters in Nebraska’s history took place in 1957. 48-year-old Reinhold Schmidt was from Kenesaw, and he claimed that one night, while driving near the Platte River just outside Kearney, his Buick’s engine stalled. When he pulled over to see what might be causing the issue, he came across a silver aircraft over 100 feet long. Schmidt said a beam of light emitted from the ship paralyzed him before a group of aliens approached.
In Schmidt’s recollection, which was detailed in a 1958 account titled “The Kearney Incident Up To Now: The Report of Reinhold Schmidt,” the extraterrestrials spoke “High German.” This was considered enormously convenient to those investigating his claims after the fact, given that Schmidt spoke fluent German. He stated the aliens were polite creatures who said, “You’ll know in the near future what this is all about.” They apparently let him go with very little interference or fanfare.
Schmidt reported what happened to the local sheriff’s department, and a deputy followed the Kenesaw native to the place where he allegedly had his UFO experience. The deputy claims to have seen a green-colored oil that smelled sweet, as well as imprint marks in the ground that Schmidt said came from the aircraft’s landing gear. However, the deputy then went on to discover that Schmidt had a canister of the same green-colored oil in his car. All signs pointed to another hoax.
Following the discovery, Schmidt was briefly sent to the Hastings State Hospital to undergo an evaluation that would help determine his psychiatric state at the time of the supposed encounter. Healthcare professionals thought Schmidt may have been hallucinating, though it’s unclear what their medical determination ended up being.
Schmidt, for his part, maintained that what he experienced had been real. He lectured about UFOs for many years following the Kearney Encounter, though he faced legal issues on and off during that time. He eventually died in Nebraska in 1974.
