1920 Iowa, Clark Linch Egg-Saucer

[ChrisPerridas]

These odd little stories that get repeated so often intrigue me. They just get grabbed up, and copied from book to book, but never give any of the person's life or details. And while references are given, they never seem to reproduce the news story verbatim making you wonder if they were accurate, or the UFO writer had a spin to the story.

This one, of septuagenarian orchard farmer Clark Linch, I tracked down and got lucky. There were two news stories almost exactly the same, and I was able to reproduce almost the entire story without having to spend any $$ to retrieve it from the archives. I also went the extra mile to find additional details of this man's life.

I think it gives some real depth and warmth to the story - and I found it interesting that this UFO news story was done very respectfully by the reporter, and the newspaper editor. Another thing not mentioned is that the Linch story was a sort-of addendum to a more major news article about UFOs. If Linch had been telling this story since circa. 1955, as stated, he waited for his mother (d. 1950) and maybe his father (d. 1956) to pass before he began to speak of it.

Here is what I found, and hope others will have better and additional details.

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Original, the Burlington Hawkeye, 26 October 1973, page 2, entitled: Spotted UFO in 1920 – But Kept Mum 35 Years. Article just below another UFO article entitled: Maybe Saucer-Spotters "Tell It Like It Is." (About spotter Don Campbell).

News story picked up and printed by the Lemars Daily Sentinel of 5 November 1973, page 1 entitled: Mount Pleasant Man Spotted UFO Landing 35 Years Ago.
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Clark Linch made the first recorded UFO spotting in southeast Iowa on June 3, 1920

He didn't tell anybody about it for 35 years because you didn't talk about flying saucers back in those days. But he's willing to talk now because of an attitude change about UFOs. More people are taking them seriously. Now 75, he recalls he was celebrating his birthday when he spotted the {thing}.

Working fathers farm six miles northeast of Mount Pleasant, he took the fore-noon off to go fishing. I remember the year because I'd gotten married in January of 1920.

The sun indicated it was about 10 to Linch, when an egg-shaped object about the size of a cream can landed silently about 15 feet from his riverbank perch. It sat there about 15 minutes not bothering him, nor he bothering it.

I wasn't in any hurry to jump up and run over to it and I'm glad. It might have killed me. Just when I thought about going over to take a closer look at it took off without any sound and without turning. He recalled the grass where it lit {another version has landed} was pressed but there was no damage and no burn. He said the object was shiny blue and it would have been camouflaged in the sky. I didn't know what to believe about it then, and I still don't. I've concluded that it wasn't anything from Iowa.

His sighting differs from other UFOs in that the object moved slowly probably four to five miles per hour and was small and lightweight. It couldn't have been occupied by intelligent life as we know it.

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Jesse Clark Linch was born 3 June 1898, in Marion Township, Henry County, Iowa to Joseph Clark Linch (born Missouri) and Ella May Mathews. Grandfather Clark Linch had been born in Indiana. Clark Linch, of the UFO report, had two siblings: Lyle K. Linch, and Helen M. Linch. He died on died July 26, 1977 in the Swedish American Hospital, at Rockford, IL. He chose to be cremated, and was buried 29 July 1977 He married Mary Ann Thorington (29 October 1900 – 10 July 1975) on 7 January 1920 in Mt. Pleasant, Henry Co, IA. He had some WWI service: Enlisted 14 July 1917 in the Iowa Ammunition Train and was discharged 14 April 1919. (#253 of the 163rd Brigade Co F.). He had four children.


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References:

http://newspaperarchive.com/burlingt...-10-28/page-2/

http://newspaperarchive.com/lemars-d...el/1973-11-06/

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com...ENE3-0024.html

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=17977540

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=77017077

[dr wu23]

I also like these odd little stories and history is loaded with them even going back centuries.
Try 'Wonders In The Sky' by Vallee.
I also recommend Vallee's trilogy, Dimensions, Confrontations, and Revelations if you like high strangeness and odd close encounter tales like this.
There are some really weird cases mentioned in several of Tim Good's books also like the one called Alien Bases.