A recent hearing in the U. S. House of Representatives Intelligence Subcommittee was the first Congressional hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years.

Central to the purpose of the hearing was a call to “destigmatize” the act of reporting UFOs, now referred to as UAPs, (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

It would appear the U. S. government is in the process of making an “about face” from the longstanding policy of denial, ridicule, and rejection concerning the certainty of unexplained technologically superior aircraft — aircraft that defy reason as we know it.

In recent months the government has encouraged pilots to report sightings and encounters without fear of ridicule.

“The plurality of worlds” was rooted in classical Greece.

By the middle 1800s, the study of astrophysics revealed that the stars in the heavens were not unlike our own sun. The possibility of life beyond earth seemed very probable.

Closer to home, Mars intrigued pluralists. Perhaps there were people living on Mars. In 1859, Fr. Angelo Secchi observed channels on the surface of Mars from the Vatican observatory.

Jules Verne’s novel, “From the Earth to the Moon,” advanced the idea of space travel in 1865. In 1877, Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli further described the channels of Mars. Around the world, people wanted to believe they were built by intelligent life.

London, England’s Pearson’s Magazine published a serial from 1895- 97 entitled The War of the Worlds. Author H. G. Wells found in British Imperialism the seed of the possibility of a stronger power, men from Mars, devastating Britain as Britain had done so many times before.

Meanwhile in California, cigar shaped “airships” appeared overhead on Nov. 17, 1896.

The bright light in the sky breaking through the murky darkness of a miserable, rainy night was seen by Assistant to the California Secretary of State, George Scott. According to newspapers of the time, hundreds of people witnessed the “wandering apparition.”

Half way across the country at Hastings, Neb., the airship appeared the evening of Feb. 2, 1897. Over the next few days, it moved into Kansas. Dr. Lash and Frank Redfield of Ellinwood, Kan., were startled to see an “immense ship” overhead. The men reported the ship was “lighted by electricity.” The story was carried by newspapers across Kansas. Most editors were inclined to dismiss the sighting as a hoax.

The editor of the Nickerson Argosy wrote, “They (The witnesses) had been in town and filled up on beer. No wonder they saw the heavenly visitor.”

Despite the ridicule, sightings of airships were reported from Kansas to Texas. The airship moved on to Omaha and Chicago and disappeared over Lake Michigan.

Flash forward to 1938 when in the pages of a comic book an alien child crash-landed in the middle of Kansas, Rice County to be exact, to become Superman. Action Comics No. 1 had a winner on its hands.

That fall, Oct. 30, 1938, the radio broadcast The War of the Worlds, based on the 1898 book, aired. The broadcast presented a Martian attack with such realism that listeners believed that a real alien invasion was underway. Stories of mass panic from hearing that program have entered into American popular culture and, although not as widespread as anecdotally reported, the reaction to the program was evidence. Yes, the evidence that the existence of alien life was a belief that unquestionably was lurking in the dark recesses of American minds.

Then of course there was the startling crash of an unworldly “flying disk” near Roswell, N. M., in 1947. Eye-witnesses even claimed that alien bodies were carted away by military officials. The potential of physical evidence excited the imagination and offered new realms of research for UFO enthusiasts.

Meanwhile, in central Kansas, in the very same Rice County that nurtured young Superman, Dr. Elmer D. Janzen had become intrigued with aliens from other worlds and the strange space ships they piloted overhead. Buck Nelson from Mountain View, Mo., held spacecraft conventions recounting his own travels aboard flying saucers with men from Venus. Nelson was not alone. Dozens of people across the country reported contact with men from other worlds. John Dean from nearby Nickerson, Kan., rendered detailed drawings of spacecraft. Janzen documented it all and placed the collection in the museum that he founded in his home.

Today, the Geneseo City Museum features Doc Janzen’s eclectic interests, including Dean’s original drawings. Strange to say, a compass symbol recently discovered in the concrete gutter incorporates a directional vector pointing southwest toward the museum. The image of a flying saucer appears to take the place of the point of an arrow. Roswell, N.M. is 500 miles directly southwest. The “Roswell Compass” and Doc Janzen’s collection of saucers and aliens will be featured July 2, at the town’s celebration, World UFO Day in Dimension G.

Additionally, the Geneseo City Council has declared Dimension G (Geneseo) to be the UFO Capital of Kansas.

Considering the recent Congressional hearings on UAPs, formerly known as UFOs, Geneseo’s focus on Doc Janzen’s collection along with the revelation of the Roswell Compass is an exceedingly timely event and one that you won’t want to miss on Your Way West.

“The Cowboy,” Jim Gray is author of the book Desperate Seed: Ellsworth Kansas on the Violent Frontier, Ellsworth, KS. Contact Kansas Cowboy, 220 21st RD. Geneseo, KS. Phone (785) 531-2058 or kansascowboy@kans.com.