AURORA–Toni Wheeler holds fond memories of growing up in the rural town of Aurora, sitting on the porch of an elderly resident named Mr. Mayfield and listening to him tell about the time a UFO crashed into a windmill, killing a spaceman.

By Gordon Dickson www.star-telegram.com 4-14-16

“He would tell us it did in fact happen,” said Wheeler, now the city administrator, recounting one of the highlights of her Wise County childhood in the late 1970s. “He said tons of people went rushing up there to the [crash] site, but they made all the kids stay back underneath the hill, because they were afraid it might have a disease.”

The legend of the 1897 crash of an alien spacecraft 27 miles northwest of downtown Fort Worth certainly put Aurora on the map — having been retold in books, movies and TV shows — although many residents would just as soon their community not be known for such a tale.

But many others — Wheeler among them — are ready to embrace the extraterrestrial adventure, and on Saturday they will host the first of what they hope will become an annual event known as the Aurora Alien Encounter. [...]
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