Within 1860 Wilmington
Was Wilmington's 1860 UFO Really a Meteor Procession?
A rare meteor event days later may explain parts of the Wilmington report without proving an extraordinary craft.
On this page
- What the Great Meteor Procession looked like
- Why the dates do not fully match
- How natural sky events became UFO stories
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Introduction
The strongest natural explanation proposed for Wilmington’s 1860 “UFO” story is the Great Meteor Procession of 20 July 1860, a rare sky event seen across parts of the United States. The comparison matters because the reported Wilmington object and the documented meteor procession share several unusual features: a long luminous form, multiple glowing fragments, slow apparent movement and dramatic public reaction. Yet the match is not perfect. The dates differ, the reported direction and altitude are uncertain, and the Wilmington account survives mainly through later retellings rather than a clearly verifiable newspaper clipping.
For Delaware UFO history, the meteor comparison is important not because it definitively solves the case, but because it shows how nineteenth-century astronomical events could later sound surprisingly modern. A rare meteor procession described in 1860 language can easily resemble a twentieth-century flying saucer report when stripped from its original context. [Wikipedia]Wikipedia1860 Great Meteor1860 Great Meteor [Wikipedia]WikipediaMeteor processionMeteor procession
What the Great Meteor Procession looked like
The Great Meteor Procession of 1860 occurred on the evening of 20 July 1860 and was witnessed across a wide area of North America. Modern astronomers identify it as an “Earth-grazing” meteor event: a meteor entering the atmosphere at a shallow angle, fragmenting into multiple glowing bodies and travelling a long visible path across the sky. [Wikipedia]Wikipedia1860 Great Meteor1860 Great Meteor [Wikipedia]WikipediaMeteor processionMeteor procession
Contemporary and later descriptions repeatedly mention characteristics that sound strikingly similar to later UFO narratives:
- A chain or procession of bright fireballs moving together.
- Slow movement compared with ordinary shooting stars.
- Fragmentation into multiple glowing objects.
- Long horizontal travel across the sky.
- Bright colours and glowing tails.
- Witnesses struggling to describe what they saw. [Universe Today]universetoday.comremembering the great meteor procession of 1860Universe TodayRemembering the Great Meteor Procession of 186020 Jul 2013 — A remarkable astronomical event also occurred over the northea… [Scientific American]scientificamerican.comScientific AmericanForensic Astronomer Cracks the Case of Historic Meteor…There was: he found several eyewitness accounts and newspape…
The event became culturally famous because it was apparently recorded both in art and literature. Painter Frederic Edwin Church created The Meteor of 1860, showing a string of fiery objects crossing the night sky, while Walt Whitman later referred to a dramatic meteor display in his poem Year of Meteors. Researchers in 2010 connected these works to the July 1860 procession after tracing historical newspaper accounts and astronomical evidence. Smithsonian Magazine [space]space.com8530 walt whitman meteor mystery solved astronomer sleuthsSpaceWalt Whitman Meteor Mystery Solved by Astronomer Sleuths3 Jun 2010 — A unique case of forensic astronomy uncovers the historic reali… One reason the meteor explanation attracts attention in the Wilmington case is the visual resemblance. The Delaware story describes a long object with several red glowing balls trailing behind it. That image is not far removed from descriptions of fragmented meteors travelling together in formation. Modern readers accustomed to aircraft or spacecraft imagery may interpret such a scene mechanically, while nineteenth-century observers often used vivid but inconsistent language for unusual celestial events.
The rarity of meteor processions also matters. Ordinary meteors are common and brief. A procession, by contrast, can appear slow, structured and almost purposeful. Modern astronomy sources note that only a handful of well-documented meteor processions are known historically. [Wikipedia]WikipediaMeteor processionMeteor procession
Why the dates do not fully match
The biggest problem for the meteor explanation is timing.
The Wilmington story is usually dated to 13 July 1860, while the Great Meteor Procession occurred on 20 July 1860. That one-week gap is central to the debate. If the dates are accurate, the famous procession cannot directly explain the reported Wilmington event. [Wikipedia]WikipediaMeteor processionMeteor procession
However, the source trail around the Wilmington account is weak enough that some researchers suspect confusion entered the story later. The reported newspaper citation — commonly said to be the “Wilmington Tribune” of 30 July 1860 — is difficult to verify cleanly. Because the original clipping is not widely accessible, historians cannot easily confirm whether:
- the sighting date was copied correctly,
- the newspaper title was accurate,
- the account was paraphrased later,
- or the event was actually a report of the 20 July meteor procession retold in abbreviated form.
That uncertainty keeps the meteor comparison alive. A copying error of several days is entirely plausible in nineteenth-century newspaper transmission, especially once stories begin circulating through later paranormal books and websites rather than archival scans.
There are also differences in reported appearance. Meteor processions generally move across large portions of the sky and are seen over broad regions. The Wilmington story, as usually retold, sounds more localised and lower in altitude, claiming the object travelled roughly 100 feet above the city. Such altitude estimates in unusual sky events are notoriously unreliable. Witnesses observing bright lights at night often interpret distant objects as much closer than they really are. The same problem appears in many later UFO cases. [Space]space.com8530 walt whitman meteor mystery solved astronomer sleuthsSpaceWalt Whitman Meteor Mystery Solved by Astronomer Sleuths3 Jun 2010 — A unique case of forensic astronomy uncovers the historic reali…
Another mismatch is duration. Meteor processions can last longer than ordinary meteors, but they still move steadily and eventually disappear. Some retellings of the Wilmington story imply a more controlled or level movement suggestive of a craft. Yet nineteenth-century descriptions of meteors often used phrases like “sailing”, “travelling” or “moving steadily”, language that modern UFO readers may unconsciously reinterpret as evidence of intelligent control.
The uncertainty cuts both ways. The date problem weakens the meteor explanation, but the fragile sourcing of the Wilmington account also weakens confidence in the UFO-style details themselves.
How natural sky events became UFO stories
The Wilmington comparison illustrates a broader historical pattern seen throughout early American UFO lore: dramatic astronomical events were frequently described in technological language long before aircraft existed.
In the nineteenth century, observers had limited scientific vocabulary for rare atmospheric or astronomical phenomena. Witnesses compared strange lights to objects familiar to them: trains, cigars, ships, lanterns or fiery machines. Once these descriptions are repeated decades later, they can sound uncannily modern.
The Great Meteor Procession is especially vulnerable to this reinterpretation because it genuinely was unusual. Unlike a brief shooting star, an Earth-grazing meteor can appear organised and deliberate. Modern astronomy accounts describe the 1860 procession as a fragmented meteor travelling almost horizontally across the atmosphere, creating a chain of fireballs visible over a large distance. [Wikipedia]WikipediaMeteor processionMeteor procession
That creates several features commonly associated with later UFO reports:
Apparent structure
Multiple glowing fragments moving together can resemble windows, engines or escort objects. The Wilmington story’s “red balls” behind a larger object fit this pattern surprisingly well.
Slow movement illusion
Earth-grazing meteors can seem much slower than ordinary meteors because of their shallow angle and long visible path. Witnesses may interpret this as controlled flight rather than ballistic motion. [Space]space.com8530 walt whitman meteor mystery solved astronomer sleuthsSpaceWalt Whitman Meteor Mystery Solved by Astronomer Sleuths3 Jun 2010 — A unique case of forensic astronomy uncovers the historic reali…
Low-altitude perception
Bright night objects are often perceived as closer than they really are. A high atmospheric event may appear to skim rooftops or pass directly over a town.
Retelling drift
As reports are copied through newspapers, magazines, books and later internet summaries, ambiguous language becomes more concrete. “A train of fiery bodies” may eventually become “a structured craft with glowing spheres”.
This does not prove that the Wilmington sighting was merely a meteor. The surviving evidence is too thin for certainty. But the meteor procession comparison demonstrates why historians approach early UFO reports cautiously. An extraordinary-looking account from the pre-aviation era is not automatically evidence of something beyond known phenomena. Sometimes it reflects the strange appearance of a genuine natural event filtered through nineteenth-century reporting habits and later UFO-era interpretation.
Why the comparison still matters in Delaware UFO history
Even if the Wilmington story cannot be conclusively solved, the meteor link changes how the case fits into Delaware’s UFO history.
Without the meteor context, the sighting can appear as an isolated proto-UFO narrative: a mysterious structured craft seen decades before modern aviation. With the comparison included, the story becomes part of a wider nineteenth-century pattern in which rare astronomical events produced descriptions later read through a UFO framework.
That shift is historically valuable. It encourages readers to ask not simply “Was it alien?” but also:
- What did people in 1860 think they were seeing?
- How did newspapers describe unusual sky events?
- How much of the modern version comes from later retelling?
- Which details are original, and which may have grown over time?
The Great Meteor Procession does not completely explain the Wilmington report. The date discrepancy remains unresolved, and the original Delaware source still needs stronger archival confirmation. But the comparison provides a grounded, evidence-based alternative to treating the story as an unexplained craft by default. In that sense, it is less a debunking than a reminder of how easily spectacular natural events can migrate into UFO folklore across generations.
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Endnotes
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Source: Wikipedia
Title: 1860 Great Meteor
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_Great_Meteor -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Meteor procession
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_procession -
Source: space.com
Title: 8530 walt whitman meteor mystery solved astronomer sleuths
Link: https://www.space.com/8530-walt-whitman-meteor-mystery-solved-astronomer-sleuths.htmlSource snippet
SpaceWalt Whitman Meteor Mystery Solved by Astronomer Sleuths3 Jun 2010 — A unique case of forensic astronomy uncovers the historic reali...
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Source: youtube.com
Title: Year of Meteors
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKf-2nhIGrISource snippet
Great Meteor Procession | Randall Carlson...
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Source: youtube.com
Title: Great Meteor Procession | Randall Carlson
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F9LuBpwU2oSource snippet
Earth Grazers...
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Source: universetoday.com
Title: remembering the great meteor procession of 1860
Link: https://www.universetoday.com/articles/remembering-the-great-meteor-procession-of-1860Source snippet
Universe TodayRemembering the Great Meteor Procession of 186020 Jul 2013 — A remarkable astronomical event also occurred over the northea...
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Source: scientificamerican.com
Link: https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/cocktail-party-physics/forensic-astronomer-cracks-the-case-of-historic-meteor-procession/Source snippet
Scientific AmericanForensic Astronomer Cracks the Case of Historic Meteor...There was: he found several eyewitness accounts and newspape...
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Source: fredericedwinchurch.org
Title: The Meteor Of 1860
Link: https://fredericedwinchurch.org/The-Meteor-Of-1860.html
Additional References
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Source: nga.gov
Link: https://www.nga.gov/sites/default/files/migrate_images/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/frederic-edwin-church.pdfSource snippet
Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Gift of Mrs.... March, Goupil's Gallery, New York; The Meteor of 1860 (private collecti...
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Source: olana.org
Link: https://olana.org/fc200/ -
Source: smithsonianmag.com
Title: at american art a new look on how artists recorded the civil war 131916472
Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/at-american-art-a-new-look-on-how-artists-recorded-the-civil-war-131916472/Source snippet
At American Art: A New Look on How Artists Recorded the...Nov 16, 2012 — Frederic Edwin Church's Meteor of 1860 foreshadowed the public'...
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Source: wsj.com
Title: the meteor frederic edwin churchs premonitory painting 09ad2f93
Link: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/books/the-meteor-frederic-edwin-churchs-premonitory-painting-09ad2f93Source snippet
'The Meteor': Frederic Edwin Church's Premonitory PaintingJul 11, 2025 — After witnessing a string of fireballs streak across the sky in...
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Source: olana.org
Title: from meteors to auroras frederic church looks to the skies
Link: https://olana.org/from-meteors-to-auroras-frederic-church-looks-to-the-skies/Source snippet
From Meteors to Auroras: Frederic Church Looks to the SkiesDec 2, 2024 — Central to this talk will be a close look at one of Church's pai...
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Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/britishmuseum/posts/on-the-evening-of-august-18-242-years-ago-if-you-were-lucky-enough-to-look-up-to/1191034036391988/Source snippet
July 20, 1860, the “Great Meteor Procession of 1860” occurred over...Read more...
Published: July 20, 1860
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Source: smithsonianmag.com
Title: rare meteor event inspired walt whitman 29643165
Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/rare-meteor-event-inspired-walt-whitman-29643165/Source snippet
Smithsonian MagazineRare Meteor Event Inspired Walt Whitman7 Jun 2010 — Whitman was actually describing a rare phenomenon called a "meteo...
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Source: phys.org
Title: 2010 06 astronomers walt whitman meteor mystery
Link: https://phys.org/news/2010-06-astronomers-walt-whitman-meteor-mystery.htmlSource snippet
Astronomers solve Walt Whitman meteor mystery3 Jun 2010 — On the evening of July 20, 1860, a meteor fragmented during its nearly-horizont...
Published: July 20, 1860
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Source: instagram.com
Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/DQ-n4HTjB5U/Source snippet
dwin Church (American, 1826–1900), 'The Meteor,' 1860-61, oil...
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Source: commons.wikimedia.org
Title: File:Frederic Church Meteor of 1860.jpg
Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFrederic_Church_Meteor_of_1860.jpgSource snippet
wikimedia.orgFile:Frederic Church Meteor of 1860.jpgThis is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work...
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