In 1961, Joe Simonton of Eagle River, Wisconsin reported an encounter with an unidentified aircraft and its three occupants. His account, in which he gave the occupants water and received pancakes, was covered in popular media nationwide and internationally. Lab analysis revealed one fragment came from an "ordinary pancake of terrestrial origin".
The account, with its "humorous absurdity", was divisive even amongst UFO believers. In the ensuing years, the Eagle River story would be cited by skeptics and mainstream sources as an example of preposterous UFO accounts. Meanwhile, the story led some extreme-fringe UFO authors to reject the suggestion that UFO reports were caused by extra-terrestrial spaceships in favor of the idea that such tales might be caused by some paranormal phenomenon akin to fairies or elves.
The case has been described as "Wisconsin's most famous claim of alien encounters".
Background
By 1961, American popular culture and myth was abound with tales of aliens spaceships and government coverups, with Joe Simonton being exposed to such theories before his supposed encounter.
Since the 1947 flying disc craze, reports of unidentified aircraft led to speculation of secret, perhaps extraterrestrial, technology. After a 1952 nationwide spate of sighting culminating in mass UFO reports over Washington, D.C., a CIA study concluded continued public interest in the subject might pose grave risks to national security.Robertson Panel: "We cite as examples the clogging of channels of communication by irrelevant reports, the danger of being led by continued false alarms to ignore real indications of hostile action, and the cultivation of a morbid national psychology in which skillful hostile propaganda could induce hysterical behavior and harmful distrust of duly constituted authority." The panel recommended a public education "debunking" campaign to reduce public interest in the subject and monitoring of civilian UFO groups.
Despite the efforts of Air Force debunkers like J. Allen Hynek, public interest grew alongside belief in conspiracies. By 1955, amateur UFO investigator Donald Keyhoe and his book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy publicly accused a "silence group" within the government of covering up flying saucer evidence "to protect the public from possible hysteria". The following year, 1956, Keyhoe founded the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), which quickly grew to become the largest civilian UFO group. The year 1961 marked "the high point" in their "campaign against the Air Force". NICAP board member Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, publicly claimed that "Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense." After this, House leader John W. McCormack told press "I feel the Air Force has not been giving out all the information it has on the Unidentified Flying Object" and called for hearings on the topic. Keyhoe told press that the incoming administration might "end the secrecy", saying "President Kennedy is on record that the UFO subject is important." On April 16, 1961, Hearst publication The American Weekly ran a lengthy article by Keyhoe.
One member of Donald Keyhoe's NICAP was Eagle River magistrate Frank Wellington Carter. A longtime-believer in a government coverup of UFOs, Judge Carter gave public talks on the subject of flying saucers and was locally known as an authority on the topic. One presentation titled "The Battle for the Moon" was attended by Joe Simonton, who learned there that Judge Carter led the local "UFO study group".Frank W. Carter Letter, published in Saucerian Bulletin (31 December 1961): "Simonton, incidentally, had never attended any of the UFO meetings or Club discussions at my home, but had attended one of the public forums where I had presented the subject, 'The Battle for the Moon.' Through attending this meeting Simonton learned that I was the leader of the UFO study group here, and wanted to talk to me since he felt I knew something about the subject."
Initial reports
On April 23, 1961, papers nation-wide reported on a wire-service story of Joe Simonton, an Eagle River plumber who told of seeing a silver saucer days prior on Tuesday, April 18, around 11 AM.
Simonton, a former professional boxer and deputy sheriff, reportedly encountered three men aboard and was handed a jug which he filled with water and returned."Flying Saucers and the People Who See Them", 1968 In exchange, Simonton reported receiving "cakes" about three inches in diameter. Simonton described the cakes as tasting "just like cardboard". Simonton described the men as clean-shaven, looking like "ordinary human beings" with black shirts and trousers. He described the men as short in stature and looked of Italian descent. He noted one of the three men had a stripe of red trim on his trousers, which Simonton interpreted as perhaps a sign of rank.
He reported the craft made familiar hums like a generator or electric motor, and had exhaust pipes along one edge. According to the story, the saucer took off after about five minutes. He described it taking off with a blast of air that affected nearby pine trees, before flying away at a 45 degree angle.
Simonton relayed his account to local authorities and turned over the cakes to the local judge, Frank Carter. Press quoted the District Attorney as saying Simonton "had a good reputation and told a straightforward story", a sentiment echoed by the editor of the town's weekly newspaper who described Simonton as a trustworthy man. In an editorial, the paper denied having hoaxed the story as a publicity stunt.
Reactions
A local insurance agent claimed he also saw the saucer at about the same time as Simonton's report. Two local youths and their family reported having seen a saucer the following day.
The US Air Force's Air Technical Intelligence Command dispatched investigator J. Allen Hynek to Eagle River. He noted the local judge Frank Carter, a NICAP member, was hostile to the Air Force. Hynek concluded Simonton suffered from a hallucination followed by a delusion.Hynek: Mr. Weller talked with Judge Carter and experienced great difficulty in being admitted to the house. Apparently the judge thought he was from the Air Force and the Air Force appears to be strictly persona non grata among the flying saucer people here.
Simonton was flooded with inquiries and visitors. By May 3, Simonton complained about loss of work due to publicity and told papers: "If it happened again, I don't think I'd tell anybody about it." Simonton, who raised chickens, reported his birds became ill after the encounter, with many dying.
On May 4, a local supermarket advertisement offered the public a chance to meet and question Simonton as part of a promotional sale of Aunt Jemima Pancakes. A local politician lampooned Simonton's story as related to John F. Kennedy's so-called "Pie in the Sky", while another suggested the occupants ate local foods to "live as the natives do", not unlike "the members of Mr. Kennedy's Peace Corps." Local press suggested "Flying Saucers" as the theme for upcoming July festivities and nominated Simonton as parade king.
On May 11, Minnesota TV station KSTP announced an upcoming May 13 broadcast of their investigation into the case. On June 22, papers announced that a government analysis revealed the pancake contained ordinary ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, and cooked in oil.H. L. Yakovitz FDA letter of June 8: Microscopic analysis shows the presence of fat, starch, buckwheat hulls, wheat bran, and soybean hulls. The material appears to be a portion of an ordinary pancake made predominantly of buckwheat. Bacteriological examination and measurement of radioactivity give results which are consistent with the view that the article is an ordinary pancake of terrestrial origin.
Division amongst UFO believers The Eagle River encounter was ultimately described by the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization as "one of the most controversial cases we have ever investigated". The case led UFO researcher Jacques Vallée to reject the claim that UFOs are related to extraterrestrials, becoming a self-described "heretic among heretics" who connected the encounter to folklore of fairies offering bread.
Local judge Frank Carter told press that he sent one of the cakes to civilian UFO group NICAP for analysis, but NICAP declined involvement, expressing skepticism to press and writing: "We are engaged in very important liaison work with Congress which may well lead to hearings on UFOs and we do not propose to compromise this work for the sake of an unproven and, you must admit, fantastic sounding claim. Accordingly, we do not wish to have any further publicity in connection with this claim". Richard Hall letter to Frank. W. Carter (May 9, 1961) , quoted in Clark (1996) The Pancakes of Eagle River The April/May edition of NICAP's newsletter speculated that pancake story would "be used by the Air Force for added ridicule of serious UFO reports."
Carter authored a scathing reply, accusing NICAP of refusing to investigate "contact" cases, writing: "... perhaps you WANT to REMAIN with your eyes shut as to ANY contact story... Are you AFRAID to examine for fear it might result in a vindication of their story".May 25 letter, quoted in Clark (1996)Clark (1996) The Pancakes of Eagle River Raymond A. Palmer, publisher of the pulp magazine Flying Saucers based in Amherst, Wisconsin, reprinted Carter's attack on NICAP. Palmer argued that "With the Keyhoe formula, nothing but complete failure in uncovering the truth can result."Palmer, Ray. "NICAP: National Non Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon" Flying Saucer (September 1961)
The 1961 Congressional hearings never materialized and in 1962, APRO split with NICAP, after which the groups became bitter rivalsPeebles: APRO would accept "occupant cases," where a witness claimed to have seen a UFO pilot, when they felt the evidence warranted it. (The contactees were out of bounds.) NICAP had much tighter limits on what kinds of sightings were accept- able. A UFO could be seen in flight or hovering, but NICAP was very reluctant to accept a landing." In 1965, press described NICAP as waging a "two-front war": against the Air Force for allegedly "covering up the evidence that saucers exist" and against "the Saucerians for giving the whole business a bad name." The Simonton case was cited as an example of the latter.
Jacques Vallée discussed the case in his 1969 book Passport to Magonia, where he compared Simonton's account to Celtic myths of food received from fairies or to the Exodus account of manna from heaven. Vallée and Keel cited the Eagle River incident in their rejection of the extraterrestrial hypothesis in favor of paranormal explanations variously labeled 'ultra-terrestrial' or 'interdimensional'. In 1977, "Discordian" author Robert Anton Wilson discussed Vallée's hypothesis, asking: "Did a leprechaun leave the Simonton pancakes?"Note: Wilson (1977) Vallée returned to the Simonton case in his 2008 book Dimensions.Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp. 100-105, 2009
Hynek, now a UFO believer, revisited the Eagle River case in his 1975 book The Edge of Reality, co-authored with Vallée. "I'm beginning to think more of Joe Simonton than I did at that time. Interviewed in the press in 1978, Hynek said "The things [Simonton] said fit now, whereas they didn't fit, at least to me they didn't fit at that time." Hynek elaborated that because of its similarities to numerous subsequent cases, he tends to "give it more credence now."
In 2008, the Eagle River encounter was named one of the "five most bizarre UFO cases".
Later publicity