Kansas 1972: To the Stars

Outer space was on the minds of Kansans in 1972. Kansas astronaut Ron Evans journeyed to the moon on the Apollo 17 mission. Western Kansas was being considered for the new Space Shuttle launch site, and some locals did not like that idea. And the state was a hotbed of UFO sightings, including notable encounters in Dighton and Delphos.

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Archival Audio Sources
 

• Pioneer 10 Jupiter Odyssey, NASA 1973
• Apollo 17 mission highlights

• CBS News, 08-28-1972, Segment on Apollo 17

• JFK Address to Joint Session of Congress, May 25, 1961

• The Time of Apollo, NASA, 1975

• Ron Evans, Let's Fly to the Moon, 1983

• Apollo 17, deep space EVA

• Jan. 5 1972, Nixon administration announces Shuttle program

• Space Shuttle - Mission to the Future, 1981

• "Whitey on the Moon" by Gil Scott-Heron, 1970

• Project UFO TV show, 1978

• UFOs are Here, Australian TV show, 1977

• Maj. Gen. Samford's statement on flying saucers, 07-31-1952

• In Search Of …UFOs, TV show, July 13, 1977

• UFO Interview, Dept. of Defense, 1966

• Open C3 Subcommittee Hearing on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, May 17, 2022

• Unidentified Flying Objects - The True Story of Flying Saucers, 1956

• Small Steps Giant Strides, NASA 1973

• Who's Out There, NASA 1975

Primary Sources

• The Wichita Beacon, “Kansans to Meet Space Officials, Try to Land Prized Shuttle Port,” August 1, 1971.
• Hutchinson News, “Hats Shuttle Foes Back Garden Citians,” Sept. 7, 1971.
• Press Release, The Office of Senator Bob Dole, July 12, 1971.
• The Wichita Beacon, “Pesky UFO Revisiting Kansas Community,” July 25, 1972.
• The Wichita Eagle, “UFO Mother Ship Traced to Dighton,” Aug. 18, 1972.
• Minneapolis, Kansas Messanger. November 1972. (Excerpted in The Emporia Gazette, Dec. 29, 1971.)
• The Salina Journal, “Investigation continues into Delphos UFI site,” Jan. 21, 1972.
• UFO Research Newsletter, “More Details on Delphos Case”Vol. 2 No. 6, Sept./Oct. 1972.
• Ted Phillips, “Landing Report from Delphos,” Flyer Saucer Review - Case Histories, Supplement No.9, February 1972.

Secondary Sources

• High Plains Public Radio, “Rural Kansas Once UFO Hot Spot,” January 14, 2016.

• “NASA Goddard Scientists Begin Studying 50-year-old Frozen Apollo 17 Samples, “ NASA News, May 3, 2022.

• Christopher Dean Hopkins and Giles Snyder, “The military's UFO database now has info from about 400 reported incidents,” NPR, May 17, 2022.

• Quest TV, “Science-Based Evidence May Indicate That UFO Landed In US Farm,” Oct. 17, 2020.

• “That ‘Grow a Beard, Abe!’ Town,” RoadsideAmerica.com

Interviews

• Teasel Muir Harmony - curator of the Apollo Collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
• Jennifer Ross-Nazzal - historian for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas
• Jeremy Gill - historian who is the Kansas Room Coordinator at the Hays Public Library
• Greg Eghigian - professor of history at Penn State University, specializing in the history of science and medicine. He is currently writing a book about the history of UFO sightings and claims of alien contact worldwide.
• Dakota Davis - curator of the Delphos Museum 
• Samantha Davis - curator of the Ottawa County Historical Museum in Minneapolis, KS

Music: Clelia Walking