The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1922-01-06
BALL OF fire IN
SKY seen HERE
Jim Ellis Tells Of Terrible Visitation.
Local Astronomers Argue Over
Manifestation.

The aerial disturbance that shook
Oroville and the surrounding country
last Thursday morning continues to be
something OF a mystery and subject
OF general speculation here. The ex-
plOsiOn and tremOr that followed was
herd and felt at TOnasket, LOOmis,
INighthawk and as far distant from
here as Soap Lake. Many persons in
those several communities report hav-
ing seen the same vivid flash of light
that preceded The noise and the quake,
but Jim Ellis, who lives on his claim
about seven miles up the Similkameen
valley. west from OrOville, is the only
person who SO far has reported see
ing moving body of fire in the sky.
The morning was dark, heavy
clouds hanging low over the hills, and
the air was still, almost oppressive.
Ellis. an old time prospector, was pre-
pairing breakfast in his cabin when he
heard kissing or swishing sound
outside. His first thought was that his
cabin had taken fire and he rushed
out to- investigate. A lurid glare light
ct UP 1cIie SHOW covered valley, or
gorge where he lives, and the clouds
seemed to be aflame with the glow He
told the story to the Gazette that af-
ternoOn, greatly agitated by what his
eyes had seen, but filled with an earn
estness and an awe that verged upon
awakened superstition and sort of
religious emotion shaken out of the
quiescent depths Of his being. This is
what he related:
when got outside my cabin there
was no fire but the glare caused me
to look up and there was big ball of
flame. bigger than the First National
bank. heading right for Oroville.
Sparks from the thing were dropping
on the roof of my cabin and on the snow
around. 1t made big sound, like
heavy wind as it travelled, and it was
going fast l thought the world was
coming to an end. l watched it until
it went out Of sight in the clouds and
fog and little later l heard big
explosion. I thought Oroville had been
wiped out and I started for town to
see the wreck"
One of his hearers remarked that it
was meteor.
"A meteor nothing" Ellis exclaim-
ed, ut was planet | tell you it was
bigger than the Hotel De Grubb and
going like bat outa hell"
He said that as he came down the
valley toward Oroville, expecting fully
to find the town laid waste and death
and destruction spread everywhere, he
saw a smoke UP in the hills, but he
was so convinced that the great ball
of fire, planet, or whatever it was, had
struck down here, that he did not stop
to investigate the origin or cause of
the smoke. He was intent only on two
things, one to learn the extent of the
damage done and the other to make
confession and prepare for presenting
himself at the judgment seat.
However, he was happily disappoint-
ed when he came within view of the
town and found everything serene as
usual
So many persons in this part of the
country saw manifestations of the
phenomenon or felt the effects of the
explosion that 1t is accepted as alto
gether probable that some stray wan
derer from interplanetary space WIS.,
tied this locality and either buried it.
self in the hills hereabouts or explod-
ed nearby. consumed by friction with
the earth's atmosphere.
Local scientists and philosophers
are not in entire agreement as to
whether it was meteor, aerolite or
shooting star. arguing from the ac.
| companying flash, explosion and con.
cussion that it might be any one of
these three. or something else entirely
new under the heavens 1t is pointed
out that several years ago a meteorite
! fell a few miles northeast of Oroville
without any of the manifestations so
generally noticed last Thursday. A
few maintain that the visitor might
have been some molten body thrown
off bv distant terrestrial volcano and
had followed the earth's rotation and
finally been drawn down by gravita-
ton. But the followers OF Einstein.
who reject the theory of gravitation.
pooh pooh this explanation and main
tain that the earth. in its swing
through space, ran afoul Of some plan.