Professor Jeremiah McDonald

Professor Jeremiah McDonald was a professor residing on Park Avenue in Binghamton, New York, who became associated with an unusual aerial-object incident on November 13, 1897. McDonald reportedly witnessed a brilliant flash and an object falling from the sky near his home. A strange, heat-fused mass was subsequently recovered from the ground and was reported to contain a metallic fragment bearing unusual markings. The markings led to speculation in contemporary newspapers that the object might have originated from Mars, although other observers identified the recovered material as a meteorite and offered natural explanations for the markings. McDonald's account is primarily known through contemporary newspaper reports concerning the 1897 Binghamton “Message from Mars” incident.