The Secrets of Dellschau: The Sonora Aero Club and the Airships of the 1800s, a True Story [Paperback]

Much has been written about the so-called modern-era of Ufology, namely that which was kick-started by Kenneth Arnold's now historic (or infamous, depending on your perspective) "flying saucer" encounter over the Cascade Mountains, Washington State, in the summer of 1947.

But what of earlier years? Certainly, there have been some very good works on the Ghost-Rocket mystery that swamped Scandinavia in 1946; and the Foo-Fighters of the Second World War.

And there have been some intriguing works that deal with the so-called "Phantom Airships" of the late-1800s. But, on this latter issue, none are quite like The Secrets of Dellschau by Dennis Crenshaw (in collaboration with Pete Navarro).

As well as being written fluently, and in a very descriptive style that flows and entertains, the book has at its heart a fascinating tale, and an even more fascinating character: a man named Charles A. A. Dellschau, for whom the word "enigma" was surely created.

Indeed, one might almost be forgiven for thinking that The Secrets of Dellschau is a work of fiction - such is the level of high-strangeness at its heart. That it is, however, definitive non-fiction, only makes the book - and the story it tells - even more extraordinary.

In essence, Dellschau was a man with many secrets; and a man who unfortunately took many of those secrets with him to the grave. But, that doesn't take away the fact that - thanks to Crenshaw and Navarro - we still have at our disposal a tremendous body of material on the man, his life and his machines.

And, you may well ask: what machines are those? Now, we get to the heart of the story.

As the book demonstrates, Dellschau (a Prussian who moved to the U.S. in his twenties) was a brilliant artist who was seemingly obsessed (and I do mean, literally, obsessed) with creating artwork of fantastic flying-machines. But, as the book also shows, those same flying-machines may not have been merely the products of Dellschau's imagination.

They - or, at least, some of them - may have really existed. They may have been the secret work of a controversial and enigmatic group known as the Sonora (California) Aero Club. And, as the book suggests, perhaps some of their strange craft even provoked the "Phantom Airship" tales of the late 19th century.

Of course, this matter will undoubtedly be debated for years to come. But, what really made the book so engrossing for me, is the way in which Crenshaw draws in the reader, exposes them to a mystery that would be worthy of the skills of Sherlock Holmes, and demonstrates the sheer intrigue and mystery that surrounds this profoundly odd story.

Part-historical mystery; part-Fortean tale; part-X-Files; part-detective story; part-conspiracy; and all-engrossing, The Secrets of Dellschau is a great read for anyone wanting to learn about what may very well have been at the heart of some of the strangest tales of unidentified flying contraptions seen in the skies of 1800s North America.

Charles AA Dellschau produced a body of work from the turn of the past century until his death while he was virtually sealed in an attic in Houston Texas. His work, which took the form of diary pages, was in large part an attempt to record the activities of the Sonora Aero Club, of which he was a purported member, which was a group of flight enthusiasts who met in the Sonora desert in the mid 1800's. Their mission was to design the very first navigatable aircrafts.

Dellschau art work also shows influence of circus banner painting, which was also popularized in the south during the turn of the century. His work is testimony to the sense of optimism that new technologies have when they impact so greatly upon our lives and change the way we see the world we live in. Flight, up until that time, had been a metaphor for man's pathos - or his inability to accomplish what he was not meant to. Dellschau's work is also remarkable in that it uses the medium of watercolor brilliantly, often using water as the medium with a subtle tint of color. Dellschau's work is one of the earliest coherent body of work known by an American visionary artist. Dellschau's first one person exhibition was mounted some 75 years after his death, and his work is in numerous private collection as well as museums.

This book is the very first indepth examination of the recollection of Pete Navarro, the man who was fortunate and persistient enough to have at his disposal almost the entire surviving body of work by Dellschu and his discoveries and observations and experiences spanning almost 20 years while the books were in his possession. An important documentation of Navarro's research, this book also attempts to contextualize Dellschaus Art outside of the world of folk art where it has gained vast recognition and speculates if indeed a Sonora Aero Club could have existed, if the Aeros illustrated in Delllschau's painting could hve possibly functioned and what relationship they bear to the history of navigatable aircraft. Crenshaw is a vivid writer and this book belongs in the same parthenon as The DaVinci Code, with the notable exception that it ISNT fiction, it is about one man discoveries with an American national treasure, the earliest of our visionary artists.

Before I read this book I was unaware of Dellschau and the Aero Club. Very detailed research that reads as a detective story. What were those mysterious airships in the skies of the 1800s? Did they have the secret to anti-gravity? Who were the members of the Aero Club, a secret society of aeronautic scientists? Read the book and decide for yourself. Highly recommended.

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