The Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County is preparing for Alien Day — a nod to the tale of creatures from outer space visiting the tiny Kelly community in Christian County — on Saturday, Aug. 19.
The program will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Pennyroyal Area Museum, where the exhibit hall will be “transformed into a virtual spaceship with crafts and kids’ activities,” museum executive director Alissa Keller said in a press release.
On the night of Aug. 21, 1955, residents of a modest farmhouse in Kelly claimed a spaceship landed nearby and that silver-colored space creatures approached the house. Two men said they spent hours fighting off the aliens before everyone in the house loaded up in a car and raced to Hopkinsville for help.
The story took off from there and ran in newspapers around the country. The creatures became known as the Kelly Green Men — even though the people claiming to be witnesses described the creatures as silver, not. But the Kelly Green Men label stuck.
“The story of their encounter made headlines across the country and continues to inspire the imaginations of people near and far,” Keller said.
Admission to the museum is $5 for adults and $3 for children ages 4 to 12. Admission is free for museum members and for active duty military and their families.
The museum is at 217 E. Ninth St.
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. Brown was a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era, where she worked for 30 years. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board past president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition. She serves on the Hopkinsville History Foundation's board.
