'Carbondalien Festival' to hold Star Wars-themed fundraiser Saturday

A long time ago, from a galaxy far, far away, a UFO crash landed into a pond in Carbondale — or so the local lore says.

While officials attributed the Nov. 9, 1974, legend to a battery-powered mine lantern tossed into a mine pond and glowing underwater near what is now Russell Park, others believe it was, indeed, an alien.

Regardless of whether it was a hoax or not, the “Carbondalien” celebrations are real.

Carbondale will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its out-of-this-world tale on Nov. 9 with the Carbondalien Festival, featuring a reenactment of the crash landing at Russell Park on 11th Avenue, vendors and food trucks lining Main Street, speakers throughout the day, live music and a scavenger hunt with 30 decorated, 6-foot-tall aliens at businesses throughout the city, said organizer and “Carbondalien-in-Chief” Nicole Curtis, who owns the City Line Shop Cafe, 156 Cottage St., with her husband, Jack.

“Roswell? Our story is so much cooler than theirs,” said Curtis, who leans into the alien lore at City Line, including with a prominent mural on the building welcoming people into Carbondale. “We’ve got to celebrate our kind of quirky uniqueness here in Carbondale.”

To support the festival, the Cashew Lounge at the Peanut Bar, 134 Cottage St., will hold a Star Wars-themed Carbondalien Festival fundraiser on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m. With “May the 4th” deemed “Star Wars” day as a play on the film’s iconic “May the force be with you,” the Cashew Lounge will serve “Star Wars”-inspired cocktails, mocktails and food, along with live music, a costume contest and Carbondalien merchandise.

Tickets are $35 in advance or $40 at the door, and Curtis hopes to raise $4,000 at the festival’s inaugural fundraiser. The festival is part of the Carbondale Arts Alliance, which operates through the nonprofit Scranton Area Community Foundation, Curtis said.

The Carbondale alien legend began when three teenage boys told police they saw a “red, whirring ball fly over Salem Mountain and into the mine pond,” prompting a frenzy as police, military, UFO enthusiasts and curious spectators from across the country flocked to Carbondale.

An object glowed underwater for nine hours, and two days later, a diver emerged from the pond with a lantern powered by a six-volt Sears battery.

Twenty-five years later, one of the former teens admitted to throwing the lantern into the pond to scare his sister, though the legend still lives on for others.

For Curtis, it’s about the mystery.

“People believe that there’s something really amazing that happened,” she said, noting stories of an object removed on a flatbed truck. “I just think that it then becomes kind of whatever that person wants it to be.”