For years Angel Chuck Billy would tell everyone about the Exeter UFO Festival. However, there’s more to the town of Exeter, New Hampshire than just a widely witnessed UFO sighting in 1965 and the subsequent UFO festival that takes place each year over Labor Day Weekend. In fact, Exeter had an even more prestigious visitor way back in 1789, and a few more since then. Please join me for this never before shared stroll around town that Chuck Billy and I took in 2023.

Shortly after being elected the first President of the United States of America, George Washington visited Exeter, New Hampshire! But he didn’t sleep here, like so many places like to claim. He did however “partook in a collation” served at Folsom Tavern. Today people (not dogs) can walk in the footsteps of George Washington in this very building, which was built in 1775.

Why did George Washington come to Exeter, New Hampshire during his tour of the northern states? It was once the capital of New Hampshire from 1775 through 1789! During the American Revolution, Exeter was a stronghold for Patriots, who also would have gathered at Folsom Tavern. As the Revolutionary War capital of New Hampshire, the copy of the Declaration of Independence arrived in Exeter 12 days after it was signed in Pennsylvania, and read to the town. The Dunlap Broadside is in the American Independence Museum archives. But you can see a replica of it at the Ladd-Gilman House, which along with Folsom Tavern, is part of the American Independence Museum.

Walking around the downtown, you can sense the historic roots of this community, which date back to its founding in 1638. Settled by Rev. John Wheelwright and religious exiles from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, these Puritans were drawn to the New Hampshire colony because of its lack of an organized government. Today’s Congregational church was built in 1789, the same year of George Washington’s visit. Strolling through the neighborhoods, you can find many historic houses.

However, if you’re my brother, the renowned Dog Ufologist, you may also sense that you’re being watched by the extraterrestrial visitors to this historic New England town. He especially got an unnerving feeling from the Exeter Town Hall, which was built in 1855. Over the years it has served as a meeting place for town business, a court house, and a social gathering place including for the Exeter UFO Festival. It is from the stage in this building many important names in ufology have spoken. Want to know who else shared his ideas in this building? Abraham Lincoln in 1860! But as a presidential candidate, and NOT as a UFO expert. Abraham Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln, graduated in 1860 from the elite private school in town, Phillips Exeter Academy, which probably explains this special campaign stop.

Alright, so Chuck Billy may have had a point about being watched. We did see this Little Green Man spying over the town from cupola on the top of town hall. But maybe he was just one of the organizers of the UFO festival?

Or maybe the Little Green Man wanted a better view of concerts in the historic bandstand? It is rather awkwardly placed in the center of a busy intersection. Built in 1916 it was donated to the town by industrialist Ambrose Swasey, who commissioned the design from architect Henry Bacon, who later became famous for designing the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.