Former park saucer, removed by Baptist church in the early 2020s.

Site of 1955 Alien Attack

Kelly, Kentucky

The tiny community of Kelly got some unwelcome guests on the evening of August 21, 1955: an invading horde of over a dozen short, dark creatures with glowing eyes. They besieged a farmhouse for nearly four hours, and were held off only by the occupants' terrified gunfire through the screen windows and doors.

Little Green Men Days Festival is now a thing of the past.

Kelly became famous among UFO buffs for its "Little Green Men," but the invaders never returned and the locals showed no interest in preserving their memory.

On the 50th anniversary of the attack, Kelly finally decided to hold a commemorative festival for its most newsworthy occurrence. The town was shocked by how many people showed up. Bus tours ran all day from Hopkinsville, the nearest big town, because so many visitors were interested.

Kelly decided to make the festival an annual event -- held the third weekend in August -- and built a flying saucer in the town park where the festival was held. And then, after nine years, the town ended the festival, and the park was taken over by a local Baptist church, which replaced the saucer with a Ten Commandments plaque.

Hopkinsville, recognizing what Kelly did not, took over the annual August 21 festival in 2024. It's now held at the Hopkinsville Visitors Center and has been renamed, "Alien Invasion Day."

The site of the attack is only a quarter-mile up the road from the Kelly park, but Kentucky has never commemorated it with a state historical marker. It should.