Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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Sit back and enjoy what is probably the weirdest "letter to the editor" in history.  “The Guardian,” November 30, 1976:

Recent reports of peculiar events have reminded me of a mysterious experience I had in East Anglia a few years ago. I was teaching in a small village school and the caretaker's husband declared that he had seen strange orange lights in the school field as he walked the dog home at about 10.30 pm. Cynics suggested that he had seen more light ale than anything else. I thought little of it. 

The next day a little lad brought me a small plastic toy pistol which he had found near the school.  I popped it into my drawer until such time as some-one claimed it. Near the end of the afternoon of hectic activities I felt that I could not tolerate the compulsive and ceaseless chatter of one Sandra and on an impulse pointed the pistol at her saying mentally, “Gottya!” 

To my astonishment she immediately vanished. The other children, conditioned to ignore her perpetual trivialities, didn't even notice. At the end of the session I dismissed the class and sat down in the ill-lit room to ponder over the unprecedented situation. I was suddenly aware of the figure of a man standing by me dressed in some kind of boiler-suit protective clothing.  I assumed he was a parent on the way home from work. He extended his hand, lying in the palm of which was another toy pistol. Wordlessly I passed the first one over to him. He examined it briefly, clicked a small ratchet at the side, pointed it toward a corner of the room and pulled the trigger. To my utter amazement Sandra reappeared immediately in full spate, breaking off only to observe that it was time to go home.  And as I sat there, Sandra and the stranger independently disappeared into the evening gloom. 

A Wiltshire Teacher.

The Extraterrestrials of Gallio

Some alleged encounters with alien beings are definitely more unusual--and frightening--than others.  For example, even the most dedicated UFOlogist would probably want to avoid what supposedly happened to 61-year-old Angelo D’Ambros of Gallio, a mountain town in northern Italy.

On the morning of November 24, 1978, D’Ambros went out to gather firewood in a copse.  After he had been working for a couple of hours, he turned around and realized that he was in the presence of two utterly bizarre, only vaguely humanoid creatures.

The beings were hovering in the air, about a foot off the ground.  They were a little over three feet high.  They were extremely thin, with yellow skin stretched tightly over their skeletal frames.  The creatures had large, elongated bald heads, with huge, pointed ears.  The eyes were white and without eyelids.  The noses were huge, set above equally large mouths featuring a set of pointed tusk-like teeth.  They were wearing what resembled tightly-fitting overalls, leaving bare their disproportionately long hands and feet.

The sinister-looking creatures stared at D’Ambros with what seemed to be a great and--considering the circumstances--very unnerving curiosity.  The shorter of the two began gliding around him silently.

Poor horrified D’Ambros didn’t know what to do, which is quite understandable.  He summoned the strength to shout “Help!” as loudly as he could, and in a shaking voice asked the beings who they were and what they wanted.  The creatures responded with unintelligible mutterings.  Then, the taller of the two began grabbing at D’Ambros’ billhook.  The Italian, very sensibly, was determined not to let it out of his hands.  As they struggled over the implement, D’Ambros felt an electrical discharge run up his arm, but sheer terror gave him the strength to hang on to his weapon.  With his free hand, D’Ambros grabbed a large branch to swing at the creature.  Obviously recognizing his intentions, the two beings gave up the fight and glided off.

By this point, D’Ambros’ anger at these pesky extraterrestrials was stronger than his fear.  He ran after them as fast as he could, but he soon lost sight of them.  However, in a clearing a short distance away, he found a peculiar solid, metallic oblong disc resting on four legs.  The disc was red on top and blue on the bottom, with the legs resembling aluminum.  It was about 13 feet long and six feet high at its center.  As D’Ambros stared at the thing, he saw the freakishly long hand of one of the beings reach out from inside the craft and close a sort of trap door.  Then the disc took off in a burst of red flame, instantly vanishing behind high trees.

At first, D’Ambros was inclined to keep his odd experience to himself, but after a fruitless attempt to understand what he had seen, he finally confided in his son-in-law, Luciano Munari.  Munari visited the site where the beings had appeared.  In the clearing where the disc had rested, he noted a circular area where the grass was black, flattened, and rotated in a counterclockwise direction.  There were also two U-shaped impressions, 7 inches long, an inch wide, and one inch deep.  Unfortunately, Munari had not thought to bring a camera with him, and subsequent snowstorms prevented him from obtaining convincing photos of what he had found.

The whole weird business eventually wound up in the local press, which brought it to the attention of investigators from the Italian National UFO Research Centre (C.U.N.)  When C.U.N. researchers visited D’Ambros and Munari several times in the fall of 1979.  They concluded that both the men and their families were “people who enjoy the highest reputation in their community, and very plain straightforward folk, deeply engaged in their own daily activities.”  They added that D’Ambros in particular was “not a person of great education, and consequently hardly likely to be subject to flights of fancy.”

In his article about the episode which was published in the “Flying Saucer Review” in 1983, C.U.N. board member Antonio Chiumiento could only conclude that “To our way of seeing it, it is impossible to dispose of the case by attributing it to a hallucination, since there is no proof whatsoever in support of such a solution.”

I suppose there’s nothing more to say.  However, I am left with one question that, to me, adds considerably to the creepiness of this episode:  Why did this rat-faced alien want that billhook? 

Mr. Earp and the Boggart

In 1981, the journal of the Northern Earth Mysteries Group (now known simply as “Northern Earth,”) published an article by Frank E. Earp where he described a fairly indescribable “close encounter” he and some friends had years before.  It is a notable story, as it is one that blurs the lines between standard UFO sightings and traditional fairy lore.

In the mid 1960’s Britain was in the grip of UFO fever. Up and down the country there were reports of lights in the sky and other unidentified objects. For several weeks the media reported strange goings-on in the town of Warminster, in Wiltshire. Nottingham too had its fair share of UFO activity. This was a fascination to a boy in his early teens and together with a group of around 10 school friends, we started a UFO Club. Well, at least it kept us out of mischief--but it led to many a strange adventure. The adventure related here happened with two of my fellow club members--whom I will call W. and M.

On a fine autumn afternoon my friend W. and I walked the mile or so up Chalbury Road to meet with fellow club member M. It was our intention to carry out what is known as a "sky watch"--looking for UFOs. From M’s house, the three of us crossed Woodyard Lane walk along the north bank of the disused Wollaton canal to the site of the Wollaton Colliery. Here the old “slag-heaps” line the canal bank and we thought it would be a good vantage point for our activity.

We spent the next couple of hours scaling and sliding down the heaps and swinging out over the canal on a rope tied to the branch of a tree--always with an eye on the sky. At about 4 o’clock as daylight gave way to twilight, we decided--as we had seen no “flying saucers”--to head back to M’s house and perhaps play some records.

At this site, the canal opens into a wide oval basin--a former passing place for the coal barges. Although the canal had been drained the old bed was still marshy with a small channel of water running down the centre. As we crossed the basin to the opposite south bank, we were aware of a slight ground mist starting to rise within the basin.

Climbing up the wall and bank onto the tow-path, we stood watching the mist as it began to thicken. As we watched a “cloud” of mist--doughnut shaped, around the size of a fair ground dodgem car--formed and rose above the bed to the height of around 4 feet. The remaining body of mist, which now covered most of the basin, stayed within inches of the ground.

The cloud began to sparkle with a myriad of tiny pearl coloured lights which blinked on and off with an incandescent glow. At this point I suggested this was the natural phenomenon known as “corpse candles” or “will o’ the wisp”--the spontaneous combustion of methane gas.

Suddenly, the cloud began to slowly move towards the bank and two balls of light--the size of water melons and around two and 3 feet apart--formed at its centre. In a controlled way, the cloud came to a halt on the tow-path around 30 feet away.

All around, afternoon was giving-way to evening. In the growing darkness the spheres became more obvious, seeming to “bob” up and down like corks on water. No malevolence appeared to emanate from the cloud, just curiosity. It seemed that we, as observers, were in-turn being observed. However, discretion got the better of valour and turning in unison we walked away. After a few paces curiosity got the better of us and we stopped to look back. To our horror, the cloud had followed us and was now just 20 feet away. Panic now set in and we retreated, this time at a jogging pace.

The canal now took a gentle turn and then a straight course to a point where Old Coach Road once crossed via a stone bridge. The bridge had long since disappeared and the road was now carried over the canal on a high bank, which the tow-path climbed over on either side.

I had the sudden feeling that the “thing” would not follow us across the road and voiced this fact to my friends. Frequent glances over our shoulders told us that the cloud was keeping pace behind--in fact it was gaining with every step.

Reaching the bank, we turned to see our pursuer was now just a few feet behind us. Seconds later, we mounted the bank and found ourselves looking down on the cloud, which had moved to the foot of the bank.

It seemed that the cloud would not follow us further. With relief, we crossed the road and descended onto the path. Now, with the bank between us, we felt safe to stand and look back. For a few seconds the road above was clear and then slowly the cloud came into view. Now hovering over the road at the top of the bank, “it” was looking down at us!

We took-off in full retreat, running in terror, the cloud still gliding effortlessly behind. At the pace we were travelling, it was not long before we reached Wood Yard Lane and the end of this part of the canal.

Here we turned to face our pursuer—now only 6 feet away—safe in the knowledge that just across the lane was M’s house. With me in the middle, we stood in silence, like gunfighters waiting for the next move. I broke the spell, as tacking a step forward I said, “If you are a friend come forward”.

A few seconds silence followed as I paused for a response. With my eyes fixed on the swaying orbs I began to say “If you are an enemy ….”My words were cut short as B. tapped me on the shoulder and saying in my ear, “When I say run, run!!” My eyes followed his pointing finger to the hedge on my left.

There only feet in front of M.—silhouetted by the light from the orbs—was the black shape of a hairy figure. Around 6ft. tall, its head appeared to be directly on its shoulders, whilst its arms—which seemed to be long—tapered to a single finger. Each of these “fingers” curved inward around a glowing red rod the size of a pencil. The legs seemed to disappear from around the mid calve and something of the mist from the cloud swirled around where the feet should have been.

I had absorbed all of this information in seconds, for in an instant B. had shouted the word “run” and like an Olympic athlete taken off. I followed with the same turn of speed, leaving M. alone calling out repeatedly, “Can you see it lads? Can you see it?”

M. must have quickly realised he was alone and soon caught us up. The other two began to blurt-out their experience. I silenced them saying that we should independently draw what we had seen. It turned out that the three of us drew identical pictures of the cloud, whilst B. and I drew almost identical pictures of the figure. Because his attention had been entirely on the cloud M. hadn’t seen the figure.

Years later I was to discover that our encounter had not been with some alien being. The "hairy creature” fitted the classic description of a class of “fairy” known as a “Boggart.”

Pro tip:  Never go looking for The Weird.  You just might find it.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

 

This account of an extremely weird cloud (?) appeared in the “Caledonian Mercury,” January 18, 1821:

COSENZA. On the 29th Nov. last, about half-past six in the evening, there suddenly appeared, on the west of the horizon, a luminous body, more brilliant than the moon at its full. This body had the figure of a dragon. After passing with great velocity across the horizon, it changed into a dark and thick cloud. After three or four minutes several violent flashes of lightning burst from the cloud, which, after playing awhile through the air, died away. In the moment of their disappearance a long and loud peal of thunder was heard, and a considerable motion was felt in the air. The cloud then took a triangular figure, and rolling rapidly to the east, disappeared. On the following morning the mountains to the east were found covered with snow. Where it exploded there remained a long via lattea near the cloud.  

My opinion is that it was a meteor composed of the same materials as in lightning: Neither it nor its precipitations fell in direct lines, because their specific gravity was less than that of the air. On the tops of the mountains it was met by winds which dissolved it into snow. 

This luminous body was visible at Naples, but none of its characteristics were observed; in some parts of Calabria and on the part of Sicily opposite, we have heard that its appearances were more singular than those described in the foregoing letter.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

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So, who’s ready for some walking extraterrestrial stumps?  The “Spokesman Review,” October 18, 1966:

NEWPORT, Ore. (AP)-People in this coastal logging area didn't believe 16-year-old Kathy Reeves when she told them about "the three little stumps that walked across the pasture."

Not only did they move, said Kathy, but they also were of different colors--orange, light blue, white, yellow and "watermelon-colored."

That was six months ago. 

Since then, 25 persons have seen the unidentified flying objects and 15 statements were taped by newsmen. They are from two deputy sheriffs and a chemist for Georgia-Pacific.  There are about 10,000 persons in the communities of Newport, Siletz, Toledo and Camp 12.

The latest reports were Friday.

Kathy's mother didn't believe her at first, either.

"One morning about 2," said Mrs. Reeves, "I woke up and my whole bedroom was a rosy glow so bright you could read a newspaper by it."

The Reeves family then moved out of its home on Pioneer Mountain. The new owner, Delbert Mapes, said he saw the lights before the Reeves moved out, but hasn't seen any since.

The chemist, Max W. Taylor. camped on the Reeves front lawn and saw two bluish lights on the Reeves' house, but he couldn't find the source of the light.

Taylor called Thomas Wayne Price, a deputy sheriff.

"I saw a flying object myself," said Price. "I don't know what it was, but it was orange and it was bigger than any star. I know it wasn't a meteor or a satellite because it was maneuvering. There was a noise like a giant spinning top.  It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck."

Kathy said her house was not surrounded by UFOs until one incident that happened while she and another girl were walking at night. They said they saw what appeared to be a flashlight with a cover over the end.

"I thought it was somebody playing a trick, so I threw a rock at the light," said Kathy. "A lot of big ones went on all around it and we ran home."

As far as I know, it’s still anyone’s guess what the heck was going on.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This brief, but particularly unsettling UFO account was given by John Keel in the “Staten Island Advance,” June 29, 1967:

One rainy night in early March, Beau Shertzer of Huntington, W. Va., and a young nurse, were riding in a Red Cross Bloodmobile along Route 2 in the Ohio Valley. Suddenly, according to their story, a bright glare fell over the night-shrouded road. Looking out of his window on the driver's side, Shertzer was astounded to see a huge luminous machine hovering directly overhead and keeping pace with his vehicle.

Two long arm-like projections seemed to come from the object, one on either side of the Bloodmobile, he said later. The nurse became hysterical as Shertzer stepped on the gas, certain that the object was trying to pick up his truck. 

Fortunately for the horrified pair, another truck appeared from the other direction and its approaching headlights seemed to scare the "thing" away. 

Today Beau Shertzer refuses to drive along Route 2, even in the daytime.

I for one don’t blame him.  You have to wonder what would have happened if that other truck hadn't interrupted the proceedings.

The Bird-Beasts of Var

When reading about UFO sightings, one gets a bit bored of encounters with the usual saucer-eyed little green men, so it’s always welcome when extraterrestrials think outside of the box and offer us humans a more novel spectacle.  In the November/December 1968 issue of “Flying Saucer Review,” a French UFO researcher named Lyonel Trigano presented a striking case which had been brought to his attention.  It was related by a businessman named only as “Mr. S.” who ran a successful garage in Herault.  Trigano described him as “a solidly-built man in his fifties, who is quite the opposite of an impressionable person!”  “Mr. S.” told him:

“One evening in November 1962 I was driving along a minor departmental road in Var.  It was a dark night, and raining in torrents, so that I was driving with my lights full on.  Rounding a bend, I saw, 80 metres ahead, a group of figures clustered in the middle of the road.  I slowed down to avoid the group, and at the same moment it split into two parts, suddenly and jerkily.  My window was down and I leaned my head out slightly to see what was the matter; it was then that I saw beasts, some kind of bizarre animals, with the heads of birds, and covered in some sort of plumage, which were hurling themselves from two sides towards my car.

“Terrified, I wound up the window, accelerated like a madman, and then stopped 150 metres further on.  I turned round and saw these things, these beasts, these nightmarish sort of beings, which were heading, with a sort of flapping of wings, towards a luminous dark-blue object which hung in the air over a field on the other side of the road.  It resembled two plates upside down, and placed on one another.  On reaching it, these ‘birds’ were literally sucked into the underpart of the machine as if by a whirlwind.  Then I heard a dull sound (clac!) and the object flew off at a prodigious speed and finally disappeared.”

Trigano added that “Mr. S," out of the not-unreasonable fear of appearing to be barking mad, had told this story to very few people.  At the time of this incident, “S” had never heard of UFOs, and had not thought to connect it to extraterrestrial visitations until some time afterward.

Whatever you think of “Mr. S” and his story, you have to admit that it’s not the sort of thing you hear every day.

The Priest and the Friendly UFOs

It is usually the stories told in the most prosaic, matter-of-fact way that are the most believable, even when they deal with a subject matter which is deeply weird.  For that reason, the following UFO account is considered among the most credible.

The main source for this story is an Australian Anglican priest named William Gill, who was working as a missionary in Boianai, Papua, New Guinea, which was at the time still Australian territory.  Gill was an honest, intelligent man who was highly respected by everyone who knew him.

In June 1959, Gill wrote a friend, Reverend David Durie, about an “inverted saucer-shaped object" that Gill’s assistant, Stephen Moi, had recently seen flying over their mission:

Dear David, 

Have a look at this extraordinary data. I am almost convinced about the “visitation” theory. There have been quite a number of reports over the months, from reliable witnesses. The peculiar thing about these most recent reports is that the UFOs seem to be stationary at Boianai or to travel from Boianai. The Mount Pudi vicinity seems to be the hovering area. I myself saw a stationary white light twice on the same night on 9 April, but in a different place each time.

I believe your students have also sighted one over Boianai. The Assistant District Officer, Bob Smith and Mr Glover have all seen it, or similar ones on different occasions again, over Boianai, although I think the Baniara people said they watched it travel across the sky from our direction. I should think that this is the first time that the “saucer” has been identified as such.

I do not doubt the existence of these “things” (indeed I cannot, now that I have seen one for myself) but my simple mind still requires scientific evidence before I can accept the from outer space theory. I am inclined to believe that probably many UFOs are more likely some form of electric phenomena, or perhaps something brought about by the atom bomb explosions, etc.

That Stephen should actually make out a saucer could be the work of the unconscious mind as it is very likely that at some time he has seen illustrations of some kind in a magazine, or it is very possible that saucers do exist, but it is only a 50/50 chance that they are not earth made, still less that they should carry men (more likely radio controlled), and it is still unproven that they are solids.

It is all too difficult to understand for me; I prefer to wait for some bright boy to catch one to be exhibited in Martin Square. Please return this report as I have no copy and I want Nor, [Rev. Norman Crutwell] to have it. 

Yours, Doubting William 

Anglican Mission, Boianai.

The very next day, Gill again wrote to Reverend Durie, this time with a strikingly different attitude:

Dear David,

Life is strange, isn’t it? Yesterday I wrote you a letter, (which I still intend sending you) expressing opinions re: The UFOs. Now, less than twenty-four hours later I have changed my views somewhat. Last night we at Boianai experienced about four hours of UFO activity, and there is no doubt whatsoever that they are handled by beings of some kind. At times it was absolutely breathtaking. Here is the report. Please pass it round, but great care must be taken as I have no other, and this, like the one I made out re: Stephen, will be sent to Nor. I would appreciate it if you could send the lot back as soon as poss.

Cheers,

Convinced Bill

The “UFO activity” Gill referred to began at 6:45 p.m. on June 26, 1959, when he noticed a bright white light in the Northwest sky.  It was such a striking sight that nearly forty other people came to watch it.  These witnesses then saw a four-legged, disc-shaped craft hovering over them.  Weirder still, the object was carrying four humanoid figures that were moving back and forth inside it.  A blue light periodically shone out of the craft.  The object remained above the mission for about forty-five minutes, after which it rose up into the sky and vanished.  At 8:30, several smaller crafts appeared, followed twenty minutes later by the return of the first “ship.”  This display was observed until nearly 11 p.m., when clouds obscured the sight.

The following night, the larger craft, with its four-humanoid crew, reappeared over the mission, followed by two smaller ones.  Gill later wrote, “On the large one, two of the figures seemed to be doing something near the center of the deck.  They were occasionally bending over and raising their arms as though adjusting or ‘setting up’ something.  One figure seemed to be standing, looking down at us.”

Father Gill's sketch of his unexpected visitors.

Gill--obviously feeling that every extraterrestrial was merely a friend he hadn’t met yet--waved amiably at the figure.  “To our surprise,” Gill related, “the figure did the same.  Amanias waved both arms over his head; then the two outside figures did the same.  Ananias and myself began waving our arms, and all four seemed to wave back.  There seemed no doubt that our movements were answered.”

After a bit more of this friendly back-and-forth waving, Gill--perhaps getting a bit bored with his Close Encounter--went inside for his dinner.  When he reemerged from the mission, the “ship” had moved away, but was still visible.  After church services had ended at 7:45, Gill went outside to look for the craft, but it was too cloudy to tell if it was still in the vicinity.  The next night, his new friends made yet another appearance in the sky--this time, he counted no less than eight objects over the mission.  A few hours later, there was an “ear-splitting explosion” above the mission’s roof.  The roof was undamaged, so the source of the noise was unknown.

Perhaps the sound was just the visitors saying “goodbye,” because the strange airships were never seen around the mission again.

The Blue Man of Studham

Every now and then, I come across a story that is hard-to-believe, essentially irrelevant, difficult to categorize, but so delightful that I feel the need to share.  This particular example was told by R.H.B. Winder in the “Flying Saucer Review” for July 1967:

The setting is near-perfect for a fairy tale: the village, 60 ft. up in the Chillerns. is quite isolated by the boundary fence of Whipsnade Park Zoo close to the N.W., and a deepish valley to the South; and by the escarpment of these chalk hills dropping steeply away on the far side of the Zoo. It all seems well removed from ions and ionization, but perhaps not quite so remote as your editor and G. W. Creighton anticipated when they suggested that I should report on this case.

It all started with a single flash of lightning which struck on or near the common at about 1:45 p.m on January 28, 1966. Probably an ordinary stroke, because rain was falling and the atmosphere was heavy, but it could have been initiated by artificial ionization of the air. l mention the possibility not because any flying object was seen. But isolated strokes are not all that frequent and this one was certainly followed by some extraordinary events.

Alex Butler, aged 10 years, and his friends—Tony Banks, Kerry Gahill, Andrew Hoar, David Inglis, Colin Lonsdale and John Mickleburgh—were playing on the Common on their way to afternoon school. They were in the vicinity of the Dell, which is a shallow valley thickly strewn with hawthorn, gorse and bracken; and a few old tin cans and motor tires. The undergrowth is riddled with passages connecting several dens under the bigger bushes, all no doubt the work of generations of children and animals; and there is a small open space hidden in the middle. The whole is reminiscent of a surface version of a miniature Viet Cong hideout, providing good cover, even in Winter, coupled with surprising freedom of movement for diminutive creatures. The school is about 200 yards away and the nearest houses maybe 150 yards, but small persons could remain concealed for a long time were it not for the children who obviously regard this as their territory and know virtually every blade of grass in it.

A few minutes after the lightning, and its associated thunder. Alex was casting a proprietary eye over the Dell from the top of its northern bank when he saw, quite clearly over the open center, "a little blue man with a tall hat and a beard" standing upright and still in front of the bushes at the opposite bank. He immediately shouted a description to his friends, who were initially skeptical but confirmed his view on joining him. Reacting as if to an intruder, they all began to run down the bank towards the stranger who was only about 20 yards away. The little man reacted, in turn, by “disappearing in a puff of smoke.”

It is easy at this stage, to rationalize the happening into a fairy story based on optical and electrical effects emanating from the lightning, but this tale continues—without further discharges.

Finding nothing at the place where he was first seen, the boys ran on. Little to their right along the bottom of the dell and then up the far bank; still searching for their elusive quarry. They soon saw him again, this time to their left farther along the top of the bank and on the opposite side of the bushes that had previously formed his background. Once again he was standing still and facing them at a range of 20 yards.  They again approached him and he repeated his disappearing trick.

The third time they saw him he was back at the bottom of the Dell, not far from his original position. His pursuers had by now reached his second location. Looking at him through the little bushes, they became aware of “voices" which they describe in a manner suggesting a continuous incomprehensible, and "foreign-sounding" babble, coming from a point in the bushes closer to them and down the slope to the right of their line of sight. A feeling that the little fellow had associates who were communicating with him and to whom he was replying, although they could detect no movement on his part. This induced a sense of caution which deterred them from rushing towards him as before. Instead, the boys continued to circle the Dell until they could look down it, whereupon they saw him for the fourth and last time still standing as motionless as ever in the same place. Uncertain what to do next, they milled around for a few more minutes before they told their teacher their experience.

They warned Miss Newcomb that she would not believe it, but, knowing them as well as she does and after assessing their excitement and listening to their story, she did believe them. She then very sensibly separated them and made each write it down in his own words. The essays were re-written two weeks later, not in order to alter their substance but simply to improve their spelling and tìdyness, and were pasted into a book entitled "The Little Blue Man on Studham Common”. It makes fascinating and convincing reading. I only wish there were space enough to reproduce it here. No doubt it will occupy an honored place in the archives of the Studham Village Primary School.

 

The case was brought to our attention by Mr. L. Moulsler, a long-standing reader of this review, who sent a cutting about it from the Borough Gazette, dated March 3. He kindly accompanied C.B., G.W.C. and myself in a preliminary survey of the district and reminded us of local sightings investigated by him in previous years: an apparent landing at the rim of the hills not far from the Zoo and another, more controversial, case at the nearby Flying Club, of which he is a member. G.W.C. has also found another cutting from the aforementioned newspaper: dated October 15, 1965, it describes mystery lights in the sky over Whipsnade. Finally, it is hardly necessary to mention the Wildman Case (Flying Saucer Review, March/April 1962,)  that took place near Aston Clinton about six miles away on February 9,1962.

Returning to our present case: Miss Newcomb arranged for Mr. and Mrs. Creighton, Colin McCarthy, and myself to meet the principals at the school on Saturday afternoon, May 13. Without any prompting from their obviously respected and loved teacher, they gave a very competent account of the whole incident. They also took us to the places involved and then returned with us to the schoolroom to go into more detail. The following additional points emerged:

They estimate the little man as 3 ft. tall (by comparison with themselves), with an additional 2ft. accounted for by a hat or helmet best described as a tall brimless bowler, i.e. with a rounded top. The blue color turned out to be a dim grayish-blue glow lending to obscure outline and detail. They could, however, discern a line which was either a fringe of hair or the lower edge of the hat, two round eyes, a small seemingly triangle in place of a nose, and a one-piece vestment extending down to a broad black belt carrying a black box at the front about six inches square. The arms appeared short and were held straight down close to the sides at all times. The legs and feet were indistinct. The "beard" is interesting: apparently it extended from the vicinity of the mouth downwards to divide and ran to both sides of the chest. Although agreeing that it could have been breathing apparatus, the boys could not see clearly enough to be certain and this thought had not occurred to them.

The disappearances caused me some difficulty at first, but became more understandable after further explanation of the "smoke" was apparently a whirling cloud of yellowish-blue mist shot towards the pursuers, possibly from the box on the belt. They agreed that he could have stepped into the bushes before this camouflage cleared, although it dissipated quite quickly. They heard no sound other than the voices and saw no movement at any time. Nor did they smell any smells or see anything strange in the vicinity, either on the ground or in the air.

The glow and the mist could have been the products of ionising radiation. Indeed, similar emanations, not necessarily from the same source could have triggered-off the lightning in an atmosphere already charged by natural processes. However, we must not carry speculation too far. All that we are certain of at this stage is that this is no ordinary fairy tale. Nobody who knows the boys disputes that it really happened.

In Which Ennio La Sarza Has A Very Bad Day At Work

The Garson Nickel Mine, circa 1920

Accounts of UFO encounters can be--considering the subject matter--surprisingly dull.  However, the following tale, recorded in the famed pages of “U.S. Project Blue Book” was colorful enough to catch my attention.  It was recorded by a Buffalo, New York minister named Charles Beck who had a side career as a UFO researcher.

The story was related to Beck by a 23-year-old native of Italy, Ennio La Sarza.  In 1954, he was working at a nickel mining company in Garson, Canada.  At about 5 p.m. on July 2, La Sarza was alone, busy with a painting job on the mine premises, when he was startled by the sight of an object coming down from the sky with “several times the speed of a jet plane.”  Just before it would have crashed into the earth, the object slowed down and hovered just above the ground.  La Sarza noticed that the grass beneath the strange craft was now scorched.  The object was spherical in shape, about 25 feet in diameter, and had a ring of what looked like portholes around it.  It had what appeared to be landing gear on the bottom and something resembling an antenna on top.

After a moment, three very bizarre beings came out of the craft.  They were about 13 feet tall and blue-green in color.  They seemed to glow.  The creatures all had one eye in the center of their foreheads, six sets of hairy appendages with crablike claws at the ends, and twin antenna sprouting from their heads.

In short, these beings were not your average extraterrestrials.

When one of the beings started to approach La Sarza, he did the only sensible thing: namely, begin to run like hell.  However, the being fixed the young man with a hypnotic stare that paralyzed him.  La Sarza then heard a voice inside his head which demanded that he do…something.  The horror of what was happening to him caused him to faint.  When he came to, the craft and its sinister occupants were gone.

We will--possibly fortunately--never know what the being wanted La Sarza to do, as he refused to divulge it to his later interviewers.  He said only that he would “rather die” than comply with the creature’s wishes.  In fact, La Sarza remained so terrified of what “they” had told him to do, that he later asked authorities to jail him, for his own safety.  (It was pointed out to him that, considering the capabilities these creatures seemed to have, imprisonment probably would not help.)

Beck and others who later interviewed La Sarza (including several psychiatrists) said he appeared completely sane.  He was described as a “model citizen with a good record,” who gained nothing from the often unflattering publicity his story attracted.  La Sarza told Beck that he was aware of how “crazy” his tale sounded, but he could not retract any of it.

I have only one thing to add:  I’ll probably go to my grave wondering what in hell that alien ordered him to do.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

Here’s an early version of those “aliens killed my livestock” stories.  (Just keep in mind that when old newspapers trotted out the "told by a person of unimpeachable veracity" card, that usually meant, "buyer beware.")  The “St. Louis Globe Democrat,” April 27, 1897:

Special Dispatch to the Globe. TOPEKA, KAN., April 26.-Millions have laughed at the Kansas air-ship, but the thing is no joke to farmer Alexander Hamilton, who resides near Yates Center, Woodson County. The air-ship not only appeared in plain view of Hamilton and his family, and frightened them out of their wits, but the captain of the vessel had the nerve to swoop down upon the cow lot and steal a 2-year-old heifer. At any rate, that is what Hamilton says, and a dozen well-known citizens, including State Oil Inspector E. V. Wharton, Sheriff M. E. Hunt and Banker H. H. Winter, testify that Hamilton's reputation for truth and veracity has never been questioned.

Hamilton claims that the air-ship visited his place a week ago to-night. He told the country people about it, but the report did not reach Yates Center till Saturday. 

"Last Monday night about 10:30 o'clock," Hamilton said, “we were awakened by a noise among the cattle. I rose, thinking perhaps my bulldog was performing some of his pranks, but upon going to the door saw to my utter astonishment an air-ship slowly descending over my cow lot, about 40 rods from the house.

"Calling Gid Heslip, my tenant, and my son Wall, we seized some axes and ran to the corral. Meantime the ship had been gently descending until it was not more than 30 feet above the ground, and ed of a great cigar-shaped a portion, possibly we came to within 50 yards of it. It consisted of a great cigar-shaped portion, 300 feet long, with a carriage underneath. The carriage was made of panels of glass or other transparent substance, alternating with a narrow strip of some material. It was brilliantly lighted within and everything was clearly visible. There were three lights, one light an immense searchlight and two smaller, one red and the other green.

"The large one was susceptible of being turned in any direction. It was occupied by six of the strangest beings I ever saw. There were two men, a woman and three children. They were jabbering together, but we could not understand a syllable they said. 

"Every part of the vessel which was not transparent was of a dark reddish color. We stood mute in wonder and fright, when some noise attracted their attention and they turned their light directly upon us.  Immediately upon catching sight of us they turned on some unknown power, and a great turbine wheel, about 30 feet in diameter, which was slowly revolving below the craft, began to buzz, sounding precisely like the cylinder of a separator, and the vessel rose as lightly as a bird. When about 300 feet above us it seemed to pause and hover directly over a 2-year-old heifer, which was bawling and jumping, apparently fast in the fence. Going to her, we found a cable about half an inch in thickness, made of the same red material, fastened in a slip-knot around her neck, one end passing up to the vessel, and the heifer tangled in the wire fence. We tried to get it off, but could not, so we cut the wire loose and stood in amazement to see the ship, heifer and all rise slowly, disappearing in the northwest. We went home, but I was so frightened I could not sleep.

"Rising early Tuesday morning, I mounted my horse and started out, hoping to find some trace of my cow. This I failed to do, but coming back to Leroy in the evening found that Link Thomas, who lives in Coffey County, about three or four miles west of Leroy, had found the hide, legs and head in his field that day. He, thinking some one had butchered a stolen beast and thrown the hide away, had brought it to town for identification, but was greatly mystified in not being able to find any tracks in the soft ground. After identifying the hide by my brand, I went home, but every time I would drop to sleep would see the cursed thing, with its big lights and hideous people.  I don't know whether they are devils or angels, or what; but we all saw them, and my whole family saw the ship, and I don't want any more to do with them.”  

The Yates Center "Advocate" said that Hamilton looked as if he had not recovered from the shock, and every one who heard him was convinced that he was sincere in every word he uttered. Hamilton has long been a resident of Kansas, and is known all over Woodson, Allen, Coffey and Anderson Counties. He was a member of the House of Representatives early in the 70s. He staked his sacred honor upon the truthfulness of the story. 

The following affidavit is given in support of Hamilton's reputation as a truthful man: 

"Affidavit--State of Kansas, County of Woodson--ss.: As there are now, always have been and always skeptics and unbelievers whenever there truth or anything bordering upon the improbable is presented, and knowing that some ignorant or suspicious people will doubt the truthfulness of the above statement, now, therefore, we, the undersigned, do hereby make the following affidavit: That we have known Alexander Hamilton from one to thirty years, and that for truth and veracity we have never heard questioned, and that we do verily believe his statement to be true and correct. 

"E.V. Wharton, state oil Inspector: M.E. Hunt, Sheriff; W. Lauber, deputy sheriff, H.H. Winter, banker; H.S. Johnson, pharmacist; J.H. Stitcher, attorney; Alexander Stewart, justice of the peace; H. Waymyer, druggist; F. W. Butler, druggist; James W. Martin, Register of Deeds; Rollins, postmaster. 

"Subscribed and sworn to before me this 21st day of April, 1897. 

"W. C. WILLE, Notary Public”

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

OK, kids, it’s time for more Weird Stuff in the Sky.  The “Waynesburg Republican,” January 8, 1884:

NEWCOMERSTOWN, Dec. 28.- A very singular phenomenon was observed in the heavens here last night and people are much puzzled to account for the strange occurrence. A short time after dark a large bright light appeared suddenly in the Eastern sky, a few degrees above the horizon, and started in a direct northern path. The object had the appearance of an almost square volume of white light, and in its flight across the heavens left a bright trail which lighted up the woods just east of town over which it passed so brilliantly that small trees and bushes could be observed distinctly by some of our citizens.

A very singular circumstance about the phenomenon was the remarkable slowness with which the object traversed the heavens, it being seen for a long time by several of our citizens. There have been several hypotheses as to the probable cause of this peculiar astronomical phenomenon; and some think it was an ex-inhabitant of interplanetary space, or, in other words, an aerolite; but the slowness of its passage through the atmosphere leaves abundant room to doubt the accuracy of this theory. The superstitious are troubled.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Western entrance to Cadotte's Pass, 1855

Here’s a bit of random weirdness from the “St. Louis Globe Democrat,” October 19, 1865 (via Newspapers.com):

Mr. James Lumley, an old Rocky Mountain trapper, who has been stopping at the Everett House for several days, makes a most remarkable statement to us, and one which, if authenticated, will produce the greatest excitement in the scientific world. 

Mr. Lumley states that about the middle of last September he was engaged in trapping in the mountains, about seventy-five or one hundred miles above the Great Falls of the Upper Missouri, and in the neighborhood of what is known as Cadotte Pass. Just after sunset one evening he beheld a bright luminous body in the heavens, which was moving with great rapidity in an easterly direction. It was plainly visible for at least five seconds, when it suddenly separated into particles, resembling, as Mr. Lumley describes it, the bursting of a sky-rocket in the air. A few minutes later he heard a heavy explosion, which jarred the earth very perceptibly, and this was shortly after followed by a rushing sound, like a tornado sweeping through the forest. A strong wind sprang up about the same time, but as suddenly subsided. The air was also filled with a peculiar odor of a sulphurous character. 

These incidents would have made but slight impression on the mind of Mr. Lumley, but for the fact that on the ensuing day he discovered, at a distance of about two miles from his camping place, that, as far as he could see in either direction, a path had been cut through the forest, several rods wide giant trees uprooted or broken off near the ground--the tops of hills shaved off, and the earth plowed up in many places. Great and wide-spread havoc was everywhere visible. Following up this track of desolation, he soon ascertained the cause of it in the shape of an immense stone that had been driven into the side of a mountain. But now comes the most remarkable part of the story. An examination of this stone, or so much of it as was visible, showed that it had been divided into compartments and that in various places it was carved with curious hieroglyphics.

More than this, Mr. Lumley also discovered fragments of a substance resembling glass, and here and there dark stains, as though caused by liquid. He is confident that the hieroglyphics were the work of human hands, and that the stone itself, although but fragment of an immense body, must have been used for some purpose by animated beings. Strange as this story appears, Mr. Lumley relates it with so much sincerity that we are forced to accept it as true.

It is evident that the stone which he discovered was a fragment of the meteor which was visible in this section in September last. It will be remembered that it was seen in Leavenworth, in Galena, and in this city by Col. Bonneville. At Leavenworth it was seen to separate in particles or explode. 

Astronomers have long held that it is probable that the heavenly bodies are inhabited--even the comets--and it may be that the meteors are also.  Possibly meteors are used as means of conveyance by the inhabitants of other planets, in exploring space, and it may be that hereafter some future Columbus, from Mercury or Uranus, may land on this planet, by means of meteoric conveyance, and take full possession thereof--as did the Spanish navigators of the New World in 1492, and eventually drive what is known as the “human race” into a condition of the most abject servitude. It has always been a favorite theory with many that there must be a race superior to ours, and this may at some future time be demonstrated in the manner we have indicated.

That last paragraph reminds me of Charles Fort’s famous comment: “I think we’re property.”

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

“You’ll never go in the water again,” 2.0.  The Greensboro “News and Record,” August 24, 1955:

EVANSVILLE, Ind., Aug 23 (UP) —An Evansville mother has decided that a creature which grabbed her leg while she was swimming was “one of those little green men from a spaceship.” 

Mrs. Darwin Johnson read a newspaper story that a Hopkinsville, Ky., family was visited by the odd-colored creatures.  That to her satisfaction cleared up the mysterious underwater incident in the Ohio River last week. 

Mrs. Johnson had told police a “hairy paw” grabbed her leg while she was swimming near Dogtown. 

"I know it must have been one of those little green men” she said.  “I knew as soon as I read the description from Hopkinsville.” 

The Kentuckians described the green men as three feet tall “with eyes like saucers, hands like claws, and glowing all over.” They said these fellows roamed around their house Sunday night. 

Mrs. Johnson said, “We saw something in the sky coming over from the Kentucky bank just a few minutes before I was grabbed.”

So.

Jeff and the Metal Man

Accounts of UFO encounters, like poltergeist reports, tend to all sound alike after a while, so I was pleased to come across one such story which has that little something special.

On the night of October 17, 1973, Jeff Greenhaw, the Police Chief of Falkville, Alabama, received an anonymous--and slightly hysterical--call informing him that a “spaceship” had just landed in a field outside of town.

Police officers tend to be skeptical about anything that smacks of The Weird, so Jeff’s instant assumption was that he was hearing from “an idiot.”  However, he dutifully drove over to the field to investigate, and hopefully have himself a good laugh.

When he arrived, he found nothing to be humorous about.  He was confronted by a tall--over six foot--figure wearing some reflective material, like aluminum foil.  He later recalled, “It looked like his head and neck were kind of made together.  He was real bright, something like rubbing mercury on nickel, but just as smooth as glass.  Different angles give different lighting.  I don’t believe it was aluminum foil”  It moved in an odd, robotic manner that reminded Jeff of something out of “Lost in Space.”

He gave the stranger a polite greeting, but received no response.  The bemused cop took out his Polaroid camera and snapped a few photos of the figure.  As he did so, Metal Man began moving away from him.  “It wasn’t moving like you or I would move.  It’s like it had springs on its feet or something.”  It was traveling faster than he believed any human could move.  Jeff decided to “chase it down, and, if I have to, run over it.”  However, his patrol car was unable to catch up to the being.  Metal Man soon faded into the darkness.

Jeff kept the photos he had taken of the figure--one likes to keep mementos of interesting events--but almost exactly ten years later, someone (something?) broke into his house and stole them.  The service revolver and shotgun he had had in his police car on that memorable night also disappeared.  

Jeff told people about his encounter, only to find that he had turned himself into a public laughingstock.  Within weeks of his meeting with the strange creature, the town council fired him, and he subsequently kept out of sight as much as possible.  Years later, he mused, “I turned out to be a person I never dreamed I would be because of what happened…I came close to losing my sanity, but my wife and God kept me from losing my sanity…I am still a believer in life after death and at one point, I didn’t believe there was any other life source in the universe, but that really changed.”

The moral to our little tale is that if you should ever encounter tall, foil-covered robot aliens, it would probably be wisest to just ignore them.  And, yes, I do think that “Jeff and the Metal Man” would be an excellent name for a rock band.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This Australian tale of a strange--and possibly deadly--light appeared in the "Kingston Whig-Standard," April 12, 1966:

MELBOURNE (Reuters) Police are studying a motorist's claim that a mysterious "magnetic" column of light in the sky may have led a driver to his death. 

Ronald Sullivan, 38, a steel constructor, claimed he was driving one night when his headlights suddenly swerved right, as though drawn by a magnet. 

"I braked as hard as I could and glanced over to the right," he said. 

"There in the middle of the field was a column of colored light about 25 feet high and shaped like an ice cream cone." 

The column rose from the ground without a sound but at tremendous speed and the car's headlights returned to normal, focusing back on the road, he said. 

Three days later, last Thursday, Gary Taylor, 19, died when his car swerved sharply at the same spot and crashed into a tree.

As far as I can tell, this was the last word about the story.  I assume the police's "studying" of the mystery amounted to them shrugging and saying "We dunno."

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This little oddity appeared in the “Millville Daily Republican,” December 28, 1953:

Mrs. Joseph Davison's canaries, which she raises as a hobby, did not get their usual attention last night. And little wonder! Mrs. Davison, who lives on Quaker St. in Port Elizabeth, was frightened away from the outbuilding in which she raises the birds by an eery-looking "thing" that gave off a ghoulish light and hovered closely overhead.

It all happened at about 11 o'clock last night. Mr. Davison had retired and Mrs. Davison went into the back yard for a last look at her canaries. She usually checks the heater in the building and does a few other chores just before retiring.

As she neared the outbuilding, Mrs. Davison reports, she was startled by a brilliant, greenish light, which shone down on her from above. Looking up, she told a Daily Republican reporter this morning, she saw a flat, oval-shaped object, somewhat larger than a shoebox, hovering around a willow tree. She said the object came to a point In the back.

Frightened, Mrs. Davison ran into the house, and flipped off the lights. Peering through a window, she says the object flew from one willow tree to another and then disappeared. The Port Elizabeth resident said today that this is the second time in two years she has seen the same object. The mystery is still unsolved.

Close Encounters of the Floyd Kind

"Akron Beacon Journal," February 27, 1977, via Newspapers.com

It is, of course, common for police officers to chase down suspicious vehicles.  It’s just not every day that the vehicle is a UFO named Floyd.

Our little road trip through The Weird began around 5 a.m. on April 17, 1966, on Route 224 in Portage County, Ohio.  Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur and mounted deputy Wilbur “Barney” Neff were approaching an abandoned car they had noticed on the side of the road.  It was full of radios and walkie-talkies.  More ominously, on the side of the car was a triangle surrounding a lightning bolt and the words, “Seven Steps to Hell.”

It seemed like the sort of thing that warranted a cautious investigation.

However, the car was soon forgotten when the officers were confronted with something even stranger: a large, brightly illuminated silver flying object emerged from the woods behind them, rising to a level of about one hundred feet.  It was about forty feet wide and eighteen feet tall, and gave off a loud hum.  As the UFO began moving east, Spaur told his dispatcher what they were seeing, and was instructed to start a pursuit.

At first, the men had no trouble following the object, although they had to get up to 100 miles an hour to keep it in close range.  As they drove, they kept the dispatcher informed of their progress.  As they approached East Palestine, Ohio, another officer named H. Wayne Huston happened to listen in on their commentary, and decided to join the fun.  He stopped at an intersection he knew the men would have to pass.  Soon afterward, he saw the UFO glide past him, followed by Spaur and Neff.  Huston started up his car and joined the High Strangeness parade.

The chase finally ended in Conway, Pennsylvania, when Spaur began running out of gas.  He pulled over to ask a local policeman for help.  As the officer was on his radio seeking advice on how to handle a high-speed UFO chase, Huston pulled up with them.  All this while, the flying object hovered nearby, as if it was waiting for its new friends to resume the game.  After a few minutes, the officers heard on their radios that Air Force jets were being sent over to investigate the craft.  Whoever or whatever was piloting the object was evidently listening in, as the news caused it to immediately shoot straight up and disappear.

There was an official investigation of the incident, with the authorities concluding that the men had simply misidentified Venus as the “UFO.”  Or perhaps it was a satellite.  In any case, it was all a bit fat nothingburger.  Case closed.  Move on and shut up.

A word of advice from Aunt Undine:  If you should ever encounter a UFO, it might be wisest to keep that interesting fact to yourself.  The publicity--and public ridicule--that followed news reports of this early-morning chase played hell on the lives of all the men involved.  The Pennsylvania cop Spaur had talked to had to remove his phone line.  Huston changed his name to “Harold W. Huston,” left the police force, and fled to Seattle to become a bus driver.  Neff simply clammed up.  His wife Jackelyne told a reporter, “He never talks about it anymore.  Once he told me, ‘If that thing landed in my back yard, I wouldn’t tell a soul.’  He’s been through a wringer.”  Spaur, who had spoken the most to the press, fared worst of all.  The nonstop harassment from reporters, UFO researchers, and cranks drove him to something approaching a nervous breakdown.  Everywhere he went--even church--he was identified as the local flying saucer-chaser.  Each night, he would have nightmares about chasing the craft.  By the time six months had passed, he had quit his job, his wife divorced him, and for a time he was a homeless drifter, existing on odd jobs.  He once said, “After I saw the damn thing, my entire life came crashing down around my shoulders.”  (Thankfully, Spaur eventually remarried, found new work, and got his life back on track.)

There was a sequel to this ill-starred Close Encounter.  It took place one day in June 1966, shortly before Spaur left the police force.  His department--fearing any more press attention--agreed that if any of them should see the UFO again, they would use the code word “Floyd.”  (Spaur’s middle name.)  As Spaur was driving down I-80 just outside of Cleveland, he saw the silver flying saucer hovering over him.  Spaur muttered into his radio, “Floyd’s here with me.”  He then pulled off the road, lit a cigarette, and brooded for about fifteen minutes.  When he nervously looked out his window again, the craft was gone.

At this point, you’re probably also wondering about the strange “Seven Steps to Hell” car that kicked off this whole Fortean mess.  So is everyone else.  When police went back to where the car had been abandoned, it too had vanished, never to be seen again.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This account of a UFO (or, if you prefer, “something weird that came down from the sky”) appeared in the Fort Myers “News-Press,” July 28, 1984:

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) A spark-tailed fireball splashed down Friday off Lummi Island, sending a plume of water 100 feet high before it sank and bubbled, a fishing boat crew reported. The Coast Guard investigated but found no debris. Checks with other authorities revealed no missing planes or space junk crashing in the area and the object remained an "unknown flying object," said Petty Officer Gene Hoff in Seattle.

"It depends on what you care to believe. I have personally never seen a UFO, but anything is possible, I guess," he said. 

The Coast Guard has no plans to investigate further. The object apparently sank in water 270 feet deep in an area of intense currents in Rosario Strait and it would be "difficult to do a survey down there," said Rich Rogala, the officer in charge of the Coast Guard station at Bellingham, which sent a boat to the scene. "A white and orange fireball trailing sparks was observed by the fishing vessel 'Steeva Ten.' It was traveling west to east and dived into the water," he said.

"The observation was very brief. The impact sent a plume of water about 100 feet in height." The incident was reported at 3:45 a.m. Friday about 1,000 yards south of Lummi Island, about eight miles south of Bellingham In the inland waters of north west Washington. The splashdown was reported to the Coast Guard by the "Steeva Ten," a 42-foot fishing vessel tender. A flash in the sky was noticed at the same time by a tugboat at Anacortes about five miles to the south, Rogala said.

He speculated it could have been a meteorite. But there are a couple of other mysteries in the Coast Guard report. "The crew of the fishing vessel said the object dropped straight down and just before it hit the water it did a 'U' and came back up, then went down," Hoff said. 

And a crewman aboard the Coast Guard vessel that found no debris noticed an "object, white in color, in the sky at the south end of Lummi Island," Rogala said. The crewman saw the object while his vessel was searching for debris from the earlier "flash." 

The Coast Guard vessel searched the area for more than an hour with the master of the fishing vessel, Richard Dale Hartman of Port Orchard, and found no debris, Rogala said. The Coast Guard checked with the nearby Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and nothing unusual had been sighted on radar there, Hoff said.

Newspaper Clipping of the Day

Via Newspapers.com

This account of a curious…meteorological phenomenon? appeared in the “Public Advertiser,” September 14, 1767:

Extract of a Letter from Edinburgh, Sept, 7. "From the North we have an Account of a very uncommon Phenomenon, which made its Appearance, a few Days ago in Perthshire, to the inconceivable Surprize of all who beheld it. It first was observed on the Water of Ifla, near Cupar Angus, where it was preceded by a thick dark Smoke, which soon dispelled, and discovered a large luminous Body, which at first Sight appeared like a House on fire, but which presently after took a Form something pyramidal, and rolled forwards with Impetuosity till it came to the Water of Erick, which empties itself into lfla, up which River it took its Direction, likewise with great Rapidity, and disappeared a little above Blairgowrie. The Effects  were as extraordinary as the Appearance. In its Passage, it carried a large Cart many Yards over a Field of Grass, a Man riding along the high Road was carried from his Horse, and so stunned with the Fall, as to remain senseless a considerable Time.

It destroyed one half of a House, or rather carried it off, and left the other behind, as the Part carried off was a good many Yards from the other. It undermined and destroyed an Arch of the new Bridge Building at Blairgowrie, immediately after which it disappeared. As few Appearances of this kind ever were attended with like Consequences, various Conjectures have been formed concerning it.

The Country People call it foul Air but it is expected the Public will be yet favoured with a more particular Account, as several Gentlemen of Learning and Inquiry were Witnesses both to its Appearance and Effects."