Driving on a highway very familiar to me, it was around 1 am. As I neared my destination, I saw lights in the distance and thought they must be street lights, then remembered there are no street lights in the area. There were no other traffic at that time. When I noticed one of the objects veering from the group and headed in my direction, I slowed down to hopefully see what it was. Incredibly, as it got closer, I pulled to the side of the road and watched as it reached about 100 feet from me. It was hovering across the highway, about 50 feet above ground. I rolled down the window to see better and watched the craft. There was absolutely no sound coming from it. I sat there several minutes trying to absorb in my mind what was I seeing. It occurred to me that I too was being observed. Several minutes passed then the craft veered off and headed back to the group. Because I knew it would sound ridiculous, I didn’t mention the event for two weeks before I told someone what happened. The response was it had to be a helicopter. The object was a large, disc shaped and totally silent. That was not a helicopter. I never mentioned it again for several years and only to two other people. But I know what I experienced was real, whatever it was. NOTE: The above image is CGI.
The term “flying saucer” was made popular by a journalist covering Kenneth Arnolds’s sighting of nine flying disks in June of 1947. The journalist misquoted Arnold, who did not describe the objects as saucer shaped, but describes their strange movement as similar to a saucer thrown on water and bouncing several times: they “flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.”
But a Texan farmer, John Martin, used the term “saucer” 69 years earlier to describe the flying object he saw on a hunting expedition in the surroundings of Denison, Texas, on January 2, 1878. In this case also, “saucer” does not refer to the shape, but to the size of the observed object, as its shape was described as that of a balloon. John Martin saw the dark object high in the Southern sky. He first noticed it to be about the size of an orange, that grew in size as it got closer to him. After he had to rest his eyes, it had increased considerably in size and appeared to be going quite fast. When it was over him it was the size of a large saucer and at a great height.
Because this UFO was dark, and not a mysterious light, reflective, or silvery, many scientists believe he saw a solid object against the sky, with the light behind it.
The sighting was reported by the local newspaper Denison Daily News on January 25, 1878, with the title “A Strange Phenomenon.” The article was a first-hand report from the farmer, and its full text is:
“From Mr. John Martin, a farmer who lives some six miles south of this city, we learn the following strange story: Tuesday morning while out hunting, his attention was directed to a dark object high up in the southern sky.
The peculiar shape and velocity with which the object seemed to approach riveted his attention and he strained his eves to discover its character.”
“When first noticed, it appeared to be about the size of an orange, which continued to grow in size.
After gazing at it for some time Mr. Martin became blind from long looking and left off viewing it for a time in order to rest his eyes. On resuming his view, the object was almost overhead and had increased considerably in size and appeared to be going through space at wonderful speed.”
“When directly over him it was about the size of a large saucer and was evidently at great height. Mr. Martin thought it resembled, as well as he could judge, a balloon.
It went as rapidly as it had come and was soon lost to sight in the heavenly skies. Mr. Martin is a gentleman of undoubted veracity and this strange occurrence, if it was not a balloon, deserves the attention of our scientists.”
Of course, old reports somehow lack in accurate information, and no witness interview is possible to get the missing information or check the witness reliability. But these old reports exist, and even lacking of clear data, they sometimes cannot be easily interpreted in terms of commonplace phenomenon.
Who knows? Maybe some even older report can still surface, where a UFO is described as “saucer” – like in some aspect. NOTE: The above image is real but from an old UFO case file.
Date of Sighting: Late March, 1946 (Exact Date Unknown) Time of Sighting: Evening (After Dark) Date Reported: April 20, 2005 Location: Henderson, Texas (About 110 Miles ESE of Dallas) Latitude: 32.1547 Degrees N Longitude: 94.80086 Degrees W Number of Witnesses: Two Number Interviewed: One Weather: (Clear – Witness Could See Stars in Sky)
Description: The witness is an elderly lady (83 years old). She said that she has never forgot about this sighting. She and her husband (now deceased) were driving to Seattle enroute to a new military duty station in Bremerton, Washington. (Her husband was in the army.) On a lonely country road near Henderson, Texas she and her husband saw a large craft hovering to the north of the road on which they were driving. She said that the craft was hamburger shaped and had three light beams shining towards the ground in a “tripod pattern.” She said that the craft had lights all around it. She estimated that the craft was about two city blocks to the north of the road (about 1/8 of a mile). The craft started moving towards the west (they were driving west). She said that she and her husband had stopped the car, but became very frightened and felt an “eerie sensation.” Her husband then rapidly sped away to retreat from the craft’s position. Shortly thereafter the witness said that she could see a face in the sky that looked kind of like a “skeleton.” She added that she didn’t think that the craft was an oil well. (Apparently at that time there were oil wells in that particular area of Texas.) After nearly 60 years she has never forgot about the experience.
Investigator’s Notes: I interviewed the witness over the phone. Despite being 83 years old she seemed very alert and vividly recalled her experience. She said that the encounter was very dramatic and she has never forgotten it. She said that she sighted another UFO around 1991 in the morning hours (after sunrise) between Renton and Issaquah, Washington. She said that the object was silvery in appearance. The most interesting aspect of the 1946 sighting is that it predates the 1947 wave of sightings. The description of the object is similar to the characteristic “flying saucer” shaped objects that began to appear in large numbers from 1947 onward. Obviously no investigation of this sighting can be undertaken given that it happened nearly 60 years ago. However, other witnesses may come forward and report similar experiences. If that happens, more can be learned. NOTE: The above image is CGI.
I was standing on my large rooftop terrace in downtown Dallas, which is atop of a 15 story building. It was early evening on a Sunday, around 7pm. It was located the Dallas Zoo and the Trinity Forrest area. I noticed an object that had silvery white sides, and red lights. I am a former private pilot with 20/20 vision, and an avid amateur astronomer. I am adept at estimating distance. The craft stayed stationary for 12 minutes or so, turning slowly. It appeared to be round towards the bottom, and tapered, then flat on the top. I estimate that it was at least 5 to 7 miles away. It slowly faded and disappeared. It did not go “up” or sideways. It simply faded into nothing. I attempted to video it with my smartphone, but the digital focus didn’t produce a good image. I narrated it and recall saying the following; “I don’t know if you can see this, but there is something very strange hovering out near the horizon.” I later deleted the video as the quality was poor and I kind of wrote it off as a something strange. It wasn’t until today that I watched Out of The Blue that I realized it might have actually been something from somewhere else. I literally shouted out loud, “THAT IS IT!!” At the 1:40:13 mark in this video of Out of the Blue there is a video of the EXACT SAME OBJECT over Guayaquil Ecuador. If it wasn’t a UFO, how could 2 people see the same thing in different areas on earth? I have never reported a UFO, and I wouldn’t have this one. But seeing the video in taken Ecuador prompted me to do so. NOTE: The above image is CGI.
An off duty Huntington officer was warming up his car when he saw it first. He radioed for an extra set of eyes; he got two. Two fellow officers looked skyward and saw it, too. All three are Huntington law officers, guys who have seen just about everything. But this time, they didn’t know what they were seeing. They’re hoping someone else might have been looking toward the sky shortly after 2:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 26, and can at least compare notes, if not provide an explanation. The object, seen from just north of the city Police Station, came out of the northwest to the steeple of a near by Catholic Church, then shot straight back north. It didn’t make any noise, and it remained in their sight for less than a minute. But it was big described as the size of a hot air balloon or a backyard trampoline and low enough that one officer thought it was going to get hung up on the steeple of the church. Normally, such an object passing over the city would have lit up emergency lines. But this one didn’t. No one called 911; no one called city or county dispatch; and no one called the State Police. The three officers may have been the only ones to see it. And for a few days, they didn’t say anything about it. “We thought people would think we were crazy,” one said. But now, curiosity has the best of them. Did anyone else see it? And what was it?
The officer making the original sighting had finished his shift at 2:30 p.m. the day after Christmas and was warming up his car, parked across police station. He was sitting in the car, facing north. “It came from a long ways off,” he said, describing the sighting a week later. “First it looked like a parachute that you can steer, black and curved, but there was nobody in it. It started rolling, a slow roll, and turned upside down. Then it looked like a giant set of bird wings. It did more rolls, and turned into an oblong circle that was orange. It wasn’t any kind of flying machine that I can think of, and it’s not like a ’50s flying saucer. It was that big, but it didn’t have a hump in the middle.” The second officer who answered the call said his first impression was that it was “a tire” in the sky, but that made no sense. The first officer said the object changed shape three or four times. It moved in a straight line, tumbling as it moved, and made no noise. The third officer to verify the sighting had just walked out the stations backdoor, heard the radio traffic and looked up. “It was so big, within no time at all I spotted it,” he said. “When I first saw it, it was going in a flat plane, hovering, moving slowly right toward the church. It would glide, rotate the wide way around, and stay at one level, then it stopped, began moving in a circular motion, and turned bright orange. It went flat again, and hovered over the steeple”.
The officers believe the object turned orange when it reflected the sunlight, like a compact mirror would if you twirled it. It appeared to be moving along at treetop level, no higher than the roof of the church. It disappeared from the first officers view after it went behind the church steeple, but the other two officers who had slightly different vantage points said it went behind the steeple and moved directly north. The second and third officers were 30 to 35 feet apart. The agreed the sighting lasted 30-45 seconds.
Other statements included the object was completely circular, dome shaped. “I can’t imagine how it could possibly be anything I could relate to. The object would stop and then spin slowly, a maneuver no known aircraft can accomplish. I was never really afraid, just in total amazement.” The pastor of the Catholic Church, said he didn’t see anything unusual that afternoon, and hasn’t received any phone calls from anyone who did. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” he said Friday. Managers at the Huntington Municipal Airport and Fort Wayne’s Smith Field said there were no records of any out-of-the-ordinary craft making either a takeoff or landings.
Investigator: Roger Sugden ASD-North/CI
Thanks to Huntington Herald Press
Investigators Comments: The description of the object’s movement is not unreported in the annals of UFO sightings. It’s pretty common that such an reported object comes over, stops and hovers. This is not the first time a tumbling motion has been reported, and then it moves off. The size and movement of the object have eliminated most common possibilities. Investigation still in process. NOTE: The above image is CGI.
Source: Brian Vike, Director HBCC UFO Research, www.hbccufo.org
Full Description of event/sighting:
We were driving west in the afternoon into Vancouver on the #1 freeway. And in a clear sky overhead and to the south was a black object in the oval shape of a rugby ball! It was not moving and stayed exactly where it was as we approached. It seemed to be about 2000 feet above the ground near our Central Park and about the size of a 747.
Many people pulled off the highway to look at it, including 2 policemen. It did not move at all and was not a balloon or kite. In retrospect, the oval shape could have been a circle shape as viewed from an angle. It seemed like the opening of a round pipe.
We rushed home expecting to hear breaking news but nothing was said about it. I can see the area from my apartment and looked with binoculars after getting home but saw nothing and wondered if my angle of view now was parallel with the shape so it would be a straight line if in fact it was a flat opening of some kind like a disk? I would love to hear what it could have been.
Additional Information:
Brian, thanks for your reply. Please be clear about the included picture; that I used Photoshop to duplicate as close as I could to show what I saw. My wife saw it as well, and it seemed like it was in the area west of Central Park, south of Kingsway. And could have been about 1000 to 2000 feet up.
Our viewing angle was from the #1 freeway. We noticed it somewhere east of Willingdon Ave. interchange. It never appeared to be hovering, or moving at all or affected by wind or anything. It was definitely NOT a balloon or kite. Just solidly stationary in the sky. As if it was a flat plane of black disk, not even an edge to it. Nor did there appear to be any structure or shape to it other than the solid black disk. No light reflected off anything.
As we got just past the Willingdon exit, the traffic slowed down and we pulled to the side of the road as others did. There were even two RCMP officers stopped on a side road, (on what I think might be called Clydesdale St. which leads onto Grandview Hwy at Boundary Rd) they were out of their police car looking up at it too. Other traffic had slowed. I passed by and went home, listening to the radio for reports, but there were none. I even expected the 6 PM news to have video. When I got home, I live in a high rise in Vancouver and could see in that direction east, Central Park is directly in my eastern view, I got out my binoculars but could see nothing. I accounted that to the fact that I thought it was a flat object, and from my new view, it would only be a line in the sky if it was still there at all.. The thought did come to mind that it could have been a circular shape, if viewed directly from below, however I never went closer to find that out. NOTE: The above image is CGI..
Many, Including Pilot, Constable Describe Similar Huge Craft Flying Low Over Stephenville
By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer
Jan. 15, 2008
(AP) In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.
Several dozen people – including a pilot, county constable and business owners – insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it. “People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it’s the end of times,” said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. “It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts.” While federal officials insist there’s a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object’s lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object. Machinist Ricky Sorrells said friends made fun of him when he told them he saw a flat, metallic object hovering about 300 feet over a pasture behind his Dublin home. But he decided to come forward after reading similar accounts in the Stephenville Empire-Tribune. “You hear about big bass or big buck in the area, but this is a different deal,” Sorrells said. “It feels good to hear that other people saw something, because that means I’m not crazy.” Sorrells said he’s seen the object several times. He said he watched it through his rifle’s telescopic lens and described it as very large and without seams, nuts or bolts.
Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when many sightings were reported. Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange due to the setting sun. “I’m 90 percent sure this was an airliner,” Lewis said. “With the sun’s angle, it can play tricks on you.” Officials at the region’s two Air Force bases – Dyess in Abilene and Sheppard in Wichita Falls – also said none of their aircraft were in the area last week. The Air Force no longer investigates UFOs. About 200 UFO sightings are reported each month, mostly in California, Colorado and Texas, according to the Mutual UFO Network, which plans to go to the 17,000-resident town of Stephenville to investigate. Fourteen percent of Americans polled last year by The Associated Press and Ipsos say they have seen a UFO. UFO sightings have been reported all over the world for centuries, including the infamous 1897 crash of a cigar-shaped object near the tiny Texas town of Aurora. While some thought it was a hoax, decades later investigators from UFO groups said evidence suggests the disfigured pilot’s body buried that day was an alien.
In Chicago in late 2006, some United Airlines pilots and other employees reported seeing a saucer-shaped craft hovering over O’Hare Airport before shooting up through the clouds. But federal officials said nothing showed up on the radar and explained it as some type of weather phenomenon. In 1997, dozens of people saw lights in a V-formation over Phoenix, a mystery that was captured on videotape and spurred calls for a government investigation. A few months later people reported a similar sight over Las Vegas. One of the most famous cases was the 1947 crash on a ranch near Roswell, N.M. Although the government said it was a top-secret weather balloon, an Army officer who helped recover the debris came forward 30 years later claiming a cover-up, asserting that an alien spacecraft had crashed. Reports later surfaced that a base nurse told someone that autopsies were performed on aliens from the wreckage. A few months after the New Mexico incident the U.S. Air Force started Project Blue Book, which investigated more than 12,600 reported UFO sightings – including 700 that were never explained – before the program ended in 1969. Erath County Constable Lee Roy Gaitan, who said he isn’t sure about the existence of UFOs, said one night last week he first saw red glowing lights and then white flashing lights moving rapidly across the sky. “I didn’t see a flying saucer and I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t an airplane and I’ve never seen anything like it,” NOTE: The above image is CGI.
