Argentina: The Pretzel CE-3 and Possibly Related Humanoid Sightings

Scott Corrales of Inexplicata has posted the following fascinating article:

Venturing into the dark vaults of South American UFO lore, Contributing Editor Guillermo Gimenez brings us the story of a major CE-3 of a kind reported elsewhere in the Spanish-speaking Americas in the 20th century.

Argentina: The Night Visitor (The Pretzel CE-3)
By Daniel J. López and Luis Burgos
http://www.ciencia-ovni.com.ar/elvisitantenocturnosolitario.htm

From the incomparable 1968 Argentinean – and worldwide – UFO wave, I remember that one of the most widely known and controversial cases involved an encounter between a young woman and a strange entity in the mountain ranges of Córdoba. Much has been said since then: that it was a hoax with the purpose of attracting tourists, that the protagonist herself confected the story, to a media-driven creation. Even today, naysayers hiding behind curtains will have a field day with it. The fact of the matter is that I was unable to travel to the site to inverview the witness. But in 1986, 18 years after the “contact” experience, I assigned researcher Daniel Jose Lopez of FAO, Bs.As., to reinvestigate the case. And the trip yielded results, since the eyewitness interview presented fundamental evidence suggesting that “something indeed happened at the time”. A story that was consistent, detailed and beyond all whimsical conexts emerged from the woman’s mouth. She was 37 years old at the time, nearly two decades later. Let’s take a look...

Villa Carlos Paz is a classic Argentinean tourist destination. It is located some 30 kilometers west of Cordoba. There we can find the “La Cuesta” motel, along Route No. 20 and some two kilometers from the center of town. It is owned by Mr. Pedro J. Pretzel. His daughter Maria Elodia, 19, helps her father in running the establishment.

Maria Elodia Pretzel is a determined young woman, well thought of in her community, and who is not given to reading science fiction. Early that year, she underwent surgery. After recovery, she assisted in managing the hotel. But her life changed one morning in June 1968: at around 1:00 a.m. on the 14th, Mr. Pedro Pretzel was driving back home along Route 20 when he saw “two large red lights over the road, too far apart to be the tailights of another car” some 50 meters from his motel. Finding the front door open was also disconcerting, as he knew his daughter to be quite concientious about such things. As soon as he entered the house, he headed for her bedroom, only to find the young woman spread out on the bed, unconscious. What had happened there?

After bidding two guests farewell, Maria Elodia went to the kitchen and found that a considerable amount of light was pouring into the hallway. Thinking that someone had left the living room lights on, she went in and was faced with a strange and extraordinary visitor: a large figure, standing in excess of 2 meters, blonde, hair combed backward with a friendly facial expression, stood a short distance away. He was clad in some sort of jumpsuit, light blue, covering his body from his neck down to his feet. Small luminous rays poured from his fingertips. In his left hand he carried a crystal orb that emitted bright beams of light. In his right hand he bore a ring, almost a gauntlet. According to the young woman, every time the being raised the gauntlet, “it was as though he himself rose into the air and remained suspended...”

At that time, Maria Elodia felt herself weaken and fall down, but when the entity lowered the gauntlet, she felt her strength returning. The being advanced toward her with a kindly, calm manner, moving his lips slowly, speaking a strange, melodic language that reminded her of Japanese. He said something like “cling-gling-crish”. At a given moment, the young woman felt a sensation of “bubbles in her head” and a feeling of perspiration, but when she touched her neck, she was perfectly dry.

Maria Elodia was able to dash for the safety of the counter, even as the entity moved the orb constantly and tried to get near her. She claims that she could hear, in the recesses of her mind, a message that repeated: “Don’t be afraid...”

Suddenly, the bright orb went out. The stranger stopped, spun around and withdrew toward the outside door. As he turned, the experiencer was able to see a kind of skirt around him, but the truly uncanny event occured as he approached the door: it opened by itself and closed as he departed.

From that moment on, Maria Elodia, who had backed away, remembered nothing more. A few moments later, her father arrived.

Dr. Hugo V. Vaggione, 33, knows the young woman well, as he is the Pretzel family’s physician. According to the doctor, she is a serious, somewhat introvered and very responsible person. He diagnosed her as being in a “pronounced state of nerves” afer the ordeal, due to emotional impact, but far from a breakdown. She was perfectly coordinated in her statements, and her blood pressure was normal. Finding her mentally and physically sound, the doctor can find no reason for deception or hallucination...

While the Pretzel Case does not present the physical evidence so longingly sought by everyone (footprints, remains, etc.) unofficial versions stated that traces of radioactivity were found in the motel’s carport and in areas where the “visitor” entered. There are only four (4) cases in Argentina where radiation has been detected.

This type of humanoid, prevalent in the 1960s and which is rarely seen nowadays, yielded its place to the ubiquitous Greys, which appear to have co-opted most of the entity case histories. There was, however, another close encoutner in Argentina with an occupant resembling the one in the Villa Carlos Paz incident. This was the famous encounter at La Florida, in San Luis, where a tall figure, similarly clad, appeared before three fishermen on the night of February 4-5, 1978. Regarding the correlation of cases, that night (June 13-14, 1968) involved numerous UFO and humanoid sightings throughout various provinces in Argentina. Right there, in the vicinity of the “La Cuesta” motel, local residents reported seeing “two very powerful red lights” in flight around 22:00 hours on the evening of June 13.

If the night visitor, who arrived from who knows where, waited for the last couple to check out of the motel before entering...did the imminent arrival of Ms. Pretzel’s father interrupt any subsequent actions (the orb blinking out and the entity leaving)? These questions will remain unanswered in this memorable case.

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The following are references to this case:

*1968 - At 45 minutes after midnight Mr. Pedro Pretzel, a 36-year-old hotel proprietor in the resort town of Villa Carlos Paz, Cordoba, Argentina sighted a UFO with two very intense beams of red light while walking home. A short while later his 19-year-old daughter Maria, who had been working as the hotel receptionist, encountered a six and a half foot tall blond man dressed in a sky blue diver suit, holding a sky blue sphere in his left hand. On his right hand was a huge ring, like a gauntlet covering half his hand. The ends of his fingers and toes emitted light, and whenever he pointed his hand at her she felt faint and began to lose consciousness. He smiled and spoke to her in an unintelligible language for some minutes before leaving. (Sources: Charles Bowen, FSR, September-October 1968, p. 11; Jane Thomas, FSR, November-December 1972, p. 24; Oscar A Galindez, FSR, January 1981, p. 8; David F. Webb and Ted Bloecher, HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports, case 1968-32, citing FSR)

*Jun., 1968 Carlos Paz (Argentina). Pedro Pretzel, 39, motel
0050 owner, observed an object 50 m away on road 20,
showing two powerful red headlights. Arriving at his
room, the witness found his daughter unconscious.
When she came to, she said that a blond man, 2 m
tall, wearing a blue, bright suit, and holding a pale-
blue sphere in his hand, had appeared and spoken to
her. (LDLN 95)

*Villa Carlos Paz, Cordoba Argentina - June 14 1968 - 0050A

Pedro Pretzel, the proprietor of a motel, was walking home when he saw near the motel an object projecting 2 very intense beams of red light. On arriving home he found his 19-year old daughter Maria in a faint. She said she had encountered in the vestibule a blond man over 6 ft tall, dressed in a “diver’s suit” of sky blue scales, and holding in his left hand a sky-blue sphere. On his right hand was a huge ring, like a gauntlet half covering his hand. The ends of his fingers and toes emitted light, and whenever his hand pointed at her she felt weak. He smiled and spoke to her in an unintelligible language resembling Japanese for some minutes before leaving. As he walked out the rear door it opened by itself and then it slammed shut as the stranger walked out. She saw what appeared to be a type of skirt on the back of the stranger. Before he walked out Maria felt very dizzy and began sweating profusely in her mind she heard a voice telling her not to be afraid.

Source: Charles Bowen, FSR Vol. 14 # 5

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This case peaked my interest, so I checked for other sightings around the same time and general location. I was surprised to find that there were several other humanoid sightings in Argentina before and after the Pretzel sighting and report:

*Near Buenos Aires, Argentina - June 4 1968 - 0100A
Walking home after midnight, artist Benjamin Solari Parravicini was suddenly confronted by a fair skinned man with eyes ‘so light in color that he looked as if blind,” who addressed him in an unintelligible guttural language. Looking upward, the witness saw only 50 yards away a hovering aerial craft, with no lights. He became dizzy, and when he recovered, he found himself inside the machine, with 3 other persons. One of these, very handsome, was questioning Parravicini in an alien language, which he was able to understand telepathically. They told him that they would taken him once around the earth, and he observed Japan, France, and Chile before being returned to the same street corner. Since this experience, the alien beings have contacted Parravicini several times.

Source: Gordon Creighton, FSR Vol. 14 # 5


*Cordoba, Argentina - about June 10 1968

A youth stated that he had been visited by a strange being whose body emitted rays of light, and who spoke a strange language he did not recognize. No other information.

Source: Newspaper source


*Cigarrales, Cordoba, Argentina - June 10 1968 - 0330A

Jorge Yaru, a member of the Argentine Navy, stepped out of his home to hear a very loud engine type noise, looking around he sees nothing and re-enters the house. Soon he again hears the noise and goes outside to investigate. Looking towards a nearby empty field he sees a hovering disc shaped object with a dome on top and one in the bottom, he estimates the craft to be about 1.50 meters in width and 6 meters in length, the craft was rotating in anti-clockwise manner. He watched the object for 45 minutes then the craft shoots away at a ninety-degree angle towards the nearby wooded hills. Mr. Yaru then feels a strange urge to bathe in a nearby brook, which he does, not withstanding the very low temperatures at the time. He strangely felt, as he had to “cleanse” himself. At the same time, a neighbor, Adela Garcia, heard the same noise and noticed in the same empty field a strange triangular shaped cloud from which a giant man-like figure, over 2 meters tall, with long blond hair, descended to the ground. The strange being, which Garcia likened to Jesus Christ, approaches her and she kneels before him. Turning away briefly from the being, she looks up and both the being and the triangular shaped cloud had vanished. At the empty field a large scorched area of grass was found.

Source: Revista Enigmas, Argentina


*La Armonia, Necochea, Argentina - June 14 1968 - late night

Catolicio Fernandez, a farmer, was in bed resting when two very tall human like figures appeared in his room. They were thin and wore tight fitting green shiny coveralls. The men sat on the edge of the witness bed and one of them raised his hand making the witness feel dizzy, he then lowered it and the witness felt better, they then left. No other information.

Source: Hector P Anganuzzi, Historia De Los Platos Voladores en Argentina


*Avellaneda, Buenos Aires, Argentina - June 20 1968

Eustaqui Zogorwski, 63, a Polish immigrant, claimed that on the above date he was drugged by a man who drove up to his house in Avellaneda in a black car. When he came to, he found himself in “an hallucinating world, where giant beings were dwelling in an aerial city.” Two of these beings, over 2 meters tall, conducted Mr. Zogorwski to a tower in the center of the city, seemingly suspended in space; he was seated at a table around which sat 12 similar giants. They took his arms and he began to “trace signs automatically.” He believed that they had “brain washed” him. He was finally released between the towns of Brinkmann and Cotagaita, in Cordoba, where the mysterious man in the black car picked him up and delivered him to his home.

Source: Newspaper source


"Laguna Paiva, Santa Fe, Argentina - June 24 1968 - 0110A

The witness, Mrs Dora Egger de Torrez was sleeping with her husband when she was suddenly awakened by a strong buzzing sound that was hurting her ears. When she turned around she noticed on the corner of the bedroom an oval-shaped light and inside of it two human-like figures, one tall, about 2 meters in height and the second only about 50 or 70cm in height. Both wore tight-fitting metallic brown diving suits and helmets with plastic-visors that covered their faces. The shorter creature seemed to move its hands and walked towards the witness who suddenly felt a sort of burning sensation in her body. The shorter figure appeared to have noticed and retreated backwards. The taller figures at times walked around the shorter humanoid at times showing his back. When the witness attempted to wake her husband the shorter figure again approached and she felt paralyzed, and could not move her hand, which seemed to bump against something invisible. She is not sure how long the observation lasted. The humanoids seemed to have communicated with her and she felt that they had told her that they would return someday. However she did not hear any words being spoken and did not noticed their lips moving. Finally the oval shaped light its occupants seemed to suddenly shrink in size until vanishing from sight along with the loud buzzing sound. Only at that moment was Dora able to wake her husband punching him really hard on the stomach. He found his wife in an extremely excited state, repeating the phrase, “they will return”. Dora later found a strange blister on the top of her mouth that remained there for several days. A neighbor that visited the location noticed a strong odor resembling that of burning electrical wire, which appeared to be stronger on the corner where the humanoids had originally appeared.

Source: Dr. Oscar A Galindez, FSR Vol. 27 # 1


*Cerro De Las Rosas, Cordoba, Argentina - June 27 1968 - 1730

Three children, Hugo Cesar Messina, Oscar Crespo, and a 3rd boy whose name has been kept confidential were bicycling when they were surprised by the appearance of a silvery colored object, which had on its lower part a kind of helix, where lights of white and sky-blue were revolving. The UFO remained hovering about 20 meters up and 50 meters away from the boys. On the upper part of the object appeared a couple, a man, and a woman, floating in the air. They were of enormous stature, with long white hair, and wore luminous close fitting garments. Holding hands, they began to go down slowly, disappearing into the object without any door opening. The luminous helix began to rotate at greater speed, and the UFO went away at great speed.

Source: Carlos Banchs


*Lujan, Mendoza, Argentina - June 30 1968 - 0115A

Jose Paulino Nunez, a distillery worker, encountered on the beach two people he first took to be guards. Their dress and actions were like normal people, but they showed him a spherical device of some 30 cm in which he could see the images of people walking about. Speaking in a strange, metallic voice, one asked the witness, “Do you know these people? They were like you. Many more will be like them. Many people in the world will see the same thing you have seen. We will talk about this again. If you speak of this, be sure it is with responsible people.” At that point the witness experienced a lapse of memory, for the next thing he recalls was being back in the laboratory, where it took him an hour to compose himself. The people he saw in the images were all tall human like, with pale complexions, and long light colored hair, which appeared to be walking about in a trance like state.

Source: Richard Heiden, & Jader Pereira


*Ricardone Entre Rios, Argentina - July 1 1968 - 0400A

Returning home after a dance, 17-year-old Raul Salcedo encountered two strange beings nearly 10 ft tall. He “felt himself drawn towards them by the powerful magnetism radiated by them, which well nigh immobilized him,” but he broke free and fled home in terror. There was, simultaneously, a spate of UFO sightings locally and in nearby San Lorenzo.

Source: FSR Vol. 14 # 5

NOTE: I was very surprised to find so many similar sightings in the same general area and time period. I went back and tried to find other references but most were in Spanish...but I was able to find a comment in a newspaper article where one of the witnesses was told that 'there are many more of us'. BTW, 1968 was a very busy year for UFO sightings worldwide...as well as all the other turmoil and tragedy of that infamous year...Lon

Argentina: The Pretzel CE-3 and Possibly Related Humanoid Sightings

Fortean / Oddball News - 6/30/2010

Cleopatra VII OD'ed...Didn't Die From Asp Bite

telegraph - The Queen of the Nile ended her life in 30BC and it has always been held that it was the bite of an asp – now called the Egyptian cobra – which caused her demise.

Now Christoph Schaefer, German historian and professor at the University of Trier, is presenting evidence that aims to prove drugs and not the reptile were the cause of death.

"Queen Cleopatra was famous for her beauty and was unlikely to have subjected herself to a long and disfiguring death," he said.

He journeyed with other experts to Alexandria, Egypt, where they consulted ancient medical texts and snake experts.

"Cleopatra wanted to remain beautiful in her death to maintain her myth," he says on the Adventure Science show screened by the German television channel ZDF.

"She probably took a cocktail of opium, hemlock and aconitum. Back then this was a well-known mixture that led to a painless death within just a few hours whereas the snake death could have taken days and been agonising."

Cleopatra reigned from 51BC to 30BC and was the last person to rule Egypt as an Egyptian pharaoh. After she died, Egypt became a Roman province.

She was an ally of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and established a relationship with the Roman General Mark Anthony. They had three children together and there are letters that suggest she married him, although both were already married; she to a brother and he had a wife in Rome.

In 44 BC, after the assassination of Caesar, she aligned with Antony in opposition to Caesar’s legal heir, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian

After losing the Battle of Actium to Octavian’s forces, Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed suit, aged 39 on August 12, 30BC.

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While We're on the Subject of Egyptian Royality...King Tut Died of a Blood Disorder

yahoo - Legendary pharaoh Tutankhamun was probably killed by the genetic blood disorder sickle cell disease, German scientists said Wednesday, rejecting earlier research that suggested he died of malaria.

The team at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in the northern city of Hamburg questioned the conclusions of a major Egyptian study released in February on the enigmatic boy-king's early demise.

That examination, involving DNA tests and computerised tomography (CT) scans on Tutankhamun's mummy, said he died of malaria after suffering a fall, putting to rest the theory that he was murdered.

But the German researchers said in a letter published online Wednesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association that closer scrutiny of his foot bones pointed to sickle cell disease, in which red blood cells become dangerously misshaped.

"We question the reliability of the genetic data presented in this (the Egyptian) study and therefore the validity of the authors' conclusions," the letter said.

"(The) radiological signs are compatible with osteopathologic lesions seen in sickle cell disease (SCD), a hematological disorder that occurs at gene carrier rates of nine percent to 22 percent in inhabitants of Egyptian oases."

Tutankhamun's death at about 19, after 10 years of rule between 1333 to 1324 BC, has long been a source of speculation.

One of the most common genetic disorders, sickle cell disease causes blood cells to take the shape of a crescent instead of being smooth and round, thereby blocking blood flow and leading to chronic pain, infections and tissue death.

The researchers called for further DNA tests on Tutankhamun's mummy for a definitive cause of death.

...and Missing His Mummified Penis

nydailynews - Where in the world is King Tut’s missing member?

The Egyptian boy king’s penis may have been swiped because the 19-year-old royal was less-than-endowed, raising the concept of a possible anatomical conspiracy, according to Time Magazine.

This much is certain though: that particular body part has disappeared, and it appears that the clandestine castration took place relatively recently.

What happened to a particular part of Tut’s anatomy isn’t the only mystery enshrouding the king. Scientists have debated the cause of the famed king’s death as recently as this year, when some were guessing it might be due to a bone disorder or malaria. Earlier this month German researchers overruled that theory and said the boy royal had sickle cell anemia, which can lead to organ failure.

But when journalist Jo Marchant started researching this newest diagnosis for The New Scientist, evidence surfaced to suggest that Tut may have had a genetic mutation that causes weird physical effects like elongated skulls and under developed genitals.

While Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief archaeologist, says that the 19-year-old king was actually well-developed, the fact remains that the king’s member is no longer attached to the mummy. Marchant confirmed that the mummy was intact at its first unwrapping in 1922. The penis was said to be missing in 1968 but a CT scan later revealed that it was hidden by sand surrounding the mummy. Now some scientists think the penis was taken at some point after the body was enbalmed, raising the possibility that it might have been a conspiracy to spare Tut, in the afterlife, the “locker room” variety of embarrassment

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The Amazing Spider-Man Lives!

orange.co - A Cambridge schoolboy has converted two budget vacuum cleaners into a Spiderman gadget which helps him scale walls.

Hibiki Kono, 13, a big fan of the superhero, made the incredible climbing machine using the suction from two Tesco Value vacuum cleaners.

The schoolboy then amazed his friends by using the giant suckerpads to climb the school wall during morning assembly.

"I used to dress up as Spiderman when I was younger and I love all the films so it's great to be able to climb walls like him," said Hibiki.

Hibiki spent five months designing and making the gadget in his design technology lessons at King's College School in Cambridge.

He used two 1400 watt vacuum cleaners, bought for just £14.98 each from Tesco and attached square wooden pads to the nozzles.

Design technology teacher Angus Gent said: "I'm hugely proud of him. When he came to me with the idea at the beginning I had my doubts, but once he proved it could be done I encouraged him.

"He developed it himself which is amazing for someone of his age. He has spent two and a half hours a week creating it over the last five months."

Hibiki added: "My mum thinks it's brilliant but she won't let me us it in my bedroom as she is worried I may pull down the ceiling.

"I've climbed up the school wall but I'm not allowed too high. It's not scary and I completely trust the machine."

Click for video

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Marilyn Monroe's Chest X-Ray From 1954 Sells For $45,000

Marilyn Monroe's bust has sold for a bundle. A 1954 x-ray of the stunning starlet's chest sold at auction in Las Vegas on Sunday for a sizable $45,000. This was well above the estimated $800 to $1,200 it was expected to fetch.

The bizarre medical photograph was one of several of Monroe's belongings that were up for bid at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino via Julien's Auctions over the weekend.

"[The x-ray] was taken around the time she was believed to be pregnant, and rumour has it that she had a miscarriage," President/CEO Darren Julien said back in April.

It was captured at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital (which in 1961 merged with another hospital to become Cedars-Sinai Medical Center), and features the then 28-year-old Monroe's chest and lungs.

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Colorado Woman Blames Vampire For Car Crash

FRUITA, Colo. - If a Western Slope woman is to be believed, vampires may be lurking in Colorado's Grand Valley.

The woman claims she spotted a vampire in the middle of a dirt road near Fruita, Colo. Sunday night. She told Colorado State Troopers she was startled by the undead being, threw her SUV into reverse, and crashed into a canal.

She was not injured.

State Troopers say the woman's husband arrived at the scene and took her home. The vampire, which was not seen by anyone else, apparently let her get away.

Troopers do not suspect drugs or alcohol to be factors in the crash.

Fortean / Oddball News - 6/30/2010

The Cookie-Cutter Phenomenon

Click for video

Weird news report from 1984 near Grand Coulee Dam in Eastern Washington:

No one can figure out how, but a chunk of earth weighing tons was plucked out of a wheat field, as though someone used "a giant cookie cutter," and put down, right side up, 73 feet away. "All we know for sure is that this puzzle piece of earth is 73 feet away from the hole it came out of," said Greg W. Behrens, a geologist with the Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam.

Scientists now believe that the "Cookie Cutter Phenomenon" is caused by two seismic events intersecting, creating constructive interference, and ejecting out a small chunk of earth.

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THE COOKIE-CUTTER PHENOMENON

Two articles on the Washington state 1984 event:

Strange Happening - Scientists are baffled by big 'mystery hole'

No one can figure out how, but a chunk of earth weighing tons was plucked out of a wheat field, as though someone used "a giant cookie cutter," and put down, right side up, 73 feet away. "All we know for sure is that this puzzle piece of earth is 73 feet away from the hole it came out of," said Greg W. Behrens, a geologist with the Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam. The displaced slab, mostly soil held together by roots, is about 10 feet long and 7 feet wide. Its thickness varies from 2 feet at one end to about 18 inches at the other. The shape and thickness of the piece exactly match the hole that was left behind, just like a piece in a jigsaw puzzle, though it was rotated about 20 degrees. There are no marks to indicate machines were used, the Seattle Times reported Friday, and the land is fairly flat. "You'd think that, whatever the cause, the chunk would have traveled in a straight line," said Don Aubertin, director of mining for the Colville Indians, whose reservation is near the site. However, a scientist "found where pieces had dribbled from the chunk as it moved. The dribblings traced an arc from the hole to where the chunk was found." The site is on a farm in north-central Washington operated by Fred Timm and his sons. Two of the sons, Rick and Pete, discovered the displaced earth Oct. 18 while rounding up cattle in an area known as "haystack rocks," where huge boulders were left by a glacier that covered the area thousands of years ago. The Timms believe the chunk was moved sometime after mid-September, when they harvested wheat in that field. There was a small earthquake in the area during that one-month period, at 8:24 p.m. Oct. 9. It measured 3.0 on the Richter scale of ground movement, and its epicenter was about 20 miles southwest of the displaced earth. However, University of Washington scientists ruled out the possibility that the quake somehow could have moved the chunk. The work of a meteorite also has been ruled out. "There was no sign of impact," Aubertin said. "The hole was not a crater. It had vertical walls and a fairly flat bottom. It was almost as if it had been cut out with a giant cookie cutter." But even that couldn't have left such a hole, he added, because roots from plants in the piece that was moved still dangled from the walls of the hole, indicating they were torn apart rather than cut. Behrens wondered if bedrock could have focused the earthquake's seismic waves on the displaced chunk.Focusing can occur, said UW geologist Stephen Malone, but it could not provide enough energy.

Washington State's Mystery Hole

Fred Timm owns a farm on the Colville Indian Reservation in northeastern Washington. Nothing notable had happened on the farm for a month during the wheat harvest which had begun in mid-September of 1984. However, a small earthquake, 3.0 on the Richter scale did occur on October 9, 1984, at 8:24 p.m. But that event was far away, 20 miles to the southwest of the Timm farm.

So what was the explanation for the mysterious hole that Fred Timm's sons, Rick and Pete, found on October 18, 1984? Rick and Pete were on horseback that day rounding up cattle for their father. They were next to a wheat field on the Colville Indian Reservation north of the Columbia River when they spotted something. Approaching closer, they saw a hole in the ground. The hole was 10 feet long and 7 feet wide and roughly pear-shaped. The north end of the hole was about one-and-a-half feet deep; the south end was two feet deep. Curious, the men dismounted and studied the hole and then looked around on foot. Seventy-three feet northwest of the hole was a huge chunk of earth shaped like the hole. The chunk of earth had been deposited largely intact with a counterclockwise rotation of about 20 degrees in relation to the hole. There was a scattering of fingernail-size soil particles, like "dribblings," occasionally found on the ground across the 73-foot distance.

The Timm family contacted Don Aubertin, director of mining for the Colville Indian Tribe. Aubertin, thinking the hole had been caused by a meteorite strike, contacted Bill Utterbach. A geologist retained by the Colville Indians, Utterbach examined the area and said about the hole: "It had vertical walls and a fairly flat bottom. It was almost as though it had been cut out with a giant cookie cutter." The estimated weight of the chunk of topsoil was 3 tons! But the massive "divot" of soil did not appear to have been cut out of the ground. There was no sign of shearing of the soil. Dangling from the walls of the cavity were roots of vegetation, not cut, but torn. The block of earth did not appear to have been dragged or rolled. Something manmade would have been needed to lift the chunk and transport it, but there were no machinery marks on the ground. Greg Behrens stepped forward. A geologist with the United States Bureau of Reclamation at Grand Coulee Dam, he examined the block of earth and the local geology. He noted that the site of the hole was over a glacial basin about 100 feet by 150 feet formed by strata that had sagged during the melting of an ancient ice pack.

Behrens wondered if the earthquake of October 9 had triggered concentric surface waves, which converging, could have ejected the soil. Stephen Malone of the University of Washington, chuckled. The 3.0 quake, 20 miles southwest of the hole, had been four miles below the surface of the earth. Malone said that if the quake displaced the earth, " it would be the most dramatic and obvious thing ever reported that I'm aware of." It was "very, very unlikely" that an earthquake was the culprit. Behrens admitted that his idea was stretching it. Although focusing of seismic waves does occur, "nothing this large has been documented." He felt most geophysicists would reject his idea. So he looked for other explanations: A freak tornado ripping out the block. No, no swirling of vegetation evident. A complex freezing action causing the block to be lifted up and moved by strong winds. No, the temperature was warm at the time. A gas explosion, like methane. No, no methane in the area. A meteorite ripping the block out. No, the hole did not resemble a crater, and the block was not shattered. Clever people using a large crane excavating the block out; or people freezing the ground, excavating the block out, and sliding it 73 feet; or a helicopter to lift the mass out. H'hhmm; no, extremely expensive with no profits. As Behrens said, "Mr. Timm is quite reserved and wishes no notoriety from all of this. The area is so remote that it would never become a tourist trap."

Perhaps not unexpected was the UFO theory. Behrens came across stories of UFO sightings from local residents. One person talked of a farmer who found a circular burned area, 30 feet in diameter, near his combine as if something had set down and scorched the ground. The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization had a report of "a meteor" in the vicinity of the hole on October 13. Local residents told Behrens that at the time of the earthquake they had felt an extreme air shock with it, much more than a sonic blast. The residents had felt ground motion after the air blast. A roar described as an approaching freight train preceded the blast with the doppler effect afterwards. Curiously, in 1979 Bruce Kaliser, Utah state engineering geologist, while doing a routine field check following a 3.5 earthquake near the Utah-Idaho border, was alerted by farmers to a mysterious hole outside Portage, Idaho. The hole was shaped like a cross and entirely undisturbed. It was about 14 feet in diameter. Each arm had two furrows, and each arm had cracks parallel to the furrows, radiating out from the center of the cross. The Idaho slab, unlike the Washington slab, was broken into pieces. To date, no one has explained the "mystery hole" of Washington. Some type of rare earthquake-related phenomenon, or ?

The Cookie-Cutter Phenomenon seems to be the ultimate fortean anomaly, it cries out for some kind of simple, rational explanation, but on further consideration it's baffling in a very thorough way.

THE COOKIE CUTTER STRIKES AGAIN -- FOUR TIMES - IN NORWAY

The divot from an Andøva moor Yes, the cookie-cutter phenomenon has left its mark again: more mysterious divots and holes in the ground. T. Jo nassen has sent us a study of the phenomenon published in Ottar, a publication of the Tromse Museum, in Norway. Even better, he has provided a translation, from which we quote a few paragraphs: "About 1 km SE of Skogvollvatnet (a lake), at Skogvollmyra (a moor), a slab of turf 5.2 m long and 1.8 m wide, has, in an apparently inexplicable manner, torn itself loose from its 'mother turf' and placed itself 4-5 m away. The slab of turf is completely undamaged and is placed with the right side up. The piece of turf has rotated 20-30 degrees compared to the original hole. The hole in the moor is absolutely even at the bottom, and the angle between the bottom and its walls is 90 degrees. The hole is 30-35 cm deep, and its edges are nicely cut. "From the hole there is a crack running westwards for about 6 m. Close to the hole this crack is somewhat widened, and one side of the crack twists itself 25-30 cm above the other. This twisting decreases as one gets further from the hole. The crack gradually subsides, and it is hard to tell exactly where it ends. "About 12 m NW of the hole there is an arched crack of about 15 m lying with its concave side towards the hole. It is plainest in the middle. Here the side closest to the hole has been twisted upwards about 15 cm. Here also the crack gradually disappears at both ends. There is an open hollow beneath the part which has been twisted upwards, about 30 cm below the surface. One theory has lightning creating a steam explosion from underground water. If this were the case, one would expect to find some fusion of the earth and more havoc wrought to the divot. "The slab of turf has an area of about 5 m2 and this should give a weight of between 1500-1700 kg."




Top image: The divot from an Andøva moor. Above image: One theory has lightning creating a steam explosion from underground water. If this were the case, one would expect to find some fusion of the earth and more havoc wrought to the divot

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Strange Holes Discovered in Krasnoyarsk Region

Residents of Novoselovo district in the Krasnoyarsk region have come across a mysterious phenomenon in the field. They discovered several tunnels of unknown origin in an area located some 100 meters away from the highway connecting the cities of Krasnoyarsk and Abakan, in the vicinity of the village of Kurgany, Siberian News Agency reports.

There are about 10 holes in the field. Each hole has an entrance to a cave-like hollow place in the earth. Some of the tunnels are big enough for a person of medium height to stand up straight. According to one of the suppositions, all the underground passages are interconnected in a network. A few daredevils equipped with flashlights attempted walking across the tunnels.

Local residents have a number of theories to explain the origin of the tunnels. Some people believe the tunnels are the work of unidentified pranksters, others blame mysterious animals which reportedly dig holes in the ground. According to yet another theory, the tunnels may somehow be related to an earthquake that occurred in the area 3 years ago.

Krasnoyarsk scientists have not yet made any official statements as to the explanation of the phenomenon.

Sources:
english.pravda.ru
www.science-frontiers.com
Dybwik, Dagfinn, and Møller, Jakob J.; "Phenomenon in an Andøya Moor - An Insoluble Mystery?
www.knowledge.co.uk

NOTE: I saw a reference to the video on Whitley Strieber's Unknown Country today, so I decided to look into it a bit. There are a few natural theories but there has been some suggestion that this was done by non-terrestrial forces. I don't know why ET would want to blowout 3 ton chunks of earth though I'm sure someone has a theory for that as well. Nonetheless, it makes for interesting reading...Lon

The Cookie-Cutter Phenomenon

A Love of History Leads to the Paranormal

daily-record - Whether it’s in his quest to learn more about the city he grew up in and its people, or learn more about spirits lurking around, Douglas Myers is sure of one thing: Don’t believe it until you see it.

It’s what propels him in his hobby as a lover of history and a researcher of the paranormal—otherwise known as ghost hunting—outside of his day job as the sole civilian employee of the Wooster, Ohio Fire Department.

“Like the elephant’s child, I’m just full of insatiable curiosity,” Myers said of his love of history. “I grew up with a family that never threw away anything, so we were surrounded by family antiques and collectibles, so it’s just part of my nature.”

A Wooster history buff, Myers has a fascination for the unusual, like his research of Ralph Henderson, the first Wooster police officer killed in the line of duty. Harry Glick, who while in prison for the crime, went on to build Ohio’s first electric chair.

“When it comes to local history I have a fascination for the unusual, the everyday man versus the noble pioneer and Founding Father, because there’s lots more everyday men and women in our 200-plus-year history than noble pioneers,” Myers said.

He said he researches the everyday man in hopes of “giving him credit for his sacrifice, that’s a real satisfaction in bringing these people to light, and their stories.”

Wayne County Probate Court Judge Ray Leisy said Myers’ attention to detail and love of research makes him a great historian.

“When you discuss history you sometimes fall into the habit of repeating not rumors, but popular history about what people say actually took place, but when you start checking the detail at that time, it’s been embellished,” he said. “Doug never falls into the trap. He spends a lot of time going back and checking his sources.”

When writing Broken Banks of the Wayne County Frontier, Leisy passed it on to Myers for a quick review to make sure nothing was amiss.

“I’m glad to say I had it right, I try to do the research he does,” Leisy said.

In addition to local history, Myers is a Civil War history fan. On one notable trip, he and his son, Daniel, went to Gettysburg, Pa., to view battlefields, but also to try and see what they could find at night.

“I kept a very open mind, I didn’t particularly believe in ghosts. I kept a skeptical mind. You needed to show me for me to believe it,” he said.

But walking the field one night with his son, he said they heard a replay of part of the battle, cannons and all.

“In the middle of the field, in the middle of the night, as clear to our ears as it could be—Fire! and boom-boom, boom-boom—and dead silence,” Myers said.

It was one of the more “awkward, bizarre and surreal moments of my life,” Daniel Myers said, but helped to give him “new perspective on things.”

“He is a good person, a wonderful father, as a friend he’s there when you need him,” he said of his father. “He’ll help anyone out.”

So that sparked his interest, and now Myers researches sites of hauntings, even local spots, to see what he can find. He said photographing “death curve,” the 90-degree curve near Wooster Memorial Park, produced three orbs in his photo—signs of possible spirits.

Coincidentally, he said, he came across information about a crash there and three out of four family members died at that site.

Some day, Myers said, he’d love to set up a ghost tour in Wooster. “There’s enough stories to really fill an evening of haunted Wooster as there is in Gettsyburg.”

A lover of theater, Myers has performed in local plays and dinner theaters, including a performance of The Philadelphia Story, where he met his wife, Shelly.

“She played the upstairs maid and I just couldn’t resist a woman in uniform,” Myers said.

Both had auditioned for the play at the insistence of two friends.

“It was just one of those things,” she said. “We met and just kind of clicked I guess you could say.”

Myers said his wife of more than 13 years is “very supportive of all my interests ... tolerates my collection, is extremely, mercifully tolerant of my collections and my outings.”

“He’s just eclectic,” Shelly Myers said with a laugh. “He likes whatever he can find.”

That would include collections like “Death Dirt”—soil samples he collected from historical sites, like the ambush site of Bonnie and Clyde, the area of East Liverpool where Charles Arthur “Pretty Boy” Floyd was killed, or the site of the wreck of the USS Shenandoah.

“I always wanted to see that site,” he said of where Bonnie and Clyde died.

“And what a thrill, it really was. I got there and I am there all by myself, and this abused memorial people had chipped souvenirs off of. I go, I have to bring a souvenir home with me. I thought, oh, how about some dirt?”

Sometimes those collections will be turned into gifts. Like the sample of sand in a Smucker’s jar from Ponte Verda Beach, Fla., where a German sub came to shore given to his daughter, Lauren Chitty.

“He’s all over the place. He likes being funny ... He’s quirky, I’m just lucky he’s the way he is,” Chitty said.

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WOOSTER, OHIO GHOST SIGHTINGS

I once lived in a house on Larwell street in Wooster which was definitely haunted. The house was once located behind the Wooster P.D. The house has recently been torn down...Hum

I wonder why. The house was a Tri-Plex when I started seeing and hearing things there it scared the heck out of me. I figured the neighbor would think I was crazy butt it was with a try talking to them about the strange thing I was experiencing little to my surprise they had experienced a lot of the thing I was. There was candles being lit, strange noises, a person saying my name when no one was there small hand prints on the mirrors and vases being moved. Little to say it got so bad I left one night and never came back. I'm just glad the place is no longer standing anymore. Maybe the unrested can finally get some rest. - Misty

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The Olde Jail Tavern an old jail house turned into a classy bistro is haunted by the first and only man in the city of Wooster to be hanged. He prefers to taunt young women sitting alone and to spill over your beer if you leave it sitting too long. Ask to sit in one of the ''cells''. That's where he loves to play tricks.

I lived in a farmhouse for 3 years, it was about 6 miles south of Wooster on Jefferson Rd. I really could go on for hours about all the things i witnessed there but here are a few. I once woke up in the middle of the night to what seemed like every door and window in the house slamming at once, it shook the whole house and was very loud. One time I was laying in bed and a large invisible thing seeming like a large dog jumped up on the bed and walked up between me and my husband and then (like a dog) plopped down half laying on me and then just slowly the weight went away. I would be standing outside the kitchen window of the house, or outside hanging clothes on the line,and hear, outside, what sounds like three of four children laughing and playing like they were jumping on the bed and squealing and laughing and then I would hear this thump thump thump thump thump, like footsteps, then mumbling in a low males voice rum rum rum rum rum rum rum, then it was quiet for a minute, then the children's noise would gradually get louder and louder until it was loud again, then the footsteps and the mumbling and quiet. I have heard this a hundred times it just keeps repeating the exact same thing over and over again however long you are out there. I also saw one time while I was in the kitchen cleaning, I glanced out the window, it was the middle of the day, and saw a black snake curled around what was a statue sitting on top a cement cover of an old well. It was as thick as a basketball, and 15 or so ft. long. I ran out and got my son who was playing in the back yard came in and shut all the doors and windows but when I looked out again it was gone. My husband said there are big snakes in the barn or silo but this was HUGE. I never went in the barn again. - Jamie

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The fine dining area of the restaurant, in this former Wayne County Jail in Wooster, used to actually be the cell block. The area is located in the basement of the building. The restaurant is said to be haunted by a man who was the first, and only, person to be hung in Wayne County. He was locked up in a cell on the basement floor, but was hung on the third floor. His actions are noticed most late in the evening and early morning hours. Several restaurant managers have made comments about calls being made to the tavern (a separate building that was once used as the jail garage now used as "The Olde Jaol Tavern") from the fine dining phone when there is no one in the fine dining area. Also, flickering lights and banging of steel bars are common occurrences.

I worked there when the restaurant first opened. There were already stories about pictures being taken with fuzzy human-like images in them. But one day, after the lunch crowd had cleared out and the waiting team was setting up tables for dinner, one of the waitresses came into the bar area. Her face was very pale and her eyes were wide with fear.

She said that she had been checking the cell rooms (where some diners prefer to eat and where the actual cells used to be in the basement) and she saw a person sitting at a table. She said he was an average sized person wearing some type of workers overalls (the normal clientele were suit and tie people). When she asked the person if she could get him anything, he disappeared.

There are spots there that seem unnaturally cold and sometimes you hear sounds but there is no one around to make them. It is definitely haunted. - ksheedy

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Client was told by landlord that a man that used to live there was murdered about 8 years ago in back bedroom and dragged to the utility closet where he found. Client reports that the utility closet door knob has rattled, loud and vigorously. Client told there was a little girl murdered in the same building about 15 years prior. Landlord would not release the names or exact dates. Client reports cold spot in the room where the murdered was said to take place. He has heard the voice of a man clearing throat "ahem" behind him. Client has found objects moved from one side of the room to another. Client states he witnessed cans flying out of pantry and landing on dining room table located several feet away. Client has found cupboard doors open when he knows they were left shut.

Personal Observations: Apartment windows are at ground level and parking lot is just outside the windows as well as a porch where several residents sit. We could hear walking in above apt. We clearly heard people in hallway and outside talking. People came and went outside all night and in the building, their voices and footsteps could be heard inside the apartment and picked up by voice recorders. A loud conversation from another apartment could be heard while we were in the living room. No knocks, taps or unusual sounds heard inside the apartment. We found the cans stacked in the pantry haphazardly. However simply walking by or shutting doors did not make the cans fall. Cans we purposely pushed out fell straight down. Cabinet doors had magnet latches. All appeared to latch properly except for one cabinet closer to the floor. No cold spots were found or experienced. Nothing unusual was observed by the team. Nothing unusual was documented on video, audio or photos.

We have been unable to verify the murders. - www.ohioghosthunter.com

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Many years ago, I lived for a time in a large house adjacent to the cemetery on Madison Hill in Wooster. My husband and I both experienced the “presence” but never when we were together. However, we agreed that we encountered our ghost in the same areas.

We both felt him watching us as we’d get ready for work in the upper hallway and on the stairs. One day (yes day – our ghost was around day and night) we were going away and decided to use the bathroom (upstairs) before leaving. About half way up the steps I tucked my sweater in the railing deciding not to take it all the way upstairs with me. My husband tucked it in further as he came up behind me. When we started back down the stairs my sweater was laying at the bottom of the stairs! Even if it fell off the railing it would not have gotten to the bottom of the steps….

The most alarming incident was on a Saturday morning. I was getting ready to head out to do some errands and sensed I was being watched. At the bottom of the steps I crossed the hardwood floor to the dining table that sat on a large braided rug. I clearly heard two footsteps as “it” crossed the hardwood and then two muffled footsteps as it followed me onto the braided rug. I ran outside right away, and we moved shortly after that.

Sources:
www.ghostsofamerica.com
www.the-daily-record.com
www.ghostsandstories.com
www.strangeusa.com
www.ohioghosthunter.com
www.paranormaltourguide.com

A Love of History Leads to the Paranormal

Enoch: What Are We To Believe?

During the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium, author and researcher Autumn Williams presented her new book “Enoch: A Bigfoot Story”. I was told by a few attendees that her presentation was punctuated by rants against the Bigfoot community in general that were fashioned into reasons for not offering any photo or physical evidence. As well, many of the attendees believed it strange that she hadn't even been to Florida to meet the witness and check his story out. Overall, the impression I got from the attendees I talked to was that there was a disquieting lack of logic in Autumn's presentation.

It seems that ‘Mike’, the source of the stories for Autumn's book, is not realizing any benefit from the book raising the speculation that 'Mike' won't complain, simply because there's no 'Mike'. 'Mike' was only identified as a heavy equipment operator living in Florida. No other personal info was provided other than his life had been full of disappointment which had left him depressed and bitter.

I read ‘Enoch’ this weekend and was struck by the similarity to ‘Fifty Years with Bigfoot’. I was also surprised that Autumn and Mike referenced much of Jan Klement’s book ‘The Creature’ which supposedly is a first hand account of a semi habituation of a Bigfoot creature he named ‘Kong’ in southwestern Pennsylvania. Klement’s story was interesting, but mostly unbelievable. The author also did not hide the fact that he is an alcoholic and has serious mental health issues. The one anecdote where he shoved the creature into the back of his station wagon and drove him 200 miles away in order to protect him from hunters during deer season was one of several head shaking passages.

Klement described himself as a scientist, but he didn’t take Kong's dead body to be "dissected", but decided he would drive the body to a remote location and hack up his so-called "best friend" with an axe. I’m not sure if this was simply out of friendship or a sociopathic reaction to ‘Kong’s’ death.

The ‘Enoch’ scenario is also reminiscent of the Janice Carter case. In 1947, on the family farm in Tennessee, it is alleged that Robert Carter Sr. began feeding a male Bigfoot, known as Fox. Through prolonged contact, Robert was able to create a habituation situation where Fox felt comfortable around Robert and his granddaughter, Janice. According to the book ‘Fifty Years with Bigfoot’, Robert and Janice were allowed to witness the most intimate moments of Bigfoot life, including their relationships and the death and burial of a young Bigfoot. These assertions have been questioned by a majority of researchers involved with the study of the Bigfoot phenomenon. For example, one of the authors maintained that Fox was capable of speech. She cited many examples in the book of Native American dialects, words, and names used by Fox, and even stated that he could speak English. However, in late 2006 it was proven that the supposed language and names employed by the resident Sasquatches were in fact plagiarized from the book 'Ride the Wind' (1985), an historical novel about a woman's life after she was kidnapped during the Comanche raid on her family's fort.

‘Enoch’ is a very well written, interesting and enjoyable narrative. I do recommend you read it since there is common sense information that could be helpful to those interested in Bigfoot. I have no doubts that 'Mike' is real, has witnessed a Swamp Ape and has knowledge of their activity. But, honestly, I'm just not convinced that Autumn isn’t being 'played' to some degree by the witness. I don't want to feel like this but I have to go with my gut reaction. Hopefully I will be convinced otherwise in the future.

My only wish is that if someone is privileged to be in regular contact with a Bigfoot, Sasquatch or Swamp Ape, that they would share it with us on a factual, scientific level. If you present your information in book form only, the anecdotal evidence is going to be torn apart and labeled as fiction. Possibly, Autumn will use the receipts from the book, travel to Florida, meet up with 'Mike' and attempt to prove some of the book's assertions.

In 1980, I had an encounter with a Bigfoot and it was one of the most unforgettable experiences of my life. In fact, it is the reason why I started to include cryptozoology as part of my paranormal field work. I know without a doubt that these creatures exist. That’s why I expect a tangible level of proof from those who claim to have had extraordinary experiences with these beings...Lon

Enoch: What Are We To Believe?


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Westall 1966: A Suburban UFO Mystery - Video

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Click for video 5

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NOTE: I'm going to repost (below) my article on this incident - originally posted 6/4/2010. I have been waiting for this documentary to be posted on the internet since the program aired on SciFi Australia...Lon

The following is in reference to the April 6, 1966 UFO incident at Westall High School, in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton South, in Victoria, Australia...Lon

heraldsun - Flying saucers, crop circles, missing film, disappearing files, denials, military cover-ups, threats and shadowy Men in Black.

It couldn't happen here?

Most people would say it couldn't happen anywhere!

But more than 100 witnesses to one of the world's biggest UFO mysteries are adamant that it did, in broad daylight in Clayton South on April 6, 1966.

And 44 years after the event, many are still fuming that the military they say were swarming around the scene for days have offically denied the incident and no record appears to exist.

They say they spent their lives being doubted and want some official acknowledgment that something weird happened above and behind Westall high and primary schools that morning.

London's Telegraph newspaper rates it as the fifth-greatest UFO mystery of all time, but another mystery is how little-known the episode is here.

A documentary - Westall '66: A Suburban UFO Mystery - premieres on Austar and Foxtel's Sci-Fi Channel at 8.30pm tomorrow.

Producers hope it will flush out an official who can say what the military were doing and what they found.

Researcher Shane Ryan has spent five years tracking 110 witnesses, many found through an appeal in the Herald Sun in 2006, but could find no military officials, and no record of a military response.

But locals remember it vividly, saying it lasted days.

The 110 Mr Ryan has found who say they saw saucers include professionals, tradies and a Ministerial Adviser, but not one military official of the time.

He says time is running out for them to come clean.

"Whatever security concerns there were at the time, they are redundant now,'' he says.

A TV crew covered the incident and it screened on the 6pm news, but the film canister from the job was recently found empty in the station archives.

Several witnesses say they were warned off speaking by sharply-dressed men in dark suits, in the principal's office and at home.

Others recall school threats of detention for UFO talk.

But talk there was, and coverage.

The Dandenong Journal reported the incident on its front page for consecutive issues and ran interviews with witnesses.

Many were school pupils who say they saw flying saucers from their school yards. Some ran to Grange Reserve, where the craft appeared to have come down.

Terry Peck, 56, was among them. She says she was playing cricket on the oval, saw the saucer and chased after it to Grange Reserve.

"Two girls were there before me. One was terribly upset and they were pale, really white, ghostly white. They just said they had passed out, fainted. One was taken to hospital in an ambulance,'' she says.

Ms Peck says she saw a silver, classic-shape saucer rise up.

"I was about 6m away from it. It was bigger than a car and circular. I think I saw some lights underneath it.

"We all got called to an assembly ... and they told us all to keep quiet.

"I'd absolutely just like someone to come forward from the services just to say 'yes, it did happen, and it landed and there was a cover-up'.''

Jacqueline Argent, 58, in Form 3 then, says she saw a UFO from the oval and was one of the first three kids over the fence looking for where it came down.

"Originally I thought it must have been an experimental-type aircraft, but nothing has emerged like that after all these years,'' she said.

She says she was called into the headmaster's office and interrogated by three men: "They had good-quality suits and were well spoken. They said, 'I suppose you saw little green men'?


"I spoke to my parents about it at the time and they were pretty outraged.''

Retired engineer Kevin Hurley, a Monash Uni student then, missed the saucers but saw the aftermath.

"There were army or air force people in the area,'' he said.

"I'm pretty sure they were going around the area with geiger counters or metal detectors.

"I'm not a freak that thinks Martian people are coming. I don't think that kind of stuff, but it's bugged me.

"After 44 years, I reckon they need to come clean on this.''


Here is a link to the documentary website: Westfall 1966 trailer


Click for video


Click for video
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CLAYTON SOUTH, MELBOURNE UFO INCIDENT


Over 200 students and teachers witnessed an unexplained flying object on Wednesday 6th April 1966 around 11.00 am. They reported it descended into a nearby open wild grass field adjacent to a grove of pine trees in an area known as The Grange. The object then ascended in a north-westerly direction over the suburb of Clayton South.

Shane Ryan is a researcher looking for eyewitnesses. "It happened on the Wednesday before Easter, April 6, 1966, about 11 0’clock in the morning.

Around about 200 people, most of them students at what was then called Westall High School, were out for morning recess", says Shane. "Many saw the strange object descend behind pine trees in The Grange Reserve, and then later ascend and fly away at great speed.

The people who ran over to the reserve found a huge ring in the paddock where the object had been seen.

Some people reported five light aircraft following or chasing the object.

Academic throws light on 40-year-old UFO mystery

Just what did flash out of the sky and into the lives of hundreds that April day? Stephen Cauchi reports.

A Canberra academic is investigating one of Australia's most compelling UFO mysteries, a sighting by hundreds of people in the Melbourne suburb of Westall on April 6, 1966.

More than 200 students and staff from two schools watched as the object landed in a nearby paddock, lifted off and vanished.

Shane Ryan, an English lecturer at the University of Canberra, is interviewing dozens of witnesses for a book he hopes to publish on the 40th anniversary of the sighting.

Mr Ryan, 38, was alerted to the events in the 1980s by a housemate who was there. Unlike most UFO sightings, the Westall object had a large number of credible witnesses. It was viewed in daylight and attracted a forceful response from police and the RAAF.

"It had these rather interesting elements which indicated to me that, unlike some other so-called UFO stories, there was some substance to this," he told The Sunday Age.

"I knew the 40th anniversary was coming up next year, so I thought it was timely to do some research on it."

Mr Ryan has interviewed about 30 witnesses, mostly former staff and students from the Westall secondary and primary schools. He has tried obtaining police and RAAF reports, but so far with little luck. The story was covered then by Channel Nine, The Age and local newspapers.

On the UFO, everyone seems to agree, Mr Ryan says. It was a low-flying, silver/grey shining object, either of classical flying saucer shape or close to it, "a cup turned upside down on a saucer". The students were familiar with light aircraft because the schools were close to Moorabbin Airport. Although the UFO was of similar size, "everyone said straight away that they knew it was not a plane", Mr Ryan said, nor a weather balloon.

The object was in view for up to 20 minutes, and many saw it descend. Most agree it landed behind pine trees at the Grange Reserve. Dozens of students ran across what was then an open paddock to the reserve to investigate, but the object had lifted off and vanished.

Other details are sketchier. The UFO appears to have left a circle of scorched grass; others say several circles were left in paddocks bordering Grange Reserve.

Many witnesses, not all, report seeing aircraft, up to five, trailing the UFO. Some say it made no sound, others say it did.

Many reported that police/air force/military personnel inspected the site; some (not all) say the authorities burnt the site. The Dandenong Journal, for which the story was front-page news two weeks in a row, reported that "students and staff have been instructed to 'talk to no-one' about the incident". Nevertheless, one teacher, Andrew Greenwood, gave the paper a detailed account.

"It was silvery-grey and seemed to thicken at times," he said. "The thickening was similar to when a disc is turned a little to show the underside."

One of the closest witnesses was a boy whose family leased land at Grange Reserve for horses.

Shaun Matthews (not a student at Westall) was on holidays and spending time on the land.

"I saw the thing come across the horizon and drop down behind the pine trees," he told The Sunday Age this week. "I couldn't tell you what it was. It certainly wasn't a light aircraft or anything of the like …

"I saw the thing drop down behind the pine trees and saw it leave again. I couldn't tell you how long it was there for, it was such a long time ago."

Mr Matthews, 51 and now living in Greenvale, said the object "went up and off very very rapidly".

"I went over and there was a circle in the clearing. It looked like it had been cooked or boiled, not burnt as I remember," he said. "A heap of kids from Westall primary and high school came charging through to see what had happened — 'look at this, look at that, we saw it as well', that sort of thing. It was a bit of a talking point for a couple of days."

Mr Matthews said the object, about the size of "two family cars", passed him at a distance of about "four football fields". "It was silvery, but it had a sort-of purple hue to it, very bright, but not bright enough that you couldn't look at it," he said.

"I saw that it dropped down behind the trees, and I thought, 'hello, hang on'. A minute or so later, it went straight up, just gone."

He said police and other officials interviewed his mother. But he cannot remember them burning the landing site, as others have alleged. And he did not see any light aircraft trailing the object, as others did.

"The way this thing moved there is no way it could have been a weather balloon or a light aircraft," he said.

"A helicopter? No way — no noise, wrong shape, and it didn't move like it. It came out of the distance, stopped, and then just dropped.

"It didn't just sort of cruise and then slightly descend at an angle. It just stopped, dropped, and then went straight up."

The Victorian UFO Research Society investigated the incident. VUFORS secretary Tony Cook said Westall remained one of Australia's major unexplained UFO cases.

The top one was the case of Frederick Valentich, a 20-year-old Melbourne pilot whose light plane disappeared while flying over Bass Strait in 1978.

In the last minutes of radio communication, Valentich reported seeing a UFO hovering above his plane. He and his craft were never recovered.

"It's pretty well documented," Mr Cook said. "That's probably the most important one because it involves the disappearance of a person."

Mr Cook said the society's stance on UFOs was that, "there are people out there seeing unusual things in the sky at times and they can't be explained. But it's a very big leap to go from unexplained things in the sky to extraterrestrials."

Most witnesses, including Mr Matthews, say the UFO was not an aircraft or helicopter. But Westall is only six kilometres from Moorabbin Airport, and the object was roughly headed in that direction, travelling north to south.

"It sounds to me like some sort of experimental craft, very much Earth-based," Steve Roberts, of Australian Skeptics, said.

"It is an interesting event with lots of witnesses and what we now call a crop circle.

"Accounts are confused. Some have the object landing and taking off again, others say 'a paddock over which the object seemed to hover'."

As well, "if there was a whole swag of officials investigating it, there must be an official report in RAAF archives somewhere".

But Mr Ryan said that no one at the RAAF knew of the incident.

But given the history of the case — the way students and staff were told to keep quiet from the start — that was not surprising, he said.

"As I got a little bit older, I got a little more interested in the social and historical aspects of the story, how something like this could have happened and how it reflected society at the time, and how authorities responded to it," he said.

"There's been a layer of secrecy that was very, very prominent in this story from the beginning."

**********
From 4/2006

Polaroid photo of UFO over South Clayton taken 4 days before reported Westall High School incident

Shane Ryan is a researcher looking for eyewitnesses to the 1966 Westall UFO incident, on the Wednesday before Easter, April 6, 1966, about 11 0’clock in the morning.

Say the name Roswell and 774’s Breakfast presenter Red Symons immediately thinks of metal objects shooting through the sky landing in the desert, and little green men coming out of them. But when you say the name Clayton South, you probably think pork buns, unless you were around in 1966 and were one of 200 people who witnessed the Westall UFO incident.

Shane Ryan is a researcher looking for eyewitnesses. "It happened on the Wednesday before Easter, April 6, 1966, about 11 0’clock in the morning. Around about 200 people, most of them students at what was then called Westall High School, were out for morning recess", says Shane. "Many saw the strange object descend behind pine trees in The Grange Reserve, and then later ascend and fly away at great speed. The people who ran over to the reserve found a huge ring in the paddock where the object had been seen. Some people reported five light aircraft following or chasing the object.

"It’s an interesting case because there was this trace left behind which not only those kids saw, but a whole number of people who came afterwards, after school and adults and so forth came down to have a look at it as well."

A crop circle perhaps? "Some people call it that," continues Shane, "I’m not sure that it was, but it was certainly a ring left behind in the grass. And the other fascinating aspect of the story is that some people talk about the area being cordoned off by people in uniform."

Several witnesses reported being spoken to by the RAAF or military, including the school's science teacher, who was apparently threatened by two RAAF officers under the Official Secrets Act, if he spoke in public about what he had seen. The high school authorities dealt very harshly with both students and staff in the wake of this event, and forbade any discussion about it.

Shane has now established an email discussion group to encourage people to come forward and tell their stories about that day. About 45 people have made contact thus far. A lot of former Westall school students and two or three of the teachers. This group is dedicated to those people who were involved in, or have an interest in the incident at Westall High School, in the Melbourne suburb of Clayton South. He is especially keen to hear from people from "the other side", that is from the side of the authorities who may have been involved that day, such as RAAF, police or army.

Sources:
www.onlymelbourne.com.au
www.heraldsun.com.au
theufologynetwork.freeforum.ca
www.abc.net.au
www.muiss.org.au

The Day the Earth Stood Still in Clayton South

Westall 1966: A Suburban UFO Mystery - Video

Wisconsin Paranormal Group Gathers Evidence and Lore

Click for video 1


Click for video 2

leadertelegram - The first time Devon Bell had a paranormal experience, she thought her husband, Tony, was playing a joke on her.

After investigating the Charlotte Mills Bridge near the small Clark County community of Christie, the couple played back sound recordings from a recorder they had used.

They could hear their voices, which was normal. But there were three separate phrases on the recording they could not place.

One was of a man yelling for help. The second, Devon said, was an order to "Take them," with the third voice asking if they felt nervous, with a whispered "no" response.

Devon told her husband to fess up to his prank. He told her the added sounds were no joke.

"We could feel like there was something behind us," Tony said. "I could feel the hairs rise against the back of my neck."

Devon and Tony Bell are the co-founders of The Haunting Experiments, a local group that researches legends of paranormal activities in Wisconsin. The five-person group is currently working on season one of their webisodes, the most recent of which was released two weeks ago on their website and on YouTube.

Devon said the project process works like this: She researches and writes the stories about the legend while Tony does the video work and occasional special effects. Then she, or another group member narrates the video.

However, these are not necessarily paranormal investigation videos. Devon described most of the webisodes and videos they have produced as "travel videos" of the legends. The Charlotte Mills Bridge project was one of the few paranormal investigations they have done.

"We get more into the ghost lore part of it," she said.

Ghost legends aren't in short supply, according to Chris Weiner, the lead investigator of the Chippewa Valley Paranormal Investigators. The Chippewa Valley is rich with paranormal activity, he said, describing the area as a "virtual paranormal investigator's playground."

Even with the rich supply of lore in the area, The Haunting Experiments has traveled beyond the Chippewa Valley to pursue ghost lore, traveling as far as Clark County, Devon said.

The group itself began in 2008 as a way for the self-proclaimed "legend trippers" to delve deeper into paranormal lore, which Devon has been interested in since childhood. She said she chose the name, ‘The Haunting Experiments' because it was different from other groups she had heard of, and because she did not want to be known as the Eau Claire investigators.

"I knew that's not what we wanted to specialize in," she said in an e-mail.

The video work started on a whim in 2009 when Tony decided to record footage while they were at the Soo Line Bridge, or the "S" bridge in Eau Claire, with their digital camera. Since then, they've upgraded equipment, Tony said.

To date, the group has released about 12 videos, and there will be 12 webisodes at the end of season one, Devon said. The idea for a season of webisodes stemmed from a friend at Eau Claire Public Access who told them about the increasing popularity of the medium.

"We had already made other ghost lore videos, so why not launch something brand new for our group?" Devon said.

The couple said they plan to make a second season of webisodes as well. For now, the couple is pursuing their affinity for paranormal activity as a hobby, Devon said, although someday she and Tony could see themselves pursuing film for a living.

Along with the videos and season one of their webisodes, the group is working on a documentary focusing on the paranormal lore in Caryville, which Tony said will be completed by next spring.

For the documentary, they interviewed Weiner, who said working with the couple is a joy.

"They don't just go in looking for a thrill," he said. "They're in it for the research, the history, and of course to make their documentaries, which is a job in and of itself ... the viewers of these documentaries can live vicariously through those episodes."

NOTE: I looked over the website...very nicely categorized. Take a look at Haunting Experiences website...Lon

Wisconsin Paranormal Group Gathers Evidence and Lore


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