Meet the “Venusian Horseman!”
Note: In this installment, Part II of the “Kenneth Arnold Files,” the “Cosmic Ray” looks at Kenneth and Doris Arnold’s investigation of another Venusian tourist excursion, mothership and scout craft sightings and a Venusian horseback rider in California’s Sierras.
The Kenneth Arnold Files: Part II - Venusian Encounters
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, author of the internationally acclaimed Venus Rising trilogy
Ever since the Boise, Idaho, civilian pilot Kenneth Arnold’s radio report of nine disc-shaped objects “moving like saucers skipping across water” above the Cascades, and most notably Mt. Rainier, in Washington State on 24 June 1947, thousands of persons from throughout the world felt confident enough to inform both Kenneth Arnold and his wife Doris of their personal encounters with the mysterious “craft,” if that be what they truly are. During the period from the Arnold sighting and the organization of larger and scientific civilian UFO groups in the mid-1950s, most people had no idea who to report sightings of these objects. One might suppose that observers of flying saucers logically assumed that since Arnold had first seen them and had the courage to inform the press of his encounter, then it must be that Arnold could be trusted with the receipt of their report, at least insofar as he would not be judgmental as those who had not seen them would often be. At least Arnold was one individual who had some experience with the flying saucers. Perhaps he might have something to say about an observer’s report that would help allay some unfounded fear.
“The people have the right to know the facts...”
While Arnold would have liked to investigate all of these reports, he did not have the time or the resources such as would be available to a larger civilian UFO research group to accomplish this task. But let it be known that he did what he could, with him and his wife Doris traveling throughout the American West to interview sundry experiencers with the flying saucers and their occupants. In this chapter, we examine the still little-known case of the visitor from Venus along the Wolverton Trail, taking place in 1955.
The contactee in question was one Oscar F. Knight. He was a very successful rancher living in Central California, just a little to the west of Porterville. He and his wife, Kitty, had owned and managed, since 1950, quite a comfortable ranch where they raised cotton, fruit and walnuts. Speaking for both of the Knights, however, Oscar informed the Arnolds that, “My wife and I are well-liked and responsible citizens. We are only coming out with our story now because the people have the right to know the facts and make their own interpretation.”
Knight prefaced his account by stating that, “There is always among our friends someone we particularly enjoy associating with in the great out-of-doors. Such a friendship has been established through the years with Mr. and Mrs. Ken Haladay with I and Kitty.” The Arnolds immediately understood that Oscar and Kitty were not going to be the only experiencers in this close encounter.
“OK,” said Ken, “just exactly where, and under what circumstances, did your encounter occur?”
“Ken, it was up in the Sierra Nevada in the Sequoia National Park. It’s a beautiful place and still contains many virgin areas. One of these special areas is located at Moose Lake, along the Great Western Divide. It’s about twelve miles via Wolverton Trail, due east of the park’s headquarters.”
“What were you doing out there, Oscar?”
“Well, Ken, Kitty and I, along with the Haladays, went up there to go fishing. Not too many people know about this place. It’s quite secluded, you know.” Oscar went on to explain that they arrived at this site on 1 July 1955, whence they set up camp in the Wolverton Meadow. They felt sure that they were alone up there, with no one closer to them than a few people at the pack station about a mile down a “poor dirt road” meandering through the forest up to their newly established camp grounds.
After devouring some delicious hamburgers that the ladies put on the grill for supper, bedrolls were spread out along the trail, with that being the smoothest place they could find. “We knew that no one went up or down, past us that night,” Oscar assuredly proclaimed.
Sleeping undisturbed through the night, the two couples enjoyed a hearty breakfast. The women remained at the camp site, but the men folk adjusted their packs, checked out their fishing equipment, and then made their way beyond a brush area in the mountains. They hiked into a limestone belt where many of the giant redwood trees were located. At about three miles out from their campsite, the men found themselves in a much more rarified atmosphere. Oscar estimated that they were about 8,500 to 9,000 feet above sea level. Naturally, they were tiring quickly as it was a bit more difficult to breath at such a high altitude. They decided to rest for a spell.
Here the trail became wide and clear. Upon looking up ahead for about one-quarter of a mile, the majestic Panther Gap was in view. The panoramic vista was slightly obscured by a few large pine trees. At this point, the gentlemen closely observed the trail, taking note that they were still quite alone.
Kenneth Arnold was deeply moved when Oscar told him that, “Right here an event of destiny was to take place in both Ken’s and my life.” At this juncture, it should be noted that Kenneth was also the first name of Mr. Haladay, Oscar’s fishing companion. And then Oscar continued, “It will forever be branded with clarity into our memories.”
“An Event of Destiny”
“What do you mean by “an event of destiny?” asked the inquisitive Arnold. “Please go on.”
“Well, no one was on the trail. Yet, Ken and I were now startled to see a finely dressed gentleman coming down trail and not over fifty feet above us. He noted from our surprised features that we were mystified at his sudden appearance and made some comment on it.
“At once certain things became apparent to us. The stranger was not dressed for this wild woodland setting. From somewhere he had come from a dressing room. Low topped oxfords, brown in color, brown bands of a heavy drill, like whipcord, neatly pressed, light blue shirt; old fashioned wrap-around dress tie. His eyes were different from any I had ever seen. They were a clear transparent brown that one looked into, with depth- not opaque like ours. I was getting a little nervous. I thought this gentleman might be a ghost from the nineteenth century, dressed as he was and appearing out of nowhere.”
The intrepid flying saucer investigator was recording everything that Oscar Knight was saying. He then asked Oscar to provide more details about the appearance of this unusual gentleman encountered along the trail.
Oscar continued: “It was easy to place his height at six feet, two inches. I would guess that he was around two hundred pounds, in weight, by our measuring standards. He had a finely featured face that shone with strength and beautiful character. Ken and I would have placed his age in the late twenties, except for a point that would throw our guess off.”
“How so?” inquired Arnold.
“Well, as I was saying, he had brown hair. But above his temples there was a fringe of grey. This gave us a feeling that we had no way of knowing this man’s real age.”
“Go on,” said the investigator.
“Additionally, he wore neither coat nor hat. It was certain and obvious that he had not slept in his clothes; nor did he have any pack on his back, nor food and water with him, such as we had.”
“That is unusual,” quipped Arnold.
“OK, so Ken and I were familiar with this mountainous area, generally. As our new friend sensed this, he started asking us various questions in a manner we had not known of anyone.”
“What manner might that be?” asked Arnold.
“His clipped and precise phrasing of words, for one... I mean, he was cutting each word separately. It was so noticeable. And as the questions came along, a feeling came over me that by thought transference from my mind he had the answers before it was given.” Oscar paused for a moment, and then became very animated. He continued, “There was courtesy in his well-modulated voice as he would ask, ‘Gentlemen- where- are- you- going?’ Gentlemen,- how- high- is- that- peak?’ It was as if he had recently learned our language. Following our meeting, we were to go on with our minds searching for answers as to whom our meeting had been with. How little did we know that the mystery was to deepen...”
As the interview progressed, Arnold came to discover that for nearly the rest of that day, Oscar and his fishing buddy Ken were hiking on the north rim of the deep but rugged Buck’s Canyon. In the bottom of that canyon flows the middle fork of the Kaweah River; and across from there was the Milk River Ridge, extending for some distance into east and west directions. At the eastern extension, one could see the towering Triple Divide Peak. And in the bottom canyon land could be seen a huge rock. Apparently, in ages past it had broken off from the sidewall of the north rim. The top of that rock is reasonably flat. It was near the Great Western Divide that Oscar and Ken had laid down their packs. Ken suggested that they climb the short distance over a steep barrier in the morning. From this vantage point, the sun could still be seen to be shining. However, down in the great gash below them, shadows were creeping in to warn of the night’s approach.
“Blobs of Light” Appear
“Suddenly,” Oscar informed Arnold, “I called out in amazement, for five or six moving blobs of light rose up the sides of the large rock, and near these a long string of softly glowing lights. They were so close together that they almost seemed to blend into each other. They appeared as if they were coming from some sort of portholes! The smaller lights came to rest on the big rock surface; while the huge object, which I estimated to be about a quarter of a mile long, began to very slowly rose up to a point about one-third of the way up the shoulder of Milk Ridge Peak. And there it stopped!”
Kenneth Arnold could see that Oscar was highly excited and decided to not interrupt the flow of consciousness emerging from this UFO experiencer. He let Oscar just keep talking.
“Thoughts were racing through our minds,” noted Oscar, adding that, “We could hardly give expression to these, so great was our loss for words. We wondered what we were seeing. The strange lights we judged to be about one mile distant.
“Very tired, we rolled into our sleeping bags after some twenty minutes. The lights were still in the canyon.” Since the lights had not further approached them nor did the fishermen any harm, they snuggled into their sleeping bags and cut a few zees. With the arrival of the sunrise on 3 July, the two gentlemen were hoping to discover the source of the lights. They looked around but saw no evidence of anything strange in the region below them, where the lights had first become manifest.
The “Horseman” Arrives
Oscar and Ken’s excellent adventure was not over yet. They didn’t catch many fish on this trip; as all they could think about was the appearance of the oddly dressed gentleman and the phosphorous blobs of light. At this point, one can assume that their hearts and minds were far away from brook trout. Generally, that’s how it goes when you are faced with anomalous phenomena like this. Kenneth Arnold understood. Ever since his encounter with the “flying saucers” over Mt. Rainier, he couldn’t get them out of his mind either.
Here is the transcript of Arnold’s tape recording of Oscar Knight, regarding the subsequent occurrences:
“On our way back, our astonishment could not have been greater, for whom were we to see in almost the same spot, but our genial friend, coming up the trail, this time on a horse! Having been a cowboy for several years, it was plain to me he had not ridden a horse before. The stirrups had not been adjusted to suit the length of his long legs. And this resulted in his knees being placed forward and too high, thus throwing his body out of good balance in the saddle. One hand held the reins very loosely and rested on the pommel.”
“Like any good Westerner, I see you are quite the equestrian,” said Arnold.
“Thank you, Ken,” said Oscar, continuing, “Well, from the smile on his face, it was evident that he was enjoying himself. Stopping the big roan mare in a diagonal position across the trail, he said to us, ‘Gentlemen- you- see- I- am- riding- a- horse- today!’ I noted the large, full eyes and wide head of the noble horse; and from her looks she seemed to bear a great love shining through her eyes so expressively for everything around her. Here, we got in the only question to ask him, and that was if he had climbed Alta Peak. His quiet answer was, “Yes,- gentlemen,- I- climbed- it- yesterday.’
“Again, we were to reply to several of his questions regarding the scenery and our luck. Knowing he was unfamiliar with horses, I wondered by what means he would start her and was totally unprepared for what he did. Touching with his hand lightly along the poll of the left side of her neck, he spoke with gentle manner, ‘Now,- sweetheart,- now,- Girlie,- come- on- let’s- go!’ And in an understanding way, she headed up the trail. Will wonders never cease? Why hadn’t she tried to go back toward the corrals?
“I then asked the stranger his name, to which he replied, ‘You- can- call- me- Arthur.’ Then before I could ask him where he was from, I received an impression in my mind, as if by thought transference, that he was from the planet we know as Venus, being the second one out from the Sun and the closest one to the Earth.
“When I asked him what he was doing here, he said that he and his friends often visit this canyon as well as other wilderness spots on Earth. Wondering in my mind what was so special about this particular canyon to the Venusians, Arthur explained that, ‘The- seclusion- of- this- area- makes- it- an- ideal- place. But,- of- course,- it- is- California,- after- all. We- are- all- enamored- by- your- beautiful state.’ I suppose the California Tourist Bureau or Chamber of Commerce might like to know this.
“Now, as we parted company with regret, questions were to come more than ever concerning this being who had left such a profound impression on us. Never did my mind cease to search for the answers over which the dawn of light was to come gradually, as my wife and I become deeply interested and started to read as many books about flying saucers and Venusians as we could get hold of. We especially liked that book by Adamski and Leslie.”
Naturally, Arnold and his wife Doris were initially skeptical about Oscar F. Knight’s report. They had previously investigated a case of some Venusian nudists landing a globular spacecraft on a rocky beach along the Pacific Ocean in Washington State for the purpose of skinny dipping. That was before George Adamski and Desmond Leslie came out with their bestselling book, Flying Saucers Have Landed (British Book Centre, 1953), however. And the experiencer in that case had no desire to write a book about it, go on tour, or otherwise profit from the event. So by 1955, Kenneth and Doris Arnold found themselves embroiled in a ufology universe caught up in the sometimes exorbitant claims of the contactees. They wondered if Oscar wasn’t looking to just get on the flying saucer contactee bandwagon. In Oscar’s case, they decided that more proof would be required to proceed further in the case. There were just too many out there, especially in California, claiming contact with Venusians. The Arnolds decided that while they weren’t going to put Oscar’s case into the “circular file,” they were certainly going to set it aside on the shelf until such a time as further substantiating evidence should emerge.
It wasn’t long before proof emerged, however; for towards the end of 1955, retired Marine Corps Major Donald E. Keyhoe came out with his blockbusting book, Flying Saucer Conspiracy (Holt Publishing) that included an account of UFO reports over the same area as Oscar Knight and Ken Haladay’s encounter with the Venusian light ships and the mysterious man on horseback. On page 31 of that first edition of Keyhoe’s book, we find the following: "...this large craft was sighted by park officials on a different date, as it sped past Morro Rock in Sequoia National Park.” Major Keyhoe also found out that the object was seen by several people down in the nearby valley.
Further evidence came to the mailbox of Oscar and Kitty Knight on 10 February 1963. At the conclusion of this article the reader will note a signed letter of testimony from a National Park Service ranger at Sequoia, Carl J. Buehler.
Oscar Knight was a devout Christian and believed that celestial revelations to Earth continue long after the age of the apostles, even unto our day. Arnold asked Oscar why he was going public with his encounter, to which the contactee replied, “Oh! Our dear brothers and sisters of Earth who perchance come to read of this report will hopefully come to realization that we are at the dawning of a new age. For we are all God’s children; and I truly believe that we are living in the end times. In these latter days, I believe that the arrival of the Venusians is a fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecies. He gives us signs of the times in the sky.”
Kenneth Arnold, ever the diligent ufologist, asked Oscar Knight if one day it would be possible to meet some Venusians for himself. “I really want to believe you, Oscar. If only I could speak to a Venusian, face-to-face, then I, too, would be convinced of what you have told me this day.”
Oscar Knight suggested to Arnold that he read Matthew 7:7 (KJV), which contains these words of wisdom from the Master Teacher Jesus Christ, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”
All I can add to that is “Amen, Brother Oscar!”
Venus Rising: A Concise History of the Second Planet
Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus
Cosmic Ray's Excellent Venus Adventure
The Flying Saucers Have Landed
The Flying Saucer Conspiracy
