Joyce Dehner's West Virginia UFO Sighting (1978)

 Happy World UFO Day!

Since today is World UFO Day, I thought I'd bring you yet another unexplained sighting from deep within the files of West Virginia's UFO history! Although this story was written up in the local newspapers at the time, the information for today's blog comes from issue Number 133 of the MUFON UFO Journal, January/February 1979 edition. The article, West Virginia Flap---Part 2, was written by the then-WV State MUFON Director, Ted Spickler.  (This edition is available in PDF format at THIS LINK)

Photo from MUFON

It was a fairly regular Tuesday morning. On October 24, 1978, 20 year old Joyce Dehner was traveling north on Interstate 79. It was about 7:15am and she was headed to class at Fairmont State College. It was still pretty dark at this time, and a series of red, green, and white lights coming over a low hill to her left caught her eye. She assumed it was a low-flying plane...maybe flying TOO low, as the craft approached the interstate, and dipped down within a few feet of an interstate bridge that Joyce was approaching.

Here, she was able to get a better look at the oddly shaped craft. She noted a hump or dome that was topped by red lights. Protruding out in front of the dome was a long, torpedo shaped area, which had a white light at its tip. The underside of the craft contained green lights. Joyce claimed that the object made no sound, and was about the size of a private plane.

A car ahead of Joyce must have seen the craft as well, because she noticed that it temporarily slowed down, then sped off. Joyce followed suit and stomped the gas, as the terror of knowing that this was NOT a normal sight began to set in. She said she witnessed the object 'float like a feather' across the bridge. It then shot up to the right side of the road, hovered a moment over some trees, then disappeared out of sight. 

The article states that Joyce was interviewed at least twice by MUFON regarding this sighting, but no explanation for the strange craft was ever uncovered. Interestingly, on November 2, 1978, a young man in Orange, California reported seeing a very similarly shaped UFO. And then, ten days after Ms. Dehner's sighting, quite a few people in West Virginia's northern panhandle caught their own glimpse of an unidentified flying object.  Even before Joyce's sighting, however, newspaper articles covering the incident had claimed that this was the fifth day in a row that a West Virginia resident had reported a UFO in the Mountain State. The MUFON article does address this, and it is believed that the other reports were misidentified star reports...but that Joyce's encounter might actually be worth something looking into!  

Keep your eyes to the skies and let me know what YOU think Joyce spotted over the highway outside of Fairmont, West Virginia! 

Logansport (Indiana) Pharos-Tribune
27 October 1978

1950 Fairmont UFO

 

This brief newspaper clipping comes from The Hinton Daily News, and is dated March 17th, 1950. It retells a report from a man known only as 'Watson' that ran a day before in a local Fairmont, WV newspaper. Watson claims that on Tuesday, March 14, 1950, he was coming home when he saw THREE big balls in the sky, which appeared to have a very bright light in them. They were moving at a great speed, and were directly above him, about 300 feet up. The witness insists that he is not a drinking man. 

Describing the objects as 'big balls of glass with a very bright light in them,' is quite interesting to me as I've never heard that description used before when describing UFOs, especially during this period. Through the 1950's it was much more common for people to describe actual saucer-shaped flying craft...not balls of glass. I wish there was more information, such as where exactly these three objects were sighted, what time they were sighted, and if there were any follow-ups. Still, I wanted to share it here as part of West Virginia's rich, UFO history!  

A Funeral For Old Man Gloom

Source

It's late...but its still technically Wednesday and therefore, its time for a Weird and Wacky end-of-the-year Wednesday!

I found this photo on one of my favorite historic image sites, WV History on View. Taken in Fairmont, WV in late 1928, this strange image depicts a funeral being held in the downtown area.

The funeral, sponsored by the WMMN radio station in Fairmont, is for none other than Old Man Gloom!  But...who IS Old Man Gloom? From what I can gather, in the 1920's, it was an annual tradition in many parts of the country to personify all the gloom and doom of the year and bury it as a way to usher in a more prosperous new year. The funeral procession and mock burial, complete with coffin and headstone, would take place during the last days of the calendar year. With Old Man Gloom safely six feet under, hope for a better year ahead was given to the city.

I hope YOU have a much improved year in 2018! Say goodbye to 2017 and make sure to take any gloom you may have acquired over the past 12 months and bury it safely away...at least, metaphorically!