The 1897 Airship Cow Abduction

 

Back in the spring of 1897 the United States was obsessed with phantom airships. Tales came from across the nation involving unidentified flying machines, often piloted by strange individuals doing some strange stuff. In one tale out of Kansas, that strange stuff involved what some claim is the first modern connection between UFOs and cattle mutilations!

We've all seen the images of UFOs abducting cows, like the one shown above. While a popular trope in pop culture, the idea dates back to at least the strange case of Alexander Hamiliton from Kansas and his poor, unfortunate cow. 

On the night of April 17th, 1897, Alex Hamilton, a farmer in Woodson County, Kansas was awakened around 10:30pm by his cows making noise. Thinking it was a dog messing with them, he got up to check and was astounded to see an airship hovering over his field. The cigar-shaped craft was an estimated 300 feet in length with a glass paneled carriage hanging below it. It was a deep reddish color, and had three lights, including a red one, a green one, and a very bright white light that acted like a search beam. 

Hamilton went to get his son, Wall, and his hired hand Gid Heslip, and the three men grabbed axes from the barn and started to approach the craft, which was now hovering about 30 feet above the field. As they got closer, they noticed the inside area was well-lit. They could see six passengers, including two men, a woman, and three children, all speaking in an unintelligible jibberish. The men were able to get within 50 yards of the craft before a large turbine wheel, 30 feet in diameter started whirring and making noise.

The men noticed a 2-3 year old heifer was under the craft, and making quite a fuss, trying to jump over a barbed wire fence. They noticed that around the cow's neck was a thick chain, made from the same reddish material as the ship. They tried to cut it off, but when they couldn't, they instead cut the wire fence that the cow had become entangled in. Freed from the wire fence, the cow was now able to easily be carried off the airship into the great unknown.

The next morning, Link Thomas, a farmer in neighboring Coffey County found the hide, legs and head of a cow in his field. Thinking the cow had been poached and dumped, he contacted local authorities. Hamilton's brand was still visible on the hide. The remains found in Thomas' field were indeed the abducted heifer from the night before. 

Newspaper articles at the time made note that Hamilton was a very trustworthy, upstanding citizen. There was even a signed affidavit attesting to his character. And, for decades, this story remained a mystery. However, the 1960s and 1970s saw the beginning of a wave of modern cattle mutilation cases being tied to UFOs and this story was rediscovered by researchers. That's when the story started falling apart. 

A woman had come forward and claimed that she had heard Hamilton bragging to his wife about this made-up tale he had concocted and was going to report to newspapers. Then, a newspaper editor from Buffalo, Kansas uncovered the fact that Hamilton was a member of the Yuma Township's Liar's Club! As with other such clubs, the idea was for members to come up with the biggest, craziest stories they could. What's crazier than a phantom airship (which had a level of credibility as these things were being reported all over) abducting your cow? I mean, he had an affidavit signed by other trustworthy, prominent local citizens (whom I'm guessing were also in on the joke). 

Apparently, the club disbanded not long after, and honestly, I can't blame them. Tricking a nation into believing your cow had been abducted by people from Mars or Mercury certainly can't be beat. 

Sources and Further Reading:

Le Roy Cow Abduction: Spooky Valley Website

1897 Cow Abduction Hoax: How Stuff Works

30 April 1897
The Neosho Falls Post

Hinton UFO (April 1950)

The little railroad town of Hinton, WV is no stranger to the strange. Not only is the town known for quite a number of haunted locations throughout...it has also seen quite a few flying saucers over the years! Significant sightings of UFOs over Hinton and surrounding areas took place in 1947 and 1952. Now, we have an article from a local newspaper showing that once again, Hinton was included in a series of nation-wide sightings, this time in the spring of 1950!

Mrs. R.W. Rossen and a visitor, Mrs. C.C. Honaker, were at the Rossen home on Ninth Avenue on Saturday, April 22, 1950 when they saw a low-flying, metallic colored disc flying up and down over the side of Corporation Hill in the west end of town. The sighting, which happened around 3:10pm, ended when the craft disappeared into the foliage, possibly landing or crashing along the hillside.  

To my knowledge, no other reports of this particular flying saucer were reported...or at least, published in the local newspapers. The women were adamant that it wasn't a kite that was seen, but were hesitant to come forward for fear of being accused of trying to start another flying saucer story. 

What is it the draws these flying saucers to the area in and around Hinton? For what we'd now consider a fairly small town, the area has seen more than its fair share of unexplained aerial phenomenon. Hinton continues to be a location of great paranormal interest to me and I'll continue to document and explore its many mysteries. Stay spooky, ya'll....and as always, keep your eyes to the skies! 

The Leader
27 April 1950

1897 Gallipolis Phantom Airship

Gallipolis, OH ca. 1914

As previous discussed here on Theresa's Haunted History, 1896-1897 was a huge couple of years for phantom airships flying mysteriously over the continental United States. In April of 1897, the phenomenon finally reached the Ohio Valley, when nearly the whole town of Sistersville, WV saw a strange craft over the town (Sistersville Airship). Two days later, it was reported that 12 foot tall humanoids had invaded the small town of Ogden in Wood County, only about 35 miles south of Sistersville (Ogden Humanoids). But...apparently the phantom airships weren't done traveling South down the Ohio River just yet!

I recently ran across an article published in the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette, dated 31 October 1984. The article relates the experience of Jacob Soden, a man who claimed to have seen a phantom airship over the skies of Gallipolis, OH (directly across the river from Point Pleasant, WV) way back in the year 1897. 

Although no specific date was given, I'm going to tenuously guess that Soden's experience came around the time of the Sistersville airship experience. As the story goes, Soden was coming home from church one Sunday evening. He was downtown, near the Hotel Laska/Gallia Hotel, when he heard a noise like a traction engine blowing steam. He looked up, and about 20 feet over the hotel, he saw what he described as a locomotive with wings, coming out of a train tunnel through a rift in the clouds. The vision temporarily paralyzed him, yet unfortunately he was the only person to have allegedly seen the aerial anomaly. 

So, what do you think? Did Jacob Soden witness the same unexplained aerial phenomena that plagued the citizens of Sistersville in April...or did he witness something else entirely? And why was he the only one to have reported seeing it?  I think its important to point out that Jacob Soden had passed away sometime prior to 1911, so the article in question (which was published in several different newspapers around Ohio) wasn't him reminiscing something that had happened almost 90 years before. Rather, it apparently was quoting an article from the Gallipolis Tribune from the time of the original sighting. 

And...it wouldn't be the only time that Gallipolis was the site of a phantom airship! In 1931, quite a few witnesses saw a phantom airship in both the Gallipolis area and across the river, just outside of Pt. Pleasant (Pt. Pleasant Phantom Airship). I'm not sure what it is about the Ohio River that seems to attract these types of things, but along with Mothman, MIB, and traditional UFOs, we can certainly include phantom airships into the area's collection of High Strangeness! 

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
31 October 1984

Beckley Sky Anomaly (1965)

Mount Hope, WV
Source: Town Website

We're wrapping up UFO Week here at Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State with a two-for-one astral anomaly over the skies of Beckley, West Virginia. My grandparents lived in Beckley, so I spent many weekends and summers in the area, hearing about local ghosts and legends. My grandma even had some of her own UFO experiences near Harper Road in the late 1990s/early 2000's! Unfortunately for me, what she saw was rather tame compared to the strange sight spotted in the skies above Maxwell Hill and Mount Hope...

In the Beckley Post-Herald, dated October 10, 1965 an interesting little tidbit ran in Donald Meadows' local column. He shared the story of a couple living in the Maxwell Hill area who wished to remain anonymous. Each evening, right around dusk, the couple were seeing something pretty weird in the night sky. As 'Mrs. X' described it: "It first appears to be falling to earth, but then shoots up and spits yellow fire out of its tail. After this, it seems to wriggle like a snake."

'Mrs. X' first spotted the anomaly through the window when she got up to use the restroom, and the couple had seen it several times since. They had contacted the Raleigh Airport, who reported no reports or radar anomalies. The couple put out a plea for anyone else witnessing the anomaly to come forward.

And, someone did. Although they also chose to remain anonymous, a  nearby Mount Hope couple had also been seeing something strange in the night sky. The anonymous wife sent a two-page letter in to Meadows' column describing what she and her husband had seen. As published in in the Beckley Post-Herald from October 17, 1965, the couple enjoyed sitting on their enclosed porch after dark. One evening, they took notice of a large, illuminated ball, coming from the south and moving westward. It had a long tail of fire and was emitting sparks behind it. Less than 45 minutes later, another object appeared, moving along the same path!

The couple assumed that these objects were part of three Russian satellites recently sent into orbit, but a third object was never observed. 

SRC Worker Sees UFO in Clay County (1968)

 

West Virginia Rt. 4
Source: Wikipedia

We're trucking right along with UFO WEEK here at Theresa's Haunted History! Today's blog post comes from the October 21, 1968 edition of The Charleston Daily Mail, and tells the experience of a family of seven seeing a UFO in Clay County, WV. The article mentions that what the family saw is similar to what had been seen forty miles away in Summersville. Research into that is on-going...

An unidentified flying object was sighted Sunday night by a State Road Commission employee and his family as they were driving in Clay County.

"We saw it twice," Claude Keenan told the Daily Mail today. "It was a real tremendously bright object."

Keenan said he, his wife, and five children were traveling along W.Va. 4 in Clay County about 10:30 pm when they spotted the object overtop a car. 

"My wife said it was the first time she'd seen a falling star that close. The children were very upset," Keenan said.

"We tried to calm the children and when we looked again, it was traveling alongside a car and then disappeared."

"It looked like that UFO that's been seen around Summersville," Keenan continued, "and where we saw it was 40 miles away."

The Charleston Daily Mail
21 October 1968

UFO Landing in Danese? (1968)

Formerly known as Noel, Danese is a small, unincorporated town in Fayette County, West Virginia. It is also the site of an alleged UFO near-landing one winter day in the 1960's. 

Ben Crookshanks lived along Route 3 in Danese, and was a regular reader of the Beckley Post-Herald, a newspaper from neighboring Raleigh County. Crookshanks wasn't just a reader, however. He also enjoyed writing letters to the editor on a variety of subjects, many of which were published over the years. But, it was a letter received by the Post-Herald in February of 1968 that would earn Crookshanks a place in wild and weird history. Actually, there were two letters....

In a column dated 15 February 1968, Charlotte Fleshman of the Post-Herald noted that two letters had recently been received by the newspaper, both coming in the same mailbag, actually. The first was a letter from the UFO Research Institute, based in Pittsburgh, PA, asking for UFO sightings within a 200 mile radius of them. The second, ironically, was a recent UFO sighting by none other than Ben Crookshanks, which hovered over a hill about half a mile from his home.

According to the article:

Crookshanks  qualifies that, "I couldn't say for certain that it was a flying saucer, but something unusual had been there. There was a hole in the snow about four feet long and about two and one-half feet wide, sort of egg shaped."

"Something with terrific heat had caused it," he wrote, "because the snow was better than a foot thick and the hole was melted into the ground. There was a wide ring of heavy ice around the hole. The ice was blue in color."

The Danese man added that "if it was a flying saucer, it didn't actually land, but only hovered over the snow, because the ground was undisturbed."

Theresa's Note: So, I don't know about you, but when I read that no actual craft was seen...only an impression surrounded by blue ice, my mind jumps to one conclusion: Crookshanks didn't stumble upon a UFO landing site; he found some sewage leakage from an airplane! Although there are plenty of urban legends about this blue ice, airlines assure us that there is no mechanism to actually dump their raw sewage out of a moving plane. However, leaks can and have occurred, leaving chunks of blue ice to cause destruction and perhaps...even ufo legends...in their wake. (Learn more about blue ice HERE)

Beckley Post-Herald
15 February 1968

MORE Charleston Police Officers See UFO (1978)

The Springfield News-Leader
24 October 1978

Last month, I posted a blog about an incident in 1966 when no less than seven members of the Charleston Police Department spotted a UFO. That wouldn't be the last time that officers in West Virginia's capital city would be plagued with their own personal sightings of unidentified flying objects.

On Friday, October 20, 1978 and lasting throughout the weekend, state police officers received around thirty calls about strange lights in the sky. The reports were all similar; a light that shot quickly across the sky, then would abruptly stop or slow down. The hovering, or super-slow objects were often sighted in groups of three, and shone with a range of lights, including blue, white, green, yellow or red. These lights would dim if an airplane flew above them, then return to their usual brightness once it had passed.

Cpl. Don Sharpe of the West Virginia State Police, who watched at least seven of the lights for over a half an hour said this about the objects: "I couldn't tell you what they were. I've never seen anything move like that, I'll tell you." Sharpe wasn't the only officer to see the lights. At least three state troopers and a number of other law enforcement officers from other agencies saw the lights. One officer even snapped a color photograph, but the images apparently didn't come out well. 

Not only were these objects sighted with the naked eye, but they also showed up on radar at the nearby Kanawha Airport. However, Bill Givens, supervisor for air traffic control, believes that the anomalies, especially those that showed up on Sunday, were merely weather-related phenomena. 

What's interesting is that apparently people around West Virginia were reporting UFOs around this same time, including 20 year old Fairmont State student, Joyce Dehner. On October 24, she saw a UFO on Interstate-79 near Fairmont. You can read about her experience (HERE)!

The Herald-News
24 October 1978

The Indianapolis-Star
24 October 1978

Madison Prom Night UFO (1977)

 

The Raleigh Register
26 May 1977

I hope you're enjoying UFO WEEK here at Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State! Today's post is about a UFO reportedly seen by eight people in the Madison area of Boone County, WV on the night of Scott High School's Senior Prom. The same, or a similar object, was also reported a little further north up Corridor G. As reported in the May 26, 1977 edition of The Raleigh Register:

In the initial hours of darkness last Saturday, it was a typical "prom night," with teen-agers celebrating the end of high school, and their parents losing sleep to worry over their safe return home.

Then about three hours before sunup, the prom was quickly forgotten. 

A strange object, flashing blue and orange lights, floated down from the darkened sky, holding several families in rapt attention. 

Mr. and Mrs. Harold Miller, and son Scotty, 17, were in a bedroom when an "eerie, blue light poured through sheer curtains over the window.

"Scotty rushed to the window and saw what he described as a very, very intense light, almost too bright to look at, sort of pulsating," Scott High science teacher Den Isaac noted.

Isaac has taken statements from eight persons who witnessed the same object.

"We'd like to believe it was a genuine UFO sighting, but I am reluctant at this time to draw a definite conclusion," Isaac said.

Scotty Miller watched with fascination as the object flew above a housetop, casting its brilliant light on parked cars and hillsides in the neighborhood.

"When he found out others had sighted the object, he agreed to describe the experience," Isaac said. "Now other reports are beginning to come in."

A UFO buff for the past 14 years, Isaac plans to distribute the official reporting forms supplied by the Air Force to his students. 

Another student, Ronnie Miller, 17,  Mud River Rd., was driving his girlfriend through "Corridor G" when he noticed something unusual in the pre-dawn sky.

"He described the object as elongated, giving off a very intense orange-red light, making no sound and skimming along the treetops," Isaac said. "He thought it might be a helicopter going to crash."

Update June 2025:

While researching a completely different topic on a different newspaper archive service, I came across this little article from the Mountain Statesman, a paper out of Grafton, WV. Dated 27 May, 1977, the article states that Donald and Ruth Vaughan spotted a meteor while traveling Interstate 64 near Charleston a week earlier. The meteor was headed in the direction of Boone County at the same time the sightings above were reported. So, was there a prom night UFO...or just natural astral phenomenon?

Mountain Statesman
27 May 1977

UFO Crash Over West Hamlin??

Happy World UFO Day! 

Today is a day to celebrate the strange and fascinating world of ufology, and what better way to do just that than to share a UFO story from right here in West Virginia! The Mountain State is no stranger to UFO sightings, and that was especially true between Autumn of 1966 and Winter of 1967. If those dates sounds familiar, that's because this is the time frame where the small, Ohio Valley town of Pt. Pleasant was being inundated with reports of a large, winged humanoid who would become known as The Mothman. In addition to Mothman, the people of the area were reporting other incidents of high strangeness, including various cryptid sightings, hauntings, poltergeist and psychic activity....and plenty of UFOs. These reports of unidentified flying objects spread throughout the Ohio and Kanawha Valleys, including the town of West Hamlin.

What is interesting about these West Hamlin sightings is that multiple witnesses reported what they believed to be aircraft on fire. This was confirmed by an Eastern Airlines pilot who circled the area and spotted a fire two miles from West Hamlin. However, both a second search plane AND State Police ground forces could find no trace of a fire anywhere in the vicinity. So what were these witnesses seeing? Were that many people independently misidentifying some natural phenomenon that LOOKED like an aircraft on fire...or was there some sort of cover-up concerning a crashed craft, either from an extraterrestrial source, or from right here on Earth? 

Let me know in the comments below what YOU think was going on! 

Sunday Gazette-Mail
02 April 1967

Weirton UFOs (1966)

Marland Heights Park
Source: City of Weirton

Even before Mothman showed up in Pt. Pleasant, accompanied by a 'flap' of UFO sightings up and down the Ohio River and Kanawha River Valleys, strange lights and crafts were being seen in the skies around the country. In West Virginia's northern Panhandle and surrounding areas, the spring of 1966 saw its own UFO flap, including several reports from Weirton.

As reported in the May 3, 1966 edition of the Weirton Daily Times, three kids (Mark Harris, Kenneth Webb, and Jay Briscoe) were playing basketball at Marland Heights Park when they spotted a UFO flying overhead. Two adults, David Horvat and Carl(?) Taylor, also saw a similar craft soaring over downtown Weirton. Not a lot of information was given in this article, and I couldn't really find any additional details in other articles from around the time period. However, I DID find an article six months after about another UFO sighting in the Marland Heights area!

On November 4, 1966 the Weirton Daily Times reported that John Vujnovic, a local attorney and US Commissioner, along with his ten year old son, Bradley, had seen a UFO several days prior. The two had left the Waterford Race Track (later known as the Mountaineer Race Track) around 10 pm. As they turned onto Rt. 66 on their way home to Overlook Drive, they spotted what appeared to be a very bright star. Soon, they saw this bright light illuminating the hillside, so they stopped the car and got out. They were about 500 feet away from the object when it lit up even brighter and started to come towards them. 

They got in the car and left, but the object followed along behind them. They stopped again, this time only about 400 feet away from the object, which they could now see was about 20 feet in diameter and hovering above the ground. Allegedly, Bradley became concerned, so they got back in the car and drove home, losing sight of the object. After arriving home, John and his wife went back out to search for the craft, but found nothing. The following day, accompanied by another man, John again went out, but found no trace evidence of the UFO. However, he did speak to several local citizens who said they've been seeing the UFO for several weeks!

The Weirton Daily Times
03 May 1966

The Weirton Daily Times
04 November 1966

Albert Brown's UFOs

Alleged UFO Photo 
from WikiPedia

Between November 1966 and December 1967, the small West Virginia town of Point Pleasant was seized with Mothman madness! Not only were residents consistently reporting a flying humanoid throughout the vicinity, the whole area was experiencing a period of high strangeness. Reports of paranormal activity including ghosts, psychic phenomenon, and other cryptid sightings were commonplace, but none so prevalent as the UFO flap that accompanied the weirdness. Throughout Pt. Pleasant and branching out to surrounding counties, UFO reports were on the rise, and one such witness was a man from neighboring Putnam County. 

Albert Brown was a shift supervisor at the new Elmwood Mines. He and his wife, Shirley, lived in Buffalo. According to an undated and unnamed newspaper article found in Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, by Jeff Wamsley, Brown left work at 12:45 am Monday morning and noticed a white light very low in the sky, which stayed in his view along Tribble Road, on his way home. He stopped to watch the light, and it turned blue and orange, and then bobbed up and down. It would appear on top of the hill, then disappear behind the hill, only to reappear. He looked for a road that would lead him to where the object appeared, but could find none. 

After four hours of watching the object, he went home and woke up his wife, who also saw the light, reporting it was the 'brightest and strangest light she had ever seen.' They called the Civil Defense in Charleston, who referred him to the State Police. The police did come out to investigate, but by the time they got there, the light had disappeared. After their story was published, Shirley reported that Gary Davison from Spencer, WV called her to say he had seen a similar object in his area earlier that evening. 

This incident was recorded in John Keel's The Mothman Prophecies as having happened on November 20, 1967, which was in fact, a Monday. I took to Newspapers.com to see if I could find where the article cited in Wamsley's book came from. As I couldn't find it, I assume it came from one of the Huntington papers, which aren't listed on the archives. However, I did find an article about the incident from November 20, 1967 published in the Charleston Daily Mail. This much shorter article adds the detail that the light was blinking red, but omits the fact that it later turned blue and orange. It also claims that the craft was triangular in shape!

That Sunday night prior to Brown's sighting, strange lights and/or craft had been observed in Mason County. First, a black object with no visible wings was seen very low over Point Pleasant. A few hours later, a white light was seen very low in the eastern sky, just north of Point Pleasant. This light was witnessed by several people, including John Keel himself. Were these all the same craft that were seen that night, and if so, why were they all described so differently? 

Charleston Daily Mail
20 November 1967

Un-Cited Article found in
Mothman: Behind the Red Eyes, 
by Jeff Wamsley

UFO Seen Over Mullens Athletic Field

Mullens Athletic Field
Google Street View

In the summer of 1973, continuing well into autumn of that year, there was a huge UFO flap going on throughout the United States. By October, that UFO flap had hit the southern West Virginia area particularly hard, with almost nightly sightings occurring around Raleigh and surrounding counties. On October 25, 1973, the Beckley Post-Herald newspaper ran a story about sightings of a strange light in the sky witnessed in Wyoming County over a three-day period. 

Starting on Friday October 19th, a "lop-sided" star was observed over the area of the Mullens Athletic Field around 9pm. The witnesses used binoculars to watch the strange light, which stayed in the area for about an hour. The strange light returned on Saturday AND on Sunday, also around 9pm, and again, staying for about an hour each time. This lop-sided star was said to appear as a red-green light, moving in a swiveling motion. Those who got the best look at it said it resembled a large, off-shaped saucer with a white light in the center and green and red lights surrounding it. 

Beckley Post-Herald
25 October 1973

Bloodmobile Vs. UFO

Red Cross Van, 1960's
Source

When 71 year old Beau Shertzer passed away on October 22, 2015, his obituary painted a picture of a fascinating and well respected gentleman. The former Pt. Pleasant resident was a Vietnam Vet who earned a Bronze Star for Heroism and was also a well-known philanthropist. He was an esteemed dancer, having performed locally on stage and on television in his younger days, and even in Walt Disney and Universal Studios later in life.

Beau was the son of Bob Shertzer, who coached football at Pt. Pleasant High School, and Beau himself was a 1964 graduate of the school, who later helped establish and raise funds for a scholarship program in his father's name. After retiring from the medical field, he moved to Florida to help care for his parents and brother, where he continued his dancing and philanthropic interests until his death. 

But, one thing his obituary leaves out is that in Fortean circles, Beau is famous for something much stranger...

On March 5, 1967 Beau was 21 years old and working for the Red Cross. He and a young nurse had been busy collecting human blood, and in the wee hours of that dark, cold, rainy morning, were transporting the specimens back to the Red Cross headquarters in Huntington, WV. As they were driving along Route 2 between Pt. Pleasant and Huntington, they entered a particularly desolate stretch of highway. However, they weren't alone. From behind a nearby hill, a large, glowing object lifted into the air and swooped directly towards and over the bloodmobile van. 

Beau rolled down his window to get a better look at the craft, which was above the van and keeping pace with it along the highway. He was horrified to see that there was some type of mechanical looking arm or extension coming out of the light, directly towards the van. The nurse, by now in hysterics, shouted that she could see another arm coming towards the van on her side. It was almost as if this UFO was involved in playing a giant version of an arcade crane game, and trying to grab the van up in its eerie clutches. 

Beau stomped the gas and tried to gun it, but he couldn't outpace the craft. The only thing that seemed to save them were the headlights of an oncoming car, which caused the arms to retract and the strange light to fly off. Understandably shaken, Beau and the nurse alerted the state police of what they experienced, and the incident was briefly mentioned that evening on a local radio broadcast. 

What was weird, though, is that despite the fact that the rash of Mothman sightings and the accompanying UFO flap that was occurring in the area was being covered heavily by the newspapers, this story was never picked up by local press. In fact, it doesn't really appear to get a whole lot of attention, even from John Keel himself who investigated the incident. He did briefly mention it in several of his books, as well as in a short column he wrote for the Burlington, NC newspaper, The Daily Times-News.  However, it seems as if the story was never really fleshed out any further. Was the story just too weird to be taken seriously, or was there some other reason that  the idea of a UFO or its occupants perhaps needing HUMAN BLOOD decidedly kept on the down low? John Keel does mention that at around this same time, there were several cases of animal mutilations being investigated, and that out of curiosity, he contacted the Red Cross to see if any of their bloodmobiles had ever gone missing. Understandably, he didn't get an answer, so the investigation into why a UFO would be trying to abduct an automobile full of human blood was largely dropped, leaving more questions than answers and another layer into the High Strangeness that overtook the Pt. Pleasant area during the mid 1960's untapped. 

Sources:

Keel, John. Strange Creatures From Time and Space. 

Keel, John. The Mothman Prophecies. 

22 June 1967
The Daily Times-News
Burlington, North Carolina

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

Strange Lights Over Talcott

On December 3, 1958 the Beckley Post-Herald ran the following story about two men seeing strange lights over the Talcott area of Summers County. My grandma grew up between Hinton and Talcott, so I'm happy to have found this interesting lil' piece of UFO-Lore from an area she probably knew pretty well. In fact, I think I remember my mom telling me that we were loosely related to some Sims/Simms in that area...so this story might be from a distant cousin! I also think its interesting, and adds a bit of validity to the story, that one of the witnesses was a Navy aircraft radioman. Surely, if HE couldn't identify the lights as a conventional craft, no one could. Anyway, here's what was said:

MEN REPORT SEEING TWO STRANGE LIGHTS

TALCOTT, Dec. 2 (RNS)--Robert P. Sims of near here reported seeing two unusual lights at about 6 pm today.

The lights, he said, were directly south of his farm located on top of Gwinn's Mountain approximately two miles southeast of Talcott.

Basil Willey of Hinton was with Sims at the time and also reported seeing strange lights. Sims said the lights were bright white similar to white carbon arc. They were about 50 to 100 feet apart with one behind the other at an estimated altitude of about 3,000 feet.

Sims said the lights went from the extreme right to the extreme left in about two seconds with no sound whatsoever. 

The men described the lights as being about the size of a plate.

Sims, a former Navy aircraft radioman, said he had studied recognition of aircraft while it was being flashed on a screen at a speed of .01 of a second. He said he knew it wasn't conventional aircraft, and was unable to explain what it was.

Skelton UFO Sighting 1967

Skelton Company Store
Source: Coal Camp USA

Skelton, West Virginia is a small, old coal camp community, located just a short drive from Beckley, in Raleigh County. However, there would be quite a bit of excitement and gossip in Skelton during May of 1967. That was when silvery-grey, saucer-shaped UFO was observed over town by two men. Here is there story, as it appeared in the May 25, 1967 edition of The Raleigh Register: 

Cape Employee/Cousin Claim: 

SAUCER-SHAPED UFO SEEN IN SKELTON AREA

A Skelton man and his cousin, an employee at Cape Kennedy in Florida cited (sighted?) an unidentified flying object (UFO) "hovering" Wednesday night over the Skelton vicinity.

The saucer-shaped object "silvery-gray" in color was topped with a high dome, according to the men, Robert Walker of Skelton and Charles Teel of Cape Kennedy. 

"We stood and watched the object, at first thinking it was a cloud," the men said, "and then it started to move." 

"I've never seen anything move so fast," Teel said.

Employed as an electrician at Cape Kennedy, Teel said he had seen satellites and other apparatus such as missiles and so forth, "but this was different. I've never seen anything like it," he said.

"I've never doubted anyone seeing such a thing, but this was really hard to believe," he said. "And I swear," he said, "that I never even had a drink of cough syrup." 

I searched newspaper archives from around this time and couldn't find any mentions of others in or around the area seeing this same craft that Wednesday night. However, it is interesting to note that around this time, a flap of UFO sightings in Pt. Pleasant (which may or may not have been related to the Mothman sightings) were in the newspapers as being 'debunked.' It's also interesting to note that Beckley and the surrounding area have a long history with UFO sightings, many of which took place during the famous 1973 flap! 

I love taking a look back at these old UFO sightings, even though there really isn't much to actually investigate after so many years! But, if you love these old newspaper articles on UFOs, monsters, ghosts, and other strange happenings in West Virginia's history, stay tuned to Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State this month as I continue to delve into my archives and share some of these stories so that they're no longer lost to history. 

Pt. Pleasant's Phantom Airship

Photo from the movie, The Dirigible (1931)

During the latter part of 1896, into spring of 1897, the United States was experiencing a really weird phenomenon: phantom airships! People from coast to coast were reporting strange lights in the sky, which they believed to be some type of prototype dirigible. West Virginia even had its own sighting of this strange aerial phenomena when these strange lights were reported over Sistersville in April of 1897. 

West Virginia had a similar encounter with an early unidentified flying object over thirty years later, an incident that would take its rightful place in one area's history with high strangeness. 

On Saturday, October 10, 1931, half a dozen witnesses in the town of Gallipolis, Ohio reported an alarming incident. Around 2:50pm, a dirigible was seen flying over town. Dr. Charles E. Holzer noticed the craft going over his hospital at about 300ft in the air. A few moments later, Robert P. Henke and his wife, along with Dr. and Mrs. Claude Carter, all of Gallipolis, watched in horror as the dirigible crossed the Ohio River into West Virginia, broke into two, and fell to the earth in flames. 

Mr. Henke had been observing the craft, which he reported as being about 100-150ft long, with field glasses when it went down. Although other witnesses reported seeing what they believed to be three human figures parachute out of the dirigible as it began to go down, Henke could only say for sure that he saw something white, which looked like a parachute, leave the craft. 

A search party was organized that evening, but was unable to find any proof of the wreck. It was seen falling over a sparsely populated area of Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia---just a short distance from Pt. Pleasant. And, as any student of Fortean phenomena knows, Pt. Pleasant has quite the long history with the strange and unexplained!

It was assumed at the time that the dirigible was en route from Akron, Ohio (home of the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation) to Huntington, WV. US Senator H.D. Hatfield had put in a request with the Navy to have one of their airships fly over the field during a football game between Huntington's Marshall College and Washington and Jefferson. Unbeknownst to the witnesses of the crash, however, was that Hatfield's request was denied. Not only was his request denied, but when contacted, the airfield at Akron, the US Army, AND the US Navy all reported that each one of their airships was safe and accounted for. 

Dr. Holzer, who also owned the airport in Gallipolis helped carry on the search the next morning, sending out pilot Lt. Eckford Hodgson to search the area by air. Once again, no sign of the wreckage or its potential crew was found. In fact, nothing was ever found and to this day, the incident remains a mystery. Just what happened to fall out of the sky over Mason County, West Virginia that autumn day, and what became of the person or persons who piloted the craft? 

Evening Star (Washington, DC)
11 October 1931
Source: Chronicling America

Additional Sources:

"Crash of Blimp Near Ohio Town Investigated." The Richmond Item (Richmond, Indiana). 11 October 1931

"Blimp is Believed Down in Wooded Section of State." The Bluefield Daily Telegraph (Bluefield, WV) 11 October 1931

More Weird UFO Dreams

10,000 Volt Ghost from
Scooby Doo

I mentioned it briefly on my Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State Facebook page, but if you don't follow me on there or are new to my spooky gang, then you may have missed that early last November, I had to have emergency gallbladder removal surgery. The surgery went fine and I quickly bounced back into the swing of things. However, around this time, I had a series of strange dreams involving UFOs and/or alien abduction. I've been hesitant to share them publicly, mainly because I realize that there's probably nothing to them. I'm known for having really lucid, vivid, and WEIRD dreams, but for some reason I can't fully explain, I felt compelled to share them. Perhaps someone out there has had similar dreams and needs to know they aren't alone. Maybe someone else just needs a good laugh at the strange crap my mind comes up with. Either way, here goes:

On the night of November 3, I had went to bed fairly early. I had my car all packed up and was ready to head to Chief Logan State Park the next morning, where I had a vendor table reserved with Wild and Weird Con. I had to leave early, so I wanted to make sure I was fully rested. I had only been asleep for about 2.5 or 3 hours when I woke up at 1am gasping for air. This sudden awakening pulled me out of the dream I was having. I don't remember the 'beginning' of the dream. All I remember is that I was in this nondescript sort of space, which was white or gray and didn't have any corners. Two...beings? people?...were supporting me on either side and I kept telling them I couldn't breath. I don't remember them being much taller than me, or much shorter either...just around the same height as me. They took me to this third being, who I swear, looked like a gray version of the 10,000 Volt Ghost from Scooby Doo. This thing didn't have facial features. I don't think it was FURRY, but its outline was kinda choppy and non-defined. It was humanoid shaped, but shaped more like the 10,000 Volt Ghost, with no discernable neck area and a body that went straight down without tapering at the waist. I perceived it as being above or in charge of the two beings supporting me. 

One of the beings supporting me told this thing that something was wrong with me. He (I perceived both of these to be male) sounded panicky and I felt like they had done something to me that went wrong.  I didn't hear the 10,000 Volt Ghost's reply audibly, but more telepathically. It simply told them to send me back NOW. 

As soon as he said that is when I woke up, gasping for air because I was in so much pain. My husband took me to the ER and as soon as the doctor saw how I was sitting, he pretty much knew I was having a gallbladder attack. Scans and bloodwork confirmed that I had gallstones, and that one was most likely lodged in a duct. Within an hour of getting all the tests back, I was being wheeled back to the OR to have my gallbladder removed. It was a simple procedure, and I was released from the hospital around 3:30pm that afternoon. 

That following night, I had another strange dream. I was 'taken' to this space that once again, was that same whitish or gray color, but it was more...lively. It seemed very busy in this space, with lots of people around. I was told to go sit in this area that looked a lot like a combination of a restaurant booth AND one of those 1970's era recessed seating areas people had in their dens. There was someone already there and I had the impression that we were being grouped together in this particular area because there was something the same or similar about us and our reason for being there. I was quite surprised when this person turned around and it was Ozzy Osbourne! I was even more surprised that he seemed to recognize me, as if we'd been in this situation before. That thought was 'confirmed' when he patted me on the shoulder and in a somewhat sad tone of voice said, "The bloody bastards got us again, didn't they love?"  I don't remember anything happening after that, but I don't think it's because I woke up. The dream just stopped. The next day as I was napping, I had another dream snippet. I was in this HUGE elevator with a bunch of other people. This elevator was like, the size of a large room and if you wanted to ride it, you walked into it, and fastened yourself into these little stalls against the back wall. I remember getting on this elevator, but not knowing where it was going. And that's all I remember.

It's unusual for me to have such short dreams. Usually, my dreams feel rather long, as whole story lines play out. Often, I'll wake up and go back to sleep, only to have the same dream keep continuing. It might change direction, but rarely do I ever have a dream just stop. What isn't unusual is the subject matter. This isn't the first time I've had similar dreams of being in this or a similar location, often accompanied by a feeling that I was taken or forced to be there. In fact, the elevator dream is a recurring one. My entire life I've had a bunch of different types of dreams that some might say could be indicative of a potential alien abduction, the most disturbing ones being the dreams where I'm either forced to take care of a bunch of babies or small children, or the ones where my own baby is taken from me after its born. Aside from the dreams, I've had some other experiences that have really made me want to question and research the abduction theory further. I don't necessarily want to get into all the stuff publicly, but I have mentioned before that whenever I take one of those silly little 'Have you been abducted' surveys, I check off about 90% of the boxes. 

Anyway, for full disclosure, I WAS getting ready to attend a paranormal conference when the one dream happened and the other two happened while I was still pretty well under the influence of pain killers. Not to mention, I had recently been taking a deep dive into researching the subject of abduction, but had largely put it off because reading others' accounts actually started making me have panic attacks. During the first dream, my husband was awake beside me the whole time and can confirm that I didn't physically go anywhere. So, the skeptic in me wants to just dismiss it all as simple dreams influenced by the factors around me. However, there's a small part of me that just FEELS like some of it, maybe not ALL, but some of it just might be more significant in some way. I hope that by sharing it, not only will it help me to process it and think about my experiences more critically, but perhaps reach someone else who has had similar dreams that may just be more than dreams. One day I might feel comfortable sharing some of the other weird 'abduction-type' stuff I've experienced, but until then, stay spooky y'all!

UFOs in Gilbert, West Virginia

Readers of Theresa's Haunted History know that I can't pass up a good book of paranormal nonfiction. My ever-growing library on subjects such as UFOs, ghosts, cryptozoology, and beyond is one of my most cherished possessions. But, my personal library extends beyond just the paranormal. I am also a collector of West Virginia history books! On one of my many visits to thrift stores and antique shops, I picked up a two-volume set of the history of Gilbert, WV. Gilbert is a small town located in Mingo County, WV. It may be small, but it's packed with history and interesting stories. Several interesting stories concerning UFOs can be found in the second volume, More Stories About Gilbert, West Virginia and Surrounding Communities, written by Colonel (Retired) Darrell G. Brumfield and Richard N. Ellis. The book was published in 1995 by Gateway Press, Inc, and my copy has some neat annotations and handwritten notes (including the address and phone number for Mr. Ellis!). 

Anyway, from what I can gather, Clifford Eugene Ellis starts off the UFO stories with an experience his father, Phillip Ellis, had in the 1920's. Phillip and a friend had a very early close encounter with a landed unidentified flying object! Here's the story in his own words:

"In the late 1920's, in the bottom below Uley Perry's place on Gilbert Creek, a strange flying object was seen by my Dad and Toney Perry. Dad told me a few years ago about the UFO. Toney and he were driving from Ben's Creek at night when they saw what appeared to be a tent which had been pitched. They thought that someone was going to camp out. They pulled over, stopped the car, and were going to go over to where the tent was set up. Suddenly, this object they thought was a tent (sides rolled up and lights inside) rose above a big sycamore tree and took off in flight. Dad asked, "What was that?" Toney replied, "I don't know, but let's get the hell out of here." Dad and Toney did not tell anyone of their experience for several days." 

The section on UFO's concludes when one of the author's of the book, Richard Ellis, decides (reluctantly, as noted) to share his OWN UFO story. He and a co-worker were rebuilding a diesel engine at a mining site located along the Logan/Mingo County border when they saw a strange craft with actual beings moving around inside it. Here's HIS story in his own words: 

"Sometime in the later 1970's, exact date unknown, on a Sunday evening, a fellow worker (who will remain nameless for reasons to be detailed later) and I were working, installing a rebuilt diesel engine for a power generator at Clarence Poe's mine on Sylvia Branch, near Verner. No one else was at the time as all equipment, even the mine ventilation fan, depended on that power plant that we were hoping to get operational right away so as to allow work as usual beginning with the Monday A.M. shift.

The installation was completed, and the test run was nearing when a needed filter was determined to be missing, left at the Marcus Coal Office of Ewell Hatfield in Gilbert.  Ewell, who owned the mine and had just arrived at our work site to check on our progress and bring food, suggested we take a well deserved and welcomed break while he returned to Gilbert to get the needed filter.

Following Ewell's departure, while we were sitting in the cab of our service truck enjoying coffee and a late supper, a row of several lights suddenly appeared in the sky straight ahead, visible through the windshield. Our truck was not running and all lights were off. The observed lights were in the interior of a craft which was no more than 100 yards away, and just slightly above our level as we were very high on the mountain.  It appeared to be over the creek, and we were nearer the point or side ridge of the hollow. 

We jumped from the truck thinking we were about to witness a plane crash. We then realized that the craft was stationary, and it made no noise, unlike any vehicle known to us. There were no navigational or landing lights visible, and the craft appeared to be cigar shaped, much like the fuselage of a larger conventional airplane in silhouette against a bright starlit but moonless night sky. 

Upon closer observation, the lights were revealed to be ports or windows.  We could see what appeared to be bodies, head and upper torso, move past the several windows. A pattern of movement was determined which saw the "beings" move in a route predictable from left to right past a window, then hidden by the solid section, only to appear moving by the next window. At the same time, a second similar figure could be seen moving in the opposite direction. It appeared the individuals were changing positions aboard the craft. That was seen clearly, but at a distance that would not allow us to further define body or facial features or dress.

After perhaps a minute, and after all interior movement ceased, the vehicle accelerated from its described position to out of sight as a streak of light as fast as the eye could follow. Our high mountain vantage point and the craft's direction of travel towards the most distant and open horizon allowed us to track it for many miles into the bright and open sky.

Gilbert, WV
Source: Town of Gilbert Facebook page

It looked exactly like a "shooting star" except that its trajectory was reversed, rising as it departed, much like a military missile upon launch. All of that still without any sound or additional light. The relatively low interior light level and our angle of viewing of the craft upon departure would have made it impossible for us to have traced it for so great a distance. In retrospect, I believe that we witnessed an exiting heat glow due to friction through the earth's atmosphere, just the reverse of the re-entry glow on our NASA space vehicles. 

Total silence, total disbelief, nothing known to man could have done what we had just witnessed! My fellow worker's first words were "I am never going to say anything about this to anyone!" In the years that have passed, I never mentioned it to him even though we still converse regularly. During work on this account for this book, I questioned him concerning his recollection of the incident. He is still a man of his word. He will not talk about it. I respect his wishes and will not mention it to him again or reveal his name. 

We did not tell Ewell upon his return in about one hour; we completed the work and went to our homes. I never mentioned the incidents until I talked with LaDonna Auvil, a fellow teacher at GJHS. As a UFO freak (sorry, "Don-Don"), she convinced me I should share the incident and belatedly report it. Soon after that, in discussion with Clifford Eugene Ellis and Randy Livingood, I admitted to having seen something I could not and can not explain. A UFO by any other name...

I have always scoffed at UFO accounts and especially the abduction reports that were prevalent about the time of our sighting documented here. I considered anyone who told some of the wilder accounts as perhaps a lost cause. If you agree, then maybe I need help.

At about the time of that incident the Chief of Police of Gilbert, Charles Sparks, observed lights over Gilbert and ran into June's (Runyon) Diner and emptied the place of patrons and help, all of whom reportedly witnessed the UFO. Since I was not among them, I will not attempt to elaborate further on what they may have seen. END OF MY UFO ADVENTURE."

Both of these stories really intrigued me, but I was especially fascinated by this latter tale. If the Chief of Police and a whole restaurant full of people saw something strange in the sky, surely the encounter would be documented elsewhere. And it was! The Williamson Daily News ran an article on October 23, 1973 with the headline 'UFO Viewed Over Gilbert.' This article comes amid a flap of UFO sightings that took place across the United State in the late summer/fall of 1973, and leading up to this article, the Williamson Daily News was doing its best to cover all the strange lights and crafts seen in the skies. 

This particular article states that Police Chief Charles Sparks, along with 25-30 additional witnesses spotted a UFO flying in a westward direction, directly over the town of Gilbert the previous night about 9:10pm. Sparks described the UFO as being round, gray in color, with a revolving white stationary light, two small blue flashing lights, and a yellow pulsating light.  Sparks and the group of witnesses, including Eugene Justice (head of the water department) watched the craft for about 5 minutes. They estimated it to be about 2000 feet up in the air, and made no sound.

While doing research for today's blog, I actually ran across quite a few reports from Mingo County and surrounding areas, including this sighting from September of 1982. In addition, the awesome author, Kyle Lovern, has collected quite a few reports in his book, Appalachian Case Study: UFO Sightings, Alien Encounters, and Unexplained Phenomena (as well as the follow-up, Appalachian Case Study, Volume 2). It seems like this area along the West Virginia/Kentucky border is quite the UFO hot spot! Any theories on why that would be, or do you have your own UFO sighting from this area? Please leave me a comment below, or join me over at Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State on Facebook! 

Want MORE UFO stories from around the tri-state? Check out this blog post on the 1975 Big Chimney UFO sighting!