1969-07-01 - New York Mills, MN - Disk

30 Minute Encounter with Hovering Saucer 300 Yards Away

In 1969, I was 5 years old and my family lived on a farm in rural Minnesota approximately 2 miles Northwest from New York Mills (population 750). My Family (Father, Mother, Older Brother 12, Myself 5, and my younger brother 2) was driving home on a rural dirt road to our farm house near dusk (i.e. somewhere between 8:30 and 9:00 at night in July). We were heading west down the dirt road that passes by our house when we saw a strange light emanating from behind our nearest neighbors house. The light was brilliant. As we drove nearer we asked each other "when did our neighbor install a spot light in their yard?" We approached our neighbors house for about a mile and kept looking at the light, but did not understand why they had installed such a bright light in their yard. The road turns North directly in front of their house. As we headed North, my brother, mother, and I kept our eyes focused on the light and we determined the light was not coming from their yard, but instead was coming from a craft/UFO hovering behind their house. After traveling North for 200 yards North, we turned west again and all of us including my father could now see the saucer shaped craft hovering about 100 feet off the ground 100 yards behind the neighbors house. The craft was a brilliant orange, metallic color and was 30-40 tall and 100-150 feet wide and it was the classical saucer shaped craft.

We then turned into our driveway (North) and parked the car about 100 yards from the main road which left the craft hovering about 300 yards south from where we were parked. We all got out of the car and focused our attention on the craft. It continued to hover there 100 feet above the hill in the neighbor's farm field. There was absolutely no sound coming from the craft. The color was a brilliant fiery orange and it looked like there were windows on the upper half of the craft. The light from the craft appeared to have similar characteristics to heat rising from a hot road. We watched the craft from outside our house for about a minute and then went in the house because I believe our parents were worried for our safety. We went in the house and watched the craft hover above that hill for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes it descended and landed behind that hill. We could no longer see the craft , but there was a brilliant halo of light coming up from behind the hill. We watched the area for another 5 minutes and the craft ascended to about 100 feet above the hill again. It continued to hover there (300 yards south of our house) for another 15 minutes, but then flew away to the south and disappeared in the forest in a swampy area south of our farm. The encounter lasted for over 30 minutes and I still remember it vividly even though I was only 5 years old.

After the craft left, my parents put us to bed and went to sleep themselves. My dad slept with loaded hunting rifle on their bed. My parents never reported the incident because they thought people would think they were nuts. There were other sightings in the area around that time and the people that made reports were labeled as ODD. My parents never even talked with the neighbors about the encounter to see if they saw the craft which landed about 100 yards in back of their house. My parents still live in that same town, so even 30 years later when we visit Minnesota, we talk about the event and drive past the site.

((NUFORC Note: Date may be approximate, although the witness does not indicate that fact. PD))