1978-08-03 - Coldwater, MI - Cylinder

Observers a Cylinder shaft cross the road above us and in front of us and then depart the scene quickly after pacing the car we were in.

This event happened in the hot summer months. We had been to a family function. Our car at that time had no air conditioning and we had the windows down. My father was in a rather foul mood and had the radio off. We were approx 3 miles away from a small city on a rural paved 2 lane highway travelling East. We came to a T intersection and turned south. This road was the Fremont road. There were houses on either side of the road. The moon was out bright that evening. As we started south my sister sitting in the back seat drivers side asked what is that in a startling tone.. We all looked and my father immediately stopped the vechicle. Less than 300 feet away at tree top level we observers a black cylinder traveling very slowly north to south paralleling the road. The object traveled approx 100 ft to the left and front of our vehicle and stopped. No remember it was a hot evening no wind and quiet not a sound could be heard except the car motor. The object only stopped for approx 10 seconds and then made a 90 degree turn on it's axis and started moving again east to west it crossed approx 100 feet in front of the car. I was in the right hand back seat. I lost site of it for a moment and then it appeared on my side of the car. It stopped again approx 200 feet on the west side of the road made another 90 degree turn and started heading south again very slowly. My father must have been really terrified as at this point he acclerated very quickly we reached speeds of up to 100 mph trying to outrun the object. After he had accelerated the object kept pace with our vehicle for approx 4-5 miles. Not a word was said in the car during this whole encounter. Finally after what seemed forever the object climbed and turned at a incredible rate. I quicly left our viewpoint. I have seen high speed jet aircraft make 600 knot passes and this object left the area by probably a multiplier of 5. My family talked only that evening of the encounter and for nearly 22 years it has bugged me. Recently we talked about that encounter and agreed to test our memories Each one of us took turns and made a tape. We then all reviewed them together and our story lines stayed pretty well true even though it has been 20+ years. Other generations of our family have had encounters and one was even interviewed by the world famous blue book team. My grandmother who is now in here 90's has black and white photo's of pictures she took in the early 60's. What ever we saw that night was no way from this world. Why we were choosen to observer the object and why it played a cat and mouse game with us while my father was trying to win the indy 500 is beyond me. But I would like to hear from anyone else in the Southern Michigan area that has had a similar encounter.