1984-05-05 - Cloquet, MN - Other

Myself, a friend, two 9-yr old children watched a pulsating craft hover over the St.Louis River in Cloquet, just at the edge of town. I lived on a hill, giving an excellent view of the river and the craft from about 1/4 mile away. My friend and I had just returned from a coffee and pie outing at the local Perkins. We walked around to the back of the house and entered through the sliding glass door. The two children were in an almost hysterical state, shouting about the "tornado" which had passed over our house at a very low level. I tried to calm them down, and told them to draw me a picture of what they had seen (in separate rooms). They drew virtually identical pictures of an upside-down "ice cream cone" with spinning marks and colored lights. They estimated that it barely cleard the top of my 1-story rambler. It continued to the river and either landed or hovered just above the opposite bank. (north of our house. Evidently it had come from the south & traveled north. As we spoke, the kids pointed to where the object still was, on or near the river bank. I saw only a red (sometimes light green) pulsating light on or near the river bank. We watched it for 1 hour and 55 minutes exactly. During this time, it kept getting brighter; then dimmer. As it brightened, it seemed to become larger. I watched it thru binoculars, but could not make out a shape behind the light. My friend, the kids, and the 15 year old babysitter, watched and talked. Toward the end of the sighting, it did some spectacular things; the babysitter had gone home, but my friend stayed and watched with us. During the time we watched, we all tried to come up with some type of explanation for what it could be; we all concluded that it could not be human made; it was just too bizarre looking. There was no road or path it could have taken to get where it was. It was basically a swamp. We went there the following day to see if it had left any evidence of itself; it had not. We had to go on foot, climbing over fallen tree! s, etc. Anyway, just after 11:30, it suddenly turned an intense white, shot to the center of the river, and dispensed a laser-like dirty-white light onto the river. This lasted about 5 minutes or so. Then it suddenly turned that intense white again and took off up to the top of the opposite river bank; a distance of approx. 1/4 mile. So now it was a full 1/2 mile away. It stopped above the only other house in the area; a new, large multi-level home. The object shined a spotlight-type light that lit up the whole house and the yard; it looked like a helicopter search light, but much larger and brighter. The house lights had previously been off, but when this light show happened, all the house lights came on. I don't know if they actually saw this thing; and I haven't called them or discussed it with them. The owner is the county court administrator, and currently the mayor of Cloquet. I was just too embarrassed to ask a county official if he had seen the ufo. I was also too embarrassed to make a report right away. The next day I did call the local police to see if anyone else had made a report; none had. After about 2-4 minutes of scoping out this new house, the ufo suddenly brightened and shot off over the top of the hill and out of sight. I told the kids to go to bed; that they'd never see anything like that during their lives. I barely got out that statement when Zoom!! Back it came, shined its blinding whit light DIRECTLY AT US for several seconds before shooting off to the north and out of sight. The movements of this "thing" were completely unbelievable. It moved so fast that it reminded me of a child playing a flashlight on a wall in the dark. Nothing moves that fast. It's impossible!! During the sighting, the kids flicked on the floodlights to see if it would respond. It did. The kids turned the lights (6 of them) on and off three times. The object responded by brightening three times. I had the feeling it could hear what we were saying and thinking, because of the ways it seemed to r! espond t o us. The weather was completely clear, no moon visible. No wind at all. About 5 minutes after it left, however, a heavy fog came rolling down the river west to east, and completely obscured the view.