A large file because the people involved had solicited help from their congressman thus earning a notation that the case had "congressional interest." In the end its four witnesses, and relationship to similar sightings of the same time would be buried. The case would be sent to the University Of Colorado no doubt as proof the reports were taken as serious business. The story would be politely labeled as the produce of an elderly woman seeing things and letting her imagination get out control.
Bourbon, Missouri, just six miles from Sullivan, rests in Crawford County, Missouri on the main roadway from Springfield to St. Louis. It would fall on a flight path from the NW (and Omaha/Lincoln areas of Nebraska) heading toward the Nashville area to the SE. Note this was the direction of the object viewed by the Lexington, Missouri witness (see that entry).
The story from Bourbon was seeing one or more reddish glowing lights, size of small grapefruit, originating from or through the trees in a woman's yard or the woodlands nearby. She observed this hover, and a white light swept the ground all around her property - back and forth - as if searching for something and the light was at a low level. Then it would head back to go over the trees or through them before going straight up and disappearing from sight.
The wintess said the lights had a distinct form but no solid vehicle was observed behind them. Sometimes, however, three lights would form a triangle; with five feet separating each light from the other. Occasionally, single light would appear as elongated objects. Dogs in the area would bark during these events as if the object was being detected by the animals.
At the location of some of the lights, the witness reported a scent like orange peel. The witness did not see little green men. Her first response as a patriotic American was that some foreign power was trying to mine the area for its rich magnesium deposits (see previous entry on UFO's and mineral and nuclear plant areas).
An additional witness saw much of the same and added that they had observed the colors change from red, to greenish to orange. As this orange color emerged it seemed diffuse and expanded to cover about 25 feet of area.
These sightings began around February 8 but were repeated all that spring. The file notes anotehr sighting of a similar event for March 5 or March 6.
The formal report, which would sent on to the University of Colorado, had a narrative of the events and concluded with this strange statement: "There is no doubt that these people have seen something and are not letting their imagination play tricks on them."
Despite the letters, the intervention of Congressman Ichard, and the letters to the Air Force pleading for information, in the end the case was classed as misidentification of aircraft coming and going from nearby Sullivan or beyond.
In the long form, however, is a drawing of the light formation the witness saw:
Three lights as one object? A small light on both sides of a central mass (red-orange) and a corresponding light to the right (piercing white and blinking). This is an important conceptualization of the object objects seen by this witness AND one that corresponds to objects observed by others in the same time frame of 1967-1968.
Sadly, when in early January this witness attempts to once again report the continuing objects observed the response was less than cordial or sympathetic. The report of January 7, 1968 is labeled {UNRELIABLE REPORT}. Despite the witness observing these lights/objects for as long as 25 minutes the report summary reads: :Description given by the observer is confusing. There are 101-5 different sightings in this report - sees UFO's every night. She has a previous case of 8 February 1967. A MO State Trooper investigated the sighting..."
The witness, a 62 year old woman, who said "my vision is good at distance...need glasses to read." Someone had scribbled around her statement "all I see are the lights...from red to amber than white...starts over..." the words "Scintillating Stars". Odd a woman who had lived in a rural community had never seen those before.
Noting the previous Lexington, Missouri sighting - remember the witness there said the object came from the NW and moved to the SE"? Across the state is a witness reporting January 10, 1968 that at 6:30 p.m. she had first seen lights to the northwest. The majority of the witness statement in the file from 1967 is by hand and hard to decipher due to writing style, faded pencil or ink, and in some cases in the 1968 file pages turned upside down - all of which makes caring directions of the sightings difficult but there is the circumstantial statement that objects in two different events came from the same direction.
So, what were people seeing in 1967-1968? Was it otherworldly? Was it super-secret projects by the government's most secretive elements CIA, DIA or some unknown member of the alphabet soup agencies?
To be continued....
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