Alternate Perceptions Magazine, August 2023
Not a normal UFO report
by: Barbara Becker
The witness, Don Hart, left his business, Best of the West, in Columbia, Mo. around 7:15PM on Friday, January 6, 2012. It was the same route he had been taking for years to his home on Pleasant Hill, about ten miles southeast of Boonville, Mo. He was driving south on Highway 87, having just passed Old Highway 87, when he noticed red lights in the middle of the road just ahead of his vehicle but not quite to Clarks Fork Road about a half mile ahead. Thinking he was coming up to an accident he slowed down and pulled to the side of the road. The sun had already set. His lights shone on the stopped vehicle. It was then that he realized the red lights were actually hovering over a pick-up truck stopped in the middle of Hwy 87. The UFO then rose and headed east toward Columbia. The pick-up truck sped off. He pulled back onto the road from the shoulder but he didn’t leave fast enough. The UFO had turned around and was heading back toward him. He reached for a camera, but everything happened too fast. It stopped directly over his car. He could see orange and reddish lights reflected on the hood. It seemed to be descending. The car window was open. He leaned out thinking it might be a helicopter. There was no prop noise. Only a deep bass sound with the rhythm of a heartbeat. He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, nor does he remember how it left. The next day his face was red and he felt slightly sick to his stomach. I examined the car about a week later and there seemed to be no damage or anything unusual from the incident.
But here is the other half of the story.
In her book, The Haunted Boonslick, Mary Collins Barile recounts the tale of the Spook Light of Clarks Fork. The history of the area begins around the 1830’s. A settler named Story built a cabin in what is now Clark’s Fork Valley. He kept to himself, raised his crops and had few friends. One day several men stopped by the Story cabin only to find the door open, the dogs wandering the property and the fire cold. It appeared that all his belongings were still there including his rifle. Nothing was missing except Story. His body was never found and eventually the property was sold. In the 1880’s the Houston family took ever the farm. They heard rumors about the Valley but thought nothing about it until they met the Clark’s Fork ghost which they affectionately called the “Spook”. They described it as a glowing ball of white light, always the same size, visible in any weather. It could float above the trees and along the ground. It gave off no heat. Sometimes it would move quickly, other times is could hoover in place for hours. One family reported seeing the light chasing a herd of hogs through the forest but the next day nothing unusual was seen. It had been reported that it would stop people traveling the roads by stopping in the middle of the road and refusing to let them pass. Sound familiar?
Is there a relationship between the UFO seen in 2012 and the light described 182 years earlier? The behavior seems similar. The descriptions are similar. It’s just a strange coincidence.
