Alternate Perceptions Magazine, October 2026
The Blue People - Sighting in Gate City, VA
By: Dr. John Stamey
It was Sunday, October 14, 2018, around 5 PM when Wyatt first met Dr. John Conapalooza. It was a new and large comic and pop culture convention, being held at the Meadowview Convention Center in Kingsport, TN. It was 5:00 PM and the event had just ended. Business had been slow the entire weekend, so Dr. John was walking around trying to get any additional business he could drum up for his caricature company at the end of the event. On the corner of one of the aisles, Wyatt was speaking with a vendor. Dr. John had a feeling he might be able to convince Wyatt to get a caricature and get them to the $1,000 mark in caricature sales for the weekend.
When Wyatt finished his conversation and failed to purchase from the young couple behind the booth table, Dr. John seized an opportunity. He approached Wyatt, asking if he wanted to get a black-and-white caricature drawing of himself for the amazing end-of-day price of $5. Wyatt wasn't sure about the offer but followed Dr. John to the Carolina Caricatures booth to check out the drawings. Wyatt decided to part with his last $5 and get a black-and-white caricature of himself.
As Cody, the caricature artist, was drawing the caricature, the conversation between Dr. John and Wyatt moved toward the paranormal, discussing the upcoming Tennessee Bigfoot Conference in two weeks. The event would feature talks from Bigfoot explorers, as well as talks about UFO sighting investigators.
After Wyatt saw the copy of John's new book "Bigfoot Explorers," their conversation moved quickly to Wyatt’s strange encounter several years back. He and his friend Mac had been hanging out at Wyatt's house one evening in May of 2012. Lots of headlines and speculation were around about potential events that could be related to the upcoming end of the Mayan calendar, and potential end of the world.
Wyatt had recently returned from a beach trip with his girlfriend in North Carolina. When returning from the trip, the family he was traveling with decided to stop at a classic American restaurant near some scenic mountains—and Wyatt was really glad to be home again in the mountains of Virginia and Tennessee. That night, after a bit of conversation, one of the family, Mac, opened up with an uncomfortable idea for Wyatt. "Hey - there are these two girls coming by and I told them if there’s time, we would meet near the swing bridge near the Old Nickelsville Rd. You'll come with me – right? I mean, I don't want to meet the two of them by myself."
After a few rounds of conversation and video games, Mac convinced Wyatt he would really be helping him meet up with the two girls. The social situation would be far easier with two guys meeting two girls Mac knew from out of town. Wyatt shrugged his shoulders. Of course, he didn't ever want to give the impression that he would be cheating on his girlfriend, Christie. Wyatt said, "I'll go with you - only for moral support."
Around 10:30 PM, the two friends walked down the ford in front of Wyatt’s house to an old local road directly beside the swinging bridge. The bridge was part of the local vocational school very near Wyatt's house. It wasn't long until a car pulled up to the parking lot. The two girls remained in their vehicle as Mac started to make small talk and wanted to introduce his friend. He told them Wyatt had decided to walk with him, since they were both hanging out and playing games at Wyatt's house.
Unfortunately, conversation didn't come easy for anyone that evening, and the girls had a pretty long drive back to Rogersville. Wyatt thought the girls were cautious which was completely expected; however, Mac insisted that it would be nice to make an introduction between everyone. Ultimately, Mac felt like he had missed an opportunity with one of the girls, but really he had his sights for someone else in the tri-cities (Johnson City – Bristol – Kingsport, TN).
It wasn't long until the girls said their goodbyes and headed back to Rogersville. As clear as the night sky was, and with the moon even brighter, the friends decided to walk the path that encircled the vocation school, along with the newly built sports complex, and the old filter plant that had been temporarily closed.
About half-way around the path, they paused for a few minutes at the swinging bridge to enjoy the early spring evening and to soak in all the wonders the blanket of night had to offer. It was about 10:50 PM. After a couple minutes of conversation, the two friends decided to head back to Wyatt's house and call it a night. Just past the swinging bridge, and further to the south/southwest, there was a field on the right side of the pathway. The expanse was a stunning sight in the bright, brilliant light of the waxing gibbous moon.
Wyatt was walking a few feet ahead of Mac, who was at his back left. Just to his right, an estimated 20-30 ft off of the path, Wyatt witnessed the strangest sight of his life. There were four odd-looking bipedal beings walking towards the path they were on. No one should have been out there in the field that evening to begin with. The strange creatures were walking quietly and headed directly toward Wyatt and Mac, and it wouldn’t be long until they met up.
Mac happened to have a medium-sized (about three-inch in diameter) LED flashlight on his phone that he shined toward the group in the field. When the boys focused on the creatures, they proved to be an iridescent blue color!
Their strange looks were even more striking. Each of their heads was slightly larger at the top than the bottom. The one in front of the three was about five feet tall. The other three behind had to be over six feet tall. Their eyes were full, round and black, with no signs of pupils or whites in their eyes. Noses were not readily apparent. The mouths were slits. There was no notion of a smile or frown, just straight slits for their mouths.
As the light had been directed toward the visitors, the two friends stopped dead in their tracks. Wyatt and Mac realized everything had become completely silent, with no insects chirping. Suddenly, a very strange noise began. At first, it was almost indiscernible. The sounds had to be coming from the beings and began to rise in volume. The sounds were mixed. At the beginning, there was a clicking and chirping noise. Almost immediately, there was some sort of tonal sound, mixed with something that sounded like humming or vibration. There were occasional shrill, high-pitched sounds mixed in as well. The sounds grew louder and louder.
The experience was indeed strange and frightening, like a symphony from beyond time and space. Neither Mac nor Wyatt had ever heard anything like it. Furthermore, the friends had the sense they were hearing the sounds in their heads, and the world around them was not so fortunate to hear what they were. It was as if they were privileged to some sort of amazing communication from the blue visitors. (Note: Many would call this a close encounter of the fifth kind – direct alien communication.)
As the sounds became louder and louder, the two friends became more and more frightened. Mac started asking incoherent, almost crazy questions, clutching onto Wyatt. More interested in the frightening and unique experience, Wyatt looked at him, saying, "Shut up - be quiet!"
The sound grew louder and louder. It became very internal with an external auditory pulse of a large magnitude. Mac realized there was no way he could understand any of the loud, raucous sound. After about 40-50 seconds, the blue beings seemed to sense the boys were terrified. The beings turned and seemed to glide away from the boys, ultimately moving up the steep embankment of a hill right behind the field. It would have been impossible for them to walk or run up the hill due to the steep incline.
The boys rushed back to the house to grab a spotlight that Wyatt's dad had been using earlier that spring. On the way to Wyatt’s house, they knocked on the door of an older lady who was a neighbor. When she did not answer the door, the boys made it as fast as they could to Wyatt’s house. Frankly terrified, Mac grabbed a pitchfork from Wyatt’s garage and was ready to defend them from the creatures if they came toward them. However, they did not see the blue creatures pursuing them as they made it into the safety of Wyatt’s house. Both boys ran upstairs and locked themselves in the guest bedroom. With the door locked, they breathed a sigh of relief and quickly wrote down what had happened on Wyatt's iPad.
The boys stayed up quite late, because of their crazy adventure and later from playing games. Wyatt's girlfriend dropped by his house the next morning to return some things he left with her before his vacation. Wyatt and Mac did not tell the girlfriend anything about the incident, as it just seemed to be too crazy to mention.
Editor’s Note: This story is used with the permission of the author, Dr. John Stamey, from his book Look Up In The Sky [July 2024]
