Alternate Perceptions Magazine, August 2024
The Saucer Files
A Look at 1959
by: Rick Hilberg
My family had a summer cottage not far from where this incident occurred, and I can personally attest to the fact that many strange encounters took place in this general area over the years.
For many years a large number of excellent sightings have been made by lone drivers along the less frequented highways of Pennsylvania. On January 13, 1959, at about 7:00 a.m., Robert Collins of Linesville was driving his pickup truck along a deserted road near Greenville. He observed what seemed at first to be an extremely bright pair of headlights illuminating the ground from overhead. As the lights grew nearer, they began to appear as a single blinding bright arc light which came over the road at the exact spot where his truck was traveling. But instead of passing by, the light remained stationary over the vehicle for three or four minutes. The truck's whole electrical system failed, as though some unknown force had turned off all the switches at one time. Not only did the engine cut out, but the headlights failed, and the radio stopped playing at the same instant. The mysterious arc light eventually departed at extremely high speed and disappeared within thirty seconds. Collins estimated that the light source was about 200 feet above him, and that it illuminated an area of some 100 yards in front of his stalled truck. As soon as the UFO zipped away, the lights, ignition and the radio came back on.
On the night of July 9, 1959, James Baker and other members of his family driving with him chased a group of UFOs for several miles on a highway near Columbus, Indiana. Said Baker, "We saw three lights moving very slowly in front of us, and we thought at first that they were on an airplane with engine trouble. There was no sound. I think I could have thrown a rock and hit them, they were so low. These blinking orange lights then moved out of their triangle formation. It gave us quite a start. Later they came back together, and we started chasing them towards Columbus." Baker estimated the speed of the lights at 15 mph until he started chasing them. They then increased their speed and finally streaked off into the sky and got away from him.
Residents throughout the area near Pontiac, Michigan reported that two UFOs were visible in the sky for twenty minutes on the night of August 18, 1959. The most detailed report came from Wanda Bieri, who was at a local drive- in movie with her husband and children. Said Mrs. Bieri, "We were sitting in the car waiting for the show to begin. It wasn't quite dark yet. Suddenly, my husband told me to look at two peculiar objects in the lower horizon. We saw people in other cars watching too, and some got out of their cars to look. There were two yellow disks in the sky - not in the heavens, but in our own atmosphere. The two objects faced each other, and for about eight minutes they stood perfectly still. Then for the next three minutes, one moved higher than the other. All of a sudden, the lower one took off in a straight upward movement and became a very thin disk with a long yellow tail with a bit of red in it, making it look like a fire streak. Then, thirty seconds later, the second one moved up and over and down in a perfect arc, leaving a yellow trail behind it. It disappeared completely while the first disk continued to go straight up, then leveled off and began flying perfectly straight for about three minutes, trailing to the right with a stream of yellowish vapor that faded to pink as it disappeared. As the first one faded, the second flying object came back into view and looked like it was coming directly at us, right under the other one, which had reappeared again. They both arched together like they were making a big U - turn, and then streaked away for the last time."
15 - year - old Mark Muzza, Jr. of Poquson, Virginia claimed that a UFO appeared in the sky at dusk on October 20, 1959, and hovered for a minute or more 100 feet above his head. The thing was four feet in diameter and had a black body encircled by a silver rim about six inches wide. Said young Muzza, " I stood petrified for several seconds and raised my shotgun and poured two blasts into it. I know I hit it both times, but nothing happened. So, I shot it again and it disappeared." The encounter took place just after sunset while Muzza and a friend were exploring in a marshy area near their homes.
