Alternate Perceptions Magazine, July 2019
A Mini UFO Window
by: Rick Hilberg
Over the years much has been written about "window areas" or "portals" where UFOs and other strange phenomena seem to be seen on a regular basis in a particular area over various periods of time. All theories as to why this may be happening aside, there certainly are specific geographical locations throughout the world where this does indeed happen.
Like many of us in the UFO field, I have gathered with friends over the years to participate in "skywatches" in attempts to spot UFOs. These skywatches were often held in rural areas or in my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio at the home of one of the participants.
A curious fact emerged during the time period from 1964 to late 1966. Phenomena were seen in a particular area of Cleveland on an almost constant basis. In fact, the area in question was centered in a particular area of the West Park neighborhood where I grew up. This was borne out by folks in the neighborhood reporting their experiences either directly to me or by calls received via a local UFO hotline that a local group had promoted for a number of years during that time period. These included observations that I myself made right in my own back yard on a number of occasions while I was outside watching the night sky on my own. I even had a neighborhood witness tell me that her late mother made mention of an abduction like incident from the 1920s on many occasions during family discussions.
Here's an example of some of the curious incidents that occurred from skywatching at the home of a friend from his backyard just several blocks from my house. We often used his yard because it was rather large and devoid of obstructing trees and structures, and was located at the top of a natural ridge with an excellent view of the sky to the west, north and east. One reason why the 1964 through 1966 time period was fruitful was because after 1966 myself as well as several other regular participants started college and regular careers, so these get togethers had to take a back seat to educations and economic pressures.
In July of 1965 three objects, like satellites, were sighted at fifteen minute intervals coming from, respectively, the north, south and east. One of these "lights" was photographed by this writer using a two minute exposure on Kodak Tri-X film. The object appeared as a faint line on the negative, too weak to reproduce in print, but still kept in my files. On this particular night the objects were spotted with both the naked eye and binoculars. They did not correspond to flyovers of any scheduled satellites that were regularly cataloged by a local university. There were many other sightings of similar objects from this active time period as well.
Another particularly interesting report came from the same location on October 9, 1965, when a round object with flashing lights completely around its edge was sighted by hundreds of persons on Cleveland's west side, and was widely reported to the news media as well as the local UFO report center maintained by the Cleveland Ufology Project and manned by my friend and colleague the late Allan Manak. Manak received 92 calls that night, many with multiple reporting witnesses. There as a 2200 foot cloud ceiling that evening with a light drizzle being reported, so the object had to be flying below that altitude and was flying so slowly that it was in sight for many minutes by the various witnesses.
At 9:45 p.m. on the evening of May 6, 1966 five of us were skywatching when a large oval object of a ghostly white light was spotted swiftly moving from the southwest to the northeast. Whatever it was, it seemed to have bands of a duller color running along the bottom of it, and was completely soundless and seemed to be at a very low altitude. Whatever it was, it was in sight for some ten to fifteen seconds, and was as large as a dime held at arm's length. I had a pair of 8X40 binoculars that I soon trained on it, and to me the darn thing bore a striking resemblance to the "flying sub" that was featured on the popular television show of the time, "Voyage To The Bottom of The Sea." One of the witnesses, Edward Biebel, is still an active ufologist living in Arizona. (attachment is a page from a UFO reporting form with witness drawings made just minutes after the sighting May 6, 1966)
A particularly interesting series of sightings took place in October and November of 1966, when V-formations of bluish-white lights were seen flying over, and sometimes maneuvering in turns. These objects were also silent and were seen both with binoculars and the naked eye. I saw very similar objects myself from the driveway of my home just several blocks south of this location in November of 1960.
Why the concentration of sightings in one particular area over a long period of time? Other skywatches were held at other times only a very few miles or so from this one active area of Cleveland without results. Was this indeed a small window where who knows what appears from goodness knows where?
