Alternate Perceptions Magazine, July 2025
The Saucer Files
By Rick Hilberg
Advent of The Flying Saucers - 1958 - 1959
October 3, 1958 - Freight Train has Encounter in Indiana - At about 3:10 a.m. that morning a Monon Railroad freight train was crossing through Clinton County, Indiana. Suddenly, four peculiar white lights appeared from out of the night and crossed in front of the train. The objects turned about and flew to the rear of the train and were fully observed by the train crew.
The objects then swung around and began to follow the train for about the next hour and ten minutes.
The aerial intruders were flattened and brightly glowing as they flew sort of on edge.
The train conductor in the caboose at the end of the train shone a bright light on the objects which seemed to make them react and fly off. They returned and paced the train again, but after a while flew off and never again returned.
This incident definitely suggests intelligent controllability due to the fact of the maneuvering formations.
January 13, 1959 - Bright Object with EM Effects in Pennsylvania - [ 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 area over the years. ]
Over the years, a large number of excellent UFO sightings have been made by lone drivers along the less frequented highways and back roads of Pennsylvania. This particular encounter occurred at about 7: 00 a.m. that morning when Robert Collins of Linesville was driving his pickup truck along a deserted road near Greenville.
Collins 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 headed. But instead of passing by, the light remained stationary over the truck for three or four minutes.
The truck's electrical system failed, as if 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 time. The mysterious arc light eventually departed at an extremely high speed and was lost to sight within thirty seconds. Collins estimated that the light source was about 200 feet above him, and that it illuminated an area some 100 yards in front of his stalled truck.
As soon as the UFO zipped away, the truck restarted and the lights and radio came back on.
July 9, 1959 - Family "Chases" UFOs in Indiana - On that evening James Baker and other members of his family driving with him, chased a group of unidentified lights 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.
The mysterious lights then increased their speed and finally streaked off into the sky and got away from him.
August 18, 1959 - Yellow Disks Over Michigan Drive-In - Residents throughout the area near Pontiac reported that two UFOs were visible in the sky for twenty minutes that night. The most detailed report came from Wanda Bieri, who was at a local drive-in movie with her husband and children.
She reported, "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 on the lower horizon.
"We saw the 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."
October 29, 1959 - Youth "Blasts" UFO With Shotgun - 15-year-old Mark Muza Jr. of Poquoson, Virginia said that a UFO appeared in the sky that day about dusk, and hovered for a minute or more at an altitude of about 100 feet over his head.
The object was about four feet in diameter and had a black body encircled by a silver rim about six inches wide.
Said young Muza, "I stood petrified for several seconds and then raised my 12- gauge shotgun and poured two blasts into it. I know I hit it both times, but nothing happened; so I shot it again as it disappeared."
The incident took place just after sunset while Muza and a friend were exploring in a marshy area near their homes.
