UFO's Over new Hampshire: Many Sightings, Few Answers

U.F.O.s Over New Hampshire: Many Sightings, Few Answers

By Roger Amsden,

The Weirs Times, March 3, 2005

UFOs, unidentified flying objects, are a passion for a few true believers, an object of derision for many, and a mystery to the vast majority of mankind.

Yet as ABC’s Peter Jennings two-hour special on the subject last week showed, some 80 million Americans believe intelligent beings from another planet have visited the earth and fully 40 million people believe the have seen a UFO.

New Hampshire has had its share of UFO incidents, including one of the most famous involving Betty and Barney Hill, who claimed that they were actually taken aboard an alien spacecraft somewhere around Franconia Notch in September of 1961.

Over the years as a reporter I have had the opportunity to cover several UFO incidents and none was more graphic and compelling than one on August 12, 1974 when two Tilton police officers reported a UFO near the Exit 20 area of I-93, an object that they reported was hovering above them, changing colors each time their emergency lights flashed and moving closer to them, so close at one point, when it was only 450 to 500 yards away that they felt their lives were in danger.

Nearly 100 people from Tilton, Laconia, Franklin and Belmont reported seeing UFOs that night with the most well documented report coming from Tilton police officers Mike Alden, then 20, and Mark Paine, 23, who first saw the object around 3 a.m. above the treetops a half mile from I-93.

“It was brighter than any star and was shaped like a football,” Alden later told the National Enquirer. He described what he was seeing to police dispatchers and recorded what e and Paine saw into a tape recorder that was used for accident reports, preserving a 45-minute account of their observations.

The officers started flashing the emergency lights on their car and the UFO responded by changing colors from blue to red, then to yellow, green and white. When it approached within 500 yards Alden shouted at Paine to turn off the lights and the object responded by hovering for nearly a minute and then slowly backed off to about half a mile from them.

Then they saw something even more unusual, two smaller bright white objects hovering below the larger ship. “Three times a direct beam of light linked the three objects together like a white triangle,” said Alden.

They were soon joined by Belknap County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Hodges and Belmont Police Officer Mark Stanley.

Hodges, who would later become Belknap County Sheriff, told the Enquirer that he saw three UFOs moving in rapid patterns. “They soared up, then down and backed away from us. They hovered for awhile and then sped south out of sight. I was scared.”

Stanley said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I watched the big multicolored object and the two smaller ones for more than an hour with the other three officers.” When they did leave at about 5 a.m., the officers said they went south at an incredible speed.

But the police officers weren’t the only ones who saw the UFOs at that time.

Belknap County Sheriff Don Alden, the father of Tilton Police officer Mike Alden, said that he saw a UFI with blue, green and yellow lights at abut 11 p.m. on August 12 near his home in Alton. “At the very center of the craft was a very intense white light. The object would suddenly bob to the left, be stationary, and then bob to the right,” said Alden, adding that watching it gave him an “eerie feeling.”

And two nights’ later two New Hampshire marine Patrol officers, Dick Noel and Styles Bridges, saw a bright-colored object hovering above them. Noel said it soared away faster than any airplane or satellite and that 20 minutes later four more UFOs passed overhead. When a sixth object appeared, Bridges flashed the lights on the patrol boat and the object came towards them before backing off and continuing on its way.

Even actress Barbara Be Geddes, who was appearing at the Lakes Region Playhouse in Gilford that week, reported having seen “a round object with red and green lights” at around 9:30 p.m. on August 11, several hours before the Tilton incident.

Laconia Police Chief Harold Knowlton said his department had 50 reports of UFOs that week and that at least that many were reported to other police departments in the area.

Four years later there was another UFO sighting in the same area.

According to one web site which tracks reports of UFO sightings on July 1, 1978 a police officer from Gilford reported observing a number of objects in the sky from an observation point on Liberty Hill. The objects appeared to be in perfect formation flashing lights back and forth between them as they hovered, stationary in the sky.

After work the officer met with another officer from the town of Tilton and they sat on the edge of Interstate 93 for approximately two hours watching these objects that were mostly stationary in the sky, flashing lights back and forth.

When the objects flew south over I-93 and they communicated this information via radio to NH State Police Headquarters, where it was acknowledged the objects were over their location in Concord.

More recently Paul Spera of Tilton, head of New Hampshire UFO Hunters, was interviewed by the Concord Monitor about videos that he has made in the same area in 2003 and 2004 which show objects with mysterious colored lights.

I was city editor at the Evening Citizen at the time of the 1978 incident and one of our reporters, Dan Namowitz, who later went on to become a pilot and editorial writer for the Bangor Daily News, did a series of articles about UFO sightings in New Hampshire, traveling to Portsmouth to interview Betty Hill about the alien abduction story and even

making a nighttime visit to a field in Exeter where there were reports of many UFO sightings.

Not many people are aware of it but the first photograph which many believe shows a UFO was actually taken in New Hampshire in the winter of 1870.

The photograph, which depicts a cloud formation over the summit of Mt. Washington, shows a cigar shaped object and is part of an antique stereo view which was registered by Clogh & Kimball in 1871.

The object is clearly and sharply seen in some detail, as is the reflection of the sun off the object according to accounts.

The stereo view was sold at an E-bay online auction of March 4, 2002, to Samuel M. Sherman, president of Independent International Pictures Corp., for $385 and Sherman has said that his company would make it available to scientists for detailed analysis.

The most famous UFO incident of all time took place in the desert outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in early July 1947. In that incident the Air Force actually issued a press release saying that it had recovered a UFO, a press release which was almost immediately rescinded. The mystery deepened over the years and even includes reports of alien bodies being recovered and autopsied. On the same day that the Roswell Record carried the story of a recovered UFO, July 8, 1947, a UFO report was also made in New Hampshire, one that made the front page of the Keene Sentinel in the form of a United Press story.

“Portsmouth, N.H. (UP) – Thomas M. Dale, son of Gov. Charles M. Dale of New Hampshire and president of Yankee Airways today (July 8, 1947) was among the saucer-spotters.”

The former World War II flier said he saw a “mysterious flying object – a long, thin metal thing going about 700 miles an hour –“as he was making an air trip from Laconia to Wolfeboro early last night (July 7, 1947)

Dale said he saw the object when he looked down over Alton Bay. It was flying east towards Wolfeboro, he said, apparently motor less and pilotless. He said it looked like a gray solid metal material flying at 1,000 feet. His plane was flying at 2,800 feet when he spotted the projectile, he said.

Corroborating his statement was A.B. Skinner of the Lakes Region Flying Service at Wolfeboro, who said he saw the object pass overhead in an easterly direction at about the same time dale reported seeing the object.”

More recent UFO reports include:

Alton Bay, November 24, 1998

Two people reported seeing a bright light hovering over the vicinity of the Belknap Mountain range. “The light began to perform some very erratic maneuvers, while blinking on and off. They observed this phenomenon for approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the light disappeared.” – NUFORC

Wolfeboro, May 15, 1999

Witnesses report seeing a bright white light moving silently and speedily across a clear night sky changing directions. The light moved from points east to points south, almost the entire field of view. It then made a sudden 45 degree turn and cut straight across the sky, passing directly overhead and continuing until it was out of their field of view. It appeared to be very high in the sky. - NUFORC

Colebrook, July 3, 2000

Two witnesses were in a vehicle driving north on Route 3 out of Colebrook towards Pittsburg at approx. 10:30 p.m. on a cloudy and drizzly night. They were talking and both took notice of all the fire flies in front of their vehicle. While looking out of the windshield they saw a capsule shaped green glowing object in the sky directly over head and then in the next instant it landed in front of them on the highway. The only way they were able to see this was because of the huge flash of green light that it gave off.

They immediately turned the vehicle around and drove in the opposite direction. While doing this one witness saw that the craft was disk shaped, black with red under glow. They were driving away, not being able to move very fast because of the weather conditions, traveled at least four miles and spotted the craft now glowing solid green following them as it was about a mile away just above the tree line.

They sped up driving at least 75 miles per hour. Both were terrified and did not get a good or curious feeling from or about this thing. When they looked again in the rear view it was not there. They drove back into Colebrook and reported it to the police. – NUFORC

The most recent UFO photo from New Hampshire was taken by Buster Hinkson of the Rumney area at Stinson Lake in February of 2000.

The photo shows an object above snow-covered evergreens late in the afternoon. He said he was unaware of the object at the top left of the photo while taking the picture.

Jeffrey Foss of Falmouth, Maine, who analyzed the picture for a group of UFO hunters from Maine, said “It is not a painted object such as blue underneath and white on top, or black, or part metal and paint...It is like a mirror reflecting the milky white sky above and the forest below color for color, tone for tone, hue for hue with intensity above surrounding fields at nearest equator and diminishing below surrounding fields (slightly faded at outer or left and right edges) undeniably displaying a round or roundish shape.

“There are no wings and no engines noise according to the photographer. There is no shadow outlining its shape in a clearing below it and the same shadow is on the underside reflection.”

Foss used digital enhancement techniques to look more closely at the photo and said that it revealed that “globes are seen underneath with hints of green and white lights, a possible dome on top which almost completely blends in with the sky.”

Foss said that there is evidence of a beam of light pointing at a dark round spot also in a clearing on a nearby hill and that a mushroom-shaped distortion above the object raises the question of whether a second ship was involved.

	UFO'S OVER NEW HAMPSHIRE: MANY SIGHTINGS, FEW ANSWERS U.F.O.s Over New Hampshire: Many Sightings, Few Answers By Roger Amsden, The Weirs Times, March 3, 2005 UFOs, unidentified flying objects, are a passion for a few true believers, an object of derision for many, and a mystery to the vast majority of mankind. Yet as ABC’s Peter Jennings two-hour special on the subject last week showed, some 80 million Americans believe intelligent beings from another planet have visited the earth and fully 40 million people believe the have seen a UFO. New Hampshire has had its share of UFO incidents, including one of the most famous involving Betty and Barney Hill, who claimed that they were actually taken aboard an alien spacecraft somewhere around Franconia Notch in September of 1961. Over the years as a reporter I have had the opportunity to cover several UFO incidents and none was more graphic and compelling than one on August 12, 1974 when two Tilton police officers reported a UFO near the Exit 20 area of I-93, an object that they reported was hovering above them, changing colors each time their emergency lights flashed and moving closer to them, so close at one point, when it was only 450 to 500 yards away that they felt their lives were in danger. Nearly 100 people from Tilton, Laconia, Franklin and Belmont reported seeing UFOs that night with the most well documented report coming from Tilton police officers Mike Alden, then 20, and Mark Paine, 23, who first saw the object around 3 a.m. above the treetops a half mile from I-93. “It was brighter than any star and was shaped like a football,” Alden later told the National Enquirer. He described what he was seeing to police dispatchers and recorded what e and Paine saw into a tape recorder that was used for accident reports, preserving a 45-minute account of their observations. The officers started flashing the emergency lights on their car and the UFO responded by changing colors from blue to red, then to yellow, green and white. When it approached within 500 yards Alden shouted at Paine to turn off the lights and the object responded by hovering for nearly a minute and then slowly backed off to about half a mile from them. Then they saw something even more unusual, two smaller bright white objects hovering below the larger ship. “Three times a direct beam of light linked the three objects together like a white triangle,” said Alden. They were soon joined by Belknap County Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Hodges and Belmont Police Officer Mark Stanley. Hodges, who would later become Belknap County Sheriff, told the Enquirer that he saw three UFOs moving in rapid patterns. “They soared up, then down and backed away from us. They hovered for awhile and then sped south out of sight. I was scared.” Stanley said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “I watched the big multicolored object and the two smaller ones for more than an hour with the other three officers.” When they did leave at about 5 a.m., the officers said they went south at an incredible speed. But the police officers weren’t the only ones who saw the UFOs at that time. Belknap County Sheriff Don Alden, the father of Tilton Police officer Mike Alden, said that he saw a UFI with blue, green and yellow lights at abut 11 p.m. on August 12 near his home in Alton. “At the very center of the craft was a very intense white light. The object would suddenly bob to the left, be stationary, and then bob to the right,” said Alden, adding that watching it gave him an “eerie feeling.” And two nights’ later two New Hampshire marine Patrol officers, Dick Noel and Styles Bridges, saw a bright-colored object hovering above them. Noel said it soared away faster than any airplane or satellite and that 20 minutes later four more UFOs passed overhead. When a sixth object appeared, Bridges flashed the lights on the patrol boat and the object came towards them before backing off and continuing on its way. Even actress Barbara Be Geddes, who was appearing at the Lakes Region Playhouse in Gilford that week, reported having seen “a round object with red and green lights” at around 9:30 p.m. on August 11, several hours before the Tilton incident. Laconia Police Chief Harold Knowlton said his department had 50 reports of UFOs that week and that at least that many were reported to other police departments in the area. Four years later there was another UFO sighting in the same area. According to one web site which tracks reports of UFO sightings on July 1, 1978 a police officer from Gilford reported observing a number of objects in the sky from an observation point on Liberty Hill. The objects appeared to be in perfect formation flashing lights back and forth between them as they hovered, stationary in the sky. After work the officer met with another officer from the town of Tilton and they sat on the edge of Interstate 93 for approximately two hours watching these objects that were mostly stationary in the sky, flashing lights back and forth. When the objects flew south over I-93 and they communicated this information via radio to NH State Police Headquarters, where it was acknowledged the objects were over their location in Concord. More recently Paul Spera of Tilton, head of New Hampshire UFO Hunters, was interviewed by the Concord Monitor about videos that he has made in the same area in 2003 and 2004 which show objects with mysterious colored lights. I was city editor at the Evening Citizen at the time of the 1978 incident and one of our reporters, Dan Namowitz, who later went on to become a pilot and editorial writer for the Bangor Daily News, did a series of articles about UFO sightings in New Hampshire, traveling to Portsmouth to interview Betty Hill about the alien abduction story and even making a nighttime visit to a field in Exeter where there were reports of many UFO sightings. Not many people are aware of it but the first photograph which many believe shows a UFO was actually taken in New Hampshire in the winter of 1870. The photograph, which depicts a cloud formation over the summit of Mt. Washington, shows a cigar shaped object and is part of an antique stereo view which was registered by Clogh & Kimball in 1871. The object is clearly and sharply seen in some detail, as is the reflection of the sun off the object according to accounts. The stereo view was sold at an E-bay online auction of March 4, 2002, to Samuel M. Sherman, president of Independent International Pictures Corp., for $385 and Sherman has said that his company would make it available to scientists for detailed analysis. The most famous UFO incident of all time took place in the desert outside of Roswell, New Mexico, in early July 1947. In that incident the Air Force actually issued a press release saying that it had recovered a UFO, a press release which was almost immediately rescinded. The mystery deepened over the years and even includes reports of alien bodies being recovered and autopsied. On the same day that the Roswell Record carried the story of a recovered UFO, July 8, 1947, a UFO report was also made in New Hampshire, one that made the front page of the Keene Sentinel in the form of a United Press story. “Portsmouth, N.H. (UP) – Thomas M. Dale, son of Gov. Charles M. Dale of New Hampshire and president of Yankee Airways today (July 8, 1947) was among the saucer-spotters.” The former World War II flier said he saw a “mysterious flying object – a long, thin metal thing going about 700 miles an hour –“as he was making an air trip from Laconia to Wolfeboro early last night (July 7, 1947) Dale said he saw the object when he looked down over Alton Bay. It was flying east towards Wolfeboro, he said, apparently motor less and pilotless. He said it looked like a gray solid metal material flying at 1,000 feet. His plane was flying at 2,800 feet when he spotted the projectile, he said. Corroborating his statement was A.B. Skinner of the Lakes Region Flying Service at Wolfeboro, who said he saw the object pass overhead in an easterly direction at about the same time dale reported seeing the object.” More recent UFO reports include: Alton Bay, November 24, 1998 Two people reported seeing a bright light hovering over the vicinity of the Belknap Mountain range. “The light began to perform some very erratic maneuvers, while blinking on and off. They observed this phenomenon for approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the light disappeared.” – NUFORC Wolfeboro, May 15, 1999 Witnesses report seeing a bright white light moving silently and speedily across a clear night sky changing directions. The light moved from points east to points south, almost the entire field of view. It then made a sudden 45 degree turn and cut straight across the sky, passing directly overhead and continuing until it was out of their field of view. It appeared to be very high in the sky. - NUFORC Colebrook, July 3, 2000 Two witnesses were in a vehicle driving north on Route 3 out of Colebrook towards Pittsburg at approx. 10:30 p.m. on a cloudy and drizzly night. They were talking and both took notice of all the fire flies in front of their vehicle. While looking out of the windshield they saw a capsule shaped green glowing object in the sky directly over head and then in the next instant it landed in front of them on the highway. The only way they were able to see this was because of the huge flash of green light that it gave off. They immediately turned the vehicle around and drove in the opposite direction. While doing this one witness saw that the craft was disk shaped, black with red under glow. They were driving away, not being able to move very fast because of the weather conditions, traveled at least four miles and spotted the craft now glowing solid green following them as it was about a mile away just above the tree line. They sped up driving at least 75 miles per hour. Both were terrified and did not get a good or curious feeling from or about this thing. When they looked again in the rear view it was not there. They drove back into Colebrook and reported it to the police. – NUFORC The most recent UFO photo from New Hampshire was taken by Buster Hinkson of the Rumney area at Stinson Lake in February of 2000. The photo shows an object above snow-covered evergreens late in the afternoon. He said he was unaware of the object at the top left of the photo while taking the picture. Jeffrey Foss of Falmouth, Maine, who analyzed the picture for a group of UFO hunters from Maine, said “It is not a painted object such as blue underneath and white on top, or black, or part metal and paint...It is like a mirror reflecting the milky white sky above and the forest below color for color, tone for tone, hue for hue with intensity above surrounding fields at nearest equator and diminishing below surrounding fields (slightly faded at outer or left and right edges) undeniably displaying a round or roundish shape. “There are no wings and no engines noise according to the photographer. There is no shadow outlining its shape in a clearing below it and the same shadow is on the underside reflection.” Foss used digital enhancement techniques to look more closely at the photo and said that it revealed that “globes are seen underneath with hints of green and white lights, a possible dome on top which almost completely blends in with the sky.” Foss said that there is evidence of a beam of light pointing at a dark round spot also in a clearing on a nearby hill and that a mushroom-shaped distortion above the object raises the question of whether a second ship was involved.
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UFO'S OVER NEW HAMPSHIRE: MANY SIGHTINGS, FEW ANSWERS