Lakes Region Takes Notice of Multiple Sightings, 1973 - 1974

 

• Belknap College Trio Reports UFO Sighting
• Strange Object Sighted in Sky Over Plymouth
• UFO Sighted Near Derry
• Area Policemen Sight UFO
• UFO Central May Probe Sightings
• UFO Investigators Tour Area, Plan Report on Sightings
• UFO Sighted Over Lake Winnipesaukee by Boat Inspectors
• Playhouse Stars See UFO
• Teenage Observer Draws UFO Picture
• Crowds Flock to Hillsides in UFO Watch
• UFO Search Turns Up Cold
• Meteorologist Says Some UFOs Defy Knowledge
• Helicopter May Have Caused UFO Report

 

 

 

Belknap College Trio Reports UFO Sighting

The Laconia Evening Citizen, March 30, 1973

 

      CENTER HARBOR – Three Belknap College astronomy students have reported sighting an unidentified flying object Wednesday night from the college’s observatory.

     They reported the UFO was seen from the observatory as they were looking south towards the Belknap Mountain range.

      Reporting the sighting were Gene Major, a sophomore from Stanford, Conn., Harry Bridges, a senior from Philadelphia, Penn., and Bruce Wingate, a freshman from Pompton Plains, N.J.

     They said the UFO was observed from 8:15 to 8:40 o’clock Wednesday night through a 12.5 inch reflector, a six inch reflector and a pair of 7 x 35 binoculars.

      The object was dark red in color according to the students and was about the size of Saturn as seen through a telescope.  They said it appeared to be pulsating and rotating at one-second intervals but was stationary at times.

     According to the trio the object was about three degrees above the Belknap Mountains as seen from Meredith facing South and about six degrees above the true horizon.  They said it appeared to move back and forth in a southeasterly and southwesterly direction.

     They reported an airplane did pass overhead about 40 degrees from the sighting and was in no way similar to the object they sighted.

     The students asked anyone who also spotted the object to call them at 253-6588.

 

 

Strange Object Sighted in Sky Over Plymouth

The Laconia Evening Citizen, September 11, 1973

 

     PLYMOUTH - There are reports of sightings of unidentified flying objects.

     Whether it was a UFO or not, a strange object was seen in the western sky about 7 o’clock last Thursday evening.  It did not appear to be a plane and it was moving very slowly.  No wings – no lights.  It appeared to be like a long, thin, “silver pencil” in the sky and took no definite course, almost hovering.

     It was seen about a full moment, however, and it appeared to be moving downward, somewhat counter clock-wise before it suddenly vanished.

 

 

UFO Sighted Near Derry

The Laconia Evening Citizen, October 3, 1973

 

     DERRY, N.H. – A search of Rainbow Lake has failed to turn up an unidentified flying object which was reported falling into the lake Tuesday night.

     Police said there were several reports that a very bright object about the size of a steering wheel fell into the lake at 8:13 pm.

     Firemen searched the lake in boats and a police spokesman said it was believed the UFO was probably a meteorite.

 

 

Area Policemen Sight UFO

By Roger Amsden

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 12, 1974

 

     TILTON – “I never saw anything move that fast” said Police Officer Michael Alden, of one of the four unidentified flying objects which he and fellow officer Mark Payne reported sighting in the Interstate 93 area Sunday morning.

     Alden said the UFO “went straight up in the air and then south over I-93 at a high rate of speed” before making an arcing turn and then disappearing in a southerly direction.

     The first sighting took place around three o’clock in the morning when Alden and Payne were parked facing west on the emergency cross-over near exit 22 on the Interstate.

     “We were on the lookout for a car and were parked just south of the Sanbornton exit when we noticed what appeared to be a very bright, flickering star.  As we watched it we could see different colored flashing lights, blue, red, yellow, green and white and the object moved back and forth.  Then it seemed to be coming closer and mark suggested it might be a UFO.”

     “He turned on the blue light on the cruiser and the object moved in closer, probably to within a thousand yards and we observed the outline.  It seemed to be saucer-shaped.”

     “For health reasons we turned off the cruiser light and it went back to its original position.  I scribbled down an outline of what it looked like and we turned the light on again and the object again moved towards us until we turned the light off again.”

     “At this point we decided to call the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department and get some other people to observe the same thing.  We called and they sent out a unit and a deputy sheriff verified the lights.  The objects moved in once while he was with us and Belmont and Gilford also sent officers to witness the sighting.”

     “We saw two more bright lights, one discovered by another officer toward the northwest, and another in an easterly direction.  We thought we could see shooting stars but they seemed to travel parallel to the ground and didn’t burn out.  It was as if they were setting up some triangular pattern and the light was travelling between the three points”

     “Around five o’clock we observed a fourth object.  It appeared to be taking off or rising after hovering low over the ground.  It was in the Northwest and went straight up and then south at a high rate of speed above I-93.  This one had white lights.”

     Alden said the objects disappeared not long after the fourth one had been sighted and a call to Franklin Police revealed they had also spotted the object around four o’clock “directly over the city.”

     Meredith Police reported this morning that officer John Skidds saw an unidentified object over Leavitt Park at around 10:30 last night.  He contacted the sheriff’s office which also witnesses the object.  It remained visible for over an hour before disappearing.

     Alden, 19, is the son of Belknap County Sheriff Donald C. Alden and is a full-time officer with the Tilton force.  Both he and Payne, 22, also a full-time officer, live in Alton.

     Six UFO sightings, including the Meredith one, were reported to the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department last night.  Other reported sightings were made in the Alton-Wolfeboro area, Laconia and near Liberty Hill in Gilford.

 

 

UFO Central May Probe Sightings

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 13, 1974

 

     Belknap County Sheriff Donald Alden said this morning a report on the rash of sightings of unidentified flying objects in the Lakes Region is being prepared for the director of UFO Central in Chicago and representatives of the agency may launch an investigation soon.

     For the third straight night there were several sightings, four in this city, one in Northfield, two in Meredith and two in Tilton.

     Alden said photographs taken of sightings Sunday night and Monday night in Tilton are being processed and if any show objects clearly they will be used to document the reports.

     Police Chief Harold Knowlton said sightings were reported last night at 8:40. 9:04 and 10:15.

     

One of the reports said there were “two lighted objects” over Varney Court while reports from Southgate Terrace and Sunrise Towers said they were “round dome-shaped objects with something underneath” hovering over Boulia-Gorell Lumber Co.

     A fourth report from the Brickyard Mountain Inn said a bright object appeared hovering in the sky and then “left real fast.”

     Officers in cruisers and police cadets responded to the scene of the sightings and observed “objects with blue, green, red and yellow lights” which hovered in the sky and then moved rapidly toward Sanbornton.

     One officer reported sightings an object with “a steady green light which moved at a high rate of speed” and said he saw two “very bright lights falling” which might have been shooting stars.

     The Northfield sighting was reported around 10 o’clock last night by Alex Biron, a former Air Force crew chief.  He was joined in observing the objects by Frank Picknell and Steve Adams of the Northfield Police Department.

     “It started with a red light in the sky.  I viewed it through binoculars and the object appeared to be pulsating, like you see in science fiction movies.  It appeared to have a sold white light at the core, with a pulsing red light that turned to green, blue and yellow as it travelled away from the center of the object.”

     “Biron said the object was in the Southwest and two other objects were visible in the sky.

     “We watched them until around 11:30.  Then the object in the center began to settle down slowly and the two others arched over the spot where the middle one had been, one arcing high in the sky traveling west and the other one curving lower toward the horizon to the east.”

     “I’ve never seen anything in my life like that” said Biron.

     Paul Hough, member of the Evening Citizen press room staff and a resident of North St., said there were about 20 residents of his area out watching the antics of the UFOs over Paugus Bay last evening.

     Paul reported they saw three of them in the sky and they seemed to be making X maneuvers.  “It looked like they were playing,” he said.

     They were easily spotted, he reported, the group could see people in cars on the Weirs Boulevard stopping to view them.

     For the third straight night UFOs were reported in the Tilton area.  The first sightings were reported there Sunday morning between three and five o’clock, with sightings reported Sunday night at 11 o’clock and last night around ten o’clock.

     There were also reports of two sightings in Meredith for the second time in as many nights.

     Other reports of sightings have been made in Franklin, the Alton-Wolfeboro area and Gilford.

 

 

UFO Investigators Tour Area, Plan Report on Sightings

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 20, 1974

 

     John Oswald of North Hampton and two other UFO investigators were in the Lakes Region over the weekend to talk to police officers and citizens who had reported sighting unidentified flying objects during the past nine days.

     “We got some pretty interesting information,” said Oswald, who was here from two o’clock Sunday afternoon until after one in the morning.

     Oswald talked with Tilton Police officer mark Paine, who along with fellow officer Michael Alden, made the first report of a UFO sighting last Sunday morning between three o’clock and 5:15 a.m. while parked in their cruiser on Interstate 93.

     “We had our hands full trying to gather information and it was my impression you could walk down the street and talk to a lot of people who had observed UFO’s.”

     He said he is working on a report which will be sent to UFO Central in Chicago.  The data will also be provided to ray Fowler, local investigator for the national Investigation Committee for Aerial Phenomena.

    Two sightings were reported to the Sheriff’s department last night, one at 9:30 and a second at 10:50 in West Alton.

     Reported sightings of unidentified flying objects dropped over the weekend with only one sighting reported to police Sunday night.

     The Belknap County Sheriff’s Department received a call at 9:30 Sunday night reporting a sighting in Alton.

     Willie King, 11, and Mike King, six, sons of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. King of 11 Champlain St., reported sighting an unidentified flying object Sunday night at 9:51 while they were outside King’s Chinese-American Restaurant on Champlain St.

     They said the object had red and blue lights and “moved faster than any jet.”

     They saw the objects for about 40 seconds and said it was about the size of a nickel from where they wee standing and was heading toward the Weirs Beach area.

     A report was received last week of bright lights in the sky over Lake Winona from Karl West of Winona Road.

     He said a group of five or six people were on the shore of the lake Thursday night and saw a steady bright light which moved across the sky around 9:50 moving from the West to East.  The object was visible for about 20 seconds.

     West said around 10 o’clock they saw another bright light in the northern sky and at 10:30 looking south they saw three similar lights about five to ten minutes apart.

     One was low on the horizon, the second a little higher and the third rose in Sagittarius and moved east.

     The intensity of the lights was about the same as the Big Dipper stars and the objects were going more slowly than a meteorite but faster than a jet and left no trail.

 

 

UFO Sighted Over Lake Winnipesaukee by Boat Inspectors

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 14, 1974

 

     UFO sightings were reported last night by members of the Division of Safety Services and city police received one report of a UFO sighting over Paugus Bay.

     It marked the fourth straight night of reported UFO sightings in the Lakes Region.

     The area has been undergoing meteor showers in recent days, according to John P. Oswald of North Hampton and Larry Spiegel of Plymouth, a student at Plymouth State College and these may account for some of the sightings.

     Oswald is an investigator with the Center for UFO Studies in Chicago which is headed by Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Spiegel is associated with the Mutual UFO Network of Quincy, Ill.

     Last night’s sightings were reported by two inspectors of the Division of Safety Services over Lake Winnipesaukee.

     The first sighting was reported at 9:24 off Bear Island and the inspector said a “bright-colored” object seemed to be hovering over him.  He said it was larger than any star and it left at a rapid rate of speed towards the Glendale-Alton area.

     He said he couldn’t tell how far away the object was and when it did leave it moved at a 45 degree angle “at a far greater speed than an airplane or a satellite.”

     No trail was observed behind the object, as there would have been behind a meteor.

     The inspector waited for 15 or 20 minutes and saw three or four objects heading in a northeasterly direction towards the Melvin Village area.  Another boat was radioed and both met near Long Island where they saw another object headed in a westerly direction.

     The object was very large and cast a multi-colored glow but was moving slower than the first one according to the inspectors.  None of the sightings were accompanied by any sound.

     The inspectors waited near Sandy Island and observed still another object in the vicinity of the Big Dipper, which appeared to be a satellite.

     They turned on the flashing light on their boats and said they thought the object appeared to change course and changed course again when the lights were shut off.

      The sighting over Paugus Bay could not be verified by local police.

 

 

Playhouse Stars See UFO

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 14, 1974

 

     Barbara Bel Geddes, the sophisticated movie and theater actress and her Gilford Playhouse costar, husband, Laurence Hugo, today joined other Lakes Region observers who reported viewing an Unidentified Flying Object.

     Miss Bel Geddes, starring in a summer stock production of “Finishing Touches” at the Playhouse is staying in a ski chalet on Mount Gunstock.

     Sunday evening, she reports, she was sitting on the porch with Mr. Hugo, when she called an unusual object in the sky to his attention.

     “It’s just Mars,” Mr. Hugo told her because the color of the far off object was red and looked like a star or a planet.

     Miss Bel Geddes said she thought she saw the object move and they watched it through field glasses for about an hour and a half.

     The object was just above the tree line, Mr. Hugo said, and during the time they watched it “seemed to move about 20 feet on a slant away from us”.  At times they noticed a green light as well as a red one.

     Miss Bel Geddes and Mr. Hugo checked with the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department Tuesday afternoon after reading accounts of local sightings by police and other witnesses in the Evening Citizen on Monday.  They asked whether the Strategic Air Command had been notified and had given any explanation.

     They were referred to the newspaper which reported the UFO Central office in Chicago had been notified and were considering sending an investigator.

     Mr. Hugo said “we didn’t think it was anything.  It looked like the red and green port and starboard lights.  We thought there would be an explanation of it all by now.  It looked like a balloon to me way off on the horizon, not very far above the earth.”

     Mr. Hugo said, “We would have reported it earlier but we’re stuck up on the mountain without newspapers.”

 

 

Teenage Observer Draws UFO Picture

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 15, 1974

 

     More Unidentified Flying Objects were reported to local police last night and a group of 15 young people said they saw a saucer-shaped object through a telescope while observing from Liberty Hill in Gilford.

     Duane Champoux, 16, who will be a senior at Laconia High School this year, drew a sketch of the object which he viewed through the telescope.

     Champoux said the object appeared to be about a mile away and was viewed at around 10 o’clock.  He said there was a red light on the front and a yellow-whitish light at the rear of the object, which was visible for about three minutes.

     “We were on Liberty Hill looking East and as I watched through the telescope I could see the outline for five or ten seconds.  It moved East to Northeast kind of floating across the sky.  It appeared to be a mile away and a couple of thousand feet in the air.  I’ve shot model rockets that have gone higher in the air than the object.”

     He said while viewing it through the telescope the object appeared to be made of metal.  The telescope is 60 power and was magnifying around 35 or 45 times said Champoux.

     “It was really a sight to see” said Champoux, who added other observers with binoculars could see the lights.

     The Division of Safety Services also reported sightings over Lake Winnipesaukee last night.

     The first sighting resulted from a phone call reporting a UFO between Governors Island and Eagle Island at 9:06.  A boating inspector went to the Eagle Island at 9:06.  A boating inspector went to the Eagle Island light and reported no sighting at 9:08 but called at 9:12 to report “a pulsating white light” moving toward Meredith and Center Harbor.

     Other sightings were reported by the Division of Safety Services at 9:49 and 10:11.

     Laconia police had a report of a sighting at 9:13 near Bear Island which was described as looking like “a large star about 3,000 feet up in the air.”

     At 9:49 “two white objects” were reported over One Mill Plaza with one of them moving up toward Weirs Beach.  The observer said after the first object got to the beach the second object “took off and followed.”

     At 10:27 two white objects were reported near Brickyard Mountain Inn moving toward Meredith “at a high rate of speed.”

     It was reported the objects seen over the city took 60 seconds to disappear over Meredith by a person who observed them from Brickyard Mountain Inn.

     UFO Central in Chicago said they have been informed of the sightings in the Lakes Region and said they normally receive around 40 calls a month of sightings.  Recent sightings have taken place in practically every state.

     John Oswald of North Hampton, an investigator for UFO Central, said no team has yet been sent to the area but he may be in the area this weekend to discuss the sightings with police officers.

     He urged people making sightings to keep track of the time, location, elevation of the object and descriptions of what they did see.

     Photographs are of particular importance to researchers and he said those shooting with a telephoto lens should use a setting of 130 or 160 of a second.  If people do not use a telephoto they can try a time exposure of a minute or longer.

 

 

Crowds Flock to Hillsides In UFO Watch

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 16, 1974

 

     Strange UFO sightings were reported in the Lakes Region again last night and UFO watching seems to the latest nighttime craze.  Hundreds of viewers were out in force in the Liberty Hill area of Gilford while others have selected the Belknap Mall and Vocational-Technical College on Prescott Hill as prime viewing spots.

     Police said sightings were reported to them in Gilford and Meredith, as well as this city.  None of the reports could be verified by police.

     The Belknap County Sheriff’s office said they received calls at 10:30 and 11 last night, one reporting a “blue-pulsating object” over the lake, and another reporting a “landing” by a UFO on Belknap Mt.

     Reports to Laconia police were recorded at 9:09. 9:18, 9:47 and 11:02.

     The first report described “blue and white lights” over Lake Winnipesaukee which “hesitated and then took off for the Route 11-B area.”

     The second report came from the Weirs Beach area and described “a cone-shaped object with a green tint and a red glow on the bottom” over the lake.

      Two objects with “real bright lights” were reported in the vicinity of Belmont in the third report and the final report was of a “hot dog or saucer shaped” object over Lake Opechee with “red, green and white lights.”

     Kathy Lagiuex, 12, of 33 Brigham St., reported her entire family saw an “orange egg-shaped object” go cross the sky from their vantage point at the Vocational-Technical College at Prescott Hill.

     The object was “very bright” and she said it was being followed by three airplanes.  

     “It dropped something and then we saw it go behind a mountain and disappear.  It then started coming up over the mountain and pulsating.”

     The sighting took place around nine o’clock and was viewed for about 10 minutes by Kathy, her mother and father, her sister, Cindy, 17, and brother, Russell, 13, as well as an aunt and uncle and cousins.

     “We could hear airplane motors and see red and white lights on the planes but the orange object moved much faster than the planes.  Most of the time we saw it the object was in the vicinity of the red light  near the airport and seemed to be a little above it.”

    

 

 

UFO Search Turns Up Cold

By Phil Blampied

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 17, 1974

 

     Editor’s note:  Phil Blampied is a free lance writer from Boston who arrived in the Lakes Region on Thursday to investigate the reports of Unidentified Flying Objects.  He spent the night cruising the area with the Belknap County Sheriff’s Department and he will be writing of his experiences for publication in the Boston Phoenix and the National Enquirer.  He wrote this personal report for the Evening Citizen.

 

     Mostly it was cold.

     Sheriff’s Deputy Steve Hodges and I stood in a field in Gilmanton.  It was maybe three in the morning, but don’t quote me.  Hodges was keeping the log.  I was just trying to keep awake.

     After a few hours of riding the regular rounds, Hodges engrossed in police work, me with my neck craned out the window watching to see if any of the stars danced or changed color or otherwise resembled a UFO, we were stopping to give a few minutes to a wholehearted check of the skies.

     The trouble at three o’clock is everything moves if you look at it long enough.

     “Hey,” I suggested to Hodges, “didn’t that thing down there just move?”

     “I doubt it,” he said: “it’s a floodlight.”

     “Wait a minute,” I said, undeterred; “what about that?”

     “You mean that star?”  Hodges asked.

     I took my camera out.  If what pilots UFOs is anything like humans, they probably have the same enthusiasm about getting their picture in the paper.  I waved the lens encouragingly in the direction of the Milky Way.  This is when I noticed I was shaking.

     “I’m shaking.” I said.

     “Yeah?” he said.

     “I’m not going to be able to photograph the UFO when it swoops down,” I protested; “I’m too cold, and when it comes, I’m going to be too nervous.”

     The problem, it turned out, was academic.  Ten minutes later, I was no longer worried about being nervous.  It was still cold, but the major difficulty was quickly becoming boredom.

     Then suddenly there was some movement on the south horizon.

     I think.

     You see, these small star-size, orangeish lights would float lazily upwards.  At least, it looked that way.  But then, suddenly, they were still.

     “I’m sure they were moving a minute ago,” I said, “I mean I think they were.”

     Five minutes.  Then to our right, more orange lights.  Two pinpricks, almost treetop level, floating along the horizon.  One blinked and disappeared.

     “D’you see that?” said Hodges, his professional calm a little shaken.  We turned back to the other lights.  “If they’d zip across the sky, then we’d know,” said Hodges hopefully.

      They didn’t.  Another five minutes and we got back in the cruiser.

     Two hours later, the glow of the sun is over the horizon.  No more UFOs.

     “So,” I said to Hodges, “you think you’ll tell anybody?”

     He shrugged.

 

 

Meteorologist Says Some UFOs Defy Knowledge

 

     Aircraft and helicopter lights as well as meteor showers may account for some of the sightings of unidentified flying objects in the Lakes Region recently according to Dr. William K. Widger of Biosperic Consultants International in Meredith.

     The well known meteorologist said there are some reports, especially those of Tilton police officers Michael Alden and Mark Paine “which simply defy rational explanation.”

     He said the month of August is noted for meteor showers and the area had been undergoing these in recent weeks.  Refraction and distraction of lights caused by different atmospheric layers could also account for some sightings.     

     Another possible explanation may have been maneuvers conducted by the Air Force over the Lakes Region the weekend before the sightings.  Many military aircraft were also visible high in the sky during the week.

     Widger said after all possible explanations have been made for the sightings there still remains “a residue of cases which can not be explained.”

     The first sighting occurred between three and 5:15 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 13.  Officers Alden and Paine made tape recordings of their observations and the following are condensed excerpts from the tapes.

     ALDEN:  “At times it is silhouetted in the sky, about a quarter mile away, it just dove away.”

     ALDEN:  “We flash our blue lights at it, and it seems to flash back.  It just wheeled around, swiveling around, with blue and red lights.  It’s now about a half  to a quarter mile away.  The lights get bright, then dull.  When we flash lights, it responds by changing colors.”

     VOICE: “I don’t know about you but I’m nervous as hell.  Look at ‘em moving.  Look at ‘em change!  It’s coming at us.  Look at ‘em dive!”

     VOICE:    “We see a beam from time to time come down from it...when we flash our blues it gets closer – flash the blues.  Be advised that this thing is signaling us back.”

     (Sounds of light switch clicking on and off.)

     VOICE:  “Hold it, hold it!  Look at them respond to this baby.”

     VOICE:  “You know what’s going to happen?  We’re going to be called a bunch of lunatics.”

     Paine and Alden were joined at this point by Steve Hodges, deputy from the Belknap County Sheriff’s office.  Hodges confirmed their sightings, although the object had retreated from its closest point of an estimated 1,000 yards to a mile or so back in the sky.

     The three were also joined by police from Belmont and Gilford, and several police watched the object at a distance in the sky until it faded with the dawn.  Shortly before dawn, though, according to Deputy Hodges, a second UFO rose from the horizon, “reached the sky directly above us and then just went shooting down Route 93.”

 

 

Helicopter May Have Caused UFO Report   

The Laconia Evening Citizen, August 23, 1974

 

     Four UFO sightings were reported to city police last night and one of the officers who checked out the reports said he saw lights of what he thought might be a helicopter.

     Three of the sightings were in the Memorial Park area and one was made by a wife and husband who reported they saw a UFO heading toward Weirs Beach.

     The first report at 8:546 was of an object in the sky over Memorial Park with red and underside which had a light on top and was revolving.

     At 9:42 a report was received from the husband and wife, of the object heading towards the Weirs Beach area with a white light on the front, a red light on the top and blue lights on each end.  There was no noise the couple reported.

     At 9:44 a woman called and said she saw a UFO over Memorial Park with red and yellow lights.

     At 10:35 a call was received from South St., reporting a couple of UFOs trying to land in the woods.

     The police officer who responded to the scene reported sighting an object low in the air which appeared to be a helicopter.