On January 19, 1977, Jose Cantu, a 9-year-old child, of Hispanic culture, was at the farm of his parents in Harrah, State of Washington, USA.
Initially busy fixing his breakfast, at approximately 06:30 a.m., agitated, he awaked his mother, Martha Cantu, asking her to explain the small "man" that he saw outside, and to come to see. But her mother did not pay the requested attention, did not go to see, and went back to bed to catch up with the sleep she had been missing because of her demanding baby; which she later regretted.
Jose was not discouraged by that, and went out to check for himself.
He later told his mother that he had seen two greenish creatures of approximately one meter in height, which pivoted on a single basis instead of having two legs, and two "metal" machines in which two other creatures were sitting.
He stated that one of the apparatuses was posed in the backyard, and the other on a flat part of the roof of the house. He said he observed the scene hidden behind a washing machine stored outside beside a hangar.
From this vantage position, he said, he saw the two creatures joining the two others in the apparatuses; which had "flat staircases", or ramps probably, and a door which opened "in two parts, like a cross", revealing a brilliantly lit interior with two "chairs" with very broad bases.
Jose indicated that the machine in the yard rose from the ground and disappeared in something which resembled a cloud, or vapor or smoke.
When she heard the story, Jose's mother did what any mother in the same circumstances would do: she sent him to the school.
At the primary school of Harrah, Jose repeated his history to Diane Gomez, an auxiliary, who stated to the Press that Jose is a serious boy who is not of the type to tell lies or tall stories, and that she took his report very seriously.
At 10:10, at the pause, she and another auxiliary accompanied Jose at his house. There, he showed them the places where he said the two creatures stood. At a place, where Jose indicated that one of the creatures had pivoted on its basis, Gomez declared to have noted two round marks in the gravel. At another place where the creatures allegedly stood, there were two groups of three marks.
After Mrs. Cantu spoke to the auxiliaries of the schoolteacher and that they returned to the school with Jose, she called her neighbor, Irene Sanchez, so that she come by. The latter reported to the press that they examined the backyard and found, in tall grasses, a circular mark approximately 10 feet in diameter where the grass was swirled in the middle, and that they also observed the marks that the auxiliaries had seen. The circle was easily visible from the door window of nearest house, said Gomez, adding that her brother residing there, had seen it from that distance. This circle was still clearly visible when the Jose's father came home after work, he told the Press.
The next day afternoon, William Vogel, a law enforcement officer of Toppenish, and also a field ufologist in the area since years, and ufologist David Akers of Seattle, both affiliated with the Center for UFO Studies, visited Cantu house, noted the perfectly formed circle and the "traces of the foot", still perceptible. Akers checked the field with a Geiger counter and did not obtain any reaction.
Two days afterwards, journalist Frances Story of the Toppenish Review visited the Cantu house. Only one of the beings' "foot" marks was still visible and only a faint trace of the circle remained. As the Cantu family is more at ease in Spanish language, this journalist came in company of a translator introduced as a skeptic, who questioned Jose. The child answered seriously and with respect, asking however that he'd be authorized to go to play. The translator estimated that the child told the truth, which was also the opinion of Akers and Vogel, who specified that there had been reports of brilliant lights before the experience reported by the kid.
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[Ref. tr1:] TOPPENISH REVIEW:
Harrah youth reports UFOs with 'greenish creatures'By Frances Story Martha Cantu of Harrah said if her son ever tells her again to "come and look," she'll be sure to do it. Last Wednesday when her agitated nine-year-old son Jose woke his mother up at about 6:30 a.m. asking her to explain the little "man" he saw outside she discounted his story and settled down to catch up on the sleep she'd lost the night before with a fussy baby. Jose, who had been in the middle of preparing his breakfast, wasn't put off so easily. He went outside to check for himself— and came back with an amazing story. He told his mother he had seen two greenish creatures about three feet tall, who rotated on a base instead of having feet, and two "steely" crafts in which 2 other creatures were sitting. He claimed that one craft rested in the back yard and the other on a flat section of the roof of the house. He told her he had hidden behind a washing machine stored outside next to a shed. From that vantage point, he said he saw the two creatures join the other two in the crafts. He added that the crafts were brilliantly lighted inside, had "straight stairs" (much like a ramp) and a door that opened in "two parts, like a cross" to reveal the interior which contained two chairs with very tail bases. Jose said the craft in the yard rose from the ground and disappeared into something that resembled a cloud, steam or smoke. When she heard the story, Jose's mother did what any mother might do in the same circumstances. She sent him to school. At the Harrah Grade School, Jose repeated the story to Diane Gomez, an aide. "Jose is a serious boy. He's not one that tells stories or lies. What he told me, I took very seriously," Gomez said. At 10:10, recess time, Gomez and another aide accompanied Jose to his home. There he showed them the places where he said the two creatures had been standing. In one location, where Jose said one creature had rotated on his base, Gomez said she saw two round marks in the gravel. At another place, where the creatures allegedly stood, there were two sets of three indentations. After Mrs. Cantu spoke to the teacher's aides and they had returned to school with Jose, she called her neighbor, Irene Sanchez, to come to her home. Sanchez said they examined the back yard and found in the long grass a circular impression about 10 feet in diameter in which the grass in the middle was whirled up, and also observed the marks the aides had seen. The circle was easily visible from the window of the house next door, Gomez said, and added that her brother, who lives there, had seen it from that distance. The circle was still clearly visible when Mr. Cantu arrived home that evening from work, he said. On Thursday afternoon, when Bill Vogel of Toppenish and David Akers of Seattle, who is affiliated with the Center for UFO Studies, visited the Cantu home, the perfectly shaped circle and "footsteps" were still discernible. Akers examined the area with a Geiger counter and got no reaction. On Saturday when this reporter visited the Cantu home only one set of "foot" marks could still be seen and only a faint trace of the circle remained. Because the Cantu family is more at home with the Spanish language, this reporter took along a skeptical translator. After he questioned Jose, who answered his questions seriously and respectfully but asked to be allowed to return to his play, the skeptic concluded that "I believe he saw what he said he saw." Vogel said he and Akers thought that Jose had "definitely" had an experience with a UFO. If Jose did, he is in good company. Barbara Brost, co-owner with her husband Earl of the Huba Huba Cafe in Toppenish, had a similar experience 20 years ago in southern Idaho on a ranch east of Blackfoot. On a summer morning—about 6 a.m.— Barbara and her uncle were saddling horses and, as they left the barn by a rear door, they spotted an object "greyish white and as big as a boxcar" about half a mile away. Stunned, they watched it for about a minute. Barbara's aunt and Earl rushed from the house when the two called to them, but Earl was too late to see the cigar-shaped object which seemed to lift from the ground with a noise "like the transference of air," Barbara said. It disappeared so rapidly she couldn't tell which way it went, she said. "When I see those rockets lift off now, on t.v., I just say to myself 'this thing was something else!'" Another Toppenish resident, a man who prefers not to be identified, made a similar sighting eight years ago over a cornfield in Toppenish. The object that he, his wife, son and daughter saw from a distance of a quarter of a mile or less from their home was "not large. It was huge." When asked to equate it to the size of a boxcar, he estimated it would be the length of three such train cars. He has described the object, which was off the ground and periodically beaming a light so brilliant that he was unable to look at it without squinting, to a Boeing employee who did his best to convince him that he had not seen the object and, if he had, that it was a helicopter. "I know what I saw," was his answer to that. At the time he had a loaded Polaroid camera in his home but didn't even think of it, he said. The incident raised the "hair on the back of my neck," he said. A more recent sighting happened in the late fall of 1958 or 1959, about 9 p.m. when Toppenish resident Ron Gardner was living in a rural area. Gardner was about 14 years old at the time. He said he was watching television in the family's long and narrow living room with his back to a picture window in the room. A brilliant, bluish-violet light filled the room, he said. At first he thought it was "an electric arc light." Turning to the window he saw the yard bathed in the purplish light and an object passing about 10 feet from the window. The object, he said, was off the ground about three feet, was about seven feet high "tapering to real thin at the bottom," was engulfed in the light and the last four foot of "whatever it was" was disappearing behind a building. Gardner said his father accused him of watching too many Flash Gordon pictures and he never talked about it very much to anyone but "I know what I saw and I've never seen anything like it since." Vogel, who seems to be the man in Toppenish to whom all the UFO reports are given, said that there has been many reports of brilliant lights over the Harrah area in the past six to eight months. He said reports of a bright light over Harrah were made by many CBers the Tuesday night before Jose Cantu claimed to have seen the men and crafts. A bright light has also been spotted over Toppenish Ridge by Mrs. Stan Johnson of Toppenish, who was Toppenish's Woman of the Year three years ago. She shared the experience with a friend, Judi Farquharson of Toppenish. They reported the lights to the Toppenish Police, who notified Vogel, who watched the light until it disappeared over Union Gap. The Johnsons, who are area farmers, have seen the light often — and are still trying to explain how three holes, about four feet deep and six feet wide, appeared all in a row in a field in which they were growing sugar beets just south of Harrah. Those who have seen the lights and mysterious objects all agree that they "know what they saw" but they aren't betting on convincing anyone else of it. |
The article showed a drawing of one of the being by Jose Cantu:
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[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:
Albert Rosales indicates in his catalogue that in Harrah, Yakima, Washington, on January 19, 1977, at 06:30 a.m., Jose Cantu, 9, was preparing his breakfast when he saw a "little man" outside in his yard. He went outside and saw two greenish creatures about three-foot tall, unipedal, who rotated on a base instead of having legs and feet. According to his published drawing, they had only one eye, pig noses, and vestigial arms. Two steely craft were observed, one resting in the backyard and the other on the roof of the house, and in these were two more identical creatures. Hiding behind a washing machine, he saw the first two beings return to the UFOs, which were brilliantly lighted inside and contained "two chairs with very tall bases." Ramps led up to "cross shaped" doors. After the humanoids had re-entered, the craft in the yard rose and disappeared in a cloud of steam or smoke. Marks in the gravel were found where Jose said the creatures had stood, and in the long grass of the backyard was a circle of whirled grass about 10 feet in diameter. Investigators found these traces still present during their on site inspection.
Albert Rosales indicates that the source is William Vogel and David Akers for Cufos.
[Ref. ge1:] GIANFRANCO DEGLI ESPOSTI:
Gianfranco Degli Esposti indicates that a close encounter took place in January 1977 in the USA, in Harrah in the State of Washington, reported in a local gazette, the "Toppenish Review." The witness was a child claiming to have seen two "steel vessels" with two "little men" nearby, approximately one meter tall, with only one leg on which "they turned." Hidden behind a paperboard, he had followed the operations of the small beings, until they went on board the objects, by an open access door in two parts like a cross, which had revealed the interior to him, strongly enlightened. Then these vessels took off, "hiding in a cloud of smoke." He ran to awake the mother, it was approximately 06:30 in the morning, and the child was obviously not believed. In a second time, strange traces were discovered in the alleged area, including a circular surface of three meters, in which the grass was crushed.
William J. Vogel was a police officer for the Indian Reserve of Yakima, who investigated UFO reports and cattle mutilations in the area in those years and earlier.
The issue with the case is, of course, the young age, 9, of the single witness; which might be advanced in argumentation that nothing happened and that all this was imaginary.
The discovered traces, the testimonies of his mother, of the auxiliaries of the school, of the translator of the newspaper, however, lean all to the conviction that the child reported real facts. It is not enough to make a certainty of it, but is nevertheless not to neglect.
Lastly, it seems that the child wanted his mother to come to see the beings; this makes it also unlikely that there was nothing to see.
| Id: | Topic: | Severity: | Date noted: | Raised by: | Noted by: | Description: | Proposal: | Status: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Data | Severe | November 20, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Missing possible investigation report by William Vogel and David Akers for CUFOS. | Help needed. | Opened. |
| 2 | Ufology | Severe | November 20, 2007 | Patrick Gross | Patrick Gross | Young age of single witness. | - | - |
Extraterrestrial visitors.
* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.
| Main Author: | Patrick Gross |
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| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Created/Changed By: | Date: | Change Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2007 | Creation, [tr1], [ar1], [ge1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | November 20, 2007 | First published. |
