UFOs in the daily Press:

UFO's - Seeing is Believing for Local Resident

Early in October 1977, Paul Fredrickson was driving home with his son near Elmwood, Wisconsin. Travelling up Tuttle Hill, his son Mark pointed to the southeast and asked, "Is that the way the moon comes up dad?"

Paul, a North Bend native, who was working as a nursing home administrator in Elmwood at the time, related what followed next: "I took one look at the speed it was approaching, and knew it couldn't be the moon. It was round and a bright orange, but as it came close, it turned out to be crescent shaped. The light was coming from the front end. As it hovered near us, we could see the underside very clearly. It was round, nearly saucer shaped, dark gray, and about 50 feet in diameter. Before it came over us it made no sound, but when it passed about 1,000 feet up from us, it made a whoosh as it passed over. It disappeared so fast, it was gone with a snap of your fingers."

This was one of three UFO sightings Paul Fredrickson had while living in Elmwood. (Paul and his wife Fran are now retired and living between Melrose and North Bend.) As he and his wife discovered after living in Elmwood for 12 years, seeing a UFO around the town of about 1,000 was not uncommon. In fact, he says, everybody looks for them in Elmwood. They even began UFO days in 1978, as the town's yearly celebration. (Elmwood is 93 miles north west of North Bend.) To the best of Paul's knowledge, there have been over 40 UFO sightings in and around the small community.

So it didn't come as a surprise for him to hear that Elmwood was being considered as a likely location to build a multi-million dollar facility to provide a safe landing for alien spacecraft. A newly formed UFO Site Center Corporation (a non-profit organization founded by Tom Weber), based in Chippewa Falls, is responsible for considering the site. The two month old organization, which has received international attention, recently held an informative meeting in Elmwood High School gym on February 13th. Paul and Fran attended the meeting, along with nearly 300 other people. Paul, along with other people in the community who had seen UFO's, was later interviewed by a variety of media on his UFO experiences after the meeting.

He showed reporters the location of his first and second UFO sighting. The first sighting was also on Tuttle Hill near his home. It was April 22, 1976, and Paul Fredrickson was at home with his family.

The last UFO sighting for Paul Fredrickson was that same year in June of 1976.

Paul says that after each of his sightings, "I felt elated and I felt frustrated. I wish I had a piece of the ship so I could have concrete evidence of what I say. It's no fun walking down the street and having people look at each other and say, he's really crazy, isn't he. I don't want to be made fun of." At the age of 70, he says he doesn't believe he should keep what he saw to himself just because of what other people might think.

Even at his age, he would like to be open minded in order to learn more about UFO's. He says until now, people have by and large taken it as a joke. At Elmwood he knows of many reputable people who have actually seen these objects. "There's something out there," he says with conviction. "If they're human or human-like, we don't know, but I think the country is ripe for learning more about them. Creating the landing site for UFO's seems for him to be a good place to start.

There's no question people in the country are curious about UFO's. Paul was asked to join several people from Elmwood who have seen UFO's, along with the widow of George Wheeler, the Elmwood Village President Larry Feiler, and Tom Weber, President of the UFO Site Center Corporation, when they flew to New York to appear on the "Geraldo" show, hosted by Geraldo Rivera. Unfortunately, Paul was not feeling well at the time. The show is scheduled to be shown in the next couple weeks.