This article was published in the daily newspaper Hillsdale Daily News, of Hillsdale, Michigan, USA, on March 21, 1966.
Also check other files on the Michigan 1966 swamp gas story.
By Don Krupp
It's not a bird, a plane or a Superman, Batman, spaceman, secret agent or plain old cow. It's a UFO and if you don't know what that is, join the crowd - nobody does.
UFO isn't a thing itself but instead is a type of thing - an object-unidentifiable and flying. Hence, UFO (Unidentified Flying Object.) And the UFO Mystery in Hillsdale County continues today, the day after a stormy Spring night which apparently offered good flying conditions for "unidentifiable objects."
William "Bud" VanHorn, Hillsdale County Director of Civil Defense and local businessman, today reported that he and several Hillsdale College students and a resident near the campus in the city observed a UFO between 10 p.m. Monday and 1:30 a.m. today.
Van Horn said he received a call from a girls dormitory at the college shortly after Monday's thunderstorm had concluded and the students, residents of a dorm located near the corner of Hillsdale Street and Barber Drive, claimed that some mysterious object was outside their housing unit.
VanHorn advised the collegians to continue to observe the "object" and report to him later if it didn't disappear.
The local CD director was again notified by the girls shortly afterward that the object was still visible and so VanHorn summoned a local police car and two State Police units to the scene while enroute himself.
"We went to the location at which the students reported seeing the object and couldn't find any indication of its existence," Van Horn recalled today. "And so I went to the dormitory to speak with the girls at which time they took me to the second floor window through which they had spotted the object."
And there it was.
Van Horn reportedly observed the object from 10:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. today at which time he returned home with plans of returning to the scene later this morning. But then the rains returned stalling his ambitions until later today.
"It was definitely some type of vehicle," Van Horn reports. "It would rise to a point just below the airport beacon and then it would start settling down to earth again."
The witness feels that light had some effect on the object since it appeared to avoid light rays in its movement.
"Observing it through binoculars," he continued, "I couldn't determine the shape of the thing. But it appeared to move in a circular motion resulting in changing colors."
Van Horn estimates that the object had a 20-foot span although its definite boundaries were indistinguishable.
Mrs. Roger Norton, a resident at 308 Barber Dr. a location in the same neighborhood as the Hillsdale College girls' dorm which first reported seeing the object, also spotted some indescribable object through a front window in her home. Mrs. Norton reported that she saw the "UFO" sometime between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Ann Arbor (AP) -- Unidentified flying objects caused a new flurry of excitement here Sunday night when several residents and police officers reported spotting mysterious aircraft.
It was the third report within two weeks in this southern Michigan area.
Patrolman Robert Huniwell, from nearby Dexter, told Washtenaw County Sheriff's officers one of the objects hovered about ten feet above his patrol car.
He said it resembled an airplane, had a waffle-like exterior and lights in the center and on its edges. He told officers the lights diffused toward the center of the craft when it accelerated.
Washtenaw Sheriff Douglas Harvey rushed several patrol cars to the area, about 12 miles northwest of here. He said several of his deputies reported sighting the objects from two different locations.
Harvey said the deputies reported the objects flew up and down and did zooming banks, emitting a blue, light green and red lights.
Deputy John Foster, who reported a similar sighting last week, said he spent six years in the Strategic Air Command and "never saw anything move so fast."
He estimated the objects flew at 10,000 feet.
Among the residents who reported spotting the objects was an unidentified man who said the craft landed in his field briefly and then took off.
Neighbors reportedly searched the area where the object was said to have landed but found nothing.
Radar operators at nearby Willow Run Airport said there were no unexplained radar contacts during the night.
