This article was published in the daily newspaper Hillsdale Daily News, of Hillsdale, Michigan, USA, on March 29, 1966
Ann Arbor, Mich. (API) - Reports of strange lights in the skies added to the mystery of unidentified flying objects.
About 30 persons - including an off duty deputy - phoned the Washtenaw County sheriff's office Monday night to report seeing objects overhead in the Ann Arbor area with flashing red, white and green lights.
At about the same time, police agencies in Bad Axe, 150 miles north, also were swamped with calls from residents who said they saw similar flying objects. Other reports came infrom the Flint area.
Most of the reported sightings in the Ann Arbor area described the objects as flying less than 500 feet overhead. Previous reports last week placed them at 1000 feet or higher.
Near Flint, Police Chief Ford Wallace of Linden told of spotting blue, white and red lights several thousand feet overhead which he said hovered for a time and then rapidly moved away to the north.
On the West Coast, in the San Gabriel Valley near Los Angeles, more than 200 persons called police and sheriff's deputies to report the sighting of baton-shaped, flame-red lights that revolved clockwise as they silently ascended into the night sky.
Strange flying objects were also reported Monday night in the Las Vegas, Nev. area. A commercial pilot, Ralph Salvory, said he observed four white objects at high altitude flying in an easterly direction. He made a report to Nellis Air Force Base.
A circle in Elliott's gravel pit, about one mile north of Hillsdale, was investigated Monday afternoon by William Van Horn, Civil Defense director for Hillsdale County.
The city had been drilling test wells for the water department in that area about six weeks ago and it is possible the circle seven feet in diameter, was made by some drilling equipment.
However, Mr. Van Horn inspected the site, took radiation readings and collected soil samples to be sent to the crime laboratory of the Michigan State Police for analysis.
Initial reports said the area around the circle appeared to be black, as if seared by flames.
The only black substance found in the area was some black granules of a hard substance which looked similar to charcoal but did not leave the same type of black smudge when rubbed between the fingers.
Mr. Van Horn said there was no difference between the radiation count in the circle and in the surrounding area but he continued his usual practice of making a thorough investigation.
The circle, was one to two inches deep. It was discovered Sunday afternoon when area residents went for a walk.
Meanwhile, Monday night, there was a report that a "flying saucer" had landed east of Hillsdale but Mr. Van Horn said "nothing was found in the area."
Another UFO was reported at 8:10 two miles west of Cambridge Junction by Mr. and Mrs. George Brown, 120 Manning St.
Baltimore, Md. (AP) - Three space scientists have questioned the idea of flying saucers being seen by earthmen.
Dr. Paul A. Campbell, a pioneer in space medicine, believes that the sighted flying saucers are all in the minds of those who report seeing them.
Dr. John S. Hall, astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, feels that tourists from other planets would have more sophisticated tastes than the sightings indicate.
Dr. Edward C. Walsh expressed concern more for those who sighted the saucer than for the locations of the sightings.
"So many airplane pilots report seeing them," said Walsh, executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. "That's why I take the train."
The men made their views known Tuesday at a convention here.
"People are anxious to believe that there is intelligent life on other planets," said Campbell, and thus, "see flying saucers because they want to see flying saucers."
Campbell, discussing reported sightings of unidentified flying objects called the reports a mechanism for escaping from more earthly troubles and worries.
Hall said he couldn't see why a civilization with technology so advanced that it could send a manned and maneuverable space ship a distance of at least three lights years would have that spaceship hover over swamps in Michigan or cross roads in Oklahoma.
