This article was published in the daily newspaper The Lloydminster Meridian Booster, Lloydminster, Alberta, on November 7, 2004.
A UFO research centre has landed in Maidstone and the sighting reports are already beaming in.
Leo Pare
Lloydminster Meridian Booster
A UFO research centre has landed in Maidstone and the sighting reports are already beaming in.
Until recently, Saskatchewan was the only province without a centre for people to report sightings of unidentified flying objects, but Barb Campbell of Maidstone was determined to change all that when she opened the Northwest Saskatchewan UFO Research Centre.
"Everybody (spotting UFOs) has been having to make their reports to B.C. or Alberta, or to the Manitoba group," said Campbell. "So I figured why not set up a centre here in the province where we can take all the reports and document them?"
The NWSURC office runs out of Campbell's home and is a non-profit operation. As an independent researcher and investigator, Campbell collects sighting reports in Saskatchewan and compiles those reports onto a website. (http://ca.geocities.com/nwsurc). Campbell said she has already had significant interest from communities across the province and hopes to develop a larger group of researchers and investigators in the near future.
Despite society's general skepticism regarding UFOs, she strongly believes in their existence and says she has even had a few sightings of her own.
"It's a big unknown and I don't expect any answers," she said. "When I lived in the Bulkley Valley I saw what you would call an unusual sighting, not your typical UFO shape. It was just a very unusual spacecraft of some sort which was directly over my head above the treeline."
Campbell was raised on a farm near Smithers, B.C., where she experienced several sightings. She says UFO sightings are not as uncommon as most people think, but witnesses are often hesitant to come forward.
"We're just not hearing everyone's experiences. There are those who are afraid to speak up for fear of being shunned by others in their own community," she said. "Most, if not all, UFO researchers respect anonymity. Names and other personal information are withheld from the public.
"The one comfort witnesses have to know is that they are not alone in having seen a UFO. There are witnesses all over the world."
After a sighting is reported Campbell has a list of questions she goes through with the witness or witnesses. She gathers information on the circumstance of each sighting such as time, duration, location, direction, weather conditions and a detailed description of the object.
Campbell's research and investigations will collaborate with other UFO investigators across the country and around the world. She will also work with members of the Canadian Crop Circles Research Network and Franz Berlin, a well-known cattle mutilation investigator from St. Paul.
Since Campbell began the operation on Oct. 21, she has received reports of two sightings.
On Oct. 30 Beata Van Berkom of Saskatoon, said she and her son witnessed a "yellow ball in the sky."
"We watched it cross the sky rather quickly then it stopped," said Van Berkom. "It seemed to stay in one place for a few minutes then it went up vertically. I saw it pass through wispy clouds.
"It seemed to change colour to orange and change shape to a cylindrical shape and back to spherical a few times. Then we lost sight of it."
On Nov. 1 an anonymous person claimed to have witnessed an unusual sighting along Highway 26 near Maymont.
"A brilliant low light in the sky seemed not to be moving," said the 38-year-old witness. "My father got the camera out and ready to take a picture when it disappeared, instantly, like they shut off the lights."
There have been four UFO sightings in the Maidstone area since 1963 in which witnesses reported seeing cylindrical, spherical, rainbow and cigar shaped objects.
