This article was published in the daily newspaper The Rockingham News, of Rockingham, New Hampshire, USA, on January 14, 2005.
By Jessica Taylor
FREMONT - If you think that you know the town of Fremont fairly well, maybe there are a few historical facts you have not heard. Did you know...
- On Aug. 10, 1959, one of the most historic events in the town of Fremont took place when a B-52 stratofortress bomber crashed into Spruce Swamp? The plane was on a routine training mission from Chicopee, Mass., when its air speed indicator and altimeter failed, which led to more serious malfunctions. The plane was attempting to make an emergency landing at Goose Bay, the only landing option not affected by foggy weather conditions. However the plane crashed before it could make the landing, narrowly missing the Jalbert home at 721 Main St.
The U.S. Air Force reported that it was the first B-52 plane crash in U.S. history where the entire crew survived. Seven of the eight crewmen parachuted to safety, landing in Candia.
The captain, being the last to jump, landed in Walter Quimby's yard located at 85 North Road in Fremont. Debris from the crash covered a quarter-mile of densely wooded Fremont swampland. The crash site was aired on Boston's WBZ-TV and received extensive nationwide newspaper coverage.
- There was a four or five-week period between the months of September and October of 1965 where many Fremont residents reported frequent UFO sightings near the Northeast grid power lines along Main Street (Route 107)?
It is reported that hundreds of people would park along the roadside during the evening hours in hopes of spotting a UFO. One Fremont resident who preferred to remain anonymous stated, "There were so many people down by the power lines some nights that it looked like a beach party!"
Most reports were consistent in describing a round or oval hovering object with very bright white lights that could move both back and forth as well as up and down and all without making a sound. The UFOs would allegedly disappear without any warning and then just as suddenly, reappear moments later. Several eyewitnesses reported that they saw a plane chasing the UFO on one or two occasions, but each time the UFO easily outmaneuvered the plane.
Fremont residents have continued to report UFO sighting in the last 32 years along other sections of Route 107 and also along Sandown, Abbott, Red Brook, South, Beede and North roads. The most recent reported sighting was in 1993.
Many of these sightings have been recorded in a logbook kept by the New Hampshire Chapter of MUFON - the Mutual Unidentified Flying Object Network. These Fremont testimonials and many others are also documented in John Fuller's book "Incident at Exeter."
