This article was published in the daily newspaper the Sun-Commercial, Vincennes, Indiana, USA, on August 17, 1986.
A Knox County site has been a "hot spot" for UFO sightings during the last 12 years, according to the Mutual UFO Network Inc. "Lucky Point," located about 12 miles southeast of Vincennes on the White River flood plain, has been the site of between 50 and 100 sightings during the past two decades.
UFOs, or unidentified flying objects (a phrase coined by a government information officer in the early 1950s) were the focal point of a MUFON symposium held here Saturday afternoon at the Knights of Columbus Hall. The symposium, called "UFO's Are Real" was attended by about 20 enthusiasts, from as far away as Louisville, Ky.
The symposium was held as part of MUFON's observance of the second annual National UFO Information Week, Aug. 10-17.
Jerry L. Sievers, 140 Ramsey Road, is the assistant state director of MUFON. Sievers talked about several of the "Lucky Point" phenomena, which include cattle mutilation, the sighting of a huge, hairy "being," and the sighting by a Knox County Sheriff's Department deputy of a large, triangular UFO containg "slender" beings with large heads.
Lucky Point, so named for the abundance of deer in the area, not the abundance of UFOs, is a White River Peninsula. MUFON has recorded nearly 100 sightings in that area alone in the last 10 to 15 years, and many other sightings have gone unreported because they are so similar to existing reports, or because the residents have grown accustomed to the oddities, Sievers said.
Many of the sightings are of nocturnal lights, moving in the sky. Some are more unusual.
Sievers told of a farmer who sighted several of these lights. One orange ball of light hovered over his cattle pen. The next day, the farmer found one of his calves dead, with a precision, egg-shaped incision in its head. The calf's brain had been surgically removed from its head. According to the report, a veterinarian said he couldn't have done a neater job in his lab.
A second report came from a man who had stopped his car in the Lucky Point area to check on the "quaking poles"--a group of five power poles in the area that vibrate violently from time to time--when his car was approached from behind by a huge, fur-covered being with glowing red eyes.
Kerry Dean Teverbaugh, Monroe City, is a MUFON state section director for Vigo and Clay counties. He said the poles have been studied and researched by dozens of experts, and no explanation for the "quaking poles" has been put forth.
The third, and strangest, Lucky Point example came from a report given to Teverbaugh by a sheriff's department deputy. In November 1984, the county policeman had stopped in the area to stretch his legs, when he saw a "large, black triangle, 100 feet on a side, less than 200 feet away."
He also said he saw small, slender beings with large heads peering from windows of the "ship." The report also said the beings communicated with the deputy telepathically.
Teverbaugh said Indiana MUFON members at first thought the black triangle was a unique sighting, but they later learned there have been many similar sightings across the U.S.
Sievers and Teverbaugh used to teach a class at VIncennes University on unexplained phenomena. They used to tell students that if they spent five nights in the Lucky Point area, they would see something they could not explain. To their knowledge, no one has proved them wrong.
The primary purpose of the symposium, and of MUFON, according to Francis L. Ridge, the state director of MUFON, is to exchange information and to improve communication channels. He said last year's symposium and UFO Information Week, resulted in 30 UFO reports of both old and new sightings. "Hollywood theatrics" and skeptics have made MUFON attempts to study and investigate the UFO phenomenon difficult, but, he said, times are changing.
MUFON urges anyone who has seen a UFO, or knows of someone who has, to contact them. MUFON members are trained in investigation techniques before they become field investigators.
Anyone with questions about MUFON, or information on UFO's, may call Sievers, the local MUFON representative and assistant director, at (812) 882-1862. Ridge, Mount Vernon, may be reached at (812) 838-3120.
