Remembering the Great Michigan UFO Chase
Every once in a while, we like to share a story that has nothing at all to do with weed, so let’s go back to March 14, 1966 when seven eyewitnesses reported an unidentified flying object maneuvering over Livingston and Washtenaw counties caused an uproar and the area went on a wild UFO chase. The seven were listened to because they were police officers whose stories were backed up by more than 100 witnesses, including William Van Horn, a civil defense director, and dozens of students who watched the football-shaped object for four hours as it maneuvered near the University of Michigan campus, a nearby airport and a local swamp. Here is just one of the incredible stories from a Michigan event that kicked off the UFO frenzy of the late 60s & 70s. It also features Project Blue Book debunker J Allen Hynek debuting his famous “swamp gas” explanation of the UFO phenomenon.
Dexter patrolman Robert Huniwell said he spotted an object in the sky at Quigley and Brand roads between 9:30 and 9:45 PM. He said the flying object with red and green flashing lights, came close to the ground, hovered above a scout car and was joined by a second vehicle on its ascent.
Frank Mannor and his family saw the lights from their McGuiness Road farm. “I got within 500 yards of that thing and it looked pyramid-shaped. It had a light here and a light there and what looked like a porthole.
“It wasn’t like the pictures of a flying saucer and it had a coral-like surface. I’ve trapped every hole in this county and I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Mannor said the vehicle, by its own lights, appeared to be the length of a car and had a hazy mist under it as it hung above the ground. It became different colors, white on the ground, blue, then red in the trees, and then came down and changed colors again. It sounded like a ricochet of a bullet, and like a siren, a real high frequency, they said. Mannor’s son, a member of the Dexter High School track team, and Mannor’s wife also witnessed the object. “I know every pothole in this county,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s nothing wrong with my eyes and my son has 20/20 vision. We both can’t be wrong.”
“My wife says we’ll move out of here,” he said. “She doesn’t like that. I never lock the doors. Nobody ever bothers us.”
Police Chief Robert R. Taylor and Patrolman N.G. Lee came to the farm in response to Mrs. Mannor’s call and heard the noise.
“I thought it was an ambulance,” Lee said. The chief’s son, Robert, 16, also saw the red vehicle in the sky at about 10:30 p.m. “It was going on in the east pretty slow, and then it sped up and went west,” he said. “It was flashing red and white.”
Washtenaw County Deputy Sheriff BuFord Bushroe also observed it. “It looked like an arc. It was round. We turned around and started following it through Dexter for five miles. It was headed west and we stopped. “We lost it in the trees. Either the lights went off or it took off with a tremendous burst of speed. It was about 1,500 feet above the ground. It moved along at about 100 mph. We were doing 70 before losing it near Wylie Road.”
The Air Force sent in Blue Book astronomer and UFO expert Dr. J. Allen Hynek who, after a whirlwind probe that lasted two hours and 45 minutes, dismissed the sightings as “swamp gas.”
Hynek quoted a description of marsh gases by Dutch astronomer Minnaert: “The lights resemble tiny flames, sometimes seen right on the ground, sometimes merely floating above it.
“The flames go out in one place and suddenly appear in another, giving the illusion of motion. The colors are sometimes yellow, sometimes red and bluegreen.”
Read lots more in the UFO Casebook and remember, the Truth Is Out There ;)
