May 5, 2008

As I was out walking earlier this evening, I passed this house:

(Photo taken with the iPhone. Click on image for larger version)

What’s so special about this you ask? Look again. Closely.

What’s unique is that the owner is of the belief that aliens (of the UFO variety) have chosen his house as a landing pad for their earthly visits. Notice the markings on the house: the strange symbols, and odd designs/monuments in the yard. And to see it at night - the markings glow in the dark. I’m not kidding.

The owner has reportedly spent years readying for the alien’s arrival - having dug up the yard and creating an aesthetically appealing homing device. (ET, phone home.) With the open windows, I’m assuming someone’s living in this building.

Now, most would find this ludicrous — and more than likely would insist that your kids stay far, far away from this house and its occupant(s). BUT, back in 1966 there was a widely reported case of a UFO siting that lasted through the night. Quite possibly, this dude is one of those who witnessed, first-hand, that event?

Quite possibly this dude’s on some hellacious drug trip. And I sure wish he’d share.

Anyway, following are original - and authenticated - reports of that most infamous and obscure night in Jan, 1966 in my little town.

Jan, 1966 (Front page newspaper write-ups):

FLYING SAUCER CASTS SPOTLIGHT ON RAMAPO AREA by Cecilia King, (Newark, New Jersey Evening News Correspondent):

“An unidentified flying object - ‘very white, very bright and much bigger than a star’ -hovered silently over this astounded Ramapo countryside for hours last night. Hundreds of eye-witnesses in a 20-mile periphery testified to seeing a flying saucer, first in Oakland, later of the Wanaque Reservoir where it lingered longest, then above Lakeland Regional High School, and finally over the Houdaile sandpit in Haskell. From there it appeared to move southeast towards Pines Lake in Wayne and suddenly disappear.”

“‘The phenomena was terribly strange,’ Mayor Harry Wolfe said, having been alerted by local police that a UFO was circling over Raymond Dam at the Wanaque head works. Wolfe drove there to see for himself. With him were Councilmen Arthur Barton and Warren Hagstrom, and the mayor’s 14-year-old son, Billy. Billy spotted the unidentified object at once. Flying low it glided ‘oddly’ he said. ‘But it didn’t flicker. It was just a continuous light that changed from white to red to green and back to white.’”

“The older observers estimated ‘the oval’ was between two and nine feet in diameter. First word of the terrestrial visitor reached the New Jersey police station in Pompton Lakes at 6:30 P.M. After some 30 telephone calls from excited residents and motorists, the radio monitor contacted Wanaque Patrolman Joseph Cisco.”

“‘People in Oakland, Ringwood, Paterson, Totawa, Wayne and Butler claim there’s a flying saucer over the Wanaque,’ he was informed. Cisco radioed reservoir Patrolman George Dykman, and even as Dykman was receiving the message two excited teenagers came running. ‘Look, look,’ they pointed excitedly. Dykman gaped along with Michael Sloat, 16, and Peter Melegrae, 15, and a few seconds later they were joined by Civil Defense Director Bentley Spencer and CD member Richard Vrooman. ‘What the heck is it?’ exclaimed Dykman. ‘Never saw anything like it in my life.’ Spencer proceeded to the top of 1,300 foot long Raymond Dam with reservoir employee Fred Steines. From that vantage point he reported later that he saw ‘a bolt of light shoot down, as if attracted to the water.’ He said it looked ‘like a beam emitted from a porthole.’”

“In the meantime Reservoir Police Lt. George Destito stood guard at the Wanaque entrance gates turning away swarms of pedestrians and scores of cars converging to the scene from north and south in Ringwood Avenue. The ’saucer’ hovered for more than two hours over the Raymond Dam area before soaring out of sight. It reappeared over Lakeland Regional High School in the Midvale section of the borough. A crowd of photographers and reporters were on the spot, but before any pictures could be taken the mystery object vanished. The reportedly ‘last good view’ was reported in Highland Avenue, Haskell, where volunteer firemen were burning Christmas trees in the Houdaille sand pit.”

“Police headquarters continued receiving telephone calls, however, all in the same vein of petrified wonder: ‘I saw something weird - what is it?’”

Another report by Jack Mahon, Journal-American Staff Writer, New York:

“What Did They See Hovering Over Jersey? What was the strange flying object that hovered over the Wanaque Reservoir in
Northern New Jersey all through the night, baffling police and terrorizing thousands of residents in neighboring townships? The UFO - which is all anyone could call it - was still unidentified today. The police of Wanaque, Wyckoff, Pompton Lakes, Riverdale, Ringwood and Paterson all witnessed the strange bright light, which resembled a disc, as it dipped and rose over the 15-mile-long reservoir from 7:30 p.m. yesterday until early this morning. ‘They didn’t know what to call it. Officials at Steward Air Force Base, Newburg, New York, and McGuire Air Base, Wrightstown, New Jersey, said they’d heard of the UFO - but acted as if they wished they hadn’t.

Both bases clamped a tight lid of silence on the subject and denied they had sent planes to investigate the phenomena.’”

“Patrolman George Dykman, of the Wanaque Reservoir police, first spotted the weird disc about 200 yards from the police station.”

“‘It was very bright,’ Patrolman Dykman said, ‘about two feet in diameter and, as it dipped over the dam, a round light about nine feet in diameter was reflected in the water.’ Patrolman Charles Theodora said the disc disappeared at 8:30 p.m., but returned about 2:20 a.m. It was motionless for about an hour, then moved back and forth several times.”

“‘It raced about six miles up and down the dam at supersonic speed,’ said the officer. ‘At one point it flashed a ray of light on the ice. Patrolman Capana and I drove up to investigate. We found a hole in the ice about 40 to 50 feet in diameter - there is no explaining it. The rest of the dam is covered solid.’”

“Jack Burchill, an aerospace student at N.Y. Institute of Technology, Westbury, Long Island, and Richard Scott Paterson, a student at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, gave this analysis:”

“‘It doesn’t twinkle, so it is not a star. It’s too bright to be a planet or celestial body. It gives off its own light. It can’t be a helicopter, for it is soundless and appears to move at better than 1000 miles per hour.’”

“Wanaque Mayor Harry T. Wolfe, Civil Defense Director Bentley Spencer, and Howard Ball, suburban editor of the Paterson Evening News, also spotted the UFO. Mr. Ball said:”

“‘I was driving up a hill. I thought it was the planet Venus. Then it looked like an airplane - but it was too low. I don’t know what it is - or was.’”

“Neither does anyone else.”

(source: UFO.org)

This ain’t no lie. And, if you don’t believe these, check out more about it at Weird, NJ.

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