A) Welcome to my 5th blog opening!
B) My research on a "UFO" landing near Williamsburg, Va. (Lightfoot) in 1965 is complete, composed and written. Since a local newspaper ignored my research, this blog, feeding across America, will share the research with you. And come to a conclusion as to whether this particular "sighting" only was valid...ready?
C) DATELINE: January 23, 1965...8:45 am....
What happened on that winter morning? According to two newspaper accounts and UFO records, something did occur! What, this historian believes, is not for sure. It is for sure, though, that 45 years ago, the phenomenon could not be blamed on the Beatles, for their 2nd tour didn't take place until later in August.
**My interest began a few months ago while searching through the Virginia Gazette archives: "UFO Causes Slight Stir In Lightfoot Sightings." And I was off and thumbing through more 1965 newspapers and UFO data, along with the Daily Press, serarching for ANY mention, finding little!
**Back then, Daily Press reporter Susie Lewis, on January 24th, reported that an unidentified object, as described to her by one of two Richmond businessmen, was 75', "aluminum in color, with a reddish orange light on one side, and a light blue on the other side. In shape, the orject resembled an ice cream cone."
The official report came in to the State Police and Williamsburg police around 8:45. State Trooper R.D. Ferris received a call at 8:55 am from a Richmond man traveling west on Rte. 60 at Lightfoot, at the intersection with 614. "As the car stalled, he looked to the left and saw the object hovering about four or five feet above the ground.
**The man, who remains unidentified at the time, told Ferris the object remained in the position for about 25 or 30 seconds. As he got out of his car, there was a swishing sound. The object went straight up at a tremendous speed and disappeared."
**The man also described to Ferris that the object was "shaped like an ice cream cone, with a mushroom top and cylindrical at the bottom. The man was not certain, however, if the end of the object was sharp or flat."
**About the same time, a different Richmond businessman was driving east on Rte. 60 at 614 and reported the apparent object to the city police at 8:43. His auto also stalled upon spotting the object, according to the Daily Press. Both cars did restart after the object swished up and away.
**The second driver likewise described the same object as the other man did. Reporter Lewis added that J.C.C. Deputy Sheriff Walter Dutton and Ferris investigated both reports but found NO trace of any unusual activity in the Lightfoot field. That field, by the way, is now a mall location.
**The owner of a nearby small grocery store, across from the field, reported nothing unusual was noticed that early Saturday morning from 8 to noon.
**One of the travelers from Richmond would not give his name, fearing that people would think that he was "crazy." "One of the two travelers, however, said the object was not an attention drawer, unless a person was looking in that particular direction, he would bge unaware of its precence."
**Reporter Lewis also added, "While neither Dutton nor Ferris would comment about the possible nature of the object, both said the men who reported the incident seem to be reputable and reliable persons who must have seen something."
****"UFO Causes Slight Stir In Lightfoot."
**"Speculation has been that the sightings were weather balloons, helicopter or other such normal air traffic." (Va. Gazette/Jan 29, 1965)
****As an avid student of research, this guy also uncovered, in the National Investigation Committee on Aerial Phenomena (The 1965 UFK Chronology Blue Book list of sightings) more occurances during that same month. On Jan. 5th, at Brand's Flat (outside Staunton on Rte. 250), a "humanoid
"emerged from a landed object at an archery range, approached a witness, who froze, apparently paralzed.
**The following listing in the Blue Book (Jan. 23, 1965) states that at "8:40 am, the following cars stalled near intersection of US Hwy 60 and State Route 614, witness F.T. Mains (now we know a name) saw a lightbulb or mushroom-shaped object 75-80 ft tall, 10-25 ft wide, metallic gray, red-orange and blue glows, hovering over nearby field about 4 ft off the ground, make a vacuum cleaner-type noise, suddenly accelerate horizontally to the W against the wind and disappear."
Jan. 27th...Hampton...another sighting.
**The Project Blue Book Archive, "Supporting Serious UFO Research"
was a Jan. 23, 1965 listing of sightings, with five additional Virginia ones at Norfolk, Lunchburg, South Boston, Thaxton (near Bedford) and Richmond. Most of the "OBSERVER" column in that list have been blackened out, including our Williamsburg (Lightfoot) one. For the "EVALUATION" column, "UNIDENTIFIED" was noted for that Lightfoot sighting.
****Lastly, in that same time frame of 1965, I came across at least two local persons who recalled stories from older family locals about 'crop circles' appearing in that same field in Lightfoot. The claims included how the RR tracks across Rte. 60 were closed down for a handful of days for the investigation. Supposedly, some canvas material was put up to keep people from seeing the 'circles' across the way in that field.
I could find no one to substaniate that claim.
****This native Virginia historian has concluded in the past, "I don't believe in ghosts, but I want to...." The same theory applies with something called a UFO sighting. However, when a State Trooper and a JCC Deputy Sheriff investigated, especially all around the field, they "found no trace of the object in the cornfield where it was reported to have been seen." The two have since passed on.
********There WAS, though, back in 1958, a Sheb Wooley popular tune called, "The One-Eyed One-Horned Flying Purple People Eater." Was "this" a forerunner to the 1965 sighting? GO FIGURE! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
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