UFO Landings

August 1914:

Late one August evening in 1914, a man and woman, their three small children, and three young American men crouched behind rocks and brush along the banks of Lake Ontario at Georgia Bay, Canada, and watched a weird scene:

A strange globular craft, which appeared to be about 15 feet in diameter, rested on the surface of the water about 450 feet from shore. On the square-shaped substructure at the water line were two small men-like creatures who were busying themselves with a green "hose." The little men worked quickly, and seemed to be having some problem with kinks in the hose, by the way they manipulated it.

This incident was related in a letter received at APRO headquarters in late spring, 1966. The writer, after reading several articles by Mrs. Lorenzen in Fate magazine, had decided to confide his experience to someone who apparently would listen to such revelations with a sympathetic ear.

Shortly after receiving the letter from the informant about the 1914 affair, we decided that a close scrutiny of the writer would be in order and a qualified member of APRO in the San Francisco area was asked to interview the man who had reported the incident.

At about 5 p.m. one of the children spotted a deer at the water line staring out over the lake, apparently unaware of the humans nearby. When the girl glanced in the direction the deer was looking, she saw an unusual craft resting on the water. She called her mother, who, when she saw it, called her husband and the three young Americans.

William J. Kiehl (writer of the letter) says the air was very still, the water was unruffled and the craft sat motionless in the water about 450 feet from shore. Its shape was that of a globe except that it was slightly flattened on top and had some sort of a square substructure around the bottom.

Two "little fellows" were on this deck-like substructure, and appeared to be busy with a hose which looked to be about two and a half inches in diameter. The hose was green and on the end of it was a round object.

When Kiehl first noticed the "little men", they were working vigorously with the lower part of the hose, the other end of which came out of the globular structure above their heads. Their motion indicated that they were taking the kinks out of the lower part or untangling it in some way.

Questions later put to Mr. Kiehl about the small men he observed yielded the following information:

They appeared to be four feet tall or under, were dressed in tight-fitting suits which revealed their human shapes, and which appeared iridescent, for they were green or purple as they moved about in the late afternoon sunlight. Each of the "men" wore a box-shaped or square yellow headpiece.

While the little men were concerning themselves with the hose, which appeared to be controlled by something in the upper part of the globular structure, three pipes or straight objects came out of the top of the craft, along with the heads and shoulders of three other small creatures. These three began doing something to the pipe-like protuberances. Kiehl could not discern what the three were doing, but noted that while they, like the other three, were wearing square yellow headgear, their clothing - what could be seen - was khaki-colored. He also noted that the size of the heads was large in comparison to the diminutive bodies. Kiehl described the bodies as "skinny."

When the trio of little men on top of the craft finished their task with the pipes, they turned and seemed to look very piercingly at the deer which was watching them from the beach. The deer turned and ran back into the woods. They seemed not to notice their human audience, as far as Kiehl was able to tell.

The three topside "men" then disappeared into the craft and the pipes went down in the same manner.

At this point, the creatures on the substructure had gotten the hose in through a square hatch above them and about midpoint of the craft itself, and one started to get into the hatch. Kiehl could see into the hatch and noted what seemed to him to be tiles set in the opposite wall which were bright green in color.

Just as the first "little man" got into the hatch, the craft began to lift off the water. Water streamed from the bottom of the craft and the remaining little man clung desperately to a chrome-like ring which encircled the globular superstructure. The craft lifted straight up to an altitude of about fifteen feet and Kiehl could see the underside which looked like a latticework of square metal, dull gray in color like the rest of the craft, and which shed water.

Then the whole globe tipped back at a sharp angle and shot off into the sky at an angle of about thirty to forty-five degrees. It left a short trail of vapor or steam which was only a few feet long, and the object was quickly out of sight. It made no sound at any time which Kiehl could distinguish.

The last that William Kiehl saw of the craft, the little man who had been left clinging to the rail around the middle of the globe was still holding on. Kiehl says he often wonders what happened to him.

APRO's investigator asked Mr. Kiehl what was said about the incident by his companions and Kiehl replied that they were all startled at the incident, but talked little about it afterward. For one thing, there was a language problem. The Canadian family spoke only French and the young college student was the only interpreter and his French apparently was not the best.

The machine was watched by the group of eight people for about ten minutes, affording everyone a good look. The most startling thing about this particular incident is its resemblance to another sighting which also took place in Canada, on July 2, 1950.

July 2, 1950:

A senior executive of the Steep Rock Iron Mines and his wife were on an outing at Sawtooth Bay on Steep Rock Lake in Ontario. They had beached their boat on a sandy shore where there was plenty of shade, had some tea and sandwiches, and sat back to relax.

Suddenly, a shock wave was felt - the air seemed to vibrate. The man thought it might have been a dynamite blast but there had been no sound. The executive decided to investigate and climbed up on a rock outcropping which protruded above the undergrowth.

Looking through a cleft in the rock, the observer saw a large shiny apparently metallic object resting on the water about a quarter of a mile down the shoreline. He quickly scrambled back to his wife and brought her back to the niche so that she could see the object too.

It looked like two huge saucers stuck together, lip to lip. What appeared to be round black-edged portholes were arranged around the circumference, where the "saucers joined."

On the top of the bizarre craft what appeared to be hatch covers were open and the observers saw about ten small figures moving about. Protruding from the top to about eight feet above the "deck" was a hoop-shaped object which rotated slowly. When it appeared to be pointed at a location directly opposite the two observers, it would stop and so would the "little men." The man and his wife got the distinct impression that the concentration was on their location and ducked behind the rock.

The hoop-like contraption seemed to be operated by one of the figures on a prominence directly below it. This "being" had a bright red apparatus on its head while the rest of the figures on the superstructure were wearing blue headpieces of some type.

The executive estimated that the size of the object was approximately 48 feet in diameter, using the size of two trees on the opposite shore as points of reference, and that the little men, who had shiny metal of some kind on their chests and dark clothing, were between three and a half and four feet tall. No features were noticed, of course, because of the distance - about 1200 feet.

The two observers agreed that the tiny figures moved like automatons, did not turn as normal beings do, but changed direction laboriously as though it was a difficult task, and turned their feet before turning their bodies.

Two bright green hoses extended into the water, and during the sighting, a distinct humming sound could be heard. The witnesses thought that water was being taken into the ship with one hose and that it was being discharged back into the lake through the other.

Each time the rotating hoop pointed in their direction, the man and wife would duck behind their rock shelter. The last time they ducked, when they stuck their heads out again, about twenty seconds later, the figures and the hoop were missing, and the object began to rise from the surface of the water. Where it had rested, the water was tinted red with a slight gold cast.

The object was estimated to be about 15 feet thick at its highest point and about 12 feet thick at the edge. There was a rush of wind as it took off at about a 45-degree angle, whereupon it vanished quickly into the sky.

In the Kiehl sighting, as in the Steep Rock case, a vivid green hose is involved, the craft is resting on water, and the occupants of the craft seem sensitive to the presence of people or animals. Deer are involved in both cases, also.

Kiehl was questioned closely by APRO's investigator and by letters from APRO's office, but was firm in his assertion that the entities were not mechanical men, but rather were living beings because of the way they moved about.

There can be no doubt that the craft in Kiehl's story differs greatly from that in the Steep Rock case. This is not surprising, however, for even if they did have the same origin, is it not possible for the aircraft design to change radically in thirty-six years?

There is an explanation for the movements of the Steep Rock creatures which is logical and even sensible. If the figures on that craft were living beings equipped with, for instance, magnetic shoes, they would give the appearance of moving about clumsily and with great effort.

And if we extend our theorizing just a bit further, we come up with the possibility that, having lost one of the crew in a similar area during a water operation, better means of navigating on the possibly slippery surface of the craft might be adopted. Magnetic shoes?

Kiehl was also questioned about the color of the water after the craft he had observed had left. He said he saw no difference from the rest of the water in the lake.

The Occupants in the United States

The next is the most spectacular report we have examined, and although APRO has not completed its investigation, sufficient work has been done so that we feel it is an authentic incident and important to any documentation of "occupant" incidents.

September 4, 1964:

On the Labor Day weekend of 1964, three men from the Sacramento area of California drove into the mountains near Cisco Grove (not far from Truckee) to do some bow-hunting. The bow-hunting season, which precedes the usual deer season, had just commenced. On the afternoon of September 4, the three men were hunting a ridge some distance from their camp. As dusk approached, they were separated from each other. Our principal, Mr. S., was to proceed along the ridge and approach camp from a certain area. When he reached the end of the ridge, he found that it ended in a sheer drop to the canyon below and he realized he would have to retrace his path and find another way to get to camp. He started back, in the dusk, and came into a canyon with a granite outcropping, few trees, and sparse brush. At this point, he heard what he thought was a bear by the crashing sounds it made, and took refuge in a tree. Shortly, confident that the bear had gone, he got down and built three small signal fires hoping to attract the attention of rangers, not knowing they had left the area already.

Then S. saw a light below the horizon and thought it was a lantern and that his friends were looking for him. But when the light darted up and over a tree, he realized it wasn't a lantern and thought perhaps a search and rescue helicopter was coming. When the light came in his direction, then stopped, and hovered motionless without any sound, he realized this was something out of the ordinary and went back up into the tree.

This tree is important to the story. It is 25 to 30 feet high, big enough at the base so that it cannot be circled by a man's arms, completely branchless up to 12 feet, with sparse but sturdy limbs above it. S. climbed to the 12-foot mark and stayed there for a time.

The light S. had seen appeared to be 8 to 10 inches in diameter, and white. It appeared to be accompanied by two or three other objects which stayed at a regulated distance from it. Remember at this point that it was dark with a moon rising, but nevertheless this canyon is partly shaded from the moon's light. Shapes and things were therefore indistinct. The light then circled around S.'s tree, a flash was seen, and a dark object fell to the ground. Then he noticed a "dome-shaped affair" 400 to 500 yards away, apparently on or near the ground.

Noises like someone moving in the brush attracted S.'s attention, and he saw a figure emerge from a patch of manzanita brush. The creature seemed to be examining the manzanita. Then, from a slightly different direction, another figure approached and the two came toward the tree in which S. perched, stood at the base, and looked at him. He occasionally heard a "cooing" or "hooting" noise to which the two always reacted, but doesn't know if the sound came from them or an owl in the area. The reaction from the entities might have simply been curiosity about the noise. The only other noise he heard during the night was the sound of movement in the brush, and once he heard the sound of a generator.

At this point, a third figure came from the direction of the dome - it seemed to move in a different manner than the first two, making more noise, seemed to run into bushes, going over or through them rather than around, as the others did. The descriptions of these three figures are:

Numbers one and two were about 5 feet 5 inches, S.'s best estimate. They were clothed in a silvery-grey material with a covering that went up over the head straight from the shoulders. No facial features were visible at any time. The third "entity" was grey, dark grey, or black. It, too, had no discernible neck, but two reddish-orange "eyes" glowed and flickered where the "head" would be. It had a "mouth" which, when it opened, seemed to "drop" open, making a rectangular hole in the "face." The mouth extended completely across the "face" area.

S. saw figures number one and two more clearly than the other, for they came in from an area bathed in moonlight. Figure number three came in on the shadowed side of the canyon. Its eyes appeared to be about 3 inches in diameter.

The first two figures attempted to get to S. by boosting one another up the tree, but apparently did not know how to climb a tree. The third entity (which S. calls a "robot") seemed to be just watching and waiting, near the base of the tree. Then the nightmare began.

S. readily admits he was badly frightened. He realized the object on the hill must have been a "flying saucer" although he knew little about them except from newspaper accounts. Throughout the night, the robot tried to gas him with smoke which issued from its mouth while the other two looked on, or tried to climb the tree. S. climbed higher, belted himself to the trunk (the section where he finally settled was 4 inches in diameter) and began lighting pieces of his clothing and throwing it at them. First, he lit his cap, which flared up brightly (probably due to hair dressing which is quite oily), and threw it down. The two figures backed up and away from the tree. Then the robot opened its mouth, S. saw a puff of white smoke or gas, and seconds later, he became light-headed, then lost consciousness. Each time this happened, he would awaken, probably only seconds later, sick and retching. He would then light another piece of his clothing or throw something at them to try to discourage them. He succeeded in starting several small fires on the ground, hoping to attract attention from someone, or to discourage his tormentors. Altogether, he tore apart his camouflaged oversuit, his jacket, and his cap.

Before he began setting fires, S. shot three arrows at what he thought was the chest section of the robot. When the arrows hit, they struck a spark as they made contact with the robot, suggesting that it was made of metal, and succeeded in knocking the robot away two or three feet. Occasionally, the robot would get downwind before releasing the gas, which S. said he never saw after it left the robot's mouth.

S. threw his canteen down, which one of the silver-suited entities picked up and both of them examined. All in all, he threw his bow, his canteen, and a pocketful of silver coins, besides bits of burning clothing and paper.

Finally, at about dawn when the east was just starting to get pinkish with the first light of the sun, the two "men" figures stood back from the tree, another robot joined the first and they stood facing each other at the base of the tree. Suddenly, sparks and a glow filled the area between their chests, and a cloud of the gas issued from them. This time, S. did not know for certain where the gas came from. He blacked out and when he came to, they were gone. He was extremely nauseated, and was hanging, limp and exhausted, his head and legs and arms dangling. He feels they left him for dead. He was bitterly cold from exposure, having only his T-shirt, levis, underclothing, socks, and boots left. He waited a while, got down, and looked around.

S. said he got another scare when he spotted smoke issuing from near a rock, but found it was only the smoke residue from one of the fires he had started during the night. He tried to orient himself, then started for camp. Finally, sick and frightened and exhausted from his ordeal and the cold, he lay down. He then heard one of his friends whistling, got up and the two located each other, then went back to camp.

When S. arrived at camp, he found that one of the other men had nearly gotten lost, but had been close enough to camp to see the lantern and get there safely. The other man had apparently seen the craft, for he told about the bright, glowing large light which slowly came down, the evening before. S. told his friends about his experience, and they believed him, not only because they knew him, but because of the light seen by one of them.

We learned about this particular incident quite by chance through rumors in the Sacramento area, and notified Dr. James Harder, one of APRO's advisers. Dr. Harder contacted S., taped an interview, and after hearing the tape, we felt it was worth further investigation.

During the course of the investigation and S.'s questioning, we found some interesting facts: S. reported his experience to Air Force personnel who suggested that he may have been the unhappy subject of a prank by teenagers or local Japanese people (?). They did not seem to take his account seriously.

_________

Dr. George Wald, professor of biology at Harvard University, was quoted in the New York Times, November 13, 1960, concerning the elements of life. He stated that life existing elsewhere in the universe is likely to be the same as life on earth. Living organisms everywhere would be constructed primarily of the same four elements: carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen, not because of their abundance but because of their appropriate qualities. Wald said that it was doubtful that life could arise apart from water or go very far without oxygen, nor could it thrive without access to radiation, and specifically in the wavelength range of 300 - 1100 microns which excites molecules electronically and so activates photochemical reactions.

There are certain advantages in the specific physical attributes of man. It is most advantageous for man to walk upright, have three-dimensional vision, his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears a considerable distance from the ground. An opposing thumb for grasping is important as is the arrangement of certain organs such as the anus which is located in a very convenient position considering where its contents ultimately are deposited.

The brain mass and posture of man set him apart from other animals who generally have the same number and type of organs.

In other words, man, considered only from the standpoint of the success of his evolutionary trend, is quite a successful "experiment."

Does it follow, then, that life elsewhere would be likely to follow the same general trend? The observable physical universe certainly demonstrates some order - stars are made up of the same general combination of elements and many have planets which in turn have satellites, indicating that the structure of our solar system is not necessarily unique.

The Humanoids in South America

November 11, 1965:

For several nights during late October and early November 1965, strange objects were seen in the sky and seemed to be reconnoitering the huge farm complex of industrialist-chemist Dario Anhaua Filho near Mogi-Guacu, Brazil. During the course of one incident, on November 11, Mrs. Filho and her grandson watched a lighted object land in an adjacent field and saw small men alight from the craft and walk around the field. The small figures picked up twigs and branches, and appeared to examine a mare which was standing by the fence. They seemed unaware of their observers. Mr. Filho was in town on business and when he returned, his wife told him of the event. The next day, he went back into town where he contacted and invited friends, including the bank manager, to come and watch for the return of the object and its occupants.

The vigil was rewarded on the night of the 13th. As darkness settled over the countryside, the object came in and landed about 400 feet from the fence separating the yard and the field. At about this time, the local sheriff and a police clerk who had been driving to Catagua, drove by on a highway near the farm and saw the object hovering prior to landing.

The bank manager became so excited when the craft came down that he stumbled and dropped his camera and could not find it in the dark.

The beings observed by the Filhos and the bank executive were small, about the size of seven-year-olds. One was wearing overalls, the other chocolate-colored pants and a gray collarless shirt. The third being had a squarish, flat head and was wearing what appeared to be a surgeon's apron. All three, including the ship, glowed brightly. They set about the tasks of the preceding night - uprooting plants and plucking leaves and twigs from bushes.

When the object first landed, Filho called a neighboring farm and before the little men had departed, some guards and the local parish priest, Longino Vartbinden, arrived at the farm and witnessed the tableau in the field. When the little creatures were finished with whatever they were doing, they got into the object which took off at high speed. The area apparently was not visited again.

This particular incident correlates with others in which the entities showed interest in plants and bushes, and the size of the creatures fits that of the ones reported in the Masse incident in France.

The call for re-examination of all occupant sightings brought immediate response from APRO's Dr. Fontes of Brazil, who has been one of the few researchers to face the problem of the "little men" squarely from the very beginning of their injection into the UFO puzzle. He submitted several cases which had not received widespread attention, among which is the following.

The location of this incident is Ceres, State of Goias, which is 300 miles in a straight line from Sâo Francisco de Salles, the home of Antonio Villas-Boas. The date is October 10, 1954. The entities involved in this report, it will be noted, closely resemble those of the Villas-Boas case, but as Dr. Fontes points out, there is no possibility that one case was the cause for the other. The Ceres case was first reported in the Brazilian press on November 30 and the first letter from Villas-Boas concerning his experience to reporter Joao Martins had been received on November 15. At the time that Villas-Boas contacted Martins, no mention of his experience had been published.

October 10, 1954:

On the night in question, Miguel Navarrete Fernandez, thirty-five, and a friend identified only as Guido arrived in Ceres. Both men were obviously very frightened and shortly related their weird experience with a huge flying machine. They were initially questioned by the proprietor of the local hotel, who noticed their extreme agitation. They told their story.

Fernandez, an agent for the coffee company "Exportacao e Importacao Planalto Ltda.", with his friend Guido, had come to Ceres to pick up some merchandise. They went to a farm in the vicinity where they carried out the business, loading merchandise into the truck. They then headed back to Ceres at 6 p.m. The trip was uneventful until about 8 p.m. when they were in an area called "Quebra Coco." Guido called the attention of Fernandez to a brilliant light ahead. Fernandez thought it was the light of another truck and said so.

It was shortly obvious that the light was not that of a truck, for the light took shape - resembling the "body of a helicopter" - and was very large. It was not on the road as they thought, but was moving above the ground. Their truck moved under it, then the object, now behind them, made a turn, came back and hovered about 150 feet in the air ahead of them. About two minutes later, it began to move toward them. Guido, very upset, lost control of the truck and it ran off the road. The motor stalled and the truck's lights went out.

Both men were terrified. Guido shouted, "My God, that ball is going to hit the truck!" The object appeared to be at least 420 feet wide and 120 feet high. It seemed to have stopped about 120 feet in front of the truck and hung about 18 feet off the ground.

The dazzling violet-colored light went off suddenly and only a bright red antenna could still be seen. Then a door opened from top to bottom, forming a sort of bridge (like the door of a Convair plane, Fernandez said). Six slim and apparently normal people appeared in the doorway and looked silently at the two men. Then a seventh appeared and stood with them. All were of small stature, had long hair but otherwise appeared to be human. All of them had a phosphorescent or glowing red badge on their chests which made it difficult to discern their features.

For about three minutes, the group of creatures watched the two men in the truck, then the door was pulled up, the machine climbed until it was at about 1500 feet altitude and a small disc-shaped object appeared through another opening and moved away in the direction from which the big object had approached. At this point, the truck's lights came back on and the engine began to function normally. The two terrified men drove as fast as they dared toward Ceres.

Fernandez said that all the while the men were looking at him and Guido, he felt as though he was in a trance, and had a strange feeling that they were talking to him and saying that they had come on a peaceful mission, although he heard no sounds.

A few weeks later, Mr. Gabriel Barbosa de Andrade, the Judge of Ceres, forwarded a report to the Secretary of Interior and Justice for the State of Goias giving the foregoing details.