Date:
May 5, 1964
Location: Barnesville, Minnesota, United States
Early
on the morning of May 5, 1964, farmer Alfred Ernst, of
Barnesville, Minnesota, drove his truck up to his grain
drill, when at 8:00 AM he saw a 3 to 4 foot long UFO on
the ground. "It was a glowing oval object approximately
1,500 feet away." Afterwards, the farmer and his
brother returned to the landing site. There they discovered
a crater-like depression about three feet in diameter.
Photograph of hole in the center of the depression left
by UFO, Barnesville, MN, May 5, 1964.
Source:
NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon),
'Strange Effects from UFOs', by Donald Keyhoe and Gordon
Lore
Object
Leaves Crater-Like Depression
Early
on the morning of May 5, 1964, farmer Alfred Ernst, of
Barnesville, Minnesota, drove his truck up to his grain
drill. He got out and began loading the drill for the
continued wheat seeding of his land, which had begun the
day before. He stopped for a moment and surveyed the flat
prairie that was his farm, about six miles east of Comstock.
Then, at 8 a.m., he saw a UFO on the ground.
"It
was a glowing oval object approximately 1,500 feet away,"
the former Barnesville Mayor told Norman Mess, NICAP Minnesota
Subcommittee member. "It appeared to be about
three to four feet long and almost as wide."
The
witness, in a later telephone conversation with Dr. James
E. McDonald, said the object was "like the tub
of a washing machine, round-bottomed." There
was a bright glow to it and it was "hard to look
at."
Ernst
saw the object as it was taking off. It rose quickly and
disappeared into the clouds in five seconds. The witness
said he felt "rather uncomfortable" when
the UFO disappeared.
The
farmer then drove to the farm of his brother, Leo A. Ernst,
and the two men returned to the landing site. There, they
discovered a crater-like depression about three feet in
diameter. At the center of this depression was a hole
about three or four inches in diameter. Four other holes
approximately one and one-half inches in diameter and
two feet apart formed a square around the central hole.
The depressed area was unusually dry.
Around
the rim of the depression, a white substance, later analyzed
as alkaline, was found. Ernst said the black soil in that
area did not contain alkaline.
WDAY-TV,
of Fargo, North Dakota, took an unusual interest in the
report and sent a man to investigate and obtain photographs
of the area. The results of this investigation were made
public on Dewey Berquist's weather program.
"The
holes are exactly the type I've seen many times and I'm
sure they were caused by lightning," Berquist
wrote NICAP. "I believe Mr. Ernst saw an uncommon
phenomena called 'ball' or 'globe' lightning."
Ball
Lightning Theory Disputed
The
witness himself does not agree. Nor does Dr. McDonald.
"While
I was quizzing [Ernst] about the state of the weather,"
Dr. McDonald said in a report to NICAP, "he made
reference to the ball lightning explanation and said that
was quite unreasonable. He pointed out that he and his
father and grandfather had farmed in that area (his grandfather
homesteaded there) and nobody in the area had ever seen
any fireball or ball lightning or anything like that before...
. Having heard directly from Ernst his description of
the very precise pattern of the holes, which obviously
impressed him greatly, and adding that to his description
of the weather, I would say that any type of ball lightning
hypothesis will not fit the report. I would say that this
is a fairly strong case."
The
Arizona atmospheric physicist said thunderstorm activity
is needed to produce ball lightning, but "there
is no mention of any thunderstorm occurring at the time,
nor does any of the material indicate lightning activity."
"The
descriptions of the geometric pattern of holes in the
blown-out area are quite atypical of ball lightning. .
. .," Dr. McDonald continued. "Ernst
mentioned that it was hard to look at the object due to
its luminosity. I have never heard of ball lightning so
luminous that it would be hard to look at at a distance
of a quarter of a mile. . . ."
"It
is true that lightning sometimes makes a hole or tear
in the ground and it is also true that when it hits sand,
it vitrefies the sand, but I would not be satisfied with
Berquist's easy explanation of the holes on such a basis,
in view of the reported geometric pattern. . . ."
"Ball
lightning fairly frequently ends by exploding (occasionally
with damaging force, usually just with a loud noise).
One might hypothesize that the hole which Ernst reported
was due to explosive termination of a lightning ball;
however, then one would be left high and dry with respect
to accounting for the ascent of the luminous mass. If,
alternatively, one argued that the hole was made by an
ordinary cloud-to-ground stroke which then generated a
lightning ball, it would be unreasonable to think that
Ernst could have failed to hear a very loud crash of thunder.
No mention of any such thunder is made."
Source:
http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case573.htm