by
Michel M. Deschamps

1990 was a year that I'll never forget, and for good reason. That summer, I met a man by the name of Don Campbell who related to me many UFO sightings he had experienced during the late 1960s, when he worked at the Copper Cliff welding shop. He was a first-class welder and he had also been a teacher. He retired in 1985 as Head Foreman of the Copper Cliff welding shop. Because of his background, I found him to be a very honest and credible witness. In all, he claims to have had 51 UFO sightings. Most of them were described as unusual lights in the sky, but some were really close encounters.

Don Campbell

A few months after we had met, I witnessed something really incredible on October 9, 1990. On that cold Tuesday evening, I looked through my binoculars and watched as a UFO came down from the sky and hovered near the abandoned Falconbridge Radar Base. After it was all over, I was anxious to tell someone about what I had just seen. The only person I could think of who'd believe me was Don. Since then, we've become very good friends. I've been to his house and I've met his wife who, by the way, has confirmed some of his sightings.

Since 1991, I have collected audio-taped recordings of his personal accounts on three separate cassette tapes. Due to the length of some of these reports, I've had to condense them for their inclusion in this newsletter. It is important to note that these are not in any chronological order. I should also mention that Don claims to have in his possession a journal which contains detailed information on each of his sightings. He swears that he kept all his notes but has been unable to locate them. I've offered to help him in his search and as soon as they are found, I will provide the editor with copies of them.

"Martian Visitors Seen At Garson"

July 1954

One of Don's accounts seems to confirm an event that took place near the town of Garson, on July 2, 1954 (see attachment A). That morning, while walking to work, a Garson Mine employee came face to face with three 13-foot-tall beings that had descended from their landed space ship. The story hit the front page of the Sudbury Daily Star and was featured on radio news broadcasts. Then, there was nothing...no more follow-up.

A few days later, Don's curiosity got the best of him. So, he and a friend decided to check the story out for themselves by driving out to the site:

"When we got there, we couldn't believe what we were looking at: sitting just a few hundred meters away, was a big twin-rotor helicopter, with a big white star on its side. The area was surrounded by metal fence posts and signs indicating: 'No trespassing. You will be prosecuted.' I counted about fifty military personnel, including five or six men with Geiger counters and ear muffs, that were surveying the site. At the time, I said to myself: 'If there's any truth to the witness' story, this kind of confirms it because why else would the U.S. military come all the way from the States to examine this specific piece of land for about a week?' A few days later, I went back to take another look and noticed that everything had been taken down. The area looked as if nothing had happened."

The Sudbury Daily Star - July 6, 1954

Don was married in 1953. And in those days, he used to chuckle whenever there was mention of flying saucers in the newspapers. Even after the Garson Mine incident of July 1954, he was still skeptical. But in the summer of 1966, all that would change. He was about to be confronted with the reality of UFOs:

Don Campbell's first UFO sighting

Summer 1966

"One evening in 1966, I had just come home from my 4 to 12 shift and was sitting out on the front steps. I looked out in a westerly direction and saw what I thought was a very, very bright star in the sky. At first, I thought it was the planet Venus, but Venus shouldn't have been in the west, at that time of year. So I went inside, grabbed my 8 x 35 binoculars, looked at it and said: 'Gee, that's strange...green, red, green, red, green, red!?' I called my wife out and asked her to take a look at it. She said: 'Oh, yeah! That plane, it's got a green and red light on and it's changing.' I said: 'Yeah, but it's sitting there like a helicopter. Now, that's very strange.' I listened and listened, but there was no sound."

"I watched the object as it came down from the sky in a very unusual fashion. One minute, I'm looking at it and then, all of a sudden, it just seemed to be about ten miles closer. In the wink of an eye, it quickly dropped down and stopped! This really caught my attention and I said to myself: 'A plane doesn't move like that!' I focused in on it and I could see a red light and a green light flashing from end to end, like a plane coming in for a landing. But it was hovering like a helicopter, and there was absolutely no sound. Then, all of a sudden, the red light went out and the green light went out. And there was just a bright glow, almost like a white fluorescent light. Then it just sped right off, straight up into the sky, at a 45 degree angle and disappeared, all within 3 - 4 seconds from the time the red and green lights went out."

Right at that moment, Don knew that he had just seen a UFO. But this was only the beginning. For the next two and a half years, he would find himself in the midst of a UFO flap.

This next incident is particularly interesting because of three reasons: 1. It involved the loss of television transmission due to a UFO hovering too close to one of the towers. 2. The UFO was filmed by a television crew, with large studio cameras. 3. People were threatened by the RCMP and told to keep their mouth shut.

UFO over the CKSO Supertower

Summer 1967

"One night, I came home from my 4 to 12 shift, poured myself a coffee and stood outside on the front steps. My wife, who was inside having a coffee, came out and told me: 'My favourite western movie just went off the air!?' I went inside to check and sure enough, the program was off the air. I walked back out to the railing and looked out in a northwesterly direction, toward the CKSO transmission tower. At the top of the tower, there was a red flashing light. And next to it, I noticed a bright red light, which was really, really big! I pulled out my binoculars and said: 'Well, my god! We've got a UFO hovering over!' So I ran back inside, grabbed the phone book and searched the yellow pages for CKSO's telephone number. I called the TV station, told them who I was, then said: 'You people are off the air!' They replied: 'Well, don't tell us something we already know. This is the 15th or the 20th call. We know we're off the air! We've got our technicians running all over and we're gonna get back on the air as soon as we find our problem!'"

"I said: 'Well, don't run any further in your studio because your problem is right over your supertower.' They said: 'What?' I replied: 'You've got a UFO! An unidentified flying object! A flying saucer! And it's sitting right over your supertower and that's why you're off the air.' They said: 'You're kidding!' Then, I said: 'No! I'm on the next hill just down from you; I'm right here in my backyard. I've got a perfect view from the front, from the back of my house and I'm looking at it!' They asked me for my phone number and told me they'd call right back, after they'd taken a few pictures of the object."

"I hung up the phone and ran out to the front door. I looked up and the red light was still there. Then, I ran out to the far end of my backyard and looked down towards the television station. With my binoculars, I could see people wheeling out the big studio cameras onto the cement pad, and began taking pictures of the same thing I was looking at. After 10 - 15 minutes had passed, the phone rang and my wife said: 'It's for you!' I picked up the phone. It was the man from CKSO, thanking me and telling me that the footage would be aired on the 10 o'clock morning news. I watched the UFO until it flew away, at 2 o'clock in the morning." And as it did, CKSO's television transmission resumed."

"The next morning, shortly after the broadcast, the RCMP got in touch with the station staff and told them: 'Get that off the air!' The staff quickly apologized for what they had shown on TV. They said there were dew drops on the camera lens, which produced a false impression of the red light on top of their tower, giving a much larger image of what they had seen. Meanwhile, someone from CKSO called CHNO radio, and told them what had happened and CHNO picked up the story. They're the ones who phoned me and asked for an interview. Out of a 15-minute broadcast, I was on for about eight or nine minutes."

"The next day, I received a call from the RCMP. I was told to keep off the air and to keep my mouth shut. They said: 'You shouldn't go on the air with stories like that; you haven't got our permission. It's all right for you to talk to fellow workers about it. You're not to go public on the air and we'll be watching you from now on!' But I never did shut up. I kept talking to my buddies and I was interviewed on the air once more, after that."

Shown actual photograph of UFOs taken from a gun camera film

Summer 1967

When Don was interviewed by CHNO about the UFO over the CKSO supertower, other people got a hold of it, including the RCMP and some people at the Falconbridge Radar Base. That same week, Don received a phone call from the Base captain, asking him to come out to the Base for a visit, when he had the time:

"When I finally drove out to the Base, I was shown through the gate by a sergeant, and walked into the office where the captain was waiting for me. I sat down and began to relate to him some of the things I had been doing about UFOs. The captain asked: 'Do you believe in UFOs?' I replied: 'Oh, by all means! I've seen enough.' The officer said: 'Well, we do too, but generally denied by the press and the government. We're told to do this because of public panic. We know they're there; we've been tracking them with radar for many years. But we don't know where they're from any more than you do. That's about all I can tell you, at this point in time.'"

"Then he said: 'It's too bad you're just a civilian!' I didn't know what he was getting at. The captain reached into his desk drawer and pulled out what looked like a 7 x 9 enlargement of a 35mm photograph. And he asked me: 'Do you know what these are?' I looked at the photo and said: 'Well, it looks like three discs!' I could see that they were silver in colour and they each had these small button parts in the centre. The captain said: 'Well, we had three jets that were coming in for a landing, from about 5 miles high at North Bay, a couple of weeks ago. And they reported down to the base that as they were coming in, there were three UFOs hovering over the North Bay base. So one of the pilots turned his gun camera on and took movies. And this photo is one of the best shots taken from a long string of frames.'"

"This is another one of my personal experiences: talking to a real captain, seeing an authentic aerial photograph of three saucers, and told this was not public knowledge. But it was Air Force knowledge that UFOs do exist."

This next account describes the first time Don laid eyes on real alien beings. The details of this sighting are particularly striking in view of the fact that the beings are seen interacting with each other, aboard their own spacecraft.

Close-up view of inside of flying object with telescope

Summer 1967

"One particular night, my friend, Jimmy and I were out in the backyard, skywatching. We decided to stay up for a while, after our 4 to 12 shift. At about 1:30 - 2 o'clock in the morning, we spotted an object flying in the distance, over the Frood Road area. At first, we focused in with our 7 x 35 binoculars. As the UFO came closer, I focused in with my 600 power telescope and I could see things that looked like portholes. I could also see a dome on top. I zoomed right in through the portholes and witnessed an amazing sight! I saw a number of alien beings that were walking around; they were not sitting. They were standing in front of what looked like a control panel. On closer examination, I noticed that three or four of the beings were dressed in silver-coloured suits. The other one (I called him the leader) was wearing a black suit. So this being must have had some significance, to be dressed differently from the rest. Through the portholes, I could see that the inside of the craft was brightly lit. We were both smokers at the time, and I remember Jimmy was almost eating his cigarette when he was looking at this. All he could say was: 'Oh, my god! Oh, my god! Look at that! Look at that!'"

"Before the night was over, we grabbed the telescope and we jumped in the car and headed in the direction of Frood Road (we didn't stay in the backyard because it was 2 o'clock in the morning and I was keeping his wife up at night; the screen windows were wide open, and she'd yell out to us: 'I wish you two would go away and watch the UFOs some place else!') By the time we got down to Frood Road, the UFO was still there but it was starting to drift away. We were all ready to get set and then, the UFO was gone. That was our big excitement for the night."

In the account that follows, the UFO seemed to be conducting some kind of mineral survey, based on Don's description of the event and the information given to him by INCO engineers. Could this be a possible explanation why UFOs would be coming to Sudbury, one of the largest nickel producers in the world?

UFO over the Flour Mill area

Summer 1967

"Another time, Jimmy and I were up on a hill behind Lasalle Boulevard. And we were sitting beneath the Hydro lines, with the telescope and equipment all set up, overlooking New Sudbury. As we looked towards the south, we spotted a UFO that was flying low over some hills. I couldn't follow it with the telescope right away because the object was doing about 35 - 40 miles an hour. We watched it with our binoculars and we soon realized how low it really was. It went right over the area where the ski hill is now located, and it flew directly between two radar towers and sat there for about 5 - 10 minutes."

"Then, it went over the swamp area, heading towards the Flour Mill section. It would fly over this area and stop over houses. Then, a pencil beam of light flaring out to a wide light at the bottom, would illuminate half a block to a block, at one time. Through our binoculars, we could read the licence plates of cars from two, three miles back. It was such a bright beam of light that when it first came on, it would hurt our eyes. Jimmy got the bright idea: 'Let's time this!' It always seemed to be on for about 8 - 10 seconds, then the light would go out and the craft would move, just like a hummingbird. It wouldn't just glide over to the next area; it would shoot over, sometimes. And then stop. The beam of light would come down again, stay on for 8 to 10 seconds, then go out. And each time, we would say to ourselves: 'Wow! Did you ever see a light like that!' It was like a laser beam of light so bright, it fascinated our eyes and our hearts were pounding. We were so excited, all we could say to each other was: 'Imagine! We're watching something that's probably not of this earth; an alien craft flying over here!'"

"As time went on, we watched this for about an hour, and we made sketches of the directions. It would go back and forth from north to south and east to west. And then finally over the Frood mine before it departed for the night. Later, when I got on salary, I talked to INCO engineers about the veins of metals leading out from Frood Mine. And they said: 'Yes, what you're telling us now corresponds with some of the veins of nickel that are under the New Sudbury area.'"

Of all the UFO sightings to have been witnessed by Don, the most impressive one occurred at the INCO Smelter, in August 1967 (See attachment B). This is a significant case because of the number of witnesses who were there, that night.

UFO over INCO Smelter in Copper Cliff

August 1967

"It was 10:20 or 10:30 in the evening and I was in the welding shop, welding. All of a sudden, my friend Jimmy, who was in the plate shop, was ringing the inter-plant phone off the wall. He asked me: 'Don, did you look out the front and see this UFO?' I asked him what he meant and he told me that he had just seen a UFO come down from the sky and circle around the middle chimney twice. He said he was sure it was a UFO because it was against the law for a plane to fly over INCO property. He told me to run out to the front door and take a look. So I ran to the front door, and I looked over, just in time to see the UFO hovering near the dry (change room). I ran back to the phone, and told Jimmy I would join him in the plate shop right away."

"Outside the shop, Jimmy and 18 other welders and plate shop workers watched as the UFO hovered near the No.1 dry. The flying object, measuring approximately 50 feet in diameter, glided over the property at a height of 85 feet and started to approach the plate shop. The craft, oval-shaped in appearance, had a pulsating red light on the front and a steady green light on its side. It was barely moving, no more than 15 - 20 miles an hour, as it went past the plate shop. We were not directly underneath it, but we were looking up at it, at an angle. We glanced over toward the east and saw the object lifting over the CIL building, tilting at a 45 degree angle and shooting up into the sky, disappearing in a northeasterly direction. When we took another quick look at the object, it appeared to be like a little white star."

"I got on the phone and called the Falconbridge Radar Base to report the sighting. They started asking me questions, took down some notes and told me I'd be hearing from them. Meanwhile, Sergeant Wayman who was at the No. 1 dry, came running over to the plate shop, all excited, and told the others what he had just witnessed. It was later revealed that 15 additional witnesses had seen the flying object as it flew over the Concentrator. They also reported seeing electrical flashes and sparks, as the UFO went right over the #3 power station, causing a power blackout which lasted for fifteen minutes."

"The next day, just before I left for work, I received a phone call from the Radar Base and they confirmed that the UFO sped away at 22,000 miles an hour!"

Photograph and map indicating
trajectory of UFO over INCO Complex
August 1967

Another UFO hot spot in the Sudbury District is the Long Lake area, where Don's camp is located. Many UFOs have been reported over the lake during the past fifty years. Don describes the incident as it happened:

Red UFO over Long Lake

Summer 1968

"One night, while working on afternoon shift, I was approached by my friend, Eric, who told me about a couple of UFO sightings he had witnessed over Long Lake, the week before. He described seeing a red light coming over the lake, between 10:30 - 10:45 at night. At first, he thought it was a plane coming in for a landing. But then, he noticed that the red light was just hovering above the lake and the water was rippling beneath it. He said: 'The light was shining off the UFO and the water was being agitated right below it! Right then, I knew it wasn't a plane.' He said that the red light was pulsating as it began to move down the lake."

"The following week, Eric phoned my house and invited me and my 11-year-old son, Kenny, to come out for a visit. That night, we were relaxing in the living room, drinking coffee and pop, and the kids were playing. All of a sudden, Eric said: 'There's one right now!' I couldn't believe it. We're looking out through the picture window and we see a big red light coming down over the lake! Being a summer night, the windows were open and we couldn't hear any sound coming from it. We all ran out and watched as the red object went by, pulsating like a heart beat. Eric said: 'It was just like I'd seen before, except this time, it's not hovering.'"

"I estimated the speed of the UFO to be about 10 - 15 miles an hour. Right away, my son got the bright idea: 'Dad, let's race it to the far end! It's going right down the lake!' I immediately excused myself, got in the car with my son and took off. It didn't take us long to catch up with the object. It was now doing about 25 - 30 miles an hour. We were keeping a constant eye between the buildings and the trees, where we could see a flash of red. Kenny said: 'Dad, speed up a little bit; maybe we'll beat it to the corner!' So I speeded up to about 45 - 50, got ahead and stopped the car, leaving the motor running and the headlights on."

"We both got out of the car and waited. 800 to a 1000 feet away, we could see the red object approaching. And we watched as it flew right over the top of the car, no more than 50 feet in the air! We were both standing next to the car, and as the UFO went by, the hairs on our arms stood right up, giving the effect of static electricity. I could feel the tingling on the back of my neck. My son, who had a short hair cut, could also feel it. I said: 'What a feeling!' We were both amazed because the UFO came so close. The car's headlights went down to a dim yellow for about 3 - 4 seconds and the engine stumbled but never stalled. The object continued on its flight path, and disappeared from view."

The following is a recollection of an incident involving two UFOs that caused a power outage in the New Sudbury area. Both Don and his friend Jimmy witnessed the event. An Ontario Hydro employee confirmed the sighting.

Two UFOs take electricity from power station on Maley Drive

Summer 1968

"One night, Jimmy and I went out for another one of our excursions after we had worked the 4 to 12 shift. It was about 1:15 a.m. when we parked the car at the far end of Maley Drive. I had his telescope up over his shoulders and we both had binoculars around our necks. Just as we were set to go, along came an OPP cruiser. The officer pulled over and asked us what we were doing with all that equipment. After a few explanations, the officer smoked a cigarette, then left. We both walked into the bush, and headed in the direction of a rocky hill. It was shortly after 2 a.m. when we finished setting up the telescope."

"While Jimmy was having a smoke, we noticed two little stars way up in the sky. We looked again and said: 'Gees, those aren't stars!' I couldn't tell how far apart they were from each other, but I figured they were about 5 miles high. We soon realized that we were looking at two little white objects, moving side by side. The telescope being too awkward, we focused in with our binoculars and said: 'By gees, we've got visitors! We're in luck, tonight!' As soon as we said that, the one on the right suddenly dropped down from the sky, then stopped. A red flashing light came on and the object continued its descent until it was right over the power lines. The red light went out and the UFO took on a beautiful bright glow, just like a halo."

"Then, it began to travel very, very slowly over the power lines. And Jimmy said: 'Oh, oh! It must be sucking up power!' Because from the top of the hill, we could see that the lights in New Sudbury were growing dim. We first looked at the lights, then we looked at the UFO. At first, it moved all the way down the line. Then it seemed to stop and come back up the line. All this time, Jimmy and I were looking through our binoculars and we could make out the actual shape of the craft. Twenty, twenty-five minutes, maybe half an hour later, the UFO lifted off and flew up to join the other one, which was still parked way up there, in the night sky."

"At that moment, the second object came down and repeated the pattern. But this time, all the lights in New Sudbury went right out! This object was apparently absorbing a heavier load of electrical current. Half an hour later, the UFO lifted off and joined the first one. Both objects turned on their red flashing lights, as they went up a little higher. Then the red lights went out and the two UFOs flew away, side by side, at a tremendous speed."

Don said that with binoculars or with the naked eye, the whole craft was just like a glowing ball when it was over the power lines. But when the UFO moved away from the power lines, it went back to a lighter colour. Both men went down to the power station to speak with the Hydro employee who was there, that night. This is what they were told:

"I got quite scared the other night and I got scared again, tonight. That one almost came up to my back door!" He said: "This isn't the first time it's happened. We're supposed to keep our mouth shut about this. It's pretty scary when you're looking at your gauges and you're dropping from a 100,000 to 30,000 volts; you're just losing all your power. And then, you go out the back door and you look up the line and here's this glowing object coming down!"

"This is the second time this week that this has happened. This time, it came so close that it frightened me and I went back in and closed the door; I didn't want to look at it. Then, when my power came back up to 100,000 volts, I said: well, the bugger's gone! No sooner did I say that, down goes my power...100,000...70,000 ...50,000...30,000 and dropping, dropping, dropping. I didn't have a 1000 volts left in the line. Don said: "That's when we seen all the lights go out!" The man said: "Oh yeah! For fifteen minutes at least, we lost total power! It's all on the graph paper. That thing was just sucking everything that was coming through that line. I went back out and sure enough, another UFO. And all this is written down in my report."

Later, Don phoned in his report to the Radar Base and they confirmed his sighting with a radar tracking of two separate objects, each dipping below the radar line and then departing at speeds in excess of 15 to 20,000 miles an hour!

Don describes another incident where a UFO was sighted over the INCO complex, and witnessed by numerous employees. This is the only daytime sighting he has ever witnessed (see attachment C). After he reported it to the NRC, he received a reply (see attachment D).

Silver disc seen over Copper Cliff

July 10, 1968

"It was 10 o'clock in the morning and I was tacking jobs in the plate shop. Another welder, who was standing outside the back door smoking a cigarette, noticed a silver object way up in the sky. He drew everybody's attention and said: 'Hey, guys! Come out and see this beautiful silver-looking thing.' Everybody was pointing up at it and some of them said: 'Is it a floating balloon or something?' I estimated that the object was at an altitude between five and six miles high, right above the slag dump. One of the welders was smart enough to tack a little stick on the back door, which he used as a gun sight and aimed it at what we thought was a silver balloon."

"The Foreman phoned the radio stations and the Radar Base to report the sighting. I had a telescope at home, and I was so excited that I decided to "call in sick" so that I could leave work early. It was approximately 2 o'clock in the afternoon when I got home. I looked up in the direction where the balloon should have been, but it was no longer there. Not once did I think it was a balloon. It was a beautiful silver disc, shining in the sun. And it hadn't moved an inch during the 4-hour period! I knew that if it had been a balloon, it would have slowly drifted away."

"The next day, I discussed it with my fellow workers and they all said: 'Oh yeah! It was there. And then, in a matter of two seconds, it just zoomed away and it was gone!' The following day, an article appeared in the Sudbury Star, which read: After many calls were made to the radio stations and the Radar Base, it turns out that the Air Force said the object was a weather balloon, taking information of ionosphere and stratosphere conditions. They also said that it drifted away on its own and it wasn't a UFO, so there was nothing to worry about."

"When asked about the fact that the object stayed in the same area of the sky for four hours, the Air Force answered: 'There was a weather inversion and the balloon was held there by a stationary pocket of air.' Some people said: 'Then, how come it flew away, all of a sudden?' They had no answer for that. There was no more follow-up. Just the one article saying it was a weather balloon and it drifted away on its own. But many people said: 'It didn't just drift away; it sped away, at an incredible speed and disappeared!'"

Left: The Sudbury Star - July 10, 1968
Right: Reply from National Research Council

One of the most amazing events to have been witnessed by Don was the disappearance or more precisely, the "abduction" of a satellite by a UFO, in the late 1960s. In the following paragraphs, he describes the event in detail:

INCO workers witness Mysterious disappearance of a satellite

"One night, at about 10:30 in the evening, myself and seven other workers were sitting in front of the plate shop, taking a break. At work, we had a schedule for when satellites would fly over because we enjoyed looking up at the sky, watching for them. After anxiously waiting for a few minutes, we noticed a small light travelling in a straight line, from west to east. We all sat there and watched as the satellite crossed the sky. Suddenly, one of the guys yelled: 'Hey! Look at this!' The rest of us looked to the right as he pointed to the east. What we saw was a bright flying object, heading straight for the satellite. When the two objects met head on, there was a bright flash. A second later, we looked again and all we could see was the bright object, travelling in a westerly direction. The satellite never came out the other side. It just disappeared!"

"A few days later, it was reported in Time Magazine that an orbiting satellite had somehow disappeared and no one was able to give a logical explanation. A whole year went by, but still no news of what had happened to it. Then one day, a surprise announcement was made: "The satellite that had disappeared the year before, had somehow reappeared and was found to be in its appropriate orbit." Again, no logical explanation could be given."

In 1975, while building his new house, Don had a very interesting close encounter of the third kind. It was the second time he had seen something which he described as an alien being. Not only would this be his last UFO-related sighting but it also became the most profound experience of his life.

Don's close encounter with an Alien Being

September 1975

"My wife Alice and I were returning home, one evening, after having eaten supper at my mom's. As I slowed down to make my usual turn onto our street, I almost came to a complete stop and right in front of us was this very strange vehicle that looked like a beautiful white Mercedes Benz Coupe. It had no markings and no name plate to signify what type of car it was. And sitting behind the wheel was this strange-looking creature. It had big round, oval eyes; no pupils; a very small nose, with just two little slits, and a slit for a mouth. No visible ear lobes. It was wearing a wig on its dome-shaped head. You could tell it was a wig because it just sat on top and it could slide off the creature's head, at any time."

"As we both passed each other, the alien looked over at me. I poked my wife in the ribs and said: 'Lookit! A real UFO person!' She said: 'Oh, my god! It is!' I noticed that it had white gloves on, covering its fingers up on the steering wheel, so I couldn't tell what the fingers looked like. It was as if it was trying to disguise itself. The skin colour was sort of whitish-grey, like the skin of an elephant. And the huge eyes were brown-black in colour. All of a sudden, the creature turned its head around like an owl and my wife screamed! She said: 'Oh my god!' I said: 'What are you screaming about?' She told me she heard a voice telling her: 'I want to talk to you!' I said to her: 'I didn't hear anything!' Apparently, it had communicated to her telepathically, which really frightened her. We proceeded up the hill and just as I was about to slow down, I glanced in the rear view mirror and said: 'Guess what, Alice! It just turned around and is following us up!' When we got to our lot, I stopped the car and we waited. During this time, the other vehicle was coming up very slowly, with the alien creature looking right at us with its huge eyes."

"As the car slowed down, I realized that it had what looked like Ontario licence plates, so I decided to take down the plate number: FLA 600. As we're both standing next to our car, Alice said to me: 'Don, catch me! I'm passing out.' I ran to the other side just in time to catch my wife underneath her arms. By then, the strange car was about ten feet away from me and there was absolutely no sound coming from the engine, as it went by. I took another look at the vehicle and I could see an eerie white glow all around it. I told my wife I wanted to follow the creature down the street but she convinced me not to go. She was afraid I'd be hypnotized or abducted. So I decided to stay put."

"I phoned the provincial police station and asked to speak with my friend, Sergeant Lightfoot, but he was not in. So I made up a story and lied to the police officer on duty. I said: 'I just passed a car and it almost ran me off the road. He must have been drunk. His licence number is FLA 600. I'd like to have this person checked out.' The officer said: 'We usually don't do this for anyone, but since you're a friend of Sergeant Lightfoot's, we'll get back to you.' Five or ten minutes before leaving for work, I received a call from the officer: 'This white car you reported, which looked like a Mercedes Benz Coupe with no markings on it, but with this licence number. We ran it through the computers and there's no such number in Ontario; there's no such number in Canada. You must have taken the number down wrong.'"

"In my mind, this proved once and for all, that this was an alien car with an alien person, with a phoney licence plate on, that didn't belong to this earth. The number was non-existent, at the time. I said: 'Well, I must have made a mistake' and I left it at that. But I couldn't wait until the following week, when I went bowling with Sergeant Lightfoot and told him what happened."

 

UFO Sighting Reports
from Second-Hand Sources

In addition to these accounts, there are other UFO sightings that he related to me, with which he was not directly involved, but had been told by second-hand sources such as police officers and those who had actually witnessed the events, including family members and friends.

Five UFOs over Burton Avenue

"One summer night, at around 2 o'clock in the morning, fourteen provincial and city police constables watched in amazement, as five UFOs maneuvered over the dump at the end of Burton Avenue. There were fifteen, twenty cars parked up there, including five provincial police and seven city police cruisers. There were also many witnesses who watched as the UFOs were doing some of the most magical things that airplanes can't do. The police officers were radioing back and forth and saying: 'Woah! Come and see this!' And cruisers were coming in from the highway. Everyone was watching, and saying: 'Wow! Is it ever fantastic!', as the UFOs would loop and turn this way and that way, with their flashing red lights. Jets were scrambled from Michigan and were about twenty miles from the city, when the UFOs packed up and left. The jets circled over the city twice, then headed back to Michigan. Both the provincial police and the city police reported the incident to The Sudbury Star. The headlines the next day: Five or six jets scramble from Michigan because of five UFOs doing a circular dance and aerobatics over the dump, in the early hours of the morning."

"Then the next day, there was a little write-up in the corner of the front page, saying that they had made a mistake. It was pieces and debris that were falling from a satellite and were causing sparkles as they tumbled from the night sky, flashing over different areas. Again, the old cover-up. The jets had scrambled for nothing and there weren't any UFOs. They just debunked the story and said there was really nothing to it. And yet, this exhibition lasted over an hour and a half, that evening. Long enough for the jets to get radar warnings, scramble from Michigan, and fly over at 600 miles an hour, while the show was still going on."

"I didn't know that this was going on because I was at home, sound asleep in bed. But when I went bowling with Sergeant Coulton and Sergeant Lightfoot, that very same week, I was told about the sighting. Sergeant Lightfoot wasn't there that night, either, but the next day, his men brought in reports that were pages long. And about a week later, they were all stamped TOP SECRET and they were tucked away."

UFOs chased by police cruisers

"Many times when I went bowling, I would discuss UFOs with Sergeant Lightfoot, who had also related a few experiences. He said: 'Oh yes. We've had cruisers on the graveyard shift, actually chase UFOs out of their jurisdiction. We get written reports about these things all the time. White and red lights glowing in the sky and flying just above the cruiser, sometimes travelling at the same speed as the cruiser or slightly ahead. And the cruiser would go down the highway, speeding up to 80 and the UFO would speed up to 80! Then the cruiser would slow down to 50 or 60.' He said: 'Yeah! We have these incidents all the time. They go into our private files. But we've had all kinds of reports.' I would talk openly with Sergeant Lightfoot and asked him: 'Do you believe in UFOs?' And he'd say: 'Oh, by all means! Our constables aren't crazy. They know what they're seeing.'"

UFO seen at Algome-Nordic mine

"My brother-in-law, Art, who worked at the Algome-Nordic mine in Elliot Lake, related this incident to me. One morning, there were about 50 mine workers going in through the gates at about 7:15 - 7:30. It was a beautiful, clear morning and everybody's looking up over the parking lot, right near the gate, and a UFO is hovering there, absolutely silent. A beautiful silver craft, with the sunlight bouncing off its body, early in the morning. It was quite a sight! And the story hit the Elliot Lake press, reporting about the UFO that the men had seen at the mine."

Don's brother-in-law's sighting of a UFO

"One night, Art was inspecting a tailings line during the graveyard shift. And as he walked down to the end where it's dumping out, he noticed a light shining in the tailings pond. He said to himself: 'Well, that's strange. That shouldn't be there!?' And as he got closer, he saw an object starting to rise up. It then turned its lights on, and a few seconds later, it was gone. He said: 'My God! This is something.' So he walked down the steps and across the hard section of the pond, and with his flashlight, he could see a definite indentation, like a big saucer had sat right in the pond. He came off his shift the next morning and reported his sighting to other people, including the Foreman. Some of them walked out to the line, while the others drove out there. Later, they came back and confirmed it. They said: 'Yes, we've got approximately a 50-foot circle indentation in the pond.' Other people, including the press, were called in. They were there with Geiger counters and cameras. There were many pictures taken of it and it made the news: Strange craft seen by floatation man lands in the slew pond just outside of the mill."

Large UFO hovers above 100-foot-wide water tank

"Two men were busy checking the levels in one of the large water tanks, which supplies water to the INCO plant. And on this particular night, these two guys are sitting out on the roof having their lunch, at 3 o'clock in the morning. Suddenly, they see this light coming in the distance. It's coming closer and closer. And they said: 'Gee, it looks like a helicopter coming. There's a red light and a white light on it.' At first, they didn't think too much of it, but when it got closer, they realized that it was silent. And they watched it as it came over the water tank, which is about 100 feet in diameter, and it stayed there, motionless. They said that the craft was as wide as the tank. At one time, it was so low, they actually thought it had landed on top of it. It hovered there and both men were practically choking on their food. They both said to each other: 'Are you seeing what I'm seeing?' They watched it for about 5 - 6 minutes. And then the red light came on and the white blinking light came on. Then, it began to rise, and in about 10 seconds, off it went into outer space. They knew they'd just seen a UFO. They were excited and told everybody about it, the next day."

"A few days later, they related their story to a buddy in Sudbury, and he said: 'I know what you guys are talking about. That night, I was at a party in Lively and I was coming home at about 3 o'clock in the morning. I pulled my car right off the road, onto the shoulder, because I saw this light coming down from the sky. I just sat there and watched as this thing stopped right over the tank. I said to myself: 'My god! Is this helicopter going to land on top of the water tank at the iron ore plant?' There was really nothing more to see except this thing just hovering there, with the light shining on. Then, I realized that it wasn't a helicopter, and it wasn't a plane. It looked round disc-shaped. I watched it the whole 5 - 6 minutes. Then I saw it lift off, as the red light came on and the white light came on. And I saw it disappear. I traced it as it went up into the heavens, and it became just a little white star. It just blended in with the rest of the skyscape. I know you guys aren't lying to me."

UFO seen taking electrical power by boy and police officers

October 10, 1967

"In 1967, Charlie White was a welder at Copper Cliff and he was also the Reeve of Waters Township. He told me about this incident, which hit the Sudbury Star. Early one evening, a 15-year-old boy went to the corner store for his mother, to buy some milk and a pack of cigarettes. He got to the corner store, bought the items and headed back home. He was walking along old highway 17 when his transistor radio, which he was carrying, suddenly blacked out. At that moment, he heard a whining sound. He turned around and saw a flying object with green-coloured lights, moving above the power line."

"As it moved past him, he noticed that the object was not directly touching the power line, but there seem to be some sort of a black extension shaped like a fish hook, that was catching on to the line from the bottom and pulling up on it. And as the object moved down the line, sparks would be emitted from this black extension. The distance between the hydro poles was approximately 100 feet and each time it came up to a pole, the craft would stop. Then, the extension would let go the line and swing out. Then, the object would move past the pole, stop once more, and then, the black extension would swing back in, hook on to the line, and the craft would move another 100 feet. The boy, who was standing across the road from the object, said that he saw this happen three times. The few hairs he had on his arms and the back of his neck were bristling, due to the electrical radiation or the aura coming off the UFO. He was frightened enough that as soon as it got passed him about 2, 300 feet, he dropped his radio and ran home with the groceries."

"When he got home, he told his mother: 'Guess what I just seen. It's like buck rogers! It's a UFO. I've seen a real one!' She got him to calm down and she phoned the provincial police. They, in turn, contacted a police cruiser that was already in the vicinity. They were heading down the old township road, about a mile from where the boy lived, and they shut off their headlights. Ahead of them, maybe 2, 300 feet, they saw a glowing UFO, slowly moving above the power lines. They tried to sneak up on it, as they reported this to the desk sergeant. And as they got on the air, the radio went dead and the engine of their cruiser cut out. With this happening, the officers just sat there and looked. They watched it for a few minutes, as it went past another post or two. And then, it shot across the road, keeping very, very low to the ground, heading in a westerly direction. After the object disappeared, radio reception returned to normal and the car engine started."

"The next day, the Sudbury Star reported that the car radio was checked thoroughly and there were no electrical shorts. They also checked all the wiring in the cruiser and there was nothing wrong with it. After this one report in the Sudbury Star, there was no more follow-up. Later, five army personnel went to the boy's house, took him aside, away from his parents. And thoroughly questioned him for two, three hours, about the incident and gathered all the details."

UFO sightings made by Don's mother and her boarders

"When I became greatly interested in UFOs from 1966 on, I told my mom and all my friends about them. Back then, my mother kept rooming boarders for a living. And she had about 9 boys from Nova Scotia who were working for MacIsaac Tunnelling, at the time. When I would tell them about my UFO sightings, they'd laugh and say: 'Come on, Donny! You don't believe in things like that?' I explained to them how the captain at the radar base was talking openly with me about UFOs. The boys looked at me like I had two heads."

"Later on, two of the boys were working at one of the new shafts. And they were half way down, timbering, in the middle of the night. It was close to lunch time, at 2:30 in the morning and when they came up to the surface, they looked up and saw a UFO hovering above the opening. They ran to their shack, opened the door and said to their lead master: 'Look at this! Look at this!' He said: 'Oh my god! You guys better come in. That doesn't look good to me.' And here was this UFO, hovering approximately 100 feet above the open shaft, blinking its lights and shining a beam of light down into the hole. The boys wouldn't go back to work until this object had left. Through the shack window, they watched as the UFO stayed there for a good hour."

"The boys were quite excited about the whole thing. The next morning, they came home from work, and said: 'Guess what! Guess what! We know what Donny's talking about, now. When we were at work last night, we saw a 50-foot UFO with a white luminous shine to it, hovering above the open shaft. And it shined a beam down onto the work that we were doing and it scared the hell out of us! Our boss wouldn't even let us out until it flew away. And it didn't have any sound.' And my mother said: 'See! My son doesn't tell lies. That's what he's talking about: these UFOs.' They said: 'Well, we believe in them, now!'"

"About a week went by, and I was working day shift. One night, at about 10 - 10:30 in the evening, I decided to go to bed early because I was quite tired. The next day, my mother came over for a visit and she said to me: 'Guess what happened?' I said: 'What happened, mom?' She said: 'Well, I was coming back from my sister's house, I parked my car in the driveway, and I said to a neighbour walking by: 'Look, mister! Do you see this? And he said: Yes, I see that but I don't believe in them!'"

"What they were looking at was a glowing, luminous object hovering over the rocks. The man looked at it, said nothing, then quickly rushed home. My mother, not afraid of anything, looked at it and then, walked up the side steps into her house. She went into the kitchen and looked out the side window. And low and behold, the object came up and hovered right above the neighbour's garage, which was about twenty-two feet in length. And I said: 'How big was it, mom?' She said: 'Oh, at least two and a half times the length of that garage. It was hovering above the poplar trees back there, glowing like a ball.' She couldn't see any windows. She said it was sitting there looking at her, through her side kitchen window. She said: 'Well, now I was getting a little bit nervous. I went to the back window facing the back lane. And the ball moved around to the back lane. I looked out the back window and it was hovering at eye-level, about 20 feet off the ground, blocking my view of the next street. It looked at me, then it rose up and floated away!'"

"I was really ticked off and I said: 'Oh, my god, mom! Why didn't you phone me? You know I've been chasing these things all over! I had enough time to jump in my car, spin over, park my car, and run over to see this thing!' She said: 'I didn't even think of it!' She told her boarders about this and they said: 'Yeah...yeah! First, we have them at the mine. Now, we have them visiting the house right here.'"

"Three or four days later, two of the boys came home from work and went upstairs to their room. They were stretched out on the bed, having a smoke and a couple of beers, talking about the day's activities. They happened to look out the big picture window, and there was a UFO, hovering over the back lane again. The lane is about 70 feet away and this UFO, a glowing luminous ball, is at the same height as the window, which is located on the second storey. The boys got up, looked out the window and this thing is sitting there. They're nervous enough from the incident at the mine. So, what do they do? They pulled the drapes shut and said: 'We're not looking at that.' They ran downstairs and told my mom: 'Guess what? There's that thing back over the lane! It's looking at us; it's visiting us again!'"

Looking back on these sightings, Don said: "From all the houses in the neighbourhood, why would they pick on my mother's house twice, in such a short period of time? In one week, the UFO was seen at the house, on two separate occasions. And it was also spotted at the mine shaft, where the boys were working. So there had to be a connection, somewhere."

UFO melts 300 feet of power lines

March 25, 1970 (see attachment E)

"One winter night, a UFO was seen hovering over one spot, draining so much electrical power that it melted 300 feet of power lines. The power was off at Falconbridge's Fecunis Mine and at INCO's Levack Mine for the remainder of the night, from 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. When Hydro went out to the site to investigate, they found pieces in the snow, measuring no more than a foot long! Some were flat and some were splattered, as if the copper had gone through a dripping stage! Hydro's "official explanations" were: "Vandals shooting the insulators off the power lines" and "Hunters shooting at deer, accidentally hitting the insulators." But an eyewitness, who was along the road that night, said: 'This didn't happen by accident. I saw the UFO over the road, hovering above the power lines, and glowing underneath. And all of a sudden, it just disappeared!'"

The Sudbury Star - March 26, 1970

Here is Don's final consensus regarding UFOs:

"The government has been covering up stories like this and many across the Unites States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina for many years. They claim that it'll be mass hysteria. I really don't feel that way. I feel that they don't want their good jobs and the government to go. A higher system of intelligence could come down here and lead our people. Our government doesn't want that; they've got too cushy a jobs and positions. So they say: 'we'll keep it from the people. Anybody who sees them, they're nuts; they've been drinking too much booze.' This has been the cover-up for years, but as we all know, doctors, lawyers, accountants, people from all walks of life have seen many, many UFOs. Pictures have been taken; daylight pictures, night pictures. They've been spotted on radar at 15 - 20 sightings a day. UFOs going at 22 and 30,000 miles an hour, and doing 90 degree turns, which is impossible for our aircraft. It can no longer be denied. I think it's just a matter of time before it's going to leak out. And I really don't know how the government is going to explain to the people that since the early '40s, they've been lying and lying, all this time. But I guess they'll have a good one made up when the time does come."

Only now do I realize the importance of Don's recollections. If it hadn't been for him, I don't think I would ever have discovered the rich history of UFO sightings in the Sudbury area. He always talks about the many reports made to the newspaper back in the 1950s and 1960s. He was the one who had suggested that I look in the Sudbury Star archives for UFO newsclippings. By writing this article, I hope to inform people about a few aspects of the UFO phenomenon that are seldom mentioned in the literature, such as the link between UFOs and power blackouts, and the fact that the UFO occupants seem to have an interest in our natural resources.

ADDENDUM