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October 21, 2018

Prescott Valley's UFO Wave

According to reports submitted by local residents to the National UFO Reporting Network (NUFORN,) Prescott Valley experienced a wave of UFOs in the late winter and spring of 2000.

What's more, they seemed to be looking for something.

It all started around 8:40 pm, January 28th, 2000 when a man and his wife observed a "bright triangle" that was colored "yellow-orange...which appeared to be three objects close together." They were moving side to side, traveling SSE and were "brighter than any commercial aircraft anti-collision lights."

When the object was directly before them, they watched in bewilderment as "very small objects traveled out of (and then back) into the larger object," again forming a single craft. The craft then turned southwards toward Phoenix, when it split in two. As it continued south, the "object on the left passed over and to the right of the (second) object," again becoming a single craft. As it continued, the light "began to fade in and out until it disappeared over the horizon."

Exactly a week later, three different reports were submitted concerning sightings. First was at 8:30 pm by a pair in Prescott. One man was stargazing with a client when "three objects flew overhead heading NNE" in a "V" formation. "They (were) extremely bright and didn't appear to be any aircraft I have ever seen before," the witness stated. "No sound emanated from the object whatsoever."

An hour later, two different groups submitted reports on the same incident. One witnessing group consisted of five family members, the other was a husband and wife. They both gave accounts that were similar to the earlier sightings. Again the objects were yellow-orange in color, far brighter than anti-collision aircraft lights, and emitted no sound. The family group witnessed the event for 3 minutes while the husband and wife were in a position to see it for 20.

At first glance the family group thought the lights were Orion's Belt, but then "they moved into a triangle formation." They moved around in that "V" formation until one by one "they disappeared."

The husband and wife reported that the objects were traveling NNW at different speeds. They moved further apart and flickered until they faded over the horizon.

The story of a rash of Flying Saucers (UFO) sightings around Prescott, AZ, in the first half of 1953. Includes the "Arizona's Roswell" incident around the same time.

The next evening at 10:12 pm a man and his daughter "were stopped in (their) tracks when (they) looked up and viewed three large orange objects moving through the sky...They appeared to make a triangle shape" and a few minutes later, "went into a single-line formation."

This man called a friend who lived "a few streets down" who also saw them, but the formation looked different to her leading the man to believe that "they must have been closer (to the ground) than I ever thought!" The objects then left in a northerly direction.

Still another sighting was reported by a man and wife on February 18th at 8 pm. As they got out of their car to enter a restaurant, they noticed "two strange lights in the sky...heading SW...directly toward (them.)"

"They were moving quite slow" and "appeared to be flickering as if they were burning," the man disclosed. Soon the objects were directly over head and passers-by also stopped to view the sight. None thought them to be flares. "I've seen all different types of flares in my 44 years," the man reported, "these lights could not have been flares."

Surprisingly the same man returned to the same restaurant two weeks later and experienced another sighting. "Several employees of the restaurant joined (them) in watching the objects." This time it was "three fiery looking round objects, floating in an upright "V" formation, heading NE... (When) all of a sudden (they) watched a fourth object shoot up from the ground to the same altitude as the other 3, but (it) never joined them." Instead it kept its distance while all the objects began to move in the same direction "until they all disappeared." The restaurant's employees disclosed "that they have seen these lights several times before."

Then a sight appeared February 22nd at 6 am that caused three separate individuals to take the time to submit reports. It was the appearance of two "soda-pop can" shaped cylinders. "The bottom stayed stationary while the top oscillated in a circle." Additionally, "the bottom had lights on it in the shape of an "X".

One of the witnesses was "a commercial airline pilot and flight instructor (who) can judge altitude and speed well." He reckoned the object "to be about 15 to 20 feet in height and 10 feet in diameter. They appeared to be about 3/4 of a mile away and about 200 feet of the ground," he said.

"It was moving at about 10 mph at first," the pilot wrote, "but as it got higher, its speed increased. It climbed to an altitude of 1500 feet" and increased its speed to "40-50 mph." Finally one disappeared and a minute later the other did as well. "It was very cloudy and (they) could have gone into the clouds," he thought.

Another man, who may have been closer, separately confirmed the sighting. Looking up into the drizzle he observed "two objects that seemed very large. They glowed at the top and on the bottom (they) were orange, fiery lights in the shape of a big "X". "They moved to the NE," the man wrote, "and seemed to gain more speed and then they flickered away."

The third report of this incident came from a family of UFO skeptics. "My husband told me of a UFO sighting he had seen, but I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not," one woman reported. This was only a few days before the flying "soda-pop cans" appeared.

Then at 6 am that fateful morning, her husband, who was departing for work, "darted back into the house and told me I had to come take a look." She then gave another corroborating story of the cylinders with the giant "X" on their bottoms. "They were traveling about 20 mph northeast across Prescott Valley toward Mingus mountain."

"Two of our three children, 15 and 10, also witnessed the sighting and were as excited as we were," the mother wrote. "None of us would have ever believed in a UFO until now--EVER!"




The true story of a massive wave of UFO sightings and recorded landing in August, 1970 in Prescott, AZ. 





In March and April, a different type of craft appeared. March 28th at 7:08 pm a flying object "circular in shape (and) very bright red," appeared before a man as he smoked outside. It was "descending very rapidly over Glassford Hill road. (He) watched the object descend below the mountain as if it had landed."

He immediately called for his wife to come see. When she arrived, "it then climbed up above the horizon" and began to approach their home, but "stopped abruptly" and scanned from side to side for 1-2 minutes before suddenly vanishing.

The April incident involved a man looking out his bedroom window toward Glassford Hill. It was April 15th at 11:45 pm when the man witnessed "two sphere-shaped UFOs. They were going about 100 mph toward Highway 89A," but then seemed to find a spot. "We watched them for about 5 minutes," the man related, "when one...appeared to descend toward the ground and then just disappeared (below the horizon.) The other one followed suit."

An informative listing of 9 cryptozoological animals that have been seen in Arizona. Includes a Bigfoot update near Prescott.

Having heard of this wave of UFOs, one couple decided to spend their vacation in Prescott Valley to see if they could witness these "mysterious lights." The first night was fruitless. The second night did not disappoint, however.

As they sat outside their motel room, they looked westwardly and saw "three amber balls of light switch on one by one from left to right and hover in the air... They then vanished one by one. A few seconds later (they) saw a semi-circle of small balls of amber light to the left of where the larger lights vanished."

The man related that many local residents told him that they "saw UFOs a lot. My wife did not believe in UFOs until we saw them in Prescott Valley, AZ," he said.

When it comes to "UFO tourism," it seems Sedona gets the bulk of publicity. However, the history of strange lights in the Prescott, quad-city sky easily rivals theirs.

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$20 REWARD for LOST HISTORY:
On April 2, 1971, the Prescott Courier published a special 8 page edition (costing 25 cents) about all the UFO sightings that occurred here starting in August 1970.
Since this was a special edition, it was not delivered as a part of a regular subscription. As a result, NO COPY OF THIS EDITION ever made it to any library.
It is my hope that someone stashed this away somewhere and that I would be able to donate it to the Sharlot Hall Museum archives (after a write a blog about it, of course!)
I know some might think this subject silly, but I assure you that there are thousands of potential tourists who would be very interested in finding out about this.
If you happen to have a reasonably good copy, please contact me via Facebook or email me at prescottazhistory@yahoo.com
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SOURCES:
(Please note: For the sake of readability, some quotations from the submitted reports were proofread.)
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1 comment:

  1. richyrayMay 13, 2022 at 7:56 PM

    I've been seeing white balls of light flying around and above Mingus mountain. They were more towards Prescott then came closer and I could see them flying in front of mingus. I have never seen something like this and I have no way to explain it. One of them flew very close to me and I went inside because it spooked me to death. I looked again last night and they were hovering above the mountain flying in low patterns. I have no way to explain this but I encourage you to look over Mingus and see for yourself.

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