NUFORC Sighting 67059

Occurred: 1977-01-15 01:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2008-11-21 14:17 Pacific
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1

Location: Dingman's Ferry, PA, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object, Left a trail, Landed

While working as a security guard at Wild Acres Lake in 1977 saw a bright rise off the ground, hover over trees and shoot off into sky.

Date of Sighting: Mid January, 1977 Time of Sighting: Around 1 a.m to 2 a.m.

Duration of Sighting: About 1 minute Location of Sighting: Wild Acres Lakes, private lake community in Dingman’s Ferry, Pike County, Pennsylvania.

Description of Locale: Very Rural, Deciduous Woodland Distance from Object: Approximately 1,500 feet or 500 yards Description of Object: To Naked Eye, looked like bright fire burning on the ground, my closed fist at arms length would about cover the object. In binoculars, appeared to be a brightly glowing object (not flickering like flames would do) of orange/yellow coloration that seemed to eminate from 2 side-by-side sources, close enough to appear as one object.

Weather Conditions: Very Cold (zero or below zero degrees F), Clear, Ground Frozen Solid, Snow Covered. No Moon, but Starlit Sky.

Circumstances/Description of Sighting: In January of 1977 I was 24 years old and I worked in construction, but for the winter I took a job as a security guard at Wild Acres Lake in Dingman’s Ferry, Pa. This was and still is a gated homeowners community in a rural wooded area. In January of 1977 it was being actively developed with new lots being sold and new homes being built, while many homes were already occupied in the lake community. My duties were to patrol the roads of the community at night to watch watch for illegal or unusual activity. As background, I had been in the US Army from 1972 to 1974 with MOS of 95B, Military Police. I had been stationed in Kaiserslautern, Germany, working with the enlisted rank of SP4 in 15th MP Brigade Headquarters in the S-3 Operations Center working with war contingency plans, a job which required a Top Secret security clearance and required a background investigation.

The mid to latter part of January 1977 was very cold in Pike County Pa and most of the northeast, which was one of the coldest Januaries on record. I don’t recall the exact date of the sighting but it was in the mid to latter part of the month with a moonless sky, very cold, very clear with bright starlit sky, the air crisp, the ground frozen solid and snow covered with at least a foot of crunchy powdery snow. The night of the sighting I was patrolling the roads of the development routinely, looking for anything unusual. At this time, the developer had been clearing one of the swampy areas to create a lake, and this entailed logging off the larger trees, bulldozing the stumps into big piles, and burning the piles openly. At night the piles glowed brightly as the fires continued from the daytime burning, and I kept an eye on them in my rounds to make sure the wind didn’t send embers into surrounding woods and start another fire. (they didn’t, the piles were in the middle of the frozen swamp removed from the surrounding woods, and the ground was frozen solid and snow covered). On the night of the sighting I was driving slowly south on Wild Acres Drive between the Long Lake on my right and a low lying frozen swamp on my left. Across the treeless swamp at a distance of about 1200 feet was a road called The Construction Road in 1977 but now shown on maps as “Luciano Rd”. At the time the construction road was used for exactly that, for construction vehicles to enter the property instead of entering through the gated main entrance. Just beyond the Construction Rd the ground rose in elevation above the swamp to maybe 20 or 30 feet. At the top of the rise, through the leafless trees, I thought I saw a large fire burning on the ground. As I mentioned above, the size was about the size of my closed fist at the end of my extended arm, at a distance of about 1500 feet. From my position I was looking towards the east. Since this was not in an area where the developers were doing any clearing, I was conc! erned th at the woods were on fire, and I stopped my car, rolled down the window and looked at the fire through a good pair of binoculars I had in the car. Through binoculars, I could see that this wasn’t a fire, which puzzeled me because I was expecting to see a fire. Instead I saw two side-by-side brightly glowing lights the color of bright fire, but not flickering like fire does, but rather glowing steadily. The lights seemed to be side-by-side but overlapped, close enough together to be one light with two sources. I still didn’t know quite what to make of the lights at this point. However, as I watched through the binoculars, the lights suddenly rose off the ground though the trees which I could clearly see, and actually rose above the top of the tree line about 10 or 20 feet and hovered there for 15 seconds or so. As the light hovered, I could clearly see the trees underneath, the light was above the trees. Then after about 15 seconds of hovering, the light ascended at an unbelievably rapid speed not quite straight up, but at an angle just a few degrees off vertical, and left a light trail as it did so, as you see when you quickly waive a light wand or flashlight in your hand in the dark.

There was no noise of any kind during the sighting, it was quiet. No cars in sight. The area is adjacent to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a wild and scenic nature area, very rural. No military bases nearby.

Unfortunately I did not think at the time to investigate the site at close quarters, I cannot explain why. I had never seen anything like it before, nor have I seen anything like it since. I wish I looked at the site immediately afterwards.

The location is approximately -74.90 lon, 41.22 lat. On a Google Map, I was on Wild Acres drive to the east of the long pond and to the west of the now-wooded swamp area and about 500 feet north of the T intersection. I was facing east looking across the now-wooded swamp area and across what is now known as Luciano Ln to the wooded rise just to the east of Luciano Lane, at the top of which I saw the light on the ground and saw it rise above the trees. (It’s about 500-600 feet west of the dam at the end of Wild Acres Lake). I haven’t been back to the site since, and it might be my imagination, but on the Google satellite image it looks like there might be a bare spot on the ground where I saw the object. I’d like to go back and have a look.

(

NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that date of incident is approximate. PD))

Posted 2009-01-10