NUFORC Sighting 127832

Occurred: 1988-03-15 20:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2016-06-11 09:55 Pacific
Duration: 5 minutes
No of observers: 7

Location: Dolly Sods, WV, USA

Shape: Light
Characteristics: Lights on object

Between the years of 1985 and 1989, I was working for a coal company that leased property from Western Pocahontas Properties in Dolly Sods, West Virginia, and surrounding areas. At that time the military was using these same properties to practice maneuvers, and had been doing so all summer and winter, or for about a year. They were somewhat in contact with our company, so we would not interfere with each other’s activities.

During that period of time, myself and about six friends decided that we would do an early spring campout in the Bear Rocks area of northern Dolly Sods. The weather was nice and not too cold or windy, but the winter snow was still covering the road on top of the mountain. We drove up forest road 75, from the Jordan Run Road, and were able to get within 1/3-mile of the mountain top at Bear Rocks. There is a wide spot where we parked, then proceeded north on foot up through deep snow drifts, to the parking area at the top of the mountain. The road on top was impassable with deep snow drifts and some bare spots. From the parking lot we walked northwest 1/3-mile to a spot in a clump spruce trees where we would camp for the night. This location is latitude N39°04’10” longitude W79°18’20” at an elevation of about 4000 feet.

That evening at dusk, members of our party were setting up tents at the southern edge of the spruce trees in the open field. A friend and I were struggling to get a camp fire started, in the shelter of spruce trees about 50-yards away. We were having trouble getting the spruce wood to burn, but were making progress and finally had a camp fire going, when members at the southern edge called to come over and take a look. My friend stayed with the fire and I went down to the others for a better view of what they were looking at.

Off in the distance to the south and about 1-mile away, two lights were traveling northeast along forest road 75, towards Bear Rocks. It looked like two vehicle headlights. Just a single light each. We were all discussing “how could this be?” because the road was covered with deep snow drifts. I thought what I was viewing was four-wheelers, motorcycles or snowmobiles, but something just didn’t seem right. It was too dark to see the vehicles, but the headlights were very clear. I could see one pull ahead of the other, then the one in the rear would catch back up. It looked like two small vehicles, on a clear road and running together at 10 to 25 miles per hour. The light was as bright as a headlight and looked white and artificial. As they traveled along the road they came to within about 1/3-mile of our position, but when they came to the parking lot, where the road turns sharply and goes south down off the mountain, they rose up into the air 20 or 30 feet and were ! flying over Bear Rocks. Now the headlight looked more like a spot light, moving around and illuminating the rocks and vegetation beneath. The lights continued on a straight northeastern course and went down over the mountain side, not to be seen again. We were all shocked, without explanation of what we had just seen. Were they flying the entire time? My friend back at the fire, covered it with snow, putting it out, so as not to reveal our position to the strange lights. The entire viewing lasted perhaps 5-minutes, while we observed the lights traveling for about a mile. No noise was heard at any time.

Later back at work, I told my boss about the strange lights we had seen. He said that he had been told other stories of strange lights in Dolly Sods. He mentioned it to the military person in charge, whose reply was that the military has some very quiet helicopters.




NUFORC Note:

Witness indicates that the date of the sighting is approximate. PD


Posted 2016-06-16

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