NUFORC Sighting 168620

Occurred: 1974-04-01 19:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2022-06-12 11:57 Pacific
Duration: Five to seven hours
No of observers: 3

Location: Silver City, WV, USA
Location details: We were camping (estimate) 15 to 20 miles N.E. of Silver City by either a river or irrigation canal

Shape: Fireball
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aura or haze around object, Emitted other objects

What we initially thought was a meteor turned out to be a strange sighting of unidentified object(s) that we watched for several hours

This sighting occurred in 1974 and it is my intent to document what we saw that day while most key details are still fresh in my memory. As for the date, this sighting occurred sometime in April or May of 1974, although I strongly feel that it was sometime in April of 1974. The witnesses to the event at that time were myself, who had just turned 19, Mark Nokes who was 16 or 17 at that time--Mark was a neighborhood friend, and Greg (last name unknown) I think Greg and his family were visiting the Noke's and were staying with them at the time. I think that his parents had worked in the Panama Canal Zone and what I remember about Greg was that he was a US Citizen born in the Panama Canal Zone. Greg, I think was about 15 at the time. I went into the Army at the end of June of that year, Mark had moved and the last time that I saw him was in the 1980s when I ran into him at a convenience store. As for Greg, I never saw him again after that camping trip, as I assume he left El Paso after their visit with the Nokes family.

On the day of the incident, Mark and I had planned a camping trip in New Mexico and Greg had just tagged along. I don't remember exactly where we went camping, I believe we were trying to camp in the Gila. I remember that we had stopped at what I think was a state camping area and we had spent most of the day there. What we didn't count on at the time was that the grounds charged $1 or $2 for overnight camping, which was a lot of money then for unemployed teenagers. At first, we were going to risk camping overnight, but after thinking about it we didn't want to risk getting caught and fined, so we decided to just leave and find some other secluded area where we could camp without paying a fee that we just did not have.

I think that we left the state park about 5 or 6 PM (MST) and drove about 30 to 45 minutes, until we found some dirt road off the highway that we took and we stopped by what we thought was a river, however, it could have also been an irrigation canal. My best guess is that the front of my car was facing North, then the drivers side window would have been facing west. At about 10 o' clock west we could see the lights of a large town, which I have always suspected that to be Silver City, NM. Again, my best guess was that Silver City was about 15 to 20 miles from where we had decided to camp.

I remember it also being pretty dark when we arrived at that site and the sky was very clear. When we arrived at that location, we were all pretty hungry and we cooked something to eat. I still remember the two burner coleman stove sitting on the hood of my car and all three of us were sitting in the car just talking teen stuff and pondering how to set up camp in the dark. I was sitting in the drivers seat, Mark was sitting in the front passenger seat and Greg was sitting in the back. While we were all talking, I was looking out the driver's side window when I noticed what looked like a meteror jetting across the sky coming at 12 o'clock from the west heading east towards us. When I saw that fireball, I got excited and I said "hey guys, check this out a meteor".

I kind of remember Mark leaning over trying to look out my window so he could see it. We were all three pretty excited about seeing a meteor and we all thought at first that was what it was until it stopped in the suddenly in the sky. My best guess is that our initial sighting occurred sometime between 7:30 to 8:30 PM (MST). After the object stopped in the sky, it sat there for a few minutes then it would suddenly zip up and right then suddenly stop for a minute then zip to the left and suddenly stop on a dime. I think this went on for about 30 minutes and when the object was back to where it originally stopped, it sat there for a couple of minutes before releasing three balls of light that seemed to dance around the original object. The three balls of light were all different colors. I do not remember what colors they were, but red and orange for two of the three balls of light stick in my mind. The three balls of light did their dance around the first object for about an hour and a half, before going back into the original object.

By this time, all of us were scared, but for Mark and myself, while we were scared I think our curiosity was a bit stronger than our fear. Greg by this time was in the back seat hiding under his sleeping bag pleading with us to go someplace where there were people. After the three objects went back into the original object, the object would take off an unbelievable speeds in different directions (up and back down, left and right) before returning to the spot it originally stopped. The majority of what we saw was on the west side of the vehicle, the last 30 to 45 minutes of the sighting happened when the object shot up straight and North-east to where we could see it from the windshield of the vehicle, where it would zip off in different directions and suddenly stop then zip back. Before this object ended it's show it shot straight up in to the sky and stopped and then suddenly it came down very fast, almost like it was coming straight down at us. At this point my heart sank and it scared me as it did with all three of us. It was also at this point where I could see more if it's shape and to me it looked diamond shaped and lit up with yellowish lights. I should note than when it looked like it was coming straight at us it suddenly stopped then shot straight back up into the night sky and disappeared.

After made that dive towards the car, we decided that we had enough and we decided to go back to the camping area where there were people and we didn't care at that point if we got into trouble for not paying the overnight camping fee. We got back to the campgrounds about 3:30 AM that morning. I should also add that when the original object came across the sky in what we initially thought was a meteor, I would guess it's height to be about the same height at about the same height as you would see a low flying helicopter and the distance from the car to where that object initally stopped in the sky I would estimate that distance to be less than a mile.

Whatever that object was, it seems to have known that we were there and it also seemed to want to put on a show for us. What we witnessed from start to finish lasted from 6 to 8 hours. I should also state, that while time did seem to go by very fast that night, I do not believe than any of us were abducted I should also note that we were in the middle of nowhere and there were no airports close by and what we saw was very real and also something that was way beyond the capabilities of any technology that we I have ever witnessed, even to this day.. On a final note, we were too focused on watching this object that it never even dawned on us to try and start up the vehicle, so I don't know if the vehicle was disable during the sighting or not. The vehicle did start without any problem after it shot straight up into the sky and out of sight.

Posted 2022-06-22