NUFORC Sighting 29405

Occurred: 1961-07-15 23:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2003-06-25 19:24 Pacific
Duration: 20 to 30 minutes
No of observers: 3

Location: Mount Hope, WV, USA

Shape: Unknown
Characteristics: Left a trail

Object only visible as a streak of light at very high altitude traveled from horizon to horizon in a few seconds for a total of 6 times

In the summer of 1961, when I was 15 years old myself along with two of my friends had just laid down to go to sleep on the lawn of Mount Hope Junior High School very late in the evening, possibly around midnight. We had told our parents we were camping out in the woods, but had just spent the evening running around town and having fun, planning to return to our houses around dawn. We were laying on the north side of the lawn that faced City Hall. Myself and one of the other boys had almost gone to sleep, but the other one was just laying there watching the stars. After a few minutes he excitedly yelled, "did you see that" along with some other phrases that I don't remember, but he was very excited. We were a little agitated because we were almost asleep and this guy was known for his pranks, but to humor him we watched for a few minutes and didn't see anything so we tried to go back to sleep. What he had seen was a streak of light that had gone across the sky at a very high altitude and lasted only for several seconds but had traveled from horizon to horizon in that brief time. After about 15 or 20 minutes he yelled that he had seen the same thing again, so this time myself and the other friend decided to wait it out to see if he was pulling our leg. Sure enough, after 20 minutes or so we all three saw a little steak of light go across the sky at a tremendous speed. I think if we had blinked we would have missed it. We watched this happen at least 6 times, including the 2 times observed by the first friend. Each time it happened the streak of light was a few degrees farther north until on the last sighting it was barely visible toward the city of Oak Hill, West Virginia. We even theorized that maybe the object was going all the way around the Earth and we were seeing the same object instead of 6 individual ones. The boy who had first seen the light stayed awake practically all night, but myself and the other friend eventually went to sleep. This incident has always been on m! y mind and stirred my intrest in UFOs, especially when sightings are reported in this area of southern West Virginia. As usually is the case, this is a story that we just kept to ourselves because we didn't want to be ridiculed. But what we saw was real and I've always wanted to tell this story.

NUFORC Note:

Date in July 1961 is approximate. PD

Posted 2003-07-16