NUFORC Sighting 137037

Occurred: 2017-10-28 19:05 Local
Reported: 2017-10-29 15:29 Pacific
Duration: 1-3 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: Cross Lake, MN, USA

Shape: Circle
Characteristics: Aura or haze around object

Five bright orange red lights moved upwards from a line above the horizon to disappear into the night time clouds.

I am an Architect. I experienced an event that I am unable to explain.

My wife and I own a second home on Velvet Lake, a small quite and private lake on the north end of the Crow Wing State Forest located about 4 miles east of Crosslake, Minnesota. We are at the end of the road.

There are about thirty or so other cabins on the lake and because it is late in the season, with winter setting in, not many people were up at their cabins; not many lights on around the lake. Our closest neighbors, about one hundred yards away to the north of us, were at their place but no one was out or down by the lake.

On the evening of October 28, 2017, my wife and I were enjoying one last campfire for the year. Our cabin is on the east-southeast side of the lake so sitting at the fire pit looking at the lake we are facing west-north west. Our fire pit is set back about 15 yards from the edge of the water.

At about 19:00 my wife decided to go up to the cabin and warm up, I stayed at the campfire. When I got up to stir the logs I looked out across the lake and noticed what appeared to be 5 very bright stars off in the distance. I'm a star gazer, usually looking for satellites and shooting stars, but I've never seen anything like this before. I wasn't even looking for stars that night because the sky was too cloudy, only a few stars were visible directly above me with the half moon behind me shrouded in clouds; it wasn't worth the effort. No other stars were view-able across the lake.

Looking almost due north these stars or lights were all in a horizontal line and appeared to be stationary and separated almost equal distances apart. The lights appeared to be a long way away, miles out in the distance and not just across the lake. The lights were low to the horizon, maybe 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon and appeared to be just a few degrees above the dark treeline in the distance.

The lights were orange-red, like the color of a flame... almost lite rust in color. The lights were bright and distinct, many times the brightness of any other star. The lights were steady in intensity. The lights were not large, maybe twice the size of what Mercury looks like, but a lot brighter. No twinkling! No blinking! No changing of colors. They were bright, steady and intense.

My first thought was maybe they are hanging or lingering fireworks that I didn't hear. They lights didn't fade away and just stayed there. My thoughts then were "what the hell! What am I looking at? What is that!?" I headed to the lake to get a better look. I'm not a UFO person so as I walked to the lake I'm trying to justify it in my mind and I'm thinking that it must be a military line of aircraft in some kind of flying formation. I had a quick thought of yelling up to my wife but she was long gone by then so I didn't call to her as I walked towards the lake.

By the time I traversed the 15 or so yards to the lake the stars are now moving. They appeared to go from a slight diagonal line slanting upwards from low on the right (north) to high on the left (west) side. They formed the shape of a cup, like the big dipper, with two high lights further apart above the two lower lights. I don't remember seeing the fifth light at this time. I said to myself out loud, "how can the big dipper be that close to the ground". And then the lights started moving upward and away from me in the same direction but different paths.

This was not the Big Dipper! I'm thinking that I should be taking photos of this with my phone and I'm thinking that I couldn't get my phone out fast enough and I wouldn't capture it anyway. So I decided to watch instead of fumbling with a phone. I'm regretting that decision because anything would have been better than not doing anything.

The lights are still moving slow. I'm again thinking that they are military, they are moving like helicopters so I listened for any sounds of motors of any sort to coincide or explain what I'm seeing. No engine sounds, no echos, no distant rumblings, nothing.

The lights continue to move slowly and steadily upwards. They seemed to have be moving at the same speed... not catching up to each other or getting further apart. One by one they disappeared from view like flying into the clouds. First the upper and lower lights on the right side disappear, seconds apart in the same direction but different paths and then the other two lights on the left side disappeared in the same fashion within seconds of each other. This all happened within two to three minutes.

I was dumbfounded and headed back to the campfire. I sat down and thought about it, trying to remember what I saw, and then I thought "what time is it?" I looked at my phone and it was 19:09.

I'm writing this on 10-29-2017 at 15:00 the day after the experience, about 21 hours later. This is what happened to the best of my recollection and memory.

I'm unable to get my mind around this and I'm trying to find a reasonable explanation. I saw what I saw! Unfortunately I was by myself and didn't take any photos.

Could they have been some of those Chinese lanterns that people release into the night sky? If so it wasn't anyone on the lake because these where miles out in the distance. Can you see those types of lanterns from miles away? Do they rise up fast enough to disappear in minutes? Any help will be appreciated.

Posted 2017-11-03

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