Flying Saucers UFO Reports

Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.

This composite drawing, put together from what several of the Dexter, Mich., sighters described, led some to think that "marsh gas" was not an acceptable explanation. "Quilted" was term chosen to designate "pitted."

all the commotion was about out in the yard.

The "commotion" was off to the east, over the swampland on which the house was built and at that 8 p.m. moment was a faint red glow "like cigarets being smoked."

Accompanied by his 19-year-old son, Frank set off across the hillocks, much as though he were stalking deer, but intent this time on picking up what he thought might be pieces from a fallen meteor.

They got within 500 yards of the "visitor" and saw that it was no meteor. It was not like anything either of them ever had seen or imagined before. Frank Mannor's later description of it was: "shaped like a football . . . length of a car . . . greyish-yellow hue with a pitted surface "like coral rock." It seemed to be sitting on a base of fog, maybe eight feet off the ground, and the lights on it, green on one end, white on the other, were pulsating and each looked like it had a halo around it.

While the two men peered in wonder at the unexpected caller, the Thing turned deep red and the lights went out, bringing a startled "Look at that horrible thing," exclamation from the younger Mannor.

Horrible or not, it's not often that a southern Michigan farm community provides Sunday night entertainment of such dramatic proportions, and Mr. Mannor and his son set off after it on the run. When they got there, it was gone.

For four hours, Frank and his son stalked the strange object over much of the 300 acres of swampland, looking for some smell or trace of the Thing. They found nothing, but much of their search was not conducted alone, and some of what they had seen was corroborated by Dexter police officials and Washtenaw County authorities who had been alerted to the strange sighting through a phone call from Mannor's wife who, while her husband and son pursued the Thing, informed Dexter Village police that there was an "object" in the swamp that looked like a flying saucer.

Her call brought Police Chief Robert Taylor and Patrolmen Nolan Lee and Robert Hunawill and Washtenaw County Deputies Stanley McFadden and David Fitzpatrick.

Deputies McFadden and Fitzpatrick and Chief Taylor and Patrolman Lee arrived in time to see what they described as a reddish light, zipping over the Mannor house and giving off a sound "like an ambulance." Patrolman Hunawill, who waited in the road in the patrol car, saw "a strange lighted object" with red and white lights. He estimated the height at roughly 1000 feet and said it made several sweeps over the swamp before being joined by three other objects and disappearing.

Michigan police official took this photo of what he suspected was an unidentified flying object. During the excitement, the photo was given wide coverage.