UFO History: December 2, 1987

With the potential UFO Invasion on the horizon on December 3rd according to a prediction made years ago, I decided to do some searching early tonight for our UFO History entry. 

While searching, I did find it interesting that Ed Walters had one of his Gulf Breeze incidents on this day. On that day in 1987, a blue beam of light then caused him to be lifted three feet (0.91 m) off the ground. The Gulf Breeze reports are interesting, but for some reason, I was drawn down an interesting rabbit hole and decided to go that route. 

The CIA FOIA Archives popped up and I started going through some of those and man, they contradict themselves all over. In one appeal from 2006, they claim that there is no research being done by the agency, that they stopped with the Air Force in the 1960s. This is crazy, considering the amount of data that sits in this archive. 

In that document, the redacted information is intriguing. From 1976, what doctor was researching and what exactly is analytical data on the UFO ______ subject and what information was given. This is roughly the same time of the Grenada UFO incidents and there are a ton of documents centered on that in both the CIA and State Department FOIA archives. 

Included in those is a direct link to a United Nations program. As a member of Generation X, how many of us remember hearing that the government has no involvement in the subject. I know I remember that. 

Take a look at the document in the picture, I know it isn’t from December 2nd, but it definitely tells a story that is part of UFO history. 

The Dismal Swamp Monster

Located on Virginia's southeastern border with North Carolina, between Norfolk, Virginia, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina, is famous for its unique wilderness. The swamp encompassed millions of acres of marshy land.  

Today, it is home to one of the largest Black Bear populations on the East Coast, subtropical birds, butterflies, bobcats, white-tailed deer, and other unknown animals. Sightings of strange creatures and mysterious sounds coming from the swamp are being reported every year to well-known and established websites. 

These sightings coexist with the other events of high strangeness that have been reported through the years. The lady of the lake, the disappearing cemetery, the rise of a thunderbird from Native American lore are but a few of the tales.

The tales of the swamp are well known, yet, this is one of the least explored areas of the United States. The Dismal Swamp has been home for mysteries for centuries and reports of strange creatures have existed for generations. 

One of the oldest reports comes from a 1902 Newspaper article from the Richmond Dispatch.

The creature was larger than a wolf, with shaggy yellow hair, long hair and sunken eyes. In 1981, Ranger Pat Higgins reported in a Washington Post article that there is a creature 7 1/2-feet tall, hairy as a shag rug and smelling like a sewer that comes out of Dismal Swamp periodically to stomp through his park at night.He called it Skunk Foot. 

In folklore, one of the most famous cases of the dogman comes from Michigan and dates  back to the 1880s. Described as a seven-foot tall bipedal canine-like animal with the torso of a man and a fearsome howl that sounds like a human scream. There are similarities to reports. Dogmen have also been reported in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. 

Also in folklore, Bigfoot is often described as a large, muscular, and bipedal human or ape-like creature covered in dark brown or black hair. Descriptions estimate a height of roughly 6–9 feet. Common descriptions include broad shoulders, no visible neck, and long arms,with some nighttime sightings mentioning yellow or red glowing eyes. There is also a putrid smell associated with sightings. While there are thousands of reports, the most famous is from the Patterson-Gimlin film in California from the late 1960s.  

April 1975 Lumberton, NC - UFO Flap

On my recent trip to Point Pleasant, I was able to score some classic Fate Magazine's. Fate has always been one of my favorites,  covering all of the reasons of high strangeness and the unexplained while featuring some of the most prominent researchers of the day. In fact,  when I had an article picked up and published by them in the mid 2000s, I was so humbled. I still view that as one of my greatest accomplishments as a researcher of writer.  

With that,  in the October 1988 issue, I came across a story about a UFO Flap that occurred in April  1975. With it being somewhat close to my homestead,  I decided to try to do a deep dive on it.  After all, this was a large event,  with multiple sightings over a 3 or 4 day period.  What I found (or didn't find) online was quite surprising.

At first, I found almost nothing.  This was surprising because the story in Fate was detailed and actually contained some valuable information.  Mostly, I found links to a book,  The Lumberton report : UFO activity in southern North Carolina, April 3-9, 1975. Yes,  thethis was published by an aide to famed researcher J. Allen Hynek, who was involved in the investigation.  

Even on pages that feature unexplained stories,  three results are scarce. North Carolina can claim no monopoly on UFO sightings. From the Fayetteville Observer (March 31, 2013) it is encapsulated by a major 3 of 4 sentences.

     "A particularly large sighting, however, took place in Lumberton in early April 1975. Over the course of a few days, eight separate sightings were reported in the Robeson County town, leading some to refer to it as an  alien attack. In this attack, however, no one was hurt. Or even probed."

This again struck me odd, this was one of first widely held sightings with multiple triangle UFOs. I did find a few tweets on the anniversary and a public Facebook post,  but nothing else.  

So why is this strange? Because according to the article in Fate by the author of the above mentioned book, Jennie Zeldman (Boomerang UFOs), there were 57 recorder incidents during this flap and at last 50 were witnessed by law enforcement.  That's an insane amount.  Plus, there was a myriad of different descriptions.  

According to the article there were: 23 V-shaped crafts, 9 spotlights,  11 sightings at or below treetops, 22 silent craft, 10 hovering objects, and 4 sightings with lights and no shape.  This is a take trove of information and information that should be more publicized.  After all,  according to the author of the article,  some of the detailed information was used as inspiration for the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

For me,  something doesn't make sense with the lack of information online with this story and I plan on doing more research, especially when you consider Fort Bragg is only hop, skip, and a jump away.  

Stay tuned for more information as I receive it.