NUFORC Sighting 72574

Occurred: 2009-08-19 22:00 Local
Reported: 2009-09-23 13:32 Pacific
Duration: 30 minutes
No of observers: 2

Location: Vale, OR, USA

Shape: Triangle
Characteristics: Lights on object, Aircraft nearby

Before I go into any detail about our experience, I would like to preface this account with a description of the area we were in.

Our campsite is nestled in a stand of trees in the southwest corner of a huge rock bar in the Owyhee Canyon area, south of Vale, Oregon. The rock bar is approximately two football fields in length and I would say close to three hundred feet wide. Next to the river’s eastern edge sit’s a small hill about 100 feet tall. Due west of our location is the ridge line near the Owyhee Breaks, approximately 1 to 1 ½ miles away. South of our campsite, around five miles away is an area called Birch Creek.

This is a wide open desert area, where we can see for long distances in most directions.

As we were sitting near the river’s edge that evening, we noticed two red lights above and beyond Red Butte. This is a volcanic mesa with an elevation of 4584 feet and is around 7 miles northeast of our location. The two red lights were huge; in relation to the stars behind them, they were at least twice the size. The lights were perfectly parallel and were heading our direction.

We had a campfire burning that night and our curiosity was piqued as the two lights continued their approach. As we continued watching the red lights, we began to hear a “soft” jet noise. Jeff made a comment that he believed they were two military jets headed our way to check out the campfire. As the lights began to drop lower into the canyon and slow down, I disagreed with Jeff’s assessment of these lights being military jets, as the lights were going far too slow. From Red Butte to our location, had they been jets, they would have arrived at the rock bar in a very short time.

While the two lights continued their advance toward our location, their steady drop in elevation and deceleration became more noticeably evident. It was becoming quite clear there was something not right about these lights. The noise did not fit the bill of military jets either, they weren’t loud enough.

Here is what bothered me about the noise. The jet noise of the two advancing lights was similar to that of conventional aircraft, but what I can relate as only “soft” jet sound, nothing near the decibels you would expect for a low flying military craft.

Another thing that wasn’t quite right was that we have seen numerous commercial and military jets fly through this area, but NEVER have we seen military aircraft out at night at this location; an area we have been visiting for almost a decade. The commercial planes flying at night and at day are what you would expect to hear given the planes respective altitudes. However, the military jets we have witnessed doing maneuvers in this area, are ALWAYS during the daytime and generally flying much higher and are remarkably louder.

As the lights reached a distance between one and two miles away, they had descended to an elevation of maybe 1000 to 1500 feet and the closer they approached the lower the elevation and slower the speed.

Somewhere around 1000 feet away, the altitude of these mysterious lights dropped to what I believe is 500 to 700 feet in elevation and began to literally float like a blimp towards us. I was unnerved to say the least and completely fixated on what I was seeing. “Military jets can’t fly this slow,” I said to Jeff.

It was at this time that I got out of my chair and approached my four wheeler, which was approximately 15 feet away. Prior to this, I had been sitting about 10 feet from the river and 8 or so feet from the campfire…I wanted a better look.

When the two lights began entering the north area of the rock bar, I became transfixed. My heart was racing as these lights were slowly making their way towards us, all the while emitting the “soft” jet noise. The altitude had dropped even more, to somewhere around 100 feet above us.

What in the world is going on, I thought. As it continued getting nearer, my mind was trying to make sense of what my eyes were seeing. The sound, the speed, the color of the lights, the fact it was floating…nothing seemed logical…and it was big whatever it was. Jeff and I were flinging commentaries to each other, but I haven’t a clue what he said until… The lights were almost directly overhead when Jeff began yelling something about two red lights. I was mesmerized and began moving further up the rock bar, my head craned directly up. As the lights were just barely past me, it was here that the realization hit me. I could see a solid structure between the two red lights. I began yelling at him that, “It’s not two red lights, it’s a solid object!!!” “It’s solid, the lights are connected!!!” I stared in utter amazement. I could not see underneath, it was as black as the sky, I could only make out the structure between the lights. (My estimate as to the width of the craft is 100 feet, based on how much of the rock bar it appeared to cover at it’s apparent altitude).

Jeff yelled again and said, “No, no…look up higher and to the left, there’s two more lights!” Not wanting to take my eyes off the object, I quickly glanced up and left and there they were, two more red lights, another object identical to what I was seeing directly above me. This one however, was at a much higher altitude…possibly one to two thousand feet. I quickly diverted my attention back to the one above me.

I was stunned! What I had just seen didn’t make any sense. With the realization that these lights were one solid object, a craft, I was left bewildered. There was no transition between the approach of the two lights and the departure of the two lights. I never saw two coming and two leaving.

But I didn’t have time for this passing thought. I was truly in awe of the events transpiring at the time. Thoughts and emotions were whipping through my mind and body at that moment. I didn‘t want to take my eyes off it for anything. “Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, do you believe this?” “No one is going to believe this,” I yelled to Jeff. I was overwhelmed, astonished and excited. My body began shaking and my knees literally went weak.

Grab the camera!!!” Jeff yelled. I ran back to the four wheeler and could not remember what side I had put it in. I was fumbling around in the dark, trying to watch the object and feeling through the myriad of items I had in my atv.

The craft was nearing the far south end of the rock bar, while I was still searching feverishly for the camera. On the back of my atv, is an added seat that has two storage units on either side. I am an avid rock hound and both sides were full of rocks, water bottles, towels, clothes and snacks. I ran from one side of my atv to the other trying to locate the camera. Minutes were passing by and the craft was disappearing down the canyon when I finally found the camera case.

I was shaking so bad, I could barely unzip it. Trying to watch the craft and operate a camera with my mind racing and trying to function normally was an impossible mission at this point. I finally did open the lens of the camera and thought I was hitting the shutter button when I had actually hit the off button. I was exasperated.

I turned the camera on again. By this time the craft had picked up speed and altitude and was now nearing the Birch Creek area. Pointing the camera towards the craft, nothing was registering on the viewfinder…the screen was black. I yelled at Jeff , “…nothing is registering.” I hit the zoom, but still could not find the lights in the viewfinder. I realized it was a fruitless attempt, so I turned the camera off and put the handle over my wrist as I continued to watch the craft depart down the canyon. (I had just purchased this camera in May and was unfamiliar with all it’s settings).

It was at this juncture that we were to witness an amazing exhibition that left me completely awestruck.

As the craft went beyond Birch Creek, it had gained considerable altitude and had met up with the other craft. We could no longer hear them. While the initial craft always appeared to be much larger, I am unsure whether this was due to the fact that it was always higher and farther away. While I know this is the logical train of thought, the second sighting has me in doubt of this presumed fact.

All of a sudden both crafts apparently turned and when they did, we now saw three red lights each on both crafts…both vessels were now triangle shaped! An isosceles triangle to be precise.

The crafts stood still for a moment and in almost slow motion pointed their noses relatively straight up, sat momentarily and then shot off into the night sky like a rocket, the smaller craft first and then the larger one. They moved so swiftly that within seconds we lost sight of them.

Again, and with much fervor I exclaimed, “Oh my God, do you believe what we just saw…this is the stuff you see on TV,” such was the discourse upon witnessing this spectacle.

Jeff and I were conversing loudly and excitedly to one another for the next few minutes. After ten or fifteen minutes of our impassioned discussion, we heard jet noise again. It couldn’t be…but it was. Slightly southeast over the small hill across the river, came two red lights. Not three in a triangle shape, only two like we had seen to begin with. This time however, it was flying at a few thousand feet in altitude. I would hazard a guess at roughly three to possibly five thousand feet.

Camera still in hand, I turned it on and began clicking. I made the same faux paux I made before and accidentally turned the camera off. Regaining my composure, I made sure this time my finger stayed on the shutter button and I began clicking away. Still…nothing was registering on the viewfinder. I quickly realized I needed to change the camera settings and began flipping the dial as I tried to get the lights in the viewfinder.

I found the “night” setting, but still nothing in the viewfinder, so I just pointed and shot. The craft was crossing the canyon at a much faster speed this time and I was having a hard time keeping watch of it and trying to shoot photos.

After snapping several shots I lowered the camera. Since I could see nothing at all through the lens, I at least wanted to see with my eyes. It was then we noticed the second craft. It was once more flying at a much higher altitude, escorting the first and larger craft. They crossed almost due west over the rock bar in very short time.

As they reached the west side of the canyon, the speed slowed to a near halt and again they turned. Once more we could now see two triangular shaped craft, each possessing three lights. Again, one craft appearing much larger, at least two to three times larger than the other.

The larger craft slowly lowered itself to just above the mountain top, hovered momentarily and then began a series of maneuvers. The second craft turned to horizontal and remained stationary, as if watching or waiting for the larger craft. While viewing the objects at this location, which is barely a mile or so from the rock bar, we did not hear any noise coming from the crafts.

The larger craft tilted what would seem to be it’s left wing or side up and then came back to horizontal. It then slowly maneuvered it’s nose up and again back to horizontal. In it’s final movement, it tilted the nose down…and back again to horizontal…hovered briefly and then sank slowly behind the mountain as if it were landing. The second craft did no maneuvers of any kind, it slowly descended down, almost in sync with the large craft as if it too were landing.

(While the craft was just passing over me when we were on the rock bar, I did get a spectacular view of the rear end of the craft. I have since drawn diagrams and images. Please see attached).

The story doesn’t end here. A couple of odd things happened the very next day. While we didn’t see any craft the following day, what occurred on Thursday has definitely made me wonder.

It was 9:05 a.m. when I was taking a stroll through the stand of tree that surround our camping area. I heard an extremely loud jet sound and looked up. There above me, flying at only a couple of thousand feet was a Stealth Bomber and it was heading directly towards the location the two craft had appeared to land the previous night.

How odd, I thought…is this just a coincidence? For as long as we’ve been coming here…never have we seen Stealth in this area. I came back to camp and asked Jeff if he had seen the Stealth…his reply was no…although he did hear the jet noise.

Approximately 10:00 a.m., Thursday, August 20, 2009. We’re cleaning up the breakfast dishes when we hear noise on the mountains behind our camp. Behind us are two roads that traverse this recreation area. A lower road, which is directly 20 feet behind our tent and then the upper road which is maybe a hundred yards further up toward the base of the hills. Both roads run north and south.

Inspecting the noise, Jeff had walked out of camp to the access road that leads to the road behind us and stated there were two rigs coming down the hill. “You’re kidding,” I said, surprised at this development. As far as I knew, this road was nothing more than an atv trail, a fairly steep one at that. I made my way to Jeff’s location and for a brief time watched in amazement as these two vehicles slowly made their way down.

Here again was another anomaly. In all our years at this area, a place that we come to at least twice a year, only once have I seen anything on this hill, and that was a four wheeler - an all terrain vehicle. Although I was surprised that two vehicles were on this road, I didn’t give it much more thought…I returned to camp and began to prepare our atv’s for our morning ride. My thoughts were due to change promptly.

While loading the atv’s with the necessary items, it struck me. I grabbed our Oregon Road and Recreation Atlas to see where this road leads. This steep desert road takes you to an area in the general vicinity where the crafts seemed to land the previous night.

Shortly thereafter, with both Jeff and I in camp, we heard the vehicles getting nearer…very near. Within a few seconds, the vehicles were coming down the road directly behind our camp. Jeff and I quickly walked out the short driveway that leads to the road behind our camp to see what was up.

The first vehicle we observed was an older model jeep, white in color I believe, and the second rig was also an older model blue pickup with an atv in the bed. Both men were middle aged, I would say early 50’s or so.

What was so peculiar about this encounter was that as the two men drove slowly by, within 30 feet, they did nothing but stare. There were no hello’s, no waves…nothing but a stoic gaze. We have ran across or met a few people in our visits here and with one exception everyone either waves or stops to chat, but not these two. Another odd thing was, it seemed pretty obvious to me that the two vehicles made a bee line to our location. But why? If you’re hunters (antelope season had recently opened) and you’re checking to see if this camping area is available, you would have noticed this location was occupied when you were directly behind our tent. There would be no need to slow your vehicles down to a crawl and stare as they did. Granted these thoughts are mere speculation as to the motives of these two individuals, it was nonetheless strange behavior.

The two vehicles proceeded to the upper road, headed north and we never saw them again. Now had they been hunters interested in bagging game in this canyon, there are only a few other camping areas available and we would have either seen them, heard their vehicles or atv and in all likelihood heard gunshots. Neither occurred that day. For within an hour, Jeff and I rode our atv’s a few miles past Red Butte, passing all the camping locations along the way. There were no sign of the men or their vehicles and no indication they had taken the road we were on as there weren’t any fresh tracks on the road that goes due east past Red Butte.

Now whether these two men are witnesses to the previous night’s events, I can only conjecture. Their sudden appearance and quick disappearance seemed odd.

The next occurrence was at 4:00 p.m. that afternoon. After returning to camp from our ride beyond Red Butte, we headed for the rock bar. The day was hot and we wanted to be near the river the remainder of the day.

Within a very short time, we began to hear jet sounds again. I was in the midst of my hunt for rocks and Jeff was in the river on the float tube. Every time we have visited this locale, the military jets do their maneuvers directly south of us about two to three miles above a place called Griffith Ranch…but not today. Today the sound was very loud and close.

Looking up, I spied only one jet. It’s not at the usual altitude either, this one is flying lower than normal and is crisscrossing the rock bar at an east and west trajectory. Here again is a peculiar thing. In all our years camping here, we have always observed two jets executing maneuvers.

I watched the jet momentarily and returned to my rock hunting. As the jet proceeded to traverse the canyon, I went to the river to cool off. What happened next is another unusual event.

If you recall the small hill I mentioned earlier in this report; this hill is no higher than 100 to 150 feet. I was standing in the river, a mere stone’s throw from the base of this hill cooling off, when the noise of the jet became extremely loud. Looking up, the jet had changed his flight path and was suddenly approaching from the south at an extremely low altitude. As he neared, he flew directly over the small hill around 20 to maybe 50 feet above it’s peak. His air speed had slowed to the point that when he flew past, I could see his headgear, oxygen mask and upper body. He turned his head and looked directly at me.

Needless to say, I was bewildered by this action. I yelled to Jeff, who was about 50 yards downstream saying, “Did you see that?” I met up with Jeff within a couple of minutes and we discussed how unusual this incident was. We both pondered the pilots odd behavior and speculated on the possibility of being photographed, as nothing of this nature had ever taken place before.

This was the end of the remarkable events we witnessed during our time here.

I have given much thought to the depth and length of the craft I witnessed over the rock bar and have been unable to determine the measurements. Possibly with those who possess knowledge of geometry this issue could be resolved.

As a side note, a possible witness to be contacted would be the caretaker(s) who man a residence at Birch Creek. While we haven’t been to this residence in four or five years, there used to be an elderly couple who manned a small ranch at this locale.

The following information is stated to give the reader(s) more information regarding the area where the sighting occurred.

Near where the craft initially appeared, which as I stated is above and beyond Red Butte, is a very big reservoir called Lake Owyhee. (Pronounced o-y-hee). According to Trails.com, Lake Owyhee is “53 miles long and 139,00 acres, with an average depth of 80 feet and a maximum depth of 117 feet”.

Different internet sources state contrary information regarding Lake Owyhee. (A report from the Argus Observer, June 27, 1991 cites, “In some places the lake is nearly 500 feet deep and even in the worst of the drought Owyhee had 250 feet of water for 40 miles”).

According to the Oregon Bureau of Reclamation, “Owyhee Dam is a concrete, thick-arch structure which was designed to carry about three-fourths of the water load by arch action and the remainder by gravity action. The dam rises 417 feet above foundation in the river section, and 530 feet above the low point of the excavated fault zone. At the time of its construction, Owyhee ranked as the world's highest dam. The arch section is 623 feet long, and a gravity tangent extends 210 feet to the right abutment. The total capacity of Lake Owyhee is 1,120,000 acre-feet (active 715,200 acre-feet).

This site further states that, “…Hydraulic height (the normal operating depth at the dam) is 325 feet”.

See link: http://www.usbr.gov/projects/PrintFacilityAttributes.jsp?fac_Name=Owyhee%20Dam Another observation I noted while perusing our Oregon Road and Recreation Atlas, is a location called Ben Odell Reservoir which is not too far from where the crafts appeared to have landed. I have researched this small reservoir and can only find latitude and longitude information of 42.27922 and 117.60444 respectively. I did find one small map that leads me to believe this reservoir is approximately ¾ of a mile long. I have yet to find any more information. This, as I stated previously, is in the same general area the two unknown men came from.

As for the photos I took. Having downloaded the images from the night of the sighting, I did manage to click the shutter 14 times and only captured one image of what appears to be a single point of light…possibly Mars.

In the accompanying images, drawn by the reporting witness, please note that only the 3 red lights (per craft) were visible that gave the crafts their triangular shape.

The first image is what I witnessed upon seeing the craft pass by while on the rock bar. The outer ring on the lights were a bright red/orange. The inner ring was a lighter orange/red.

The bottom four sketches are the maneuvers the first and larger craft accomplished over the western ridge line before seeming to land. All the maneuvers were done at a relatively slow pace.

#1. Shows the craft’s first maneuver, in which it appeared to lift it’s left side up.

#2. Second maneuver was to lift the nose of the craft.

#3. The craft lowered the nose.

#4. In it’s last move, the craft went back to horizontal, remained stationary for a moment, and then accompanied by the second craft sank behind the ridge line.

The reporting witness is a 51 year old licensed, but inactive real estate agent. I am a mother of a wonderful 25 year old son who spent four years in the military and is now safely home. I am currently pursuing my passion, which is oil painting of a Native American Theme. I have senior status in college with 93 completed credits and a 3.85 GPA towards a Bachelors Degree of Fine Arts. I am an avid reader of world history and ancient cultures- with an emphasis on Egypt, Sumer and South America.

I have a great interest in all things archaeological and possess a curious interest in the creations stories of such cultures as the Egyptian, Sumerian, the Dogon Tribe of Africa, the Native Americans and many others. I have read a great majority of the Mahabharata, all of the Enuma Elish and most everything related to the Sumerian Culture. I have read the Pyramid Texts, the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Book of Enoch, the Bible and many, many other ancient writings.

I have been studying Edgar Cayce for over 30 years, and have read the likes of Velikovsky, Madame Blavatsky and topics ranging from exopolitics, metaphysics, astronomy/astrology, geology of the planet, the paranormal, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi texts, and possess an ardent interest in our nearest planet Mars. To put it succinctly I am a student of life with a thirst for knowledge.

I pursue many other interests actively such as landscape architecture, gardening, interior decorating, reef keeping, rock hunting, atv riding, yoga and exploring the great outdoors. I also have planted and maintain a ½ acre assemblage of trees, shrubs and perennials and take care of a 30 foot koi pond.

My Husband is a Systems Design Engineer who has been with his company for nearly 20 years and is interested in hunting, fishing, the great outdoors and most things electronic.

Posted 2009-12-12

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