1 00:00:00,588 --> 00:00:19,907 This series presents information based in part on theory and conjecture. 2 00:00:19,907 --> 00:00:24,427 The producer's purpose is to suggest some possible explanations, but not necessarily 3 00:00:24,427 --> 00:00:28,427 the only ones to the mysteries we will examine. 4 00:00:28,427 --> 00:00:39,926 They've been reported at dusk or in the dead of night. 5 00:00:39,926 --> 00:00:53,425 In clearings amid still woods and fields in lonely farm country. 6 00:00:53,425 --> 00:00:57,425 Sometimes they come in silence, sometimes with quiet thunder. 7 00:00:57,425 --> 00:01:03,425 Often they leave marks in the earth, signals of their passing. 8 00:01:03,425 --> 00:01:09,425 They've been seen but fleetingly, and their extraordinary presence creates a frightening mystery. 9 00:01:09,425 --> 00:01:16,424 In fields from West Virginia through Wisconsin to Oregon are the beginnings of answers. 10 00:01:24,424 --> 00:01:36,423 On June 24th, 1947 an Idaho businessman named Kenneth Arnold was flying his private plane near Washington's Mount Rainier. 11 00:01:36,423 --> 00:01:41,423 He saw nine disc-like objects moving rapidly along the horizon. 12 00:01:41,423 --> 00:01:46,423 Arnold said they moved erratically, like saucers, skipped across a pond. 13 00:01:46,423 --> 00:01:50,423 Flying saucer thus became part of our language. 14 00:01:50,423 --> 00:01:58,422 After the Mount Rainier sighting, unidentified flying objects were reported all over the country, an astonishing number of them. 15 00:01:58,422 --> 00:02:05,422 And the sightings have continued to this day. 16 00:02:05,422 --> 00:02:10,422 A chill morning in Mellon, Wisconsin. 17 00:02:10,422 --> 00:02:13,422 Quiet fields and quiet people. 18 00:02:13,422 --> 00:02:17,421 Yet something remarkable happened on the Mellon Town Road. 19 00:02:17,421 --> 00:02:25,421 Something that would have seemed incredible if it hadn't happened to people as down to earth as the town of Mellon itself. 20 00:02:35,421 --> 00:02:40,420 Philip Baker works in a mill on the same job for more than 20 years. 21 00:02:40,420 --> 00:02:47,420 He's grown up here and passed on to his children a love for the land, a love for planting and harvesting his own crops, 22 00:02:47,420 --> 00:02:52,420 for cutting wood to warm the house in the long Wisconsin winters. 23 00:02:52,420 --> 00:02:58,419 He was an officer in his union once, but stepped down because it meant too much time away from his wife Shirley and their kids, 24 00:02:58,419 --> 00:03:02,419 Monty, Jeff, Jane and John. 25 00:03:02,419 --> 00:03:09,419 The most important things to the Baker family are hard work and being together. 26 00:03:09,419 --> 00:03:13,419 They were together the most incredible night of their lives. 27 00:03:13,419 --> 00:03:17,419 It was March 13, 1975. 28 00:03:20,418 --> 00:03:25,418 I was carrying two cats. I was walking to the garage. 29 00:03:25,418 --> 00:03:30,418 And I got by this corner, right by the house here. 30 00:03:30,418 --> 00:03:38,418 And I looked and there was this weird object, funny noises, and it was really bright and I didn't know what I should do. 31 00:03:38,418 --> 00:03:43,417 So I was going back and forth and finally I threw the cat in the garage. 32 00:03:43,417 --> 00:03:49,417 And then I ran to the house around the corner and I couldn't get the door open. 33 00:03:49,417 --> 00:03:56,417 When I first saw it, I was standing approximately right here, but I couldn't get too good of a view of it because the brush and the trees were in the way. 34 00:03:56,417 --> 00:04:01,416 So then I went back into the house and I got my coat on. 35 00:04:01,416 --> 00:04:05,416 My two youngest boys and Jane were following me. 36 00:04:05,416 --> 00:04:10,416 We went over here and we had a better look at the object that was sitting on the road. 37 00:04:10,416 --> 00:04:17,416 And my curiosity still wanted me to get a better view of it. 38 00:04:17,416 --> 00:04:23,415 So we walked down. Of course the ground was covered with snow. 39 00:04:23,415 --> 00:04:27,415 My car was sitting here in the driveway. 40 00:04:27,415 --> 00:04:31,415 And of course there were snow banks on the side of the road. 41 00:04:31,415 --> 00:04:38,415 So there's where I got my estimate of the size of the object, approximately 12 feet in diameter. 42 00:04:38,415 --> 00:04:41,415 But also with the markings in the snow. 43 00:04:41,415 --> 00:04:46,414 And I would judge the object at the center of it was approximately 6 feet high. 44 00:04:46,414 --> 00:04:49,414 It was like a turtle. 45 00:04:50,414 --> 00:04:56,414 My two boys and my girl started to proceed here closer. 46 00:04:56,414 --> 00:04:59,414 My girl told me not to go any closer to it. 47 00:04:59,414 --> 00:05:01,414 She ran back in the house. 48 00:05:01,414 --> 00:05:03,414 He was going to go walking up to it. 49 00:05:03,414 --> 00:05:09,413 And I went back to the house and told my mom that he was going to go up there and get closer to it. 50 00:05:09,413 --> 00:05:11,413 And she came out and she yelled at him. 51 00:05:11,413 --> 00:05:16,413 My wife came out and hollered at me and told me not to be foolish and go any closer to it. 52 00:05:16,413 --> 00:05:22,413 Not knowing exactly what the object was on the road. 53 00:05:22,413 --> 00:05:25,412 And of course I did get a very good view of it from here. 54 00:05:25,412 --> 00:05:29,412 As there was nothing blocking my vision on the road. 55 00:05:35,412 --> 00:05:40,412 Montgomery was looking up upstairs windows where he got his view of the object. 56 00:05:40,412 --> 00:05:43,412 We went in the house and we called the deputy sheriff. 57 00:05:43,412 --> 00:05:50,411 And when the deputy said hello, there was a boom and it was gone. 58 00:05:50,411 --> 00:05:53,411 I went out and I couldn't see it anymore. 59 00:05:53,411 --> 00:05:56,411 The sheriff came and he saw nothing. 60 00:05:56,411 --> 00:06:03,411 That can be a pretty lonely feeling to have witnessed something incredible and be unable to produce evidence. 61 00:06:03,411 --> 00:06:06,411 Loneliest of all perhaps for the Baker children. 62 00:06:06,411 --> 00:06:09,410 They would want to tell their story to friends at school. 63 00:06:09,410 --> 00:06:12,410 But who would have thought that they were going to be able to do that? 64 00:06:12,410 --> 00:06:14,410 But who would believe them? 65 00:06:14,410 --> 00:06:16,410 Oh, Monty, my oldest boy, he was all upset. 66 00:06:16,410 --> 00:06:19,410 He told my other two boys, don't say anything. 67 00:06:19,410 --> 00:06:21,410 Don't say anything to kids at school. 68 00:06:21,410 --> 00:06:23,410 We don't want nothing of this to get out. 69 00:06:23,410 --> 00:06:25,410 And of course Janie was in tears. 70 00:06:25,410 --> 00:06:27,410 She says, well, I know what I saw. 71 00:06:27,410 --> 00:06:30,409 She says, you trying to tell me I'm crazy or something? 72 00:06:30,409 --> 00:06:32,409 She says, I know what we saw. 73 00:06:32,409 --> 00:06:34,409 She says, don't try to tell me. 74 00:06:34,409 --> 00:06:36,409 I didn't see anything because she said, I know I saw it. 75 00:06:36,409 --> 00:06:38,409 And she was in tears and everything else that night. 76 00:06:38,409 --> 00:06:43,409 And of course the undershirt, I apologize when he left me off here because I thought, well, now we didn't find anything. 77 00:06:43,409 --> 00:06:45,409 He'll think I'm a little off too. 78 00:06:45,409 --> 00:06:47,409 He said, no, no, don't forget about it. 79 00:06:47,409 --> 00:06:49,408 I said, well, let's, I said, OK, let's forget about it. 80 00:06:49,408 --> 00:06:51,408 I said, but don't tell anybody. 81 00:06:51,408 --> 00:06:53,408 I, as a matter of fact, I even mentioned, I said, don't tell anybody. 82 00:06:53,408 --> 00:06:58,408 I said, just forget it then because I said, I didn't, let's drop the whole story. 83 00:07:00,408 --> 00:07:03,408 Mellon has a newspaper, the weekly record. 84 00:07:03,408 --> 00:07:08,408 Editor Jasper Landry knows just about everybody in Mellon by first name. 85 00:07:08,408 --> 00:07:15,407 I've known Mr. Baker for about 30 years and he and his family have been here a long time. 86 00:07:15,407 --> 00:07:28,407 And when this story broke on the UFOs, he asked me not to put it in the paper because of the anxiety his family was being put through by callers and curiosity seekers. 87 00:07:28,407 --> 00:07:31,406 And so I thought that I wouldn't. 88 00:07:31,406 --> 00:07:33,406 And he was very appreciative. 89 00:07:33,406 --> 00:07:36,406 I honored his wish to not have attended. 90 00:07:36,406 --> 00:07:38,406 The story got around anyway. 91 00:07:38,406 --> 00:07:44,406 Of this country lane where the Baker family saw something big and metallic with red and green lights. 92 00:07:44,406 --> 00:07:48,406 Something that was gone almost as soon as it came. 93 00:07:50,406 --> 00:07:52,405 My name is George Rhee. 94 00:07:52,405 --> 00:07:54,405 Mellon, Wisconsin. 95 00:07:54,405 --> 00:07:57,405 I am the undersheriff of Ashland County. 96 00:07:57,405 --> 00:08:05,405 On this night in question, I answered a complaint to Philip Baker and I arrived at the site and I investigated it. 97 00:08:05,405 --> 00:08:10,405 And I firmly believed that the Baker family did see an object. 98 00:08:14,404 --> 00:08:17,404 Sheriff Rhee had good reason to believe Baker's story. 99 00:08:17,404 --> 00:08:21,404 He may have arrived at the Baker house too late to see anything there. 100 00:08:21,404 --> 00:08:27,404 But when he left, a second call came to investigate reported lights in the sky. 101 00:08:27,404 --> 00:08:31,404 Rhee and seven deputies from two counties raced across country roads. 102 00:08:35,403 --> 00:08:38,403 Sheriff Rhee would sight a bright object darting in the sky. 103 00:08:38,403 --> 00:08:41,403 Call on his radio for another car to intercept it. 104 00:08:41,403 --> 00:08:44,403 And the object would dart away. 105 00:08:44,403 --> 00:08:48,403 Sometimes to briefly join another hovering in the sky. 106 00:08:48,403 --> 00:08:54,402 One of Rhee's deputies said the light given off by the objects was so intense he could read a newspaper by it. 107 00:08:54,402 --> 00:08:59,402 And when it passed over another patrol car, the police radio went dead. 108 00:08:59,402 --> 00:09:08,402 To this moment, no one knows what it was that George Rhee and seven county policemen chased that night in Wisconsin. 109 00:09:14,402 --> 00:09:16,401 Dig Chimney, West Virginia. 110 00:09:17,401 --> 00:09:25,401 It has been suggested that the overwhelming percentage of UFO sightings occur in small towns and rural farmlands for good reasons. 111 00:09:25,401 --> 00:09:28,401 The view is less obstructed for one thing. 112 00:09:28,401 --> 00:09:35,401 The residents are more likely to be looking up at the sky, more sensitive to the changing lights above. 113 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:43,400 It's about 9.30 in the night we were driving north on 119 towards Clinton. 114 00:09:43,400 --> 00:09:48,400 And then my wife saw some intensely bright lights in the sky. 115 00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:54,400 And she commented that this was the brightest airplane light that she'd ever seen. 116 00:09:54,400 --> 00:10:01,399 I looked up and there was this big diamond shaped object with big flat ends right above the treetops. 117 00:10:02,399 --> 00:10:10,399 Carol Critchfield pursued his UFO to the spot where he saw it set down and found marks that could have been made by landing gear. 118 00:10:14,399 --> 00:10:19,398 Critchfield is a foreman in a big chimney chemical plant. 119 00:10:19,398 --> 00:10:24,398 He's not the sort of man who is often called on to take lie detector tests. 120 00:10:24,398 --> 00:10:28,398 But he knows how incredible his story must sound. 121 00:10:28,398 --> 00:10:33,398 I am Ian Criswalf from the Criswalf Security Agency in Wheeling, West Virginia. 122 00:10:33,398 --> 00:10:42,397 Myself and a team of investigative specialists conducted extensive polygraph testing of Mr. Critchfield. 123 00:10:44,397 --> 00:10:55,397 The lie detector or polygraph is a sensitive device for recording changes in body temperature, rate of breathing, electrical impulses in the skin and heartbeat. 124 00:10:56,397 --> 00:11:03,396 Preliminary tests established normal parameters which if exceeded during the actual test indicate deception. 125 00:11:03,396 --> 00:11:13,396 This is the blood pressure pattern, this is the skin sensitivity pattern and this is the breathing pattern. 126 00:11:13,396 --> 00:11:19,396 A lie detector test cannot prove whether or not Critchfield saw a UFO. 127 00:11:19,396 --> 00:11:23,395 It can only indicate whether he believes he is telling the truth. 128 00:11:23,395 --> 00:11:25,395 Is your last name Critchfield? 129 00:11:25,395 --> 00:11:26,395 Yes. 130 00:11:28,395 --> 00:11:31,395 Do you intend to answer all of my questions truthfully? 131 00:11:31,395 --> 00:11:32,395 Yes. 132 00:11:33,395 --> 00:11:43,394 Are you being completely truthful to the best of your belief concerning the object which you described and saw in the written statement describing the events of June 12th, 1975? 133 00:11:43,394 --> 00:11:44,394 Yes. 134 00:11:53,394 --> 00:11:58,394 Are you being truthful when you say that in the first 35 years of your life you have never lied to a police officer? 135 00:11:58,394 --> 00:11:59,394 Yes. 136 00:12:03,393 --> 00:12:12,393 Are you being completely truthful when you say that you have no knowledge of how the burn spots and other evidence were created other than by the object described in your written statement? 137 00:12:12,393 --> 00:12:13,393 Yes. 138 00:12:19,393 --> 00:12:20,393 The test is now over. 139 00:12:20,393 --> 00:12:21,393 The test is now over. 140 00:12:30,392 --> 00:12:37,392 On the first question here concerning Mr. Critchfield's name, there was no reaction in any of the tracings. 141 00:12:37,392 --> 00:12:43,392 On the second question concerning the, does he plan to answer all questions truthfully? 142 00:12:43,392 --> 00:12:46,391 Again, there were no reactions indicating deception. 143 00:12:46,391 --> 00:12:58,391 On question number three concerning the object that Mr. Critchfield described in a written statement previous to this examination, there were no reactions, significant of deception. 144 00:12:58,391 --> 00:13:06,390 On the question concerning the burn spots and the other evidence left by the object, there were no reactions indicative of deception. 145 00:13:06,390 --> 00:13:15,390 In his opinion, Mr. Critchfield has told the complete truth about all statements concerning the object he cited on June 12th, 1975. 146 00:13:18,390 --> 00:13:34,389 It would be unusual indeed if a man not noted for vivid imagination and guile could invent a story about a UFO, and then control half a dozen involuntary body functions in such a way as to fool a sophisticated machine and experience technicians. 147 00:13:35,389 --> 00:13:45,389 Much easier to believe that something extraordinary happened on a hilltop in Big Chimney, West Virginia, something that touched Carol Critchfield's life and left him wondering. 148 00:13:45,389 --> 00:13:55,388 Some men like Ted Phillips are dedicated to finding answers for the growing number of perplexed people who have had UFO experiences. 149 00:13:55,388 --> 00:14:05,388 Phillips is an amateur scientist and UFO investigator. 150 00:14:06,388 --> 00:14:12,387 Phillips has taken soil samples at dozens of reported UFO landing sites. 151 00:14:12,387 --> 00:14:20,387 He and his fellow investigators have amassed reports of no less than 60,000 UFO sightings in the past 30 years. 152 00:14:20,387 --> 00:14:23,387 Many of these were fairly easy to explain. 153 00:14:23,387 --> 00:14:27,387 Conventional aircraft, weather balloons, flocks of geese. 154 00:14:27,387 --> 00:14:31,386 But more than 900 cases remain unexplained. 155 00:14:31,386 --> 00:14:38,386 Phillips has an important ally in his search, the University of Kansas Aerospace Science Laboratory. 156 00:14:38,386 --> 00:14:42,386 It is the place he sends soil samples for analysis. 157 00:14:42,386 --> 00:14:52,385 Dr. Critchfield has been a professor of the field of field research at the University of Kansas Aerospace Science Laboratory. 158 00:14:52,385 --> 00:14:57,385 Dr. Edward Zeller is the man in charge. 159 00:15:05,385 --> 00:15:16,384 Zeller believes it would be unscientific to ignore UFO reports and that the techniques of hard scientific analysis can be put to work finding answers. 160 00:15:17,384 --> 00:15:21,384 Medford, Minnesota 161 00:15:23,384 --> 00:15:32,383 Medford provided Dr. Zeller with a test sample and a remarkable story told by Janet Kaye provides the background. 162 00:15:32,383 --> 00:15:45,383 On the night of November 2, 1975, I was sitting here doing my homework and I looked out the window and right above the blue building, I saw a UFO come down out of the sky. 163 00:15:45,383 --> 00:15:53,382 And it landed behind the building and behind the building is a football field. It landed there. 164 00:15:53,382 --> 00:15:59,382 There were two other witnesses, Janet's mother Helen and her brother Jerry. 165 00:15:59,382 --> 00:16:07,382 A lot of people in town saw it. I don't know how many people saw it and told us the next day that they saw this thing up in the sky. 166 00:16:07,382 --> 00:16:14,381 As we pulled around the driveway here, I noticed up by the blue shadows. 167 00:16:14,381 --> 00:16:19,381 I noticed up by the blue shadow over there that there was something in the sky. 168 00:16:19,381 --> 00:16:25,381 So I pulled out of the driveway and turned down here and maybe we could get closer to it. 169 00:16:25,381 --> 00:16:28,381 So we just went over this way. 170 00:16:28,381 --> 00:16:33,381 And you could just see it real good before the trees. It was definitely right there. 171 00:16:33,381 --> 00:16:40,380 And we just drove up here and by that stop sign there, the railroad tracks were a fence across so we couldn't go any further. 172 00:16:40,380 --> 00:16:46,380 And we just noticed it. It was just coming right in front of the trees and we just stood here a minute 173 00:16:46,380 --> 00:16:52,380 until we saw it just glide over the top of the trees and then it was gone. 174 00:16:52,380 --> 00:16:59,379 Well a couple days later after we saw the UFO go down, I saw a lot of people over here looking at something. 175 00:16:59,379 --> 00:17:07,379 So I came over here and I found this big brown spot on the football field where the grass had been burned. 176 00:17:07,379 --> 00:17:12,379 As you can see the blue building is right over there and the burn spot is right here. 177 00:17:12,379 --> 00:17:18,378 It's right in line with the window we saw the UFO come down from. 178 00:17:22,378 --> 00:17:30,378 Now this happens to be the sample from the Medford site number two which does show some strange luminescence properties. 179 00:17:30,378 --> 00:17:36,378 And so I'd want to make sure that the sample that I'm dealing with is not in itself radioactive. 180 00:17:36,378 --> 00:17:43,377 And I don't find that it is. I don't see any evidence of increased radioactivity. 181 00:17:43,377 --> 00:17:49,377 At the time it wasn't scary. It didn't frighten me when I looked out the window and I saw it. 182 00:17:49,377 --> 00:17:56,377 I didn't get scared or anything. But afterwards when I realized that what I had seen was unexplainable. 183 00:17:56,377 --> 00:18:04,376 That's when it started to get scary. And then when they found the patch on the football field, well that got a little worse. 184 00:18:04,376 --> 00:18:08,376 Furnace ready to be inserted here into the light chamber. 185 00:18:08,376 --> 00:18:16,376 And now we've inserted the sample which is on the electric furnace into the chamber and we're going to start eating it. 186 00:18:16,376 --> 00:18:24,375 It's been six months since we saw the UFO go down. And as you can see the bird spot is still visible. 187 00:18:27,375 --> 00:18:33,375 I just wish I knew what it was. Don't you think so? 188 00:18:33,375 --> 00:18:43,374 Yeah. I mean if it was something from another country or something the army was putting up in the air, I wish they'd come and tell us that this was it. 189 00:18:43,374 --> 00:18:49,374 And that just leave us out here thinking that it was something from some outer space place. 190 00:18:49,374 --> 00:18:52,374 I'd be satisfied with any kind of explanation. 191 00:18:52,374 --> 00:19:00,374 Well we're going to start off here by looking then at the glow curves which I ran about two months ago on the Menford site. 192 00:19:00,374 --> 00:19:06,373 And if we look at the curve at the center of the site we see that there's just a very small rise here. 193 00:19:06,373 --> 00:19:09,373 That is the luminescence peak is very small. 194 00:19:09,373 --> 00:19:17,373 At the edge of the site as we proceed along here at the edge of the site we discover the intense luminescence. 195 00:19:17,373 --> 00:19:24,372 Now this luminescence that we are observing is apparently the result of some sort of radiation effect. 196 00:19:24,372 --> 00:19:31,372 It looks at least as though that particular sample at the edge of the site has been subjected to some kind of high energy radiation. 197 00:19:31,372 --> 00:19:36,372 If I had never seen a UFO I wouldn't believe in it. 198 00:19:36,372 --> 00:19:41,372 I wouldn't believe me if I were you. 199 00:19:42,372 --> 00:19:48,371 Because I have nothing to show you. I can't say, you know, I saw this. 200 00:19:48,371 --> 00:19:50,371 I just have nothing. All you have is my word. 201 00:19:50,371 --> 00:19:53,371 But there is more than just Mrs. K's word. 202 00:20:03,371 --> 00:20:08,370 In a recent Gallipole 15 million Americans claimed to have seen a UFO. 203 00:20:08,370 --> 00:20:10,370 15 million. 204 00:20:10,370 --> 00:20:17,370 The same poll showed that 51% of the adult population is convinced that flying saucers are real. 205 00:20:19,370 --> 00:20:26,369 For those who haven't seen one this is a recreation of what Carol Critchfield saw on a hilltop in Big Chimney, West Virginia. 206 00:20:31,369 --> 00:20:39,369 The artists used the same technique that a police artist would use in recreating the features of a suspect from the descriptions of witnesses. 207 00:20:41,369 --> 00:20:47,368 And this is what Philip Baker saw on the town road in Mellon, Wisconsin. 208 00:20:56,368 --> 00:21:01,368 Helen Kaye and her children saw this object land on a football field in Medford, Minnesota. 209 00:21:02,368 --> 00:21:12,367 The last systematic attempt by the U.S. government to investigate UFOs was conducted by the Air Force and was called Project Blue Book. 210 00:21:12,367 --> 00:21:16,367 Project Blue Book ended in 1968. 211 00:21:16,367 --> 00:21:24,367 The Air Force had by then investigated more than 11,000 UFO sightings and found explanations for all but 676. 212 00:21:24,367 --> 00:21:30,366 The Air Force seemed to have no interest in the sightings it could not readily attribute to earthly phenomena. 213 00:21:31,366 --> 00:21:36,366 Perhaps it's time to approach the question of UFOs again without bias. 214 00:21:36,366 --> 00:21:43,366 For we can only hope that if we are being studied by aliens it is with more thoroughness and care than we have focused on them. 215 00:21:44,366 --> 00:21:50,365 Coming up next, more UFO lore as we set off in search of UFO cover-ups. 216 00:21:50,365 --> 00:21:57,365 Then, Papi Boynton and his fliers used some captured enemy planes for a raid on a Japanese aircraft carrier in the Black Sheep Squadron. 217 00:21:57,365 --> 00:22:03,365 And tonight, history under cover opens the files on the cover-up of the attack on the USS Liberty. 218 00:22:03,365 --> 00:22:10,364 The captain and crew believed the unmarked planes that attacked them and killed 34 sailors were in fact Israeli. 219 00:22:10,364 --> 00:22:12,364 That's at 8 o'clock tonight. 220 00:22:12,364 --> 00:22:15,364 But stay tuned now for in search of, here on the History Channel.