Frank Slotta of Edgewater, BC in the "Playground of
The Gods" country (vol. 2, no. 3) doubts he will ever know how so much
time passed as he stared at a strange thing hovering beside the highway
one night in July 1975. But he does know that he was unaccountably more
than one hour late for his job as a night watchman and that there was a
lighted window on the 'thing' that held him spellbound.
"I can't
get it out of my mind" he told us three months later.
Frank's
experience started as he was driving his wife, Lynn, home from work at the
Radium Hot Springs Lodge. Also in the car was their daughter, Linda and
two young men who lived nearby. All five saw what happened after they had
travelled a mile or so along the highway connected to the road from the
Lodge.
"That
lights moving!" Lynn said, pointing to what first appeared to be a star
above a ridge to their right, Frank thought it was just because the star
was moving, but he stopped where they could have a better look and they
rolled down the windows.
"The
light moved a little more," Lynn continued, "blanked out then all of a
sudden it was over the hill above the power station." (She was referring
to a transformer unit beside the highway.)
It was a
curious incident but not quite enough to convince the group, anxious to
get home, that they should stay there and watch. After all, lights at
night are usually open to various normal explanations. As it happened,
however, Frank had to return along the same route a few minutes later as a
night watchman's shift at the Lodge. So naturally he was more on the
lookout than usual for anything strange...and as he came around a bend in
the highway near the power unit, there it was.
"I
looked up and saw the light, real close, right above the power station,"
he said. "So I slowed right down and then I saw there were three strange
looking sort of orangey beams shining down. They were large and I could
see everything, even the needles on the pine trees."
|
|
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In this view from highway near
Radium Hot Springs B.C., arrow points to power-line pole where UFO
hovered close to ground while witness watched spellbound. Although
it was midnight and object was more than 100 yards away pine-needles
on trees were visible in brilliant light. |
By this
time Frank had come to a stop. Then realizing he was parked in the middle
of the road, he pulled to one side to continue watching.
As he
stared, wondering momentarily why other cars did not stop, the source of
the lights came down until it was among the trees and he could discern its
shape.
"It was
a double-shaped deal about 40 feet wide, maybe more. On top there was a
part with rectangular windows, lit from the inside, and below there was a
larger part with lights shining out from the rim."
Drawing by Zemek
In a
drawing made while we talked, Frank also showed three lights shining down,
and it was evidently these that provided most of the illumination. We
concluded the lateral beams may have been caused by the vertical lights
shining through openings in the rim as the witness did not appear sure
there were two distinctly separate lights in the lower section. As he
pointed out, he had only a few seconds to watch before the bottom lights
were obscured by the ground.
But more
than that it was the top part of the vehicle that held his attention.
About half as wide as the bottom part, it was six to eight feet high,
with a long window in the center that seemed to hypnotize him.
"For
some reason I couldn't take my eyes off it," he said. "Twice while I
looked I saw a shadow moving by as if there was somebody inside. I
couldn't see a head or anything. It was just a shadow and it seemed that
maybe there was more than just one."
With his
window open, Frank noticed that throughout the incident the craft made a
rhythmic swishing which he imitated for us through his lips. It had an
uncanny similarity to the sound reproduced by witnesses in other cases.
At last,
realizing he would be late for work, he looked at his watch and saw that
unbelievably he had been there for more than an hour.
"I
thought it was more like ten minutes," he said, obviously still puzzled.
But
continuing on to the Lodge about a mile away, he allowed himself one more
look as he left the car. He knew it was unlikely he would see anything as
the object had been on the other side of the ridge near the highway. But
miraculously there it was in the distance, looking even more brightly lit
than before. Apparently it had moved upward as he left, almost as if it
wanted to exchange one last glance.
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As if for "last look" object flew
up |
Frank
phoned home as soon as he entered the Lodge, and his wife and daughter
remembered the time was about 1:30 am. He had intended to start work at
midnight!
Thinking
the rest of the night about what he had seen, Frank returned to his place
by the highway at the first opportunity the next morning. As he had
expected, there was no sign of the strange craft but curious to see if it
had left any traces on the ridge, he found a back road that took him part
way up to the top and laboriously he climbed the rest of the way until he
was at the exact place of his sighting.
"But
there was nothing," he said. "I spent an hour looking around but there
wasn't a sign it had been there. So it must have been in the air all the
time even though it looked as if it was on the ground."
However,
Frank did make one discovery of interest. He found there was a power-line
pole at the spot where he figured the object would have been. It
appeared, in fact, that the craft must have made its hovering stop right
next to the pole. So we were left with a picture of our visitors helping
themselves to a supply of electricity as they have been observed to do on
other occasions.
It was
an intriguing aspect of this case but still more so was the lingering
effect on the principal witness after staring at that center window. He
repeated several times that it seemed to grip his whole attention, and we
had a strong impression that something unsaid about his experience was
still bothering him. His wife, Lynn, believed he had told us everything
he could remember and we felt she was right. After some initial
hesitancy, Frank, a very pleasant man, had been open and cooperative. Yet
something about his experience, perhaps beyond conscious memory, seemed to
defy expression. This thought occurred to us again when Bill Allen, who
was with us with his wife, presented a selection of his UFO slides. Frank
looked at the pictures on the screen like one lost momentarily to
everything else around him.
We
wondered then if those shadows inside that window had managed some kind of
communication with their totally absorbed witness.
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