Like many others in northwest Canada who are
impressed by the number of sightings made in
their part of the country, Mrs. John McCreedy at
Swift River, Mile 733 on the Alaska Highway,
often scans the sky at night in hope of seeing
the unusual. She has been rewarded several times
– “at least half a dozen” as she recalls, but
none since 1966 – by spotting objects which do
not match the description of any aircraft known
to her. And that covers a wide field, for Mrs.
McCreedy, wife of the public works foreman at
Swift River in charge of highway maintenance,
was a member of the Ground Observer Corps until
it was discontinued. In that capacity she
reported and described any aircraft that was off
the designated flying routes.
"With one exception the objects had the size and
appearance of satellites which we often see
overhead up here," Mrs. McCreedy told us. "But
they acted so differently I am positive they
were not satellites. They moved far more
quickly, or slowly."
"There was one in particular that I remember. It
was first noticed by my daughter, Marina, while
she was playing outside with other children. She
ran in to tell me about it and, going outside, I
saw this star-like thing dashing across the sky.
Suddenly it stopped dead, then resumed its
terrific speed and in the next instant came
flying back in exactly the opposite direction.
Several of us watched it until it disappeared
over the mountains."
Her husband missed this unusual performance but
recalled the night was "black and dirty, unfit
for flying." Besides virtually eliminating the
possibility of a helicopter doing such stunts,
this raises the interesting point that the
object must have been below cloud-level and
therefore at fairly low altitude.
Marina, 13, had two additional significant
sightings of her own to report. On one occasion,
playing outside in the evening, she and other
children noticed a strange star in the middle of
the Big Dipper. As they watched, it started to
move. Marina went in to call her mother but by
the time Mrs. McCreedy came out the object had
disappeared. As the children continued playing,
they saw the object move slowly in sight again
toward the Big Dipper where it resumed its exact
previous position! Then abruptly it disappeared.
On the second occasion, again at evening with
other children, Marina saw an object resembling
a satellite travelling overhead.
"It moved right in the direction of the
microwave tower on the hill over there," she
said, "and when it got there it seemed to slow
down a bit and suddenly it sort of shot off
flashes or sparks. Then it went on again."
That micro-wave tower is one of the relay points
in the vast northern system maintained by
Canadian National Telecommunications. As
mentioned before, this system is the
communications link between the northwest,
including Alaska, and the rest of the continent,
and it is a vital part of the North American
defence complex.
Of special note in Mrs. McCreedy‘s sightings is
that all the objects, again with the exception
of the one that looked different, appeared from
the southwest and moved toward the northeast
(excluding the reversal of direction just
described). Also in each case they flew an
almost identical course above a ridge of the
Cassiar Mountains bordering the highway at Swift
River. Such a course cuts almost at right angles
across the commercial flying route between
Whitehorse and Vancouver which, in any case, is
well beyond the view of Swift River.
Now, about
the one that looked different. As confirmed by
other observers, this sighting occurred on a
February night in 1965. Looking from her kitchen
window facing the mountains, Mrs. McCreedy
noticed a reddish-orange glow travelling slowly
across the sky from the northeast. With her
husband and two friends, she watched the object
through binoculars.
"It was far too bright to be the light of any
aircraft that I've ever seen," she said. "Also
it was much larger than a satellite."
While unsure they were looking at anything
beyond reasonable explanation, none of the
others could identify it with any aircraft or
natural phenomenon they had seen before.
Eventually the thing disappeared behind a
round-topped mountain to the southwest.
This particular mountain became significant in
view of the experience of Mrs. Peter Radford,
wife of a diesel technician for CNT. Mrs.
Radford told us that as she was returning home
from a curling game one clear, cold night of
about the same date, her attention was attracted
by a reddish-orange glow above that same
round-topped mountain.
"I saw it for a second or two before all at once
it seemed to burst," she said. "Flashes went off
in all directions and the thing was gone."
This remarkable sighting became all the more
mystifying a few nights later when, in almost
identical conditions, Mrs. Radford saw another
similar glow, again over the smoothly cut
mountain.
"This one darted about and made me think it was
looking for something," she said. "It moved so
fast it seemed to be in different places almost
in the same second, but it never went far from
the mountain. Then suddenly it was gone."
Could this have been a case of one UFO searching
for another or its wreckage?
The mystery of the mountain-top so intrigued the
residents of Swift River that later a party on
snowmobiles was organized to climb up there and
investigate. Meanwhile, however, heavy snow had
fallen and nothing unusual was found. As far as
we could determine, no further search was made.
(156: 6-8)
HOMEPAGE