Christopher O'Brien is a researcher in the San Luis Valley, who is working on a book and documentary concerning paranormal activities in southern Colorado. His mailing address is: P.O. Box 223, Crestone, CO 81131.
by Christopher O'Brien
The San Luis Valley in south-central Colorado is heating up. There have been, and continue to be, numerous UFO sightings. These unusual sightings are picking up in intensity.
Additional witnesses, of the November through January sightings, are being interviewed from all over the northern portion of the San Luis Valley in Saguache County (see Crestone Eagle articles in February and March issues).
Several additional accounts during the third week of November include a Crestone resident being "compelled to drive to the end of the Baca Grande development" to the border of the Baca Ranch where she claimed she lost almost two hours. She said she arrived at the end of the road at 8:30 pm, November 24th, 1992, the eve of Thanksgiving, and doesn't recall the next hour and a half. This was the time period "small glimmering" lights were spotted by several Crestone/Baca residents over the Baca Ranch. Two Baca residents who lived just over a mile away witnessed ". . . lights that at one point were directly over our house."
A rancher 25 miles north and 10 miles west of the Baca Ranch area where "large whitish-gold laser-like ovals" were seen December 9th, 1992, claimed seeing "a bright white light come over the Sangre De Cristos." He said it hovered momentarily then "in no more than 2 or 3 seconds", streaked south over his head 60-70 miles and hover "over the (Baca) ranch." The witness has only lived in the valley for a year and had not had any prior sightings. "It sure got me keeping my eyes open!" he stated.
Another Saguache County rancher and his wife travelling south on [Hwy] 285, 35 miles north of the Baca Ranch saw what was described as "brilliant white light."
"Up until now I didn't believe in UFOs, but that was the damndest thing I ever saw", remarked Donna Alexander, one of the witnesses.
On December 21, 1992 at 10:50 am, two Crestone residents again observed what they had previously described as a "bell-shaped metallic object" just outside the town of Mosca, Colorado. The object flew over their car as they travelled south on [Hwy] 17 and appeared to be "headed for Blanca Peak" to the east. This object may have been spotted by occupants of another car travelling on the road.
During the second week of January, a Moffat, Colorado rancher returning from Salida, Colorado on [Hwy] 17 saw what he described as a "dark green 2-man helicopter menacing his herd" of horses in a corral next to the highway. He said the helicopter was hovering less than 100 feet from his herd. The rancher, a former Air Force officer candidate, tried to get the aircraft's FAA ID number but said the number appeared incomplete. The rancher is understandably upset because, two years ago this spring, he noticed that two of his horses began missing "clipped off" portions of their ears. This disturbing phenomena occurred over a two month period. He stated that this all happened after the last frost and could not be attributed to frost-bite.
On February 11th and 12th, 1993, a Crestone resident claimed he saw a "bright white light come over the (Sangre De Cristo) Mountains," hover for "10 or 15 seconds" before "zipping north over the tops of the mountains." The next night a "bright white light", again was seen. This time the object dropped through cloud cover, lighting up the clouds, before streaking north. Both these sightings occurred between 9:30 and 10:00 pm and were completely silent.
During the third week of February, a Moffat Colorado resident was parked at the North Crestone Campground entrance gate where he experienced his car being "lit up from above" by a "brilliant white beam of light". He described the beam as having "incredible energy." He said the "light was trying to get him out of his car!" A second smaller beam of light then proceeded to light up 4 or 5 spots sequentially around his car. He said the whole episode only lasted for 4 or 5 seconds and afterwards left him feeling "exhausted and limp." He was never able to see the source of the light beams and he claimed that whatever it was, it was completely silent.
On February 23rd and 24th, a psychotherapist who lives 20 miles north of Crestone near Valley View Hotsprings observed an unexplained light over the valley. There were reportedly additional witnesses to one of the sightings.
On March 15th, two Baca Grants residents again observed lights over the Baca Ranch. The couple also saw an unusual light on the western skyline. This sighting took place just after 8:OO pm. Two other witnesses were driving east on Road T towards Crestone and observed lights in a triangle in the same vicinity. One of the witnesses, a firm non-believer in UFOs, has evidently altered his view of these puzzling phenomena. I received a call on my answering machine at 8:16 pm telling me of the couple's sighting. I arrived home at 9:30 and immediately climbed up on the roof with binoculars to observe the area where these lights were seen. At 9:40, I happened to catch movement over what I perceived was the town of Saguache Colorado, 30 miles directly west. The light could be described as looking like a brilliant sodium-vapor street-light. I have an unobstructed 70 degree view of the western portion of the San Luis Valley from Villa Grove to the northern border of Costilla County, I watched the light travel silently almost 100 miles down the western side of the valley at what appeared to be around 4 or 5,000 feet above the valley floor. This only took 2 or 3 minutes. After the light reached what appeared to be the Costilla County border, it disappeared instantly to the south. Five minutes later, I observed a second light, exactly the same as the first, travel the same path as the first one. Midway in its flight path I called to my girlfriend who also observed the strange light. The light could not have come from the after-burner of an unlit jet, for we observed it coming and going. There were 4 aircraft in the air over the valley at the same time as these two objects, some obviously much further away than the object and all of them exhibited the standard flashing anti-collision lights required by the FAA. The objects never flashed.
Less than 10 minutes after the second light disappeared, three military jets screamed over the Sangres from the east, two of them made a sweeping turn and headed directly south in the direction the lights disappeared while the third jet continued west towards the town of Saguache.
Under-sheriff Lynn Bogle of the Saguache Sheriffs Department heard "around 10:00 o'clock," a "jet roar over his house" at an unusually low altitude. He had been working on his computer and ran outside to see it, but was unable to spot the plane. No reports were made to the Alamosa and Rio Grande Sheriffs Departments.
That same night two Crestone Baca residents experienced strange lights illuminating their houses . One of them described the light as being like moonlight but much brighter. The other one described the light as red. Neither of them checked the time, but thought it happened between 2 and 3 in the morning.
All these incidents are puzzling. They indicate SOMETHING is going on. The San Luis Valley has periodically been a hotbed of UFO activity for the last 30 years and it appears we are in for an exciting spring , summer and fall. These sightings curiously seem to start around 9:30pm. Area residents are urged to devote time to trying to observe these unexplained lights and report them to me at (719) 256-4128.
Since my February article, I have discovered two additional cattle mutilations this past fall, over the Sangres in Huerfano County, and two possible mutilations this past spring.
I am hot on the trail of documenting a forced crash of a small UFO over the Great Sand Dunes National Monument observed by two archeologists on a dig on Medano Creek.
These and other fantastic stories will be covered in up-coming issues, stay tuned and alert.
Again, thanks to researcher Tom Adams in Paris TX, and to researcher Dave Clemens of Westcliff Colorado.
