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- SASKUFO.TXT - Text file that was scanned and processed via OCR by
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- SASKATCHEWAN, 1933: UFO STOPS FOR "REPAIRS"
-
- BY JOHN BRENT MUSGRAVE (FSR Vol 22 # 6 1976)
-
- Even as late as the mid 1930's, much of the prairie
- provinces of Canada was still on the frontier of
- immigrant settlement. Particularly in the northern
- areas homesteaders were just beginning to open up
- the land to commerce and agriculture, and such
- Luxuries as telephones, paved roads and electricity
- were things of the future. The town of Nipawin,
- Saskatchewan, is situated in the northwest corner of
- the province and in the 30's was on the edge of this
- settlement. During the summer of 1933 stories
- drifted into Nipawin that some homesteaders. as well
- as a forest tower ranger, bad been observing strange
- lights in the sky and near the ground. Whatever it
- was, they had been seeing it for the better part of a
- week. The land to the northwest of Nipawin, near
- the Tobin Lake area, is made up of rolling hills and
- low lying marsh. Parts of it bad begun to be farmed
- just a few years earlier, and it was without improvement
- Because of the local marsh, most of the towns-
- folk who beard about the strange lights explained
- them away as swamp gas - a convenient scapegoat
- that still gets used today.
- Fortunately, not everyone in Nipawin was con-
- vinced that the stories were based on nothing more
- than ""hot air,,: and shortly after midnight that
- summer night two men and a woman (names known
- to the author) jumped into a small pick-up truck and
- drove to the area where the lights were reported to
- have been seen. They were not disappointed as the
- glow on the horizon gradually grew brighter as they
- drove on. After driving as close as the rough trail
- would allow them, they got out and hiked through
- the woods in the direction of the glow. They were
- blocked a quarter of a mile or less from reaching
- the source of the glow by a strip of muskeg that was
- too boggy to risk on to in the middle of the night.
- But it was close enough. From their vantage point
- they were able to make out that the light came
- from a large oval shaped object that was domed
- at the top and slightly rounded on the bottom. It
- was supported by legs and from a central door-
- way, or hatch, about a dozen figures could be seen
- going up and down a ladder-like stairway. The
- Occupants appeared to be slightly shorter than the
- average man, and were all dressed in what appeared
- to be silver colored suits or uniforms. All appeared
- to be wearing helmets or ski caps, and all were busy
- running around ""repairing,, the craft.
- All about was a strange sort of quiet, even though
- the occupants were busy scurrying about. Not a
- sound could be heard. The three witnesses stared in
- silent amazement at what was going on, no one even
- thought to speak out. The bright orange glow that
- emanated from the craft lit up the surroundings area,
- and the three of them bad no difficulty spying on
- the activities. The light from the craft was not only
- bright, but bad an ""unearthly,, quality never seen by
- any of them before and added to the mystery of the
- scene. After about a half hour the three of them
- returned to the truck and started back to town
- hoping to find a way around the muskeg to get a
- closer look at the strange machine parked in the
- middle of a marsh miles away from the nearest farm-
- house or forest tower. But when they finally did
- come across a cut-off trail that might take them
- closer they realized that they didn't have enough
- gasoline to take them in and out. So they had to
- return home that night.
- It was not until a couple of nights later that they
- were able to make a return trip out. It was a clear
- night with almost a full moon, and they hoped to get
- an even better view. But this night the object was
- gone. No trace of the glowing craft could be seen
- from the vantage point of two nights previous, and
- they returned to the truck to await dawn. They then
- walked back in across the muskeg to see if nay
- evidence of what they had seen was Left. And there
- was. six large square imprints that must have been
- the bases of the legs that supported the craft proved
- that there indeed had been something there that
- night. Each imprint was the same size - 2 to 2 1/2
- feet square, and approximately S to 10 feet apart.
- The imprints were 2 to 3 inches deep, and reminded
- the three of them of a kind of mark that would be
- made by boiler plate stomped into the ground. They
- could also see markings where the base of the stair-
- way met ground. As if this wasn't remarkable enough,
- a great burn mark in the center of the area covered a
- circle approximately I 2 feet in diameter. They
- looked for footprints but found none though there
- was some scuffling of the vegetation surrounding the
- spot where the craft had been.
- They came better prepared this time. One of the
- witnesses had brought along a small brownie box
- camera and took photographs of the burn marks
- and of the imprints. Later two of them wrote up an
- article about the whole affair and submitted it, along
- with copies of the photos, to a number of magazines
- and newspapers in Canada. But no publication was
- interested, and those publishers that replied
- wondered what kind of party they had been to those
- nights. Like many other UFO witnesses the three of
- selves. In the course of the 40 plus years since the
- incident, the original photographs have been lost by
- the witness who took them, and who bad learned the
- hard way that they were apparently of no interest to
- anyone else. Perhaps copies of them are still in
- existence stored in an attic or sandwiched between
- vacation shots in some photo album. If they are
- ever uncovered they may prove to be the earliest
- photographs of a physical trace case where there were
- witnesses, and which even had occupants to boot.