UFO ROUNDUP Volume 6 Number 03
Volume 6
Number 3
January 18, 2001
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
GIANT GREEN FIREBALL LIGHTS UP WESTERN USA
On Thursday, January 11, 2001, at 9:53 p.m., a gigantic green fireball lit up the night sky in the USA west of the Mississippi River and was seen by hundreds of witnesses.
The glowing object first appeared in the eastern sky and was reported by people in North Dakota and South Dakota.
According to Peter B. Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, the "giant green fireball was seen from locations in Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona," plus North Dakota and South Dakota.
Various reports "were inconsistent" in agreement on the flight path of the object, Davenport added, "And some credible reports suggest that more than one object may have been seen."
Several witnesses in Boulder, and (elsewhere) in northern Colorado, report that the apparent diameter of the fireball was approximately equal to two diameters of the full moon."
"One witness in north central Kansas was looking almost due west when he allegedly witnessed the fireball, (which was) approximately equal in size to his thumb held at arm's length. It descended almost vertically to the horizon."
"Other witnesses report the object reaching the horizon but no one reported hearing a sonic boom."
Also, the same evening, residents of Rockford, Illinois reported "witnessing three to 23 lights" over the city at about 9 p.m. "The lights moved in a variable formation and drifted across the sky for approximately 20 to 30 minutes"
Rockford, Ill. was the site of a previous UFO overflight in February of the year 2000. (Many thanks to Peter B. Davenport for these reports.)
TRIANGULAR UFO SIGHTED IN SOUTHEASTERN OHIO
On Wednesday, January 10, 2001, at witness in Wilmington, Ohio "reported that at around 3:-5 to 3:-7 a.m., a huge boom was heard and 'felt'.' Nothing was seen but the witness heard another distant boom, much the way thunder echoes."
On Thursday, January 11, 2001, at about 6:30 p.m., two adults and a four-year-old child from Jefferson County, Ohio were driving "north on (Ohio) Route 151 near Steubenville," when they saw that "a bright light seemed to be moving back and forth and looked like a triangle shape" as they drew closer.
"A flashing red light was said to be hovering over a tree and vanished as they approached. Suddenly, a rumbling sound became audible to the threesome." (Many thanks to Kenny Young of Cincinnati UFO Research for these reports.)
SLOW-MOVING TRIANGULAR UFO SPOTTED IN KENTUCKY
On Saturday, January 6, 2001, at 10:30 p.m., Landy Tucker was driving on Highway 101 in Clifyu, Kentucky when he saw "a UFO that came from the northeast."
Tucker added, "I was traveling down Highway 101 in Clifty when I noticed something in the sky. I pulled over to look at it. It made no sound but I could feel some sort of vibration as it passed over my head. I watched it for five minutes and then it disappeared over the Kentucky hills."
"I don't know what it was, but I was the only person who saw it that night. It was dark in color and V-shaped but made no sound. It flew away to the west southwest."
Tucker estimated that the UFO was "12 feet high, 20 feet long, 5 feet wide at the front and 10 feet wide at the back." (Email Form Report)
LYNCH MOUNTAIN--THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
During the month of December 2000, Lynch Mountain in eastern Kentucky was the site of many strange reports.
Residents of nearby Appalachia, Virginia reported seeing "oval luminous UFOs" hovering over the mountain, located on the Kentucky/Virginia state line. Mysterious white vans were also seen in Appalachia and in nearby Norton, Ca. and also south of Pikeville, Kentucky, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) to the west.
According to local researcher Chris Light, the USA Department of Defense built a facility there sometime in the 1950s.
Now Albert LaFrance, a historian specializing in underground facilities and communications networks of the Cold War era, is seeking more information about Lynch Mountain.
UFO Roundup has learned a bit more about the area. But the new facts merely add to rather than clear up the mystery.
In 1917, the USA's federal government acquired 42,000 acres of land in the Lynch Mountain area as a "strategic coal reserve," as part of the national defense effort in World War One. The coal was mined by the United States Coal and Coke Company. and the four mines in the area remained open for a couple of decades. There was one serious coal miners' strike in Lynch, Ky. in 1934.
UFO Roundup editor Joseph Trainor has turned up a few strange Fortean ties to the Lynch Mountain area.
Just north of the mountain is Pound Gap, which was originally a migration route for Virginia settlers coming into Kentucky. Pound Gap was originally called "Sounding Gap" because of strange booming noises heard by the first pioneers.
""At first called Sounding Gap because the rocky formation seemed to give back a hollow sound, the name was corrupted to Pound Gap."
Lynch Mountain was also a powwow site for the Ontouagannha and Ani-Yupuya, indigenous peoples of the region (also known as Shawnee and Cherokee Indians--J.T.)
The Ontouagannha war chief Benge (pronounced Ben-gay--J.T.) was killed nearby in a battle with Kentucky and Virginia militia back in 1794.
The area was also the site of a bizarre murder in 1935, when a man named Maxwell was found dead of multiple stab wounds. The murder was amazingly similar to those of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman in Los Angeles in June 1994. The victim's daughter, Edith Maxwell, was tried for the crime. Her first trial ended in a hung jury. But Edith Maxwell was convicted in the second trial and sentenced to twenty years at the state women's prison.
"Interestingly, there are two unusual feature names in the area," Trainor added, "There is a Looney Creek leading up to the mine. And a oddly-named Faith Hill. Perhaps some reader can tell us where these names came from." (See Kentucky: A Guide to the Bluegrass State, Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York, N.Y., 1939, pages 242, 243, 438 and 439. Also Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion, Oxford University Press, New York, N.Y., 1940, page 539.)
DARK DISC-SHAPED UFO SEEN IN SAGINAW, TEXAS
On Thursday, January 4, 2001, Doug McGinnis and a fellow worker "stepped outside at about 5 p.m." at their workplace in Saginaw, Texas, 14 miles (25 kilometers_ northwest of Fort Worth, "and we were stating how the sky had been very clear over the last few days when suddenly, we both noticed in the western sky a round black object which seemed to be floating slowly. It was about half the size of a thumbtack held out at arm's length. "
"It then started moving towards the northeast and seemed to shine like a star or something reflecting light and seemed to shrink in size at times. Then it would appear round and black again. This continued for about four to five minutes and then it was gone." (Many thanks to Living-Tracer Enterprises Report for this item.)
TRIANGULAR UFO DOES A FAST FLYBY IN CALIFORNIA
On Sunday night, December 31, 2000, Allan Ferguson was outdoors in his hometown of Capitol, California (population 17,000) when he spotted a triangle-shaped UFO.
""I saw it approaching from the north," Allan reported, "It was a flying V shape with lights on the edges. It was very high. It seemed to be among the stars. The thing suddenly took off to the south at lightning speed. The object was very high and extremely fast." (Email Form Report)
LARGE LUMINOUS UFO TAPED IN TROUT LAKE, WASHINGTON
The Self-Mastery Earth Institute in Trout Lake, Washington state opened its second year of UFO sightings with the taping of a large object near Mount Adams.
The institute, also known as the Sanctuary, was the site of UFO events throughout the year 2000. Over 700 sightings have been reported at the ranch, located 49 miles (64 kilometers) northeast of Portland, Oregon.
On Sunday, January 7, 2001, ranch owner James A. Gilliland "was driving down Little Mountain Road, which is adjacent to the Sanctuary," on the north side of the Columbia River, "when a very large luminous object caught my eye on the face of Mount Adams, which is approximately 13 miles (24 kilometers) away. It was not yet dark and the object was so bright we could not miss it."
"The only possibility might be a large Snow-Cat (a snowmobile the size of a small bus--J.T.) with a bank of Halogen lights. The light was far more brilliant than any (aircraft) landing lights, yet we had to dismiss all possibilities. It was pulsing, going on and off and moving from side to side. It also moved up into the rocks, a large lava flow (on Mount Adams) that was not covered by snow. These boulders are enormous, and there is about eight feet (2.5 meters) of snow up there. The location is also in the Wilderness Area where no motorized vehicles can go."
Halting the truck, Jim and his two companions got out to further observe the UFO. Jim grabbed his camcorder and began shooting footage. "I continued to film it, and all of a sudden, it took off, and another brilliant light appeared directly above that position. It looked equally the same only now it was rising rapidly and moving towards the east."
Shortly afterward, "a small jet, most likely military, was vectoring in on it. When the jet came close, it (the UFO) picked up speed and vanished. This we caught on film. As I just centered on the course of the UFO, it disappeared on the mountain."
"Then the light appeared again overhead lit up brilliantly and dimmed yet again. I caught the tail end of it on film. due to the slow response of the camera."
Jim said that ABC and FOX affiliates had visited the ranch and videotaped the phenomena. He added, "Seattle's Evening Magazine also covered the event, yet each time they had to put their twist on the story, like we were filming street lights or meteors. There are no street lights anywhere near the ranch, and 'meteors' do not hover or make right-angle turns." (Many thanks to James A. Gilliland for this report.)
HOVERING UFO SIGHTED IN SOLON, MAINE
On Wednesday, January 10, 2001, Andy Wendell reported, "At approximately 10:50 p.m., my wife happened to look out the window of our house, which faces the south-southeast, and observed a bright shimmering object about 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon. The object appeared stationary and at an unestimable distance" away from their house in Solon, Maine.
"It resembled the brightest of stars that shimmer and shine (red, blue, white--A.W.) yet the object at that height above the horizon was absolutely too big to have been a star, and because of the position and the shimmering, it was not Venus. We observed the phenomenon for approximately four minutes, at which point it disappeared, probably by having traveled away from us."
Andy and his wife did observe the UFO with a pair of binoculars. "It did not look like a plane, . My binoculars showed only bright and flashing lights at this distance. No definition and no movement until the lights disappeared." (Email Form Report)
TRIO SIGHTS TRIANGULAR UFO IN SOUTHERN GERMANY
On Monday, January 1, 2001, at 12:25 a.m., Dr. Jann Arende, a physician and amateur astronomer, his wife and his sister-in-law were watching the New Year's celebration fireworks from a lofty hillside in the suburbs west of Freiburg, a city in southern Germany.
"The sky was almost clear and visibility quite good," Dr. Arende reported, "When walking back down the hill at about 12:25 a.m., we suddenly noticed a flickering object approaching from the east over the city of Freiburg. The object appeared somewhat oval or triangular in shape. The color was yellow or orange, with a glistening or flickering of the color across the object. It then appeared as if the object were hovering up in the sky. The size was about one-quarter of the full moon."
"The object moved slowly and stealthily towards us at an approximate great height (altitude). It took one minute for the object to reach a point directly above us. We heard no sounds that we could attribute to the object. The color continued to flow across the object. When the object had reached a point roughly above us, it stopped moving and remained motionless at a point close to the star Capella in (the constellation) Auriga."
"After about three to four minutes, it started to move again but it moved in a different direction and went north. The (departure) speed was similar to its speed during approach."
"When the object halted above us, we started running home to get our binoculars. Viewing it as it went away, the object seemed smaller in size and retained its flowing orange color. We used 10 X 40 binoculars to observe the object.. The shape appeared to be similar to a triangle with a convex rounded base. At that point, the object disappeared behind a wall of clouds moving in from the north."
""The observed event, however, was different from anything I have ever seen," he added.
Freiburg is located 100 kilometers (60 miles) southwest of Stuttgart. (Email Form Report)
PAPER SAYS "MYSTERIOUS AGENCY" IS MAKING PAYOFFS IN NORTHERN CHILE
"Peasants affected by the animal deaths attributed to the Chupacabras have been visited in past weeks by 'unidentified agencies' willing to purchase their silence."
"The Chupacabras continue to cause unexplained phenomena and 'backlashes' among the populations of the various rural sections of Calama," a city in northern Chile which has been host to many UFO and Chupacabra sightings recently.
"One Internet website" in Chile "discovered the fact that 'a mysterious agency' is offering money in exchange for silence."
"The source, who asked to remain anonymous, said several strange noises have been heard on their rooftops during the course of past evenings, aside from the sense of fear conveyed by these incidents."
"They revealed that the lack of street lights in certain areas makes the situation all the more disturbing. Dogs whine when they begin to hear footsteps on the roof, and a strong smell of decay can be perceived throughout the entire day."
"The peasants noted that they have again started to lose animalism but claim having received money to keep quiet, especially about missing cattle, to avoid any public disturbance."
"Furthermore, some of the affected farmers claim to have received cash from 'unidentified agencies' willing to 'pay' them a certain amount for such animals but in exchange for their silence. Some are told that that it's a loan they can use to acquire new cattle; and others are told that they can use it as they please, provided they don't report these events." (See the Chilean newspaper La Estrella de Calama for January 6, 2001, "Agency offers money in exchange for silence on Chupacabras." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, a tambien Gloria Coluchi para eso articulo de diario.)
MYSTERIOUS ENGINE FAILURES DOWN TWO SMALL PLANES
In Massachusetts, "a man was hospitalized after his small plane lost power, hit a power line and dove into the Taunton River," an estuary of Mount Hope Bay just east of Smoerset,Mass.
"Peter Baldwin, pilot of the four-seat plane, walked away from the crash and was listed in good condition. His flight departed from Newport, Rhode Island."
In Utah, "the bodies of nine people were recovered from the Great Salt Lake in Utah hours after a twin-engine plane apparently crashed in five feet of water. There were no survivors."
"The group was returning from a skydiving trip from Mesquite, Nevada. when the plane went down late Sunday," January 14, 2001., officials said. "Helicopters and boats were used to recover the bodies." (See USA Today for January 15, 2001, "Massachusetts," page 6A; and January 16, 2001, "Nine die when plane crashes in
From the UFO Files...
1838: LADY IMAM
So here's the situation. A wealthy woman leaves her own country and moved to a desert land. She buys an estate and starts practicing ritual magick. In no time at all, she attracts an army of devoted followers and becomes a minor power in the in the region.
Sounds like something out of Robert E. Howard, right? Or maybe out-takes from an Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan movie.
Except that it really happened.
Her name was Hester Lucy Stanhope, and she was born in Chevening, Kent, UK on March 12, 1776, the oldest daughter of Charles, the third Earl Stanhope, and his wife, the former Lady Hester Pitt, sister of UK prime minister William Pitt.
In 1786, when Hester was ten, her father, Lord Stanhope, entertained some distinguished visitors--William Petty, Earl Shelburne, and a German baron named Xavier Zwack. who had come to UK to recruit members for the new Order of the Illuminati.
Since Zwack's English wasn't that good, they spoke French at the meeting and then met again at Sevenoaks, a nearby estate. Lord Shelburne persuaded Hester's father to stand for election to Parliament for the borough of High Wycombe. (Editor's Note: High Wycombe is one of those places that keeps popping up in history. Sir Francis Dashwood, Chancellor of the Exchequer during the War of the American Revolution, founded the HellFire Club in 1760, also known as "the Mendenham Monks" and performed magickal rituals there. During World War Two, High Wycombe was the headquarters of RAF Bomber Command.)
And so Hester became part of the Illuminati's "extended family." In 1790, she and her father joined the Revolution Society, a group of British liberals who supported the Comte (Count) de Mirabeau's revolutionary government in France. The Society became a convenient meeting-place for the British Illuminati.
In 1800, Hester left her childhood home and went to live with her grandmother at Burton Pynsent. For a while, her life became a bit like a novel by Georgette Heyer, Marion Chesney or Gail Eastwood, as Grandma tried to prepare her for the ton.
Poor Hester! She was too forthright and too masculine to compete with cold-hearted beauties like Lady Caroline Lamb. That Season was a disaster, and so was 1801. When the Peace of Amiens ended the ten-year war between France and UK in 1802, easing the wartime travel restrictions, Hester headed for Paris, eager to join her fellow Illuminati in the political struggle to create a "New Europe." Yet, despite founder Adam Weishaupt's calls for equality between men and women, all of the Order's important assignments went to men.
(Editor's Note: Weishaupt's writings influenced a whole generation of Eighteenth Century women, including Hester's contemporaries, Madame Roland and Charlotte Corday. He was a true feminine pioneer, but he never gets the credit. Indeed, the Left won't even admit he even existed.)
Returning to London, Hester found her niche as the unofficial "First Lady" to her elderly and dying uncle, William Pitt. She had a keen mathematical mind and reorganized Pitt's tangled finances. They were very close to each other and often talked politics, both Illuminati and otherwise. Indeed, Pitt must have cursed the cruel fate that had made the son he always wanted a woman-- his niece.
After Pitt's death, in January 1806, Hester was awarded a pension of 1,200 pounds sterling by her uncle's estate, and she purchased a home of her own in Montagu Square, London. Again she tried to enter politics. But when the Tory Party rebuffed her, she moved to Wales.
Since 1800, Hester had been interested in the esoteric side of Illuminism. She was very much intrigued by the new discoveries in Egypt. In 1819, she startled everyone by moving to the Middle East.
(Editor's Comment: I : I sometimes wonder if any of those Regency bucks at the ton had any idea what was really going on in the world.)
Actually, there was a Middle East connection in Hester's family. In 1781, her father married Louisa Grenville, daughter of Henry Grenville, who had been the UK's ambassador to Istanbul in 1762. It is not known if old Henry had ties to mystic Islamic groups or if he suggested the choice of Hester's new home.
In any case, the choice was a curious one. She settled in Djoun (pronounced June--J.T.), a small valley of olive groves 11 kilometers (8 miles) from Sidon, in the shadow of Mount Lebanon.
Djoun has a magickal/religious history dating back nearly 5,000 years. The valley is littered with temple ruins--Phoenician, Greek, Roman--the oldest being a shrine to Tammuz, the Babylonian god of fertility. Several Islamic groups had strongholds there during the Crusades and afterward, such as the Baktashis, the Erfanis and the Naziris, better known in the USA as the Order of the Assassins.
Hester lived for 22 years in Djoun, with her faithful Welsh companion, Miss Williams (Think Tonto to the Lone Ranger--J.T.) and her private physician, Dr. Charles Lewis Meryon.
Here Hester continued her occult studies. She really got into astrology, compiling detailed charts for Europe's leading lights, trying to "read" the future course of history in the coming centuries. She also practiced divination, and her prophecies drew a devoted band of followers, both Druses and Arabs. They considered Hester their sorceress-queen, calling her as-Sitt (Arabic for The Lady--J.T.)
Other Muslims, though, were wary of her. But so long as as-Sitt didn't insult their religion or desecrate their mosques, they were content to leave her alone. Their ruler, Emir Bashir of Beit ad-Din, treated Hester as an equal and negotiated treaties with her.
Hester sent her agents into Egypt to scrounge up any ancient papyrus texts they could lay hands on. She was much interested in a legendary pharaoh named Rahotpe who was supposed to have lived in Djoun at one time.
(Editor's Note: There is no mention of Rahotpe in the king lists of ancient Egypt. However, he is mentioned in a text by Khonsemhab, high priest of Amon-Ra during the reign of Pharaoh Mentuhotep VI of the Seventeenth Dynasty. Presumably, Rahotpe ruled Egypt long before Khufu, the supposed builder of the Great Pyramid.)
Trouble arrived in 1832 in the person of Colonel Boutin, a French explorer. Only God or Allah knows what ancient treasure he was after. Solomon's gold, the Queen of Sheba's jeweled girdle, the diamond cup of Pericles--southern Lebanon is a regular Wal-Mart of prehistoric treasure troves. Anyway, the colonel went into the hills, abruptly vanished and was never seen again.
This incident touched off yet another war in the Middle East. Ibrahim Pasha, the Turkish governor of Palestine, invaded Lebanon to drive the Emir Bashir out of power.
Now Hester came into her own. She raised her own army and declared the Djoun valley a neutral zone. With her household guard of 30 fanatically-loyal Druses--each of them willing to go one-on-one in a knife fight with a Ghazi to protect their beloved as-Sitt, she visited both Ibrahim Pasha and Emir Bashir at their respective headquarters and persuade Emir Btjem not to attack her villa.
In the end, the Djoun valley became a safe haven for thousands of refugees fleeing the warring armies.
In 1838, after a seven-year absence, Dr. Meryon returned to Djoun and cared for Hester during her last illness.And on June 23, 1839, the Illuminati's "Iron Lady of Djoun" passed on.
Lady Stanhope holds a place in conspiracy history for one reason. She provides a strange but curious link between three occult groups--the Hellfire Club, the Illuminati and the Naziris.
Franz Kolmer...Anarcharsis Clootz...Lady Hester Stanhope... strange, isn't it, how many of the early Illuminati have ties to the Middle East. (See the books Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope by Dr. Charles L. Meryone, 1845; Lady Hester Stanhope by Mrs. Charles Rountelle, 1910; and The Middle East, Hachettem B,vd. Saint-Germain, Paris, 1966, pages 280 to 286; and Middle East on a Shoestring, Lonely Planet Publications, Hawthorn, Vic., Australia, 1997, pages 488 and 489.)
Well, that's it for this week. Join us next time for more UFO and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
