#projectidentification

[mhuntington7]

BURNT BY UFO: THE CAPE GIRARDEAU UFO INJURY CASE OF 1973 - Cape Girardeau, Missouri. On the morning of October 3, 1973, trucker Edward Doyle Webb, 45, with his wife Velma Mae, 45, of Caruthersville, left the Sam Tankersley Trucking Company in Jackson to make a delivery. While driving south on I-55 just past Wedekin Park, Eddie and his wife noticed a “turnip-shaped” red and yellow flying object in their rear-view mirrors. While looking out of the driver’s window at the UFO, Webb claims that he was struck in the face with a “beam” or “fireball” from the object, which blinded him and melted his glasses. Unable to continue, the Webb’s managed to return to the trucking company to report the incident. News of the close encounter soon reached the press after officially reported to the Highway Patrol and subsequently investigated by UFO Investigator Dr. Harley Rutledge, head of the Physics Department at Southeast Missouri State University. Tests on Webb’s glasses showed exposure to intense heat. Temporarily blinded by the encounter and unable to work, Webb made a Workmen’s Comp claim which was settled in 1975. If the Webbs really encountered a UFO, or committed a fraud that day, is not known. What is known is that this is, perhaps, the first on-the-job UFO injury settlement on record. (Pictured: The 1973 Webb UFO Encounter location at Interstate 55 near Cape Girardeau; Dr. Harley Rutledge considers the evidence; a drawing of the UFO; Webb’s burnt glasses; the glasses close up; Webb recuperating.) Location Photo by Michael Huntington - December, 2019. All other photos via The Southeast Missourian Newspaper. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #StrangeTravels #MichaelHuntington #HuntingtonFamily #HuntingtonAdventures #EddieWebbUFO #DrHarleyRutledge #ProjectIdentification #UFO #UFOs #UFOInjury #UFOBurn #UFOHistory #1973UFOs #CapeGirardeauUFOs #CapeGirardeauMissouri (at Cape Girardeau, Missouri) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6hWKOyl2UW/?igshid=1fwjhj9qtjjex

[mhuntington7]

UFO SKYWATCH ‘73: PIEDMONT’S PINE HILL DRIVE-IN THEATER - Piedmont, Missouri. The abandoned Pine Hill Drive-In Theater (1953) in Piedmont, Missouri (pop. 1500). Beginning in February of 1973, and continuing throughout the year (and, indeed, years after), the town of Piedmont and its surrounding environs experienced a flap of UFO sightings numbering in the hundreds. In fact, local officials took reports of over 500 encounters during this flap event (called “The Brushy Creek UFO Flap” due to the proximity of clusters of encounters to the feature), which prompted a world-wide media frenzy and the involvement of several noted investigators looking into the activity - including Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Ted Phillips, Dr. Harley Rutledge, and Hayden Hewes. The Piedmont sightings flap was the nexus that lead to Dr. Rutledge’s long-term “Project Identification” UFO Field Study which studied the flap events and conducted investigations and field observations in the area for years following. During the summer of 1973 - amidst the hype of the strange encounters being experienced by, seemingly, everyone - a prime activity for locals (and visitors) was watching the skies for mysterious UFOs. The Pine Hill Drive-In became, naturally, a key spot for “UFO Spotting” in ‘73, with several encounter events having been reported here - including alleged sightings by large groups of witnesses. The Pine Hill Drive-In closed their final gates in 2015 after sixty-plus years in operation. What was actually seen in these skies, by so many people, so many years ago, remains Unknown to this day. Photo by Michael Huntington - April, 2019. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #MichaelHuntington #StrangeTravels #HuntingtonFamily #HuntingtonAdventures #UnusualFamilyOutings #UFO #UFOs #UFOFlap #1973PiedmontUFOFlap #1973UFOs #PiedmontFlap #PiedmontUFOs #BrushyCreekUFOFlap #FamousUFOs #MissouriUFOs #DrJAllenHynek #DrHarleyRutledge #TedPhillips #ProjectIdentification #PineHillDriveIn #BrushyCreekMissouri #PiedmontMissouri (at Piedmont, Missouri) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx0yFQ3Fkrx/?igshid=1pa1d6u8tp5dm

[mhuntington7]

“UFO COUNTRY” - THE 1978 ELSBERRY UFO/CATTLE MUTILATION FLAP - Elsberry, Missouri. Beginning in April of 1978 - and peaking in June - the residents in and around the small, rural Missouri farming community of Elsberry reported a “flap” of multiple UFO sightings and, perhaps, dozens of mysterious “cattle deaths and mutilations” believed to be connected somehow to the anomalous lights in the sky being seen at the same time. (Pictured photo 2: the southern skies near the Hammond home in Elsberry where Manford Hammond and others observed UFOs for several nights in June of 1978.) As a result of interest in the rash of encounters and mutilations, UFO Researchers and a frenzied news media descended upon Elsberry and its farms and nearby towns, making the “hotspot” area “UFO Country” for a time. Skywatchers seemed to be everywhere as looking for UFOs became a participatory event that drew seekers from around the region and created a near-carnival-like environment at times. Witnesses reported a variety of encounters during this flap ranging from stationary unknown nocturnal lights to luminous and/or metallic craft with internally-lit windows moving as if under intelligent control. The Elsberry Encounters were investigated on-site by members of the UFO Study Group of Greater St. Louis (a MUFON founding body) as well as researchers from Dr. Harley Rutledge’s Project Identification Field Study. Media outlets from St. Louis actively covered Elsberry’s ‘78 UFO Hysteria and Mutilation Mystery - reporting the stories in a detailed and serious manner, and even providing for scientific analysis of some mutilation evidence. The source of the encountered objects in the skies above Elsberry and the cause of the unusual cattle deaths remain unexplained to this day. Photos by Michael Huntington - July, 2018. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #MichaelHuntington #StrangeTravels #HuntingtonFamily #HuntingtonAdventures #UFO #UFOs #CattleMutilations #UFOFlap #ElsberryUFOFlap #1978ElsberryUFOFlap #UFOCountry #FamousUFOs #MissouriUFOs #UFOStudyGroupStLouis #MissouriInvestigatorsGroup #ProjectIdentification #ElsberryMissouri (at Elsberry, Missouri) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxn3nuvFUsU/?igshid=r9wpinf0ve81

[mhuntington7]

BRUSHY CREEK UFO FLAP OF '73: HIGHWAY 60 ENCOUNTER LOCATION NEAR ELLSINORE, MISSOURI. - On the evening of February 21, 1973 (sometime after 9 p.m.) a group of Clearwater (Piedmont) High School Basketball coaches and athletes (six in all: three coaches and three athletes) were returning home to Piedmont via Highway 60. As they neared the town of Ellsinore - where they would turn homeward north - the group reportedly encountered a brightly-lit, multi-colored object that was emitting an intermittent shaft of light as is flew above the tree-lined skies off of the side of the road. (Pictured is Highway 60 at Ellsinore near where the initial encounter began.) After losing sight of the "light" in the trees for a period, a closer encounter occurred minutes later as the team's vehicle was traveling north through the wooded "Brushy Creek" area (between Ellsinore and Piedmont to the north). Near Mill Spring, the group stopped and observed - for ten minutes - a "domed craft" with "portholes," an array of colored lights (red, green, blue), and "landing legs" as it hovered above a farmer's field before soon flying out-of-sight behind a hill. A half-hour later, the same craft was allegedly seen by a Mill Spring housewife to be hovering over their land (landing traces and burnt foliage were later found here by investigators). These events, later reported to the police and researchers (such as the renowned investigator Ted Phillips), began the slew of reports that would come over the following months (hundreds of alleged witnesses and over 500 police calls). Thus began the "Brushy Creek Flap" (or the "Piedmont Encounters"), which would culminate in hundreds of reported encounters, international media interest, an on-site investigation by Dr. J. Allen Hynek, and a public UFO frenzy that would ultimately precipitate one of the first long-term (1973-78), University-sponsored, Scientific Field Studies into a localized hotspot of anomalous aerial phenomena: "Project Identification." Photo Michael Huntington - April, 2017. @Huntington_Strange_Travels #MichaelHuntington #StrangeTravels #BrushyCreekUFOFlap #PiedmontUFOFlap #UFOs #UFOHistory #ProjectIdentification #EllsinoreMissouri (at Ellsinore, Missouri)

[mhuntington7]

UFO HOTSPOT: WELCOME TO PIEDMONT - On the road to the 29th Ozark Mountain UFO Conference, The Huntingtons stopped off in Piedmont, Missouri to visit the spot where noted Ufologist Dr. J. Allen Hynek stood to take his famous "Welcome UFO People" photo in 1973 (by Ted Phillips). Piedmont was a major center of UFO activity that year (with HUNDREDS of reported sightings), in what would come to be known as "The Brushy Creek UFO Scare." Piedmont was the location of the important 70s-era "Project Identification" scientific field study of UFOs as well as the site of an under-reported UFO-related military jet crash from the 1950s. The famous Hynek photo spot was near the sign in the background. Photo by Diane Huntington - April, 2016. #StrangeTravels #MichaelHuntington #DianeHuntington #HuntingtonFamily #HuntingtonAdventures #HuntingtonBoys #WelcomeUFOPeople #HynekUFO #HynekStoodHere #TedPhillipsUFO #BrushyCreekUFOWave #BrushyCreekUFOScare #PiedmontJetCrash #ProjectIdentification #PiedmontMissouriUFO #1973UFOWave #UFOHistory #PiedmontMissouri (at Piedmont, Missouri)