Was Zanesville visited by space aliens in 1973?

For some reason, during the year 1973, literally thousands of Americans were seeing UFOs. In just the month of October, there were at least 13 articles about UFOs in the Times Recorder. It was enough to make readers want to crawl under their beds.

On Oct. 5, 1973, the TR reported the following eye-witness testimony from Thomas E. Westmoreland, a National Park Service Ranger in Tupelo, Mississippi: “It was approximately 1,000 feet in altitude and roughly the size of a two-bedroom house or a little smaller. It had red, green, and yellow flashing lights-not the standard beacon type you have on aircraft. They were circular and they were rotating continuously.” According to Westmoreland, three other rangers and a deputy sheriff were with him when the strange object was seen.

An article in the Oct. 15 edition of the TR was even stranger: “...two Mississippi men told the Jackson County Sheriff's Department they were fishing off an old pier on the Pascagoula River Thursday night when they saw a strange object approaching in the sky, emitting a bluish haze.”

They claim to have been abducted: “Two men who claim they were taken aboard an unidentified flying object by three creatures with crab-like hands and pointed ears definitely underwent a' terrifying experience,' according to two scientists who questioned the men under hypnosis.”

If indeed extraterrestrials are visiting our planet, they would surely want to see Ohio, the greatest of all the 50 states (Okay, so I'm prejudiced.) According to an Oct. 16 TR article, “West-central-Ohioans continued to report unidentified flying objects Sunday, including a woman who excitedly phoned police to say one landed in a pasture and killed a couple of dozing cows.”

On the Oct. 17 local readers learned even the Russians were getting in on the act: “Around the world in Moscow, Soviet scientists said they picked up unusual radio signals from space and did not rule out that they came from another civilization.”

On Oct. 18 the Times Recorder stated UFO sightings were increasing: “One (UFO) looked like a spider and landed on a golf course not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. Another flashed like red lightning over the Atlantic Ocean off New Hampshire. And the Houston Astrodome (that is, something resembling it) flew over New Orleans.”

Naturally, space aliens would not fly billions of miles to Earth without taking time to explore Zanesville. No doubt they would wish to visit the famous Y Bridge and they would want to stop at Tom's, having heard the ice cream there is “out of this world.” (It is.)

The Oct. 18 edition of the local paper also commented: “Muskingum County Sheriff's Office, Zanesville Police, and the Highway Patrol reported a total of approximately eight or nine UFO calls Wednesday. This is compared with a total of over 100 calls received Tuesday night by the three local law enforcement agencies.

“According to one local report, more than 15 people in the Baker Street area observed an 'oval object with red and white flickering lights heading west towards Columbus' at about 7:45 p.m.”

The article continued: “Another person from the Brighton Boulevard area said he had seen 'a round object, with green, red and blue flashing lights and streaks of fire coming from it.”

A woman in the Dresden Road area saw “... an oblong, silver-colored object which was being chased by another strange object making a whistling sound.” The lady said, “It sure was strange not knowing which one to root for.”

Meanwhile, more sightings were made around the Buckeye state, including the following: “Mrs. Alice Schonauer sat frightened with her 14-year-old son Wednesday night in their rural home in east central Ohio, vowing never again to make fun of persons who report unidentified flying objects − (UFOs.)

“I was sitting at my desk near a window when I looked up and saw a very bright light which I thought was a star until it began to move,” she said. “It got bigger and bigger, growing white with some bluish-green in it until it got about 50 feet from the house. Then it suddenly moved sideways and disappeared behind a hill in the back of the house.”

L. J. Lorenzen, a scientist at the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization in Tucson, Arizona, believed UFOs provide diversion: “We have so many problems of our own such as scandals and wars that the diversion is welcome. People are also tending to view the phenomena with more respect and less ridicule than ever before, which has encouraged more people to report what they see,” according to an Oct. 19, 1973 TR article.

On Oct. 22 came this story: “...Ress Clinton said he saw a golden egg-shaped object descend near Griffin, Georgia, burn a hole in the ground and disappear in a cloud of steam. A state chemist investigated 2 ½ hours later and found the soil temperature close to the boiling point of water.”

Several young folks in Zanesville were caught up in the UFO craze. Eight area residents are shown in a TR photograph from Oct. 24 holding a sign stating: “Welcome, U. F. O.'s.” The caption states, in part, “In the event a flying saucer does show up on the Zanesville scene, several young people in the Blossom Lane area are putting forth some effort to make their landing safe and easy by preparing this lighted UFO landing field. Judging from the many rumors circulating of late, the UFO port may soon be needed.”

Not all scientists were quick to call UFOs fictional: “J. Allen Hynek, head of the astronomy department at Northwestern University and considered an expert on unidentified flying objects, said Saturday UFOs remain a mystery because no one has ever made a real effort to find out what they are.”

Another scientist, Stanton Friedman, added: “I believe it's time we mustered the top scientific talent in this country, spent some money and began a hard scientific study to prove the existence of UFOs as extraterrestrial vehicles and obtain information of real use in the development of advanced propulsion systems for use on this planet.”

Whether we have been visited by extraterrestrials is still an open question, but we do know there are some objects in the sky for which we have no explanation. A few years ago, the U.S. Navy declassified and released film taken from fighter jets that reveal strange-shaped objects flying around. The Navy has admitted it has no idea what they are. This is a definition of UFOs.

If these objects are indeed guided by little green men, I hope they do not hover over Washington D. C. They would no doubt report to their home planet that no intelligent life forms were found there.

Lewis LeMaster is a retired school teacher of the Zanesville area.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Was Zanesville visited by UFOs in 1973?