All language subtitles for On-the-Trail-of-UFOs -Dark-Sky_2021

Provided by explosiveskull
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Open your eyes.

It's even hard for me
to believe that I've seen it,

but you don't forget,

and I'm nervous now
just talking about it.

I got the shakes.

Well, can we start
from the very beginning?

As far as, you know,
right before you saw the craft,

what were you doing?
Who were you with?

In the beginning,
I was in the house.

I think, I was eating.

My cousin went out on the porch

and he come back in and...
He come back in,

"You gotta see this.
You gotta see this." That's what he said.

So, everybody went out
on the porch,

and that's when we seen
the craft or whatever it was.

It was... Like I said,
you had to see it.

It was the biggest thing
I've ever seen.

But it looked like it was drawing
something on the power lines to me.

You know, I'm ten years old,
so I could be, you know, a little off,

but, it looked like a diamond.

But it was red. Like, red,

and in the center of it,
it was a little bright in the center,

but then, like pulse, like,
you know, outward.

And that's why I thought it was
drawing something from the power lines.

- Did you hear anything?
- Not a sound.

Can you show us
where on the ridge you saw it?

This big tower right here.

It was probably 50
feet away from the top corner.

- One of the points of the craft.
- Mm-hm.

Well, the whole top
of that hill was covered.

And like I said,
it was big as a building,

whatever it was.

You said you saw
something a couple nights later.

Can you go through that?

I was out
at the end of her house.

We lived in a mobile home,

and I was
at the end of the trailer.

There's a field, like, this way
on this hill,

and there's a big boulder that
sticks out of the hill.

There was something standing,
and I walked closer to it,

and it looked like
somebody in a hazmat,

'cause the headpiece was wide,

and they were about like this.

But, you know,
it looked like a human.

I mean, the other features,

but... And being a kid,

stupid kid, I had a BB gun

and I started shooting at it,
but it didn't move.

And then, I turned and turned
back, and it was gone.

So, there was something there.

After that, I was, you know...
I was afraid to go outside.

And... at night anyhow.

But it always came between, I think,
eleven and one o'clock in the morning.

It was, you know, very on time,

I'll put it that way,
every year.

You saw it
three times.

Your mom saw it five times.

What was the timeframe between

the first sighting, the second
and the third for you?

It was always
the same time at night.

And it wasn't long after that
we moved.

I moved back to my hometown.

And then, I swore that I'd
never come back to this road.

But the diamond shaped thing,

you just... you can't forget it.

I still have dreams about it.

Every once in a while,
I'll have a dream

that that's in it.

And, like I said, you felt...
you felt static in the air.

I don't know if you've
ever felt static in the air,

but it's like the whole area
was, like, static electricity.

Copy.

What do you see
when you look up?

Darkness? Light?

Maybe a haze
so thick with manmade chemicals

that it hides the stars?

I live in Las Vegas.

It's a city
that's always shining,

so, at night, when I look up,
I don't see much of anything.

My name is Shannon LeGro,

but maybe
you already knew that.

Which means, you probably also
know that I collect stories.

Stories about the bizarre
and unexplained.

Currently, I'm collecting
stories about UFOs,

or UAPs or flying saucers,

or whatever you want to
call them.

I'm in West Virginia,
the Mountain State.

A place I've never spent
much time in,

but whose connection to
the unusual is inescapable.

You see, despite its reputation
as being out of the way,

West Virginia has been tied to the
UFO phenomenon for over a century.

Want to know why?
Well, so do I.

In search for the truth behind
the existence and origin of

these strange objects

people are seeing
over our heads,

most have stopped looking up.

But here,
in the heart of Appalachia,

taking a second to stop and
stare and stare into the dark sky

might mean the difference between
just another boring night,

and having an encounter with
something that will change your life.

As a kid,
did you get a read that

it's a weird state,
that strange things happened here?

Um, yeah.

Especially in Moundsville.

Can we talk about
your your sightings?

The things you've experienced
for yourself?

The one main one that I'm pretty sure
it was something, my opinion, weird...

Mm-hmm.

It was a very clear day
like it is today.

My pap and I were out
shooting hoops in the backyard.

I was probably between
ten and thirteen.

I went to shoot
the basketball up,

and out of the left corner
of my eye,

and it is something, like,
reflecting in the sky.

And I paid more attention to it
after, you know, I noticed it.

And it looked like

a mirror.

Like a light was
reflecting off of a mirror.

And there may or may not have been
smaller, like, little detail,

where it might have been
multiple different lights

or it might have been different
panels of something reflective.

So...

Did you hear anything
when you saw it?

No, but my pap saw it,
we both saw it,

and then... That's when
my grandfather shared with me

an experience he had
when he was younger.

And he said, "I was out
playing in the front yard,

and I looked south,
and above the ridge line,

it's, like, this dark gray,
brownish looking disc

came over the hill

and stopped,
and then it went straight up

in the air,
and then it disappeared." So...

Did you get a sense that what you were
looking at was like a solid object?

It looks like a solid object.

Have you ever wondered
what it's purpose might have been

in that place at that time?

Being where it was at,

and how high it was,
it's hard to tell.

Are there any, like, mines,
or caves in Moundsville or in that area?

Oh, yeah. I mean,
Moundsville was a coal mining town.

Wheeling, pretty much, is, too.

I know there's a lot of old coal
mine shafts under Moundsville.

There's a lot of
underground streams,

a lot of unused coal mine shafts
underneath Moundsville right now,

that have water running through
them to the Ohio River, so...

So, West Virginia is
larger than I was expecting.

It's defined by its backroads
and hills and hollers,

and by a history
that feels ancient.

I've only been here
a short time,

but in that span,

I have already learned about sightings
around the state of strange craft,

lights in the sky,

and even heard whispers
of government cover ups.

I've always thought of myself as
simply a collector of stories,

but this time,
I'm trying to dig deeper

to piece together
some of the clues

that are laid out
with each eyewitness account.

But to start analyzing the
case laid out before me,

I want to understand the people
who live here,

the culture of the area.

That's why I'm in Wheeling.

It's a bustling industrial town
on the Ohio River

that is known as
the City of Lights today.

It's original moniker, though,
was far darker.

Native Americans called the land
where wheeling sits, "Weelonk"

which meant
"A place of the skull."

So named due to
the decapitated heads

that lined its bank
to ward off those

attempting to make
a home here.

When the area was eventually
claimed by European settlers,

they made
the questionable decision

of sticking with
the name "Wheeling."

A fitting origin story

for a town that
acts as an entryway

into the Ohio Valley.

So I mean, as far as West
Virginia, have you grown up here?

Yeah, I grew up here.

My paternal grandparents
came over from Ireland in 1905

and built the farmhouse that
my family still lives in today.

And how did
you end up in Wheeling?

You know,
that's a good question.

Uh, family lore is that
we came in through New York,

and we, kind of,
traveled around for a little while,

but it seems like
people from the British Isles

are attracted to this area,

and I think it's because
it's the same mountain range.

We have a common bond here
with these mountains.

It's like
the bones of the world almost.

How long
have you owned the restaurant?

Uh, we've been in downtown West
Virginia for six and a half years.

What about,
you know, weird stories?

I mean, you're
probably familiar with Mothman,

and everybody is, but what about
other stories in the area?

Point Pleasant does
the Mothman Festival every year,

and they've been doing that
for a long time,

but I feel like, especially
recently, it's really caught hold of

the cultural zeitgeist
in the state.

But the supernatural stuff
is really strong in Appalachia.

Um, I spent some time
down in Canaan Valley

in the Davis, Thomas,
West Virginia area.

And there's just
a lot of weird stuff,

and people are diving
a little deeper into that

than they have in a long time.

But there's just
something about

the hills and the hollows
of this area

that... Especially the light
quality at dawn or dusk.

Like, I've seen
all kinds of weird shit.

I'm not prepared to say
what it is,

but, you know, I've seen
plenty of things,

and I feel like, again,
our brain

has this
false pattern recognition,

and we put together the puzzle
in a certain way

to make sense of
our experiences.

And, you know, I think there's a lot of
stuff out there that we don't understand.

...ground deposits.
West Virginia has

coal enough to last the nation
for generations.

Tell us about, uh,
the state of West Virginia

and its ties to coal mining.

Coal mining is is a very
important part of West Virginia history

Been going on
for over 150 to 200 years.

Helped build America.

Helped power America,
helped us win two World Wars.

It is fully ingrained into
people's personalities, even.

But mining is what it...

It's more than a job,
more than an occupation.

It is everything
to a lot of people.

In terms of UFOs, aliens,

uh, The Mothman pulls you in
at a young age.

I saw the movie
when it came out.

then bought the book thinking
that it would be similar,

and it's a lot better.

Been hooked into it ever since.

Appalachia is nothing

if not a haven for stories
and storytellers.

One of the keepers of the
Mountain State's legends and lore

was author, poet, tour guide
and mother, Susan Sheppard.

I've been aware of Susan's work
for years,

but this was our first time
to meet

and to hear her unfold years of
paranormal history in minutes

was truly a thrill,

and, offered a unique insight into
how stories are told and retold.

If anyone is aware of

the Appalachians'
ufological history,

it was Susan.

What were some of the
commonalities of UFO sightings

that were taking place, like,
during that time?

What were people seeing?

Well, mostly lights in the sky
was big among them.

There was one case
where my former mother-in-law

was stepping out of the house
one evening,

and there were
these spinning lights.

Just the spinning lights
right over her head.

And she went right back inside,

and then they vanished.

There is another incidence
where my grandmother,

she was walking by the window,

and she looked up
and she saw in the distant sky,

she saw a red light,
a green light and a white light,

and they would
flash intermittently.

Now, at that time,
she called them tokens,

'cause she didn't really know
what a UFO was.

She thought it was
some kind of sign.

That's what she thought of that,
but it was mostly lights in the sky.

The oldest sighting
in the state,

potentially, was in 1950
at a place called Mount Hope.

The mayor of the town
actually saw something

in the eastern sky
near his home.

He saw a light zipping about
that was not normal.

As far as I know,
the records are lost.

The connection between the
study of UFOs and West Virginia is

in some ways, there's quintessential
cases from West Virginia

that you have to talk about

if you're talking about
major flaps

that have taken place
in the United States.

So, it really is,
uh, instrumental,

although that's not
the first state people think of

in terms of UFOs.

I don't think that you can take
a complete look at the topic

without looking at the cases
from the Mountain State,

of Flatwoods,
as one that is gaining notoriety,

and, if you look back
historically,

it's one that
has to be dealt with,

along with many of the
major flaps of the 1950s.

Any true
UFO historian

is aware of the Flatwoods
monster case

in August of 1952 a bizarre
being was encountered

on the hill late one evening
following a string of

reported UFO sightings across
the eastern United States.

The creature was sighted
by a group of locals,

most of them just kids,
during a terrifying ordeal

that became a media sensation
across the country.

The event helped to shine a
light on the weird activity

taking place in the strange
little state of West Virginia

and bolstered the name
of one of West Virginia's

most well-known UFO figures,
Gray Barker.

Before we get to Barker,
let's visit the tiny hamlet of Sutton.

Home to the Flatwoods
Monster Museum

and a hub for ongoing
unusual activity.

So how long
have you had the museum here?

We established the museum here
in downtown Sutton, um...

in, uh, October of 2018.

A big reason why people come to
the area or interested in the area,

particularly from really
far away,

is because
of the Flatwoods monster.

So I talked to my board
and we decided having a fight

with Monster Museum
makes a lot of sense

in conjunction
with the visitor center.

I saw something
about a rash of sightings

like around 1950s.
Can you talk about that?

Yes, as far as I know,
there were a lot of sightings

that that took place
in the '50s and, you know,

most notably starting with
the Flatwoods monster case

that took place
in '52, I think,

maybe a sighting or two
that took place before that

of UFO phenomenon things like
that, but a lot after as well

going into the mid '50s
and maybe even beyond.

And I've heard a lot of stories

that according to the people
that told them to make,

they've either never
shared them with anybody else

or if they have
just really close friends.

They want to get it off their
chest to somebody that they know

who won't make fun of them,
because obviously if we have this,

they see a place where weird
things are kind of, you know,

accepted or can be discussed
without feeling ridicule.

The Flatwoods case became a
seminal moment in Braxton County history,

but what was overlooked in the
days following the incident

was the rash of sightings
of strange craft

across the entire
United States,

as well as other sightings of beings
matching the green monsters description.

While digging into the tale of what
was once dubbed the Green Monster.

I came across accounts in
Wheeling of a similar creature

that the local media
had dubbed Bashful Billy.

A long forgotten side story
to the Flatwoods monster saga

is the UFO wave over Wheeling,
which also took place on August 15th

just three nights
following the Flatwoods events.

That point in time
in American history,

the mid '50s was so big for UFOs
and Project Blue Book

and everything else going on,
that is, it was almost destined,

I feel like, that happened at
one point in time in Wheeling.

The Wheeling intelligence there
in the Police Department

and the Wheeling news registers
of newspapers at the time

had been getting flooded with
calls for last couple of days

from the 12th
to the 15th-16th.

About seeing several meteorites
burning objects in the sky,

things like that, disappearing,
weird turns, weird low object flights,

and that includes Wheeling, St.
Clairsville, Zanesville, Ohio.

Cambridge, West Liberty,
Glendo, McMechen, West Virginia,

including even Morgan Town,
Garrett County, Maryland.

There were odd sightings all
across the state across Ohio

across Pennsylvania,
even Baltimore had sightings.

And all this ties in sort of with the
Flatwood monster, which happened on the 12th,

to the point where, you know,
the newspapers and the Police Department

won't really investing any
more time into the whole thing.

And then it culminated with
this Bashful Billy sighting

Around September 15th, I believe

there was a crash landing of a
UFO, and it was shortly after that

that people started reporting that
they saw a monster of some sort

at Vineyard Hills in Wheeling,

which is a housing
development area.

People had called the police,
saying that they saw or heard

that someone saw a creature that was
large, seven to nine feet tall,

had the ability to breathe
fire a noxious odor.

There was a lot of
raising reports by times

that it got to the newspapers as
widely blown up as a half robot

slash, half man,
half dragon creature.

There was a drawing
that I found once

that was almost like it came out
of, like a 1600s fairy book

and just way overdone.

Supposedly, a woman
had been burned

when she got too close
to the creature,

and there are some
unsubstantiated reports

that police were there
and shots were fired.

The only
hard evidence

was reports of a police
officer who had his arm burned.

And a woman
who had supposedly deceased

and was severely burned
from head to toe.

It's kind
of thought that

when the story ran in the Wheeling Intelligencer,
and they called it Bashful Billy

that was sort of a way
to discredit the creature.

But a few nights later
he was seen,

or a creature
similarly described was seen

across the river, just right across
the Ohio River on the Ohio side.

And it was same standard, a creature
that was seven to nine feet tall,

green body, red face,
breathing fire, a noxious odor.

I feel
like honestly,

even, if it landed
in a different part of town.

Vineyard Hills is housing development.
It was low income.

The police.
I mean, this is all my opinion.

The police that time had a very
low interest in going up there

and solving any kind of crimes,
let alone paranormal crimes.

So I feel like where it landed,
in this lower income area,

it was already... it was destined
to be forgotten, you know.

As a kid were you
very aware of...

of like, strange things
in the skies of West Virginia?

I was. I grew up near one
the first Mothman sightings,

and I can actually
remember that

of course, the strange case
in 1966, 1967

where there was a church bus going
past our house, they saw a UFO

actually hovering over our house,
and they called my parents.

And that was about the time my parents
began to believe in these things.

So, yeah, there was
tons of things going on,

this strange poltergeist,
Mothman

Men in Black, UFOs,
hundreds of sightings of UFOs.

So the '50s through the '70s there
were all kinds of things happening.

There were tons of sightings,
um, of UFO's of creatures,

things like that in West
Virginia, specifically,

or just across the river
in Ohio.

So you get to the Ohio Valley
and then deep into West Virginia

you have... This is where
the big names come in.

You get the Flatwoods Monster.

You have Mothman in the '60s.

You have the Grafton Monster
in the '50s as well.

Almost as if
once one story started

then other people
would see something similar.

Or maybe they were feeling
brave enough to come forward

at that point in time.

Because I've talked to some
witnesses that were hesitant at first

to say that they saw anything.

But once they did talk
to a few people

then more would
start coming forward.

But it's initially getting past
that breaking point.

So one of the most infamous cases
in West Virginia UFO history

is the case
of Woodrow Derenberger

who around the same time

that things were really jumping
off in Point Pleasant in 1967

had initial encounter going from
Parkersburg to Mineral Wells

driving a box truck,
and he reports a craft by his truck,

but then swinging out in
front of him and stopping,

making it impossible
for him to continue.

They had swerved over
into the berm

and figure got out,
approached his truck.

A man steps out, who
looks like any ordinary man on the street.

It's like it's about
35 years of age, dark hair,

dressed in dark clothing, proceeds to
walk toward Mr. Derenberger's panel truck

goes around to the side window,
he says to Mr. Derenberger,

"Would you roll down
your window?"

Which Mr. Derenberger did.

Whoever this figure was
communicated to Derenberger he said,

not by speaking
but by direct telepathy.

The figure introduced
himself as Indrid Cold

and claimed that he was
from another planet.

And Indrid Cold
said, "I'm a searcher.

I'm a searcher."

Then he said, "Mr.
Derenberger, why are you so frightened?

He said, "I mean you no harm."

He said,
"I bleed just as you do."

And he says that
several times to reassure him.

And after about
a five-ten minute conversation,

Indrid Cold
says to Mr. Derenberger

"Thank you very much
for answering my questions,

we..." Not I,
"We will see you again."

And when he says,
we will see you again,

this charcoal great craft
comes right back down

begins to hover
on the side of the road.

The hatch opens.

A human arm extends,

pulls Indrid Cold up into the
craft, goes up in the air

about 25 feet

where it hovers for a few
seconds makes a fluttering sound.

It shoots away
at a very high rate of speed,

and within a few minutes, Mr. Derenberger
gets back to his farm house.

His wife meets him at the door
and she said, "What's happened?

Why are you late?"

He said, "Well, get me a glass of
water and I'll tell you why I'm late."

Mrs. Derenberger later said,

Mr. Derenberger
could not have been

any whiter if he had been lying
in a coffin.

Derenberger was very
public about this.

It got into the papers
almost immediately.

It made Derenberger
a media sensation,

and he was soon being talked
about both locally and nationally.

It almost seems to me like they seem
to target families for some reason.

That same year,
my uncle worked as an engineer

at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base.

He was out coon hunting
with two friends,

and they come upon
this UFO, again.

Dark charcoal gray, no lights.

A man steps out.

My uncle's dog starts going
crazy, running around in a circle.

The other two men run away,
perfectly human looking man

asked my uncle about
different things in the area.

As very similarly he said
at the end of the conversation.

"Thank you for speaking to me.

We will see you again."

Gets back into the UFO.

You know, shoots up in the air,
goes away at a very high rate of speed.

That's all I know of that story
because my uncle wouldn't...

Wouldn't talk about it
very much.

But, you know, I've got
that steel trap of a mind

and you know everything I heard
either from his brother or from him

when they were talking, you know,
I absorbed it, and I recorded it.

Why do you think
so much unusual activity

takes place
in this particular area?

I don't know if it's just because
that the the skies are pretty clear.

You know,
we don't really have much,

you know, smog, stuff like that

when it gets dark,
you know, it's dark,

so we don't have
a lot of light pollution.

Some places
you know more than others.

So there's that
and you know, it's quiet.

It feels like to me that there's
just the better opportunity,

maybe the better environment
to see things.

And have you had
your own sighting?

I may have.

Well, I had a sighting
of something.

I don't know what it is, but,
yes, it took place about 6:20 p.m.

I was driving between the
town of Gassaway and Sutton

on October 12th of 2019.

Me and my wife were driving,
and for about a period of 20 seconds

while I was driving,
the sky was completely clear.

As I said it was in the evening
the sun was working on setting.

And as I'm driving, I noticed this
bright object just setting in the sky.

It seemed to be completely still
from what I could tell,

and it had a yellowish
white color

that I would associate,
looking a lot like the way

the sun's reflection
looks on anything shiny.

And then I realized, no,
it's just a ball

like there's no definition
to it whatsoever.

As I'm looking at it,
I'm just thinking,

well, okay, so neither one
of those make any sense.

so now I don't know what it is.

So then,
as I'm continuing driving,

continue to look at it right about
that time, um, it just went away.

There was a period of maybe
like two seconds that it went

from as bright and glowing as
it was to fading into nothing.

It was just gone.

I wonder sometimes if West
Virginia has so much strangeness

because people are actually
taking time to go out

and look around,
to look up into the sky.

Um, there's just
more time to be out

and being around things
or not in the middle.

I mean, they have cities, but it's
not like the middle of New York City,

where you're busy and constantly
just moving about, milling about.

Your into areas where
there's very little lighting.

Um, you go outside,
you just look up this massive sky.

So I think anywhere like that would be
more prone to having strangeness occur.

It could be, you know,
it is on a sacred area,

especially Ohio Valley,
among the Native American tribes.

It was also an area that they
were afraid of for some reason,

and they considered it cursed
in some way.

But it could be the energies
from the Indian mounds,

the river's intersecting
or just the plain own reason.

Not much happens here.

You notice...
People notice it more.

They talk about things more.

The mysterious green
Monster would eventually make its way

into the historical records
of you Ufology,

written and spoken about
alongside prominent cases

like the Betty and Barney Hill
Abduction or even Roswell.

Braxton County
has since become a destination

for those seeking out
information on the famed event,

with the Flatwoods Monster
Museum stationed as a hub

for all things weird
in the area.

Interestingly enough,
Braxton County is at the geographic center

of the mountain state.

Fitting, considering
its importance

to the state's
Ufological history as well.

I could see why so many unusual
events happen in this particular area.

The nearest cities
are over 60 miles away.

Which might account
for the volume of reports

in the state of strange lights
and craft in the night sky.

Um, we were just
outside, David, his son and I,

and we're just sitting
out there.

We happen to glance up
and see a light in the sky,

and the fact that
it was not moving,

there was no sounds
was what caught our attention.

So we stood there and
watched it for a few minutes,

and it was basically
coming slowly,

uh, heading in a northerly
direction, and we just watched it.

And when that's when his son went
inside and got him, I got my phone out

and videotaped for about
a minute is all I did.

I forget what time
it was but it was after dark,

and I was in the process
of closing up the store.

My son came in and said,

"Dad, you've got to come
outside and come see this."

Okay, fine. So I went outside to
see what he was concerned about.

And I found him and my wife and
Janet all looking in the sky

towards the south of town.

Uh, the object originally
came from the south of town,

came over the ridge
on the other side of the river,

and then it stopped.

And that's when I came out.

And I saw it when it was
in a fixed position.

And then,
while we were all there,

that's when it started
moving west.

And it was just
a spherical shape,

and it was changing colors
from orangish red to a white.

In my estimation,
it was about, uh,

about the height you'd see,
like, a small aircraft flying,

was what I would say
was a sphere,

and it seemed to be

undulating between
orange and white.

And it sat in the sky
for a couple of minutes,

um, when we stood there
watching it.

And then it began moving west,
like, along the river.

And so I know,
speaking for myself,

I think a couple of the others
followed me.

But we went towards
the end of the street

to see where it was going.

And, uh, as it moved west
and just disappeared.

And we just watched it
just slowly move.

There was no sounds.
We didn't hear anything

of, like, a drone
or an aircraft

or a helicopter,
um, and then,

it did turn direction,

and started heading
in a westerly direction.

And then next thing you know,
it just disappeared.

Uh, any whispers
in the next two days

after you guys' sighting?
Anybody else saw all this?

We mentioned it to someone
that we know in town

or actually,
just outside of town.

And he had
an interesting comment.

He said that as a kid,

he saw something
similar to that.

Which means about
40 or 50 years ago

he would've seen something
of that same nature

because when
we described it to him,

- or I think it was the dam.
- It was the same location.

- It was around the dam.
- Yeah.

Anything of interest
in that area

or in... On the...
In or around the ridge

where it was stopped?

- Besides the dam, you mentioned.
- The dam and the rivers.

You have a history
of this stuff happening

around the area.

Well, and I have
a theory about that,

but I don't know
if we need to go into that.

My theory is, uh,
there have been stories

about military bases
in West Virginia.

And given the nature
of the state,

low population density,
very rural, most areas,

and my understanding is that
there have been

quiet military operations
in the state.

We've got... The FBI has
their facility in Clarksburg.

So we knew
they've got a presence.

Greenbrier, which is in
the south end of the state,

that was gonna be used
in the event

of a Cold War nuke attack
on Washington.

They have that completely
set up for Congress.

Is there a history
of coal mining in this area?

Like, around Sutton,
around Flatwoods?

There is a coal mine...

I'm curious to know. Why are you
asking about the mines?

We've heard some ties between

sightings of UFOs and coal mines
in the state of West Virginia.

We left Flatwoods,

but remained in Braxton County
for the night.

Staying in a remote corner
on a plot of land

situated on top of a mountain

that happened to be
truly Dark Sky territory.

Here we met up with Ron Lanham
and Joe Perdue,

paranormal investigators
based in the area.

They've also brought
a witness named Dave,

who has had his own experience.

Ron and Joe's knowledge

of the state's
history of weirdness

will prove invaluable
to piecing together

the strange occurrences
we've learned about so far.

But historically,
can you expand on

the period of time between
the '50s and the early '80s

where you had...

Oh, there was the I-64 incident.

Yeah, I mean, there's just

this constant stream of activity
during that time.

You wanna talk about that?

The I-64 incident
actually took place

right across from
what's now Dow Chemical Plant

and that chemical plant
used to actually manufacture

one of the three
necessary parts

to make, uh,
what we would call now

weapons of mass destruction,
which was the nuclear missiles.

That was the rumor.
You are correct.

They were manufactured
in the Dow Chemical Plant.

And there was
a manufacturing plant

in the Kanawha Valley.

Where Dow Chemical sets
is in a town called Institute,

and that is exactly where
the I-64 sighting took place,

where this UFO was 50,
60 feet off the interstate

and the gentleman
that had the encounter

got out of his vehicle
and observed this thing

for some time before it left

and then proceeded to actually
make a UFO detection device.

He alleged that it worked,
and he had many reports

that he took the device out on.

I mean, we went from the '50s

- all the way up to...
- '80s?

Yeah, the '80s.

But the '70s was a huge flood.

There were several good
sightings during that one.

That's one, you know...

There's a lot of those
early cases,

especially, you know, the '66

and flaps back around Ohio
and Point Pleasant.

All that has a view
of those sightings,

which people just don't,
for whatever reason,

really pay
that much attention to.

They were witnessed
by a lot of people.

You have so many
different things

that have happened here.

The Appalachian Mountain Range

is the oldest mountain range
in the world.

It used to be the tallest
mountain range in the world.

So depending on how long
these UFOs have been around,

it's a known target range.

It's... It's a landmark that,
you know,

hasn't really changed,
other than the fact that

it's been eroded
and weathered away.

But the course is still there.

West Virginia
is the perfect place

to conduct your business
if you don't want to be seen.

A key piece
to the UFO story in this area

are encounters
with the Men in Black,

enigmatic beings
who appeared to witnesses

following unusual incidents,

often to question them
about the event

and occasionally to threaten
or terrify them into silence.

The Men in Black rose
to prominence in the 1960s

during the wave of UFO
and Mothman sightings

that swept across the area.

Clarksburg native, Gray Barker,
wrote a book titled

They Knew Too Much
About Flying Saucers,

which detailed encounters
with black suited individuals

around the United States.

Barker has since passed away,

but his contributions to the
UFO subject are numerous.

So the Men in Black phenomenon

is what people explain happens

after they've looked into
either UFO sightings

or they've specifically had

some sort of encounter
with a UFO.

It's happened both
with researchers

who have apparently
been digging too deeply

or like I said, people have had
an actual encounter.

And the Men in Black,
it's not always a black suit,

but that's typically
what comes to mind.

Men show up in a dark suit,
a black suit

and come to warn you
that you need to stop

talking about whatever it is
related to UFOs

that you were
previously sharing.

The Men in Black
would often show up

within a day or so
of somebody seeing a UFO.

And there's one example
in particular that sticks out,

the case of a family.

I think Christiansen
was their last name?

They had just moved
into this house.

Nobody knew,

except their close family
that they had moved.

They had no
new telephone number.

They had seen lights
in the skies.

The next day, a strange person
shows up on their doorstep.

So this very strange man

dressed in like,
very odd fitting clothing,

again, strange mannerisms
and speech,

and, uh, sort of a singsong
quality to his voice.

He starts asking them
numerous questions about,

"Is this who you are?"

Um, "What have you seen?"

And then all of a sudden
he starts dropping

another details about UFOs.

"Have you ever seen
some of those?"

One of the children
who was present at that time,

she could see a green wire
coming out of his sock

and then, going into his leg
around a brown patch.

The other thing
that was very strange

is that he said at the
beginning when he came in

and wanted access
to their home,

"This is going to take
40 minutes,"

and it did.
It took exactly 40 minutes.

When 40 minutes was over,

he shut up all of his books
and his briefcase,

and he left.

Because of the strange
nature of this,

either the wife
or one of the daughters

decided they're gonna
watch him leave

to see where was he gonna go.

He walked out

down the driveway of the home
is a fairly wooded area.

A black forty style Buick
pulls up in the driveway.

Lights off.

The man jumps in the car.

Just a classic
Men in Black style car

and it, it backs down
the driveway

with the lights still off
and he's gone.

Indrid Cold fits the description
of a man in black perfectly

and also after his encounter
with Indrid Cold,

the Men in Black
began to visit.

Woodrow Derenberger
at his farm.

He thought they were the Mafia.

I mean, if you read any
John Keel's books,

John Keel thought they were
some strange race of people.

He was actually
frightened of them,

and so, so was Derenberger.

Many people that encountered
the Men in Black,

even though Cold said

when he was talking
to Woodrow Derenberger

"We mean you no harm.

"We wish you only happiness."

He would say that over and over
to him to reassure him.

But there's just something not
right about the Men in Black.

Some of the encounters
that I've had with them

as a young person and a child.

Yeah, can you
add some more detail

about your own
personal experiences

with the Men in Black?

With the Men in Black?

Well, uh, my friend Jeannie
and I were up on the hill.

We were playing up
on the hill in the woods.

We saw these two men
dressed entirely in black

and they were measuring
the hillside.

One looked perfectly ordinary,

except he was dressed
all in black.

Caucasian looking.

The other man
looked kind of Asian.

And then he had, like,
dyed blond hair.

Now, nowadays,
if you saw an Asian man

with dyed blond hair
all dressed in black

that, that might
not be unusual.

It was back in 1966.

We knew
to be frightened of them,

and then we ran home.

Later, my brother
came home from school

and said he and his friends
were up on the hill

and they found this big circular
impression on the hillside

like either an impression
of a UFO

or a crop circle or something.

Then, of course,
years later I would,

I would see the Men in Black
in various ways.

Uh, Men in Black reports.

Have you guys taken
any of those?

Uh, it's just, it hasn't been
necessarily a formal report.

But just speaking
with individuals that told us,

you know, when they were kids
that...

- They saw it.
- They saw a man in black

or Men in Black
came to their house.

We've had one, one report that
was really intriguing to us

that that kind of lined up with

some of the, uh,
bizarre man in black,

where the translucent
kind of skin

and looked kind of weird,

and didn't know
how to shake hands

or work a ballpoint pen
sort of deal,

but that was just one account.

Yeah, there's various theories,
of course,

about who the Men in Black
really are,

or if they're even part of a
qualifiable group.

I think the most prosaic
and simple explanation

is that they are...
some type of government

disinformation group
that is seeking to, you know,

if, if they are behind
what people have seen,

then they're following up
on that sighting

by further, you know, either
trying to find out what they saw

and get a, get a description

for their own
data gathering purposes,

or if it's an entire, sort of,
psychological operation,

to just chart what people,

how they are reacting to the
strange goings on, in their area

and that they have experienced.

Whether or not Indrid
Cold and the Men in Black

have any ties to the military
is debatable,

but all of this talk about them
reminded me

of a conversation I had
with my friend, Mark Muncy.

Mark is a paranormal author
and historian based in Florida

who grew up in Appalachia

and who would come across
a story regarding Indrid Cold

which might help put together
some pieces

regarding the origins
of the person

or being behind the myth.

So Mark, I have heard
that you have uncovered

a brand new Indrid Cold story
when you were researching

for one of your new books.

Can you please
share that with us?

Indrid Cold Is this
interesting figure

in UFO work and research.

There's some other sightings
here throughout histories

supposedly turns up
similar to Mothman.

It kind of turns up in places
right before bad things happen,

or, or just after
bad things happen.

And one of the incidents

from Florida's past
I was researching

was, uh, known as
the Crestview incident.

This happened in 1967 in April.

This was a UFO incident there.

A school, uh, a bunch
of students at a school

saw, uh, unusual aircraft.

Tons of students see it.

The teachers see it.

There's no keeping kids
in school.

This thing is flying
right outside.

It's got little ones with it.

It's a big, classic saucer.

Everybody's like,
"Wow, that was crazy."

But then the military show up

and they start
interrogating the students

and, and the teachers
as witnesses.

The story in the paper says,

"Unusual craft sighted
was, was helicopters,"

and it disappears.
It goes out of the papers.

Nobody talks
about it again through,

you know, 50 years.

Well, the advent
of social media,

suddenly these kids are like,

"Wait a minute,
it wasn't helicopters.

"I saw something weird.
What did you see?"

And a lot of them
started talking

and started getting in touch
with each other there.

They, they kind of form
a group online.

I reached out to that group
when I was told about it,

and when that caught me,

I, I, was like, "Okay, tell me.
Tell me about this.

"Tell me about this."

And I started talking
to each one

that was willing to talk to me.

I got to talk to one
in particular.

He had met with, uh,
government agents,

uh, had come to his house to
talk to him after the incident.

His father had kept the names

of the men
who had asked him questions.

He had the note that his dad

well, you know, basically
journaled everybody he talked.

He had talked to
a Lieutenant Smith.

There was a a Captain Sinclair
from the Coast Guard,

but then the third name
just said, government man,

Cold.

This would have been six months

after Indrid's encounter
with Derenberger.

Is he working
with the government now?

And I'm like,
"Do you remember the guy?"

And he said, "Yeah, he just
kind of stood there.

"Weird suit and just smiled
at me the whole time."

I don't remember him
asking any questions.

Is Indrid Cold working
with the government?

You know, has he become
the Men in Black?

You know, that we hear
so much about?

It would make a lot of sense.

You wanna talk bomb shells,
it's like goose bumps.

Still, you know,
thinking about it

and seeing that piece of paper.

Yeah, I think we get issues
with the UFO's,

when we started talking about
UFO's because it draws this

this image into people's
heads of alien spacecraft.

It's not necessarily
what we're talking about.

We're talking about
an unidentified flying object

or a piece of, you know,
aerial phenomena.

Which could be
nocturnal lights, you know,

and we don't know
what that is,

we haven't a clue
what that is.

These things have been happening
around here for a very long time.

You can talk
to a lot of people,

and they'll tell you
they've seen things.

You know, my grandmother,

back in the days
when she was growing up,

there was a bright light
that came down,

and it's all out
in the field.

Well, I thought that was
probably a meteorite.

So you know, as I got older,

I went out
and try to find that,

but never found it.

I don't necessarily
believe that

we're dealing
with the modern phenomenon

as some people believe.

Well, Dave,
thanks for coming out to talk to us.

So I heard
you had a sighting.

That's quite interesting.

Ecosystems of Davis
of West Virginia,

North of the Dolly Sods
Wilderness and then it came...

My wife now is actually there
vacationing for a week.

And this is on a June 30th,

on a Tuesday night and it
was, of course, of this year.

It's a really odd area,

but it's quite beautiful.

But anyways, we wanted
just to do some astronomy,

and we drove out there
with the telescope,

and, uh, 'course star maps
and everything,

and do some stuff.

And we got parked,

we probably weren't even out
there, maybe 15 minutes,

and we looked up
in the northwestern sky

and we just saw
this orbit just,

like a golden tan color.

Orbit just popped
into the sky.

Of course, it went from
Northwest to Southwest.

And it went towards
the Southeast, it kind of...

it just jolted, like,
did a skid like a jolt thing,

and it just disappeared.

And then a second later,
I was looking down,

looking actually,
like looking at my wife,

and she just looked up.

And yelled at me,
"There's another one."

And then, as she looked up

and then another came
across the sky.

And in the same trajectory,

and it did the same thing
of... it just poof, poof,

it was gone. Um...

How long
did you see each thing?

When they blinked in,
and then by the time they left?

Not even maybe two minutes.

And then it was,
it was nice,

it was too fast
to be an airplane,

too slow to be a satellite.

It's just this...
the whole trajectory of it.

When we drove up from
forward seventy from Davis

and, of course,
the trajectory of both,

the first and second object

that went across the sky...

towards the Dolly
Sods Wilderness.

I believe,
you know, obviously,

there's something going on
that we can't explain.

Of course,
what they're being UFO.

I mean, it could be a military
craft, for all we know

'cause we don't
know everything

that they have
right now, obviously...

but that was...
that's basically the whole experience.

The more time
I spent in West Virginia,

the more I felt like I wasn't
seeing the big picture.

At this point, I talked
to numerous witnesses

and learned about a number
of fascinating sightings,

both historic and present day.

But what connected them?

While conducting
this interview

about their sighting
in Sutton,

Lewis had hinted
at the possibilities

of a military angle to the
sightings of UFOs in the state.

Dave had similarly wasn't ruling out
the possibility of the light he'd seen

in the skies near Dolly Sods
belonging to a military craft.

Whispers of
military operations

in West Virginia have been

a part of the state's
lore for decades.

Rumors of underground
bases dotting

the Appalachian Mountain range
that runs through the state

are nearly as widespread

as sightings
of Mothman or UFOs.

The NSA, FBI, Army
and National Guard

all operate out of the region.

But those are
the known locations.

What else might be
happening in the state

that were being kept
in the proverbial dark about?

You know,
thanks for doing this with us today.

So you have seen something
highly anomalous?

Yes. Yes.

Go on tell that story to us.

I was 13 years old.

It was May of 1997.

The sun had just went down.

So it was about 09:15,
I would say.

My mom,
my younger brother and I,

we were on the front porch
of our house.

As we're looking out
that way,

we noticed this
bright light appear

out in the distance
and we watch it,

thinking that
it was an airplane

um, we realize that
it's moving way too slow.

And we watch it
for about ten minutes

before it's close
enough to us,

that we realize it's something
really, really large.

We're in so much shock.

We just watch it
as it approaches.

And by the time it gets to us,
we realize it's at least

from where we're
to the end of the street.

I'd say it was about
300 feet wide,

it was a triangle,
and it might have been

at the most
a 100 feet up in the air,

and moving maybe
at five miles an hour.

I mean, it was slow.

And we just step there
and all,

like looking at this
thing in shock,

and I mean,
we were terrified.

Not a sound
coming from it.

Nothing...
just floating along.

And we watch it,
like travel past.

And we go around
the side of the house,

and we watch it go off
into the horizon.

And at that point, we're
like, "Oh, my goodness,

"we gotta get someone
else to see this."

So we go and get our dad. He watches
the flight go off and he's like,

I'm not saying that,
"You didn't see a UFO."

I can't tell what it was.

Um, but don't tell
anybody what you saw

because they will think
you're crazy.

It peaked an interest
in me as to like,

"Okay, what was this?"

I mean, for me, honestly,

there's... no matter
what the intent is,

there's nothing that
we can do, you know?

So it's not something
that I really think about

or consider 'cause whether they're
here just to, you know, observe us,

or if they're planning
an invasion,

there's... and I know
that's extreme,

the whole invasion thing.

But when we go to a foreign
place here on Earth,

it's where you're there
to observe,

to actually engage
the civilization

and take samples and
collect data and all that,

or we're there
to just completely

take it over. There...

there was a neighbor
that lived beside of us,

and she swore that

there is a government
test facility for aircraft.

It would be roughly...

about 40 miles
to the South East

of where we're at,
uh, town called Elkins.

The direction
where it came from

would have been
in that area.

Katie,
thanks for chatting with us.

I mean, are you...
have you always been interested in UFOs

or you just had
your own sighting?

And that's what...

that's got you kind of
going in this subject.

I've always been
interested in UFOs

because of my grandfather,

who was part
of Project Blue Book,

and he worked before
that with NASA.

Um, he was kind of
a spokesman for Blue Book.

And he would
give the line, like,

"You know, we don't find
any evidence

"to support
the existence of UFOs."

He was a disinformation guy.

Essentially. Even though
he had his own UFO sighting.

Oh, can you expand
upon your... your own sightings.

Yeah. I've never seen
anything in the sky before

I moved out here,

and then all of a sudden
I saw things that,

you know, I didn't...
I didn't know what they were.

The first thing I saw was
from my deck it was at dusk,

and I was looking up
over here in the sky.

I saw what looked
like a star,

and it got really, really,
really bright.

And then it started moving
around really radically,

like, really crazy,
like an insect almost.

And then it just
blinked out to nothing.

Well, I saw another thing that
was sort of like that again

in that same part
of the sky,

and from the same place
on my deck.

But I saw it at about
3:00 In the morning,

and I also I don't know
what that was,

and I posted on facebook

seeing if anybody else
had seen anything like that

or had seen...
saw what I saw before,

and there was
like one gal in town

who said that she's seen
that a couple of times,

and it also didn't know
what it was.

So this, this area has a lot of
military presence in the sky.

Maybe that could explain

some of the things
that I've seen.

I wouldn't be
too surprised, but...

Like the experimental craft.

Yeah, like something
that nobody knows about.

Throughout our trip,
we've heard about Davis

and specifically
the Dolly Sods Wilderness.

It's where Dave
had his sighting.

And it's also a location
where my friend Les O'Dell

conducts a lot of his
paranormal research.

There are also rumors
of secret military ops

taking place in the region.

But the more time we spend
looking into all of this,

the more rumors
of government installations

and secret black ops
involving UFOs come up.

National Radio Astronomy
Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.

Here there is no
industrial noise,

no airports,
little highway traffic,

no transmission interference.

The surrounding mountains
protect the area

from the crackle
of Earth's atmosphere.

It's worth mentioning
Green Bank Observatory

construction began in 1957.

Originally intended
to be just one piece

of the National Radio
Astronomy Observatory.

Its ultimate goal was
to study objects in space

based on the radio waves.

Frequently referred to as
West Virginia's Area 51.

Part of the mission
assigned to the facility

was determining
whether or not

other life existed
in our solar system.

Today, the observatory
is privately owned

and wholly embraces
it's extraterrestrial history,

but its mystique
continues to grow.

The Green Bank Observatory
is one of the largest

observatories on
the East Coast,

and the money was approved
very recently

after the Flatwoods
Monster event,

and subsequent
government investigations.

It's in Green Bank,
West Virginia.

It's one of those areas
where when you enter

into this certain perimeter,

no cell phones, no TV.

Everything's 1940s
era equipment.

Otherwise the satellite
can pick it up,

it can damage the signals
or corrupt signals.

Can you tell us about
the Green Bay incident

with the photos that
you showed me.

There was the guy got a hold
on me through e-mail.

He e-mailed me his pictures,

and he said he took them
in the Green Bank area.

I believe he took them
with a cell phone,

and he said he was
just driving around,

and he looked up and he's
seeing this thing in the sky,

he starts taking pictures,

next thing he knows,
there's a second one

and he's taking
pictures of it.

And what's strange
is Green Bank

in my understanding
is a no fly zone.

So if these are near
Green Bank,

they shouldn't have
been there.

Even if they were drones,
they shouldn't have been there.

So I got hold of Ron Lanham

and he was perplexed by them
and he took them in.

done the enhancements,
and have done the 3D modeling

to show that it's something
other than like...

a bird in the sky, you know?

Yeah, that's about
as far as it went with

the guy that
sent me the pictures.

Are you aware of...

like government investigation
of UFO sightings?

I've heard...

I've heard Green Bank
has something to do with it.

But there are people in Beckley
area in the Oak Hill area

believe that there's more
that goes on there.

How about
your own personal sightings?

I've only had one,
but it was at Dolly Sods.

And that was two months ago.

I went up to watch
the stars like I do.

You know, I'll just drive up
there to watch stars

and I'm laying in my van
looking out the window,

and I see this,
uh, orange light

come across from one horizon.

It just moves in a blink and
then moves in another blink.

It wasn't moving steadily.
It just moved to a spot, blink,

and then they got so...
so far over,

and it blinked and went out.

And then I could see
blink again,

and it shot like in an angle
and started blinking again

and moved over again and then
eventually just went off.

Thanks for
taking us out here.

This is where
I've seen the light.

- I've seen... I was sitting over here...
- Mm-hmm.

and I was actually
laying in my van,

and it was right over here,

along this side in this area,
the sky here.

You felt like
it was maybe conventional?

It... way it moved.

- I mean, I couldn't say it was UFO.
- Mm-hmm.

Mainly, because I couldn't
see it, also was the light.

But it moved.

It moved forward.

It's starting to seem
like this.

It's stopped blinking
and then it like,

seemed like a shot
in the Z pattern,

shot down in an angle,
started blinking again.

And then kept on going
so far this way.

And that was it. I lost it.
Didn't see it any more

- All right, where are we at?
- So, so, now.

So, you know,
let's tell them what you saw

in the first night she was
able to pick it up too.

Yes. So, um,
right over in that area,

going pretty like,
pretty fast.

We saw a consistent
bluish light

going pretty quickly
and disappeared.

It disappeared
and then it came back

and disappeared.

Now it's gone.

Whoa, I've never
seen anything

move that quickly
through the sky. That was...

That was actually
really far away.

That's what's impressive

is because the second
you said it,

I actually,
I locked eyes on it,

and it was so far,

but it was smooth,
and going extremely fast.

- Yeah.
- Something to go.

- I mean, where that plane is...
- Mm-hmm.

Look how far.
It's been in this.

It's been going,
going in the sky.

And comparing
the speed of the plane

to what it was doing was
just significantly quick.

Yeah, that was...
that is...

that is a huge difference
between what was there,

and then that.

I don't know,
it was weird, man.

It was weird, man.

It like turned off and then
you could see it again.

Was that an airplane 'cause like, we just lost it.

Oh, that is weird.

Hey, Shannon.
That one just disappeared.

- I have it on film.
- Yeah.

So...

- Watch... So right here, right where my finger is at.
- Uh-hmm.

See? So watch that zone.

I was trying to get focus.

You're seeing it move?

Oh, yeah. Was that an
airplane 'cause I just lost it.

It's there,
you'll see it move and then it goes away.

Oh, I think I just saw
it behind it and then it goes.

Yeah, right there. Right...
So see there's those two pieces?

You're gonna see
the bottom one move...

Watch.

Moving, moving, moving,
moving...

And then it goes away.

It's gone.

Oh!

- That literally moved, like...
- That's awesome.

couple, maybe, I don't know,
that far up, thousand feet,

ten thousand... I don't know.
I'm not a scientist,

- but we definitely... You wanna see that side?
- Okay, that was cool.

You have to see this...

I've officially seen a UFO.

Holy crap!

That's for real. That's legit.
That was legit.

The objects or lights that
we saw at night are unidentifiable.

Could they be known aircraft?

Sure. Maybe.

But they bear startling
similarities

to what Dave and Les
saw in the same area,

right down to the fact that they
disappeared without a trace.

The camera didn't
quite do justice

to the low altitudes
they seem to be flying at.

And against a sky
full of bright stars,

you almost had to be there
to really get the full effect,

which I now realize

is something that witnesses
say to me all the time...

"You had to be there
to understand it."

So, I've finally seen something

that I can't identify.

I'm still trying to make sense of
where it came from or what it was.

Did it come from one of those
rumored military bases

or is it simply a test aircraft
running maneuvers?

If it's not of this earth,
then what is it doing here?

Is there something in this
particular area drawing it in?

As far as a defining characteristic
of UFOs in West Virginia,

I think the most consistent

seems to be a light
or a flying disc of some sort

that will often be spotted
in places where

there has been a history
of mining.

There's a correlation it would
seem between those two things,

even to the degree
that in many cases,

people report seeing

what appears to them
to be a physical craft,

suddenly dive into the ground

without an explosion.

And that's so often
accompanied by some type

of mine or location that has
to do with that industry.

Are you aware of any other sightings
in association with coal mining?

The coal mine areas, yeah.

I mean, there's even one that come
from the Canaan area in the valley

where... is it 2012 I believe,
or it's 2013,

where several people
say they saw these large

black triangles, like three in
a row cross over this coal mine.

Have you taken
many or any reports?

Have you heard of any reports?

Doesn't matter
if you've taken it or not,

I'm just asking general...

that tie together

UFO sightings at coal mines.

We do have mines and we do have,
you know, episodes of high strangeness

that do occur
around these things.

So if there's an episode
of high strangeness

that are sometimes
related to UFOs.

It's related
to other things too,

but, you know,
you have to look at those.

The reports that we've all taken

were actually in correlation with
power plants in the Chemical Valley.

- Are you talking about...
- I'm talking about the big...

You're talking about nukes.

- Yeah...
- That's a whole different story.

That's not necessarily
the power plant.

That's not a power plant...
That's way more impressive.

But we recently...
we had a report that came in,

it's about three weeks old now
at this point,

where a Saint Alban's gentleman

had a visual sighting,
daylight sighting,

and it was flying
through the Chemical Valley.

He said the object looked
like it was

a silver, kinda mirrory finish

and it was flying alongside
an Osprey.

He said that this Osprey
didn't have

a stereotypical paint job
that you would expect

from a military vehicle

and then there was the single
fighter jet

that he said came on blaring
up the valley.

And whenever the two objects
kinda came in close proximity,

that the shining
unidentified object

blinked out and went
straight up in the atmosphere.

And that would have been roughly
near the John Amos power plant.

Inside the Kanawha River Valley,

they call it the "Chemical River
Valley" or the "Chemical Valley."

West Virginia...
The Kanawha river area

was home to all of these
weapons manufacturing plants.

Nitro is named after, you know,

the production of TNT
and explosives for the war.

And, there were sighting
in Saint Albans.

And Saint Albans is right
across river from Nitro,

so these things could have been
in Nitro.

So what you're saying is...

basically the exact same thing

that they're reporting at these
nuclear bases and what not...

today, that we could be dealing
with the same thing

that they were actually looking
at maybe the components,

rather than the actual
nuclear side of it.

Right, because at that point,
they were all separate components

and each area was developing
their own portion.

Kenneth,
can you tell us where we are right now?

We're about...

I don't know exactly...
We're about a mile from...

- We're near Bowden area.
- Bowden? Okay.

Do you think there could
be some kind of tie-in between

between caves and mines
and what you saw?

I see mines all over the place.

Um... There's one probably

I'd say two miles from my house.

A good sized mine.

Um, but there's mines
all over West Virginia.

I mean, you've got the
mine, we're brimming with mines up there.

You know, 150-year old mines.

It didn't come from the ground,
it came from the air, evidently.

It was in the air.

And when it took off, it didn't
have no trouble at all, like that...

that fast and it was gone.

But... It was something.

I don't know if it was from
here, you know, or space,

or I ain't gonna say UFO

because what I've seen were seen
other times in West Virginia.

We've seen it in Morgantown.

I think it was even seen
around here somewhere.

So after going through
all of the places that we've been,

I kinda put together this map
and let me know what you think.

But it looks like

these locations
that we've been talking about

all correlate with coal mines.

I mean, within miles

or minutes in some instances.

There's a lot of abandoned
mines in West Virginia

and deep mines with some
that go back centuries.

And what are active mines that are
even close to power stations in...

So, I don't know
if many power stations,

those cells meant something

as an energy source
for something like this

and maybe that's why.

Maybe some of these mines are
some place it seems they can hide

and be developed by

something other-worldly
or something right here.

The interesting thing is West
Virginia is a heavily mined state, right?

So known for coal mines.

The western part of the state
is not heavily mined.

And yet you've got this preponderance
of reports around Point Pleasant

in the 1960s.

Point Pleasant
is a mined location,

an area

that is not know for mining.

And if you extrapolate that out,

the same thing holds true
for Sutton and Flatwoods

where all of a sudden
there's been mines

and those are places
known for sighting.

So it's not necessarily an effect of
sightings happening in heavily mined areas.

It seems like
the big thing is that there's

sightings happening in places
that are not known for mining

where there happen to be mines.

Even maybe years ago.

Now, Les, we went to Dolly Sods
when you came.

Tell me about that area in relation
to the theory we're kinda going with.

It's largely

limestone area,

a majority of what would be
considered as mine areas.

There are mines...

like Buffalo Coal
that used to be there.

There's a Mettiki Mine...

And they're all feeding into the
Mount Storm Power Plant.

It just came from miles away
from Dolly Sods.

So we pretty much haven't come across
a sighting that does not correlate

with an energy source.

Okay, what about the idea,
guys, of...

maybe these things

just strictly taking out
power plants and coal mines?

These things coming directly
in and out of the earth?

But there has been sightings
in this area, you know,

just in Elkins
or like the Milton area...

We've had a few sightings
from there,

where there was a triangle
object or a disc, you know.

This local UFO researcher
named Bob Keats

who wrote a book
all about West Virginia,

compiling
his West Virginia cases.

The theory
that you're presenting

was put forth by him as well,

and one thing
that had pointed out

was that there were a large
number of sightings in that book,

historical sightings,
older sightings,

where people did see objects diving
into or coming out of the earth.

I suppose the easier question,

not with an answer though,

is could they be pulling
energy from these sources?

What is the purpose?

It certainly kinda nods in that
direction at the very least.

Yeah, are they leeching
energy from these places?

Are they literally
coming out of the earth?

There's books
from the 1950s and 60s

where people posited the idea

that UFOs are coming
from hollow earth.

So basically after everything
that we've gone through,

it still doesn't tell us much
of anything for sure.

Just gives us more questions.

But at least for our part of it,
especially in West Virginia,

it is a model
that we can build on.

The dark sky of West
Virginia holds a lot of secrets.

Apparently, so do
it's mountains and rivers,

it's forests
and it's hills and hollers.

Maybe it's all connected,

maybe there are
extra-terrestrial beings

coming from the stars
to secretly mine our planet.

Or maybe it's our own

or even a foreign military
testing aircraft in our backyard.

Maybe the visitors are coming
from inside the earth itself.

For now, I'm heading back home,

where I'll no doubt continue my
search for stories and answers

to questions
I haven't even asked yet.

After all, just because I live in
a city too bright to see the stars,

doesn't mean
I'll ever stop looking up.

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