(Recently we received from
Bill Allan in Kelowna, B.C., a recording of several previously unreleased sighting reports
that he selected from his files. While planning to publish others in future issues, we
start with the following two because humanoids were involved. Never in current times have
our visitors shown themselves so openly in such numbers as they did last year. Maybe they
are trying to tell us something. In any case the events of that invasion should be
described as completely as possible, and we are grateful to Bill Allan for enabling us to
add these to the growing record---Editor.)
Dawn Smith, nine years old at the time of
her eerie experience early last November, was awakened about six that morning as her
mother started her car to go to work.
Her mother's departure meant that Dawn would
be alone for a while in their house near Westbank on Lake Okanagan, B.C. Since the house
is somewhat isolated on top of a hill, with only a vineyard nearby, it was a position that
any other young girl might have fussed about. But Dawn is bright and self-reliant and as
usual when her mother left, she snuggled in bed again for a little more sleep.
This, however, was not to be one of those
usual times, for something very strange outside her window against the still-dark sky
caught her eye.
(I saw a big light in the sky and a little
one moving up and down beside it," she told Allan. "The big light was like a
shoe box and it had green lights down one side. The other light was white and it was
swaying as it went up and down. It stopped for a while and then it went up and down again.
Then the "shoebox" opened a door, like a garage door, and the little light went
inside."
Under careful questioning by Allan Dawn
explained the "shoebox" was smaller than half the size of a full moon and she
was looking up at it at an angle of about 45 degrees. She said that besides the green
lights down one side, it had an outline of red lights. Those across the tip were
particularly noticeable.
"The door closed," Dawn continued,
and the "shoebox" went behind a rain cloud but I could still see it because the
cloud only half covered it. Then it came back out and opened the door again, and the
flying saucer came out. When it went in it was just a little round light and when it came
out it was like a flying saucer with lights going around it. They were red, yellow and
orange. It had a little hook on top."
(Editor's note: Dawn's description of the
second light apparently changing to a "flying saucer" adds to the authentic
sound of her account. Almost nine years earlier nurses at Duncan, B.C., staring out a
hospital window, saw the same act in reverse (vol. 1 no. 7, p.3). In full view a hovering
saucer-shaped object with a dome on top became illuminated so brightly its outline was
obscured and it appeared to be simply a ball of light. In Letters of this issue reader
Hazel Elves adds a helpful detail to that case and, by remarkable chance, also refers to a
merry-go-round type of object similar to that seen by Dawn. It is inconceivable the young
girl could have dreamed up such good examples of matching cases.)
Before going to see Dawn with his wife
Yvonne, Allan listened to some of her account over the phone. But the visit itself
produced more surprising information and the Allans decided this was because the young
witness was less nervous than at first and so more willing to recall what had happened.
For one thing, the description of a
"flying saucer" emerging from the larger object was new to them and they were
impressed by the girl's earnestness in trying to remember if the rim lights were revolving
around the "saucer" or if the whole craft was turning.
Dawn also said that when the door of the
first object opened she saw two figures like "guards" standing in the dim light
on the interior. Because she had difficulty in describing what they were like, saying they
were "like a person but it was dark," Allan suggested they may have been wearing
dark uniforms and Dawn seemed to agree.
After the "saucer" left the
"shoebox" Dawn overcame her fear sufficiently to leave her bed and go to the
window for a better view of what was going on. But she was too late.
"It was getting light and the lights
were gone," she said. "I phoned my friend Sandy (who later said Dawn sounded
very frightened). I was scared because I didn't know what that thing was. I thought it was
going to come down and get me. It was halfway down to my house and I thought it was
looking at me."
Helpfully for his visit, Allan, who thought
the girl "showed courage" in saying anything at all about her experience, had
with him the tape of an interview recorded just a few days earlier in which another
humanoid sighting was described. The witness was Stewart Sanborn of nearby Winfield. His
mature account of his own experience, which Allan replayed for Dawn's benefit, not only
had a reassuring effect on the girl but also had the incidental benefit of persuading Mrs.
Smith that her daughter was telling the truth. In particular, Mrs. Smith had wondered
about the part where Dawn described a door opening and figures becoming visible inside.
But that part was put in a new and more convincing light when it turned out Sanborn
had seen something similar.
Sanborn said he was driving north just
beyond Lake Okanagan one autumn evening in 1975 when he had his first hint of strange
things to come.
"I noticed something peculiar in the
sky," he explained. "Whether the sun was shining on it or it had a light of its
own, I'm not sure. But it was unusual, whatever it was, and it attracted my
attention." In the next moment Sanborn lost sight of the object when it disappeared
behind hills that skirt the lake, and at that point a less attentive witness might have
lost interest. But previous encounters had convinced Sanborn that occasionally there were
strange sights in the sky worth watching. Of these the most notable occurred in 1952 when
he and others saw an unexplainable saucer-like craft take flight from that same lake (vol.
1, no. 4, p.5). So now alert to what he had seen, Sanborn kept an eye out and in a few
minutes was rewarded by a dramatic aerial show.
"As I was approaching Kamloops,"
he said, "I noticed two lights, one red and one green, about 30 feet apart. They were
moving slowly and then they nearly stopped, if they didn't stop completely. After a moment
a light came on and I saw what appeared to be a cabin between the lights. A door opened
and I saw what looked like a man jumping out. On his head was a horseshoe-shaped gear
consisting of red and green lights. He went down about 50 feet and then the lights went
out and the machine started off again, veering to the left at quite a hasty speed. There
was no sign of a parachute and the figure descended at a falling speed."
Intrigued by the sight of a figure dropping
like a dead weight into the evening shadows, Sanborn later inquired if there had been
flying activity of any sort around there at that time. As far as he could learn, there was
none.
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