UFO ROUNDUP
Volume 3, Number 1
January 4, 1998
Editor: Joseph Trainor

UFO SEEN HOVERING OVER
COLUMBUS, OHIO

     On Friday, December 12, 1997, D.F. was driving
north on Highway 71 in Columbus, the state capital
of Ohio when he spotted an unusual object hovering
in the sky off to the right of the highway.
     The UFO was hovering about one mile east of
Cooper Stadium, near the Scioto River and the
intersection of Broad Street and Brown Road.
     "Because I have an interest in the phenomenon of
UFOs, and also a long-standing hobby of astronomy,
I do try to pay attention to the sky whenever I am
outside," he reported.  "This is a conscious effort on my
part to increase my chances of seeing things of interest,
be they natural or unusual."
     At 1 a.m., just as he drove past the Interstate Highway
70 turnoff, he "saw the object at a distance of approximately
100 yards or so.  Its angle was perhaps 20 degrees up from
the horizon.  As I came nearer, its outline and size became
clearer...I would estimate it at approximately 30 to 40 feet
off the ground, and above a spot about 15 feet to my right.
As I passed it, its position angle was about 65 degrees
above the horizon."
     "I estimate seeing it for about seven seconds.  I
couldn't describe any color other than dark, except for
the color of the lights on it...The best way to describe the
thing would be a classic fish shape...it had what looked
like a fin at the closest end, was bulky toward the middle
and tapered some at the furthest end."
     "The lights seemed to be at the ends.  One was a
dull red, darker and dimmer than a streetlight, and the
other was a pale green.  The size of the lights appeared
at the time to be as large as traffic light bulbs, and it
was the lights which first attracted my attention up into
the sky."
     "The object wasn't moving but I was doing between
45 and 50 miles per hour.  I remember thinking about
getting off at the next exit and trying to get another look.
But there wasn't one right away and because I had to
get up early the next day for work, I decided to go on
home."
     D.F. said the condition of the sky was "light snow,
wind about 10 to 15 miles per hour, temperatures in
the high twenties (Fahrenheit)" at the time of the sighting.
     "I have driven by that spot several times at the same
time of night, and different times during the day, and I
haven't seen it, or anything like it, since."  (Email
Interview)

UFO FLAP IN TEXAS KICKS
OFF THE NEW YEAR

     Texas rang in the new year for UFOs with two
sightings in the eastern part of the Lone Star state.
     On Friday, January 2, 1998, at 6:15 a.m., Mike H.
of Arlington, Texas (population 261,721), a city 20
miles (32 kilometers) west of Dallas, "had just entered
our kitchen and glanced out our window when I noticed
the very bright, large white or yellow light appear.  It was
quite bright.  The object moved very quickly in a
northerly direction across my viewing area as seen from
my window.  It then made a zigzagging turn going down
and then dropped, reversing direction and losing altitude."
     Altering course again, the UFO "moved behind a
building where I lost sight of it.  My observation of the
bright light had lasted approximately three seconds."
    "I also noticed a white strobe light that blinked on the
object similar to an aircraft," Mike reported, adding that
he had seen many aircraft "from my window and I have
never seen one move as quickly as this one did.  I also
noticed that the light source remained at a constant
brightness even though it was turning."  (Email Interview)
     On Saturday, December 27, 1997, Linda N. was
driving on a highway west of Harlingen, Texas
(population 48,735), a city 477 miles (763 kilometers)
south of Dallas when she saw an unusual light in the sky.
     "This object was in my line of vision as I was going
over a highway overpass," she reported.  "It lasted about
three seconds and was traveling from north to south.
(i.e. towards the border with Mexico--J.T.)  It appeared as
a thin green streak across the sky and ended in a large
yellow/white ball of light that disappeared.  No residue
was seen in the sky."
     "I drive home from work well after nightfall.  I drive
an extended distance on flat Texas countryside, without
trees or other obstacles to block my vision.  I often times
look upward to see the beautiful stars and to watch for
unexplained objects."
     A longtime "meteor shower watcher," she added,
"I have never witnessed one like that.  It was just exciting."
     Two days later, on Monday, December 29, "while
again driving home from work, I saw another meteorite.
This one was traveling from the northeast to the southwest.
Lasted about seven seconds, but it was different from the
first one.  This one appeared to be like a regular meteorite...
white tail...but moving much slower than other meteorites
I've witnessed.  Then, halfway through my viewing, its
tail turned green...and then it exploded in a large blast...
and then more orange glowing pieces trailed behind it,
as though it were breaking apart.  It was great!"  (Many
thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. for this news story.)

MORE UFOs REPORTED IN
NORTH CAROLINA

     On Saturday night, December 20, and Sunday night,
December 21, 1997, witnesses in the small towns of
Marshall (population 809) and Mars Hill (population
1,611) in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina
sighted "a glowing object flying back and forth in
the night sky."
     The sightings were reported Monday, December 22,
1997 on radio station WKSF 99.9FM in Asheville, N.C.
(population 61,607).
     "Many people in (rural) Madison County witnessed
it," one man reported.  "At first they thought the object
had been a downed aircraft.  But no private planes
were reported missing."
     Marshall and Mars Hill are on Highway 213
about 22 miles (35 kilometers) north of Asheville and
270 miles (432 kilometers) west of Raleigh.  (Many
thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. and Tim Hagemeister of
NACOMM for this report.)

UFOs APPEAR OVER TWO
CANADIAN PROVINCES

     On Saturday, December 20, 1997, at 6:15 p.m.,
Sallie C. was outdoors at her home in Meadow Lake,
Saskatchewan (population 4,318) when she spotted
"three bright lights in the northeastern sky."
     "What caught my attention was that they were
larger and brighter than the stars and were moving
together in a diagonal direction," she reported.  "I
looked at them for perhaps four or five seconds
and then they disappeared."
     Meadow Lake is at the junction of provincial
Highways 4 and 55, about 184 miles (294 kilometers)
north of Saskatoon.  (Many thanks to Tim Hagemeister
of NACOMM for this report.)
     On Thursday, December 18, 1997, at 1:30 a.m.,
a loud booming sound reverberated down the 
Illecilliwaet River valley east of Revelstoke, British
Columbia (population 7,729).  Immediately following
the boom, "the whole valley east of Revelstoke lit up
as if daylight," according to Alan M. Young, an
engineer with the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
     "A large ball of light was seen hovering above the
peak of Mount Sir Donald," Young reported.  "After
about ten seconds, the ball of light shot up into the
night sky and disappeared."
     Witnesses to this mysterious event in British
Columbia's Selkirk Mountains included two train
crews of the Canadian Pacific, plus "another CPR
crew deadheading in a taxi."
     Revelstoke is on Highway 1 just west of Canada's
Glacier National Park, approximately 345 miles
(552 kilometers) northeast of Vancouver.  (Many
thanks to Errol Bruce-Knapp for this report.)

DAYLIGHT DISKS HOLD SWAY
IN CENTRAL AMERICA

     Daylight disks dominated the skies over the small
Central American nations of Costa Rica and Belize
during Christmas week.
     On Thursday, December 18, 1997, Miguel Tirado
Alvarez spotted mysterious lights in the night sky
over San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica.  He
reported, "I saw various white points of light, 
approximately eight, hovering above the capital city.
It (the UFO) was moving around a great deal.  It
was reported not to be an airplane."
     On Monday, December 22, 1997, tourist T.
Hickman was relaxing at his hotel on San Pedro
Island, off the coast of Belize.  At about 11 p.m.,
he reported, "My wife and I saw a UFO flying straight
above us, just slightly to the south of the Pleiades
star cluster."  The object "followed a very erratic
flight pattern and made many direction changes"
during its overflight.
     Also on December 22, eyewitnesses in Golfito,
Costa Rica, a port on the Golfo Dulce approximately
330 kilometers (198 miles) south of San Jose, near
the Panama border, spied several "daylight discs"
crossing the sky.  The saucers were also seen in
Puerto Jimenez, across the bay from Golfito.
     The same afternoon, in San Jose, two camera
crews from local TV stations "videotaped silver
'flying saucers' in the sky to the south of the city.
Before the eyes of hundreds of people, they made
zigzag maneuvers for several minutes.  Flight
controllers at (San Jose's) Juan Santamaria
International Airport counted approximately fifty
thousand (radar) traces of these movements."
     Costa Rican ufologist Carlos Vilchez noted
that this was "the first time that UFOs appeared
in daytime" in his country.  In December 1996,
a similar UFO flap engulfed Costa Rica.  He
warned of "an influx of OVNIs (Spanish acronym
for UFO) into the air space of the Central
American countries within the next two months."
     On Christmas Day, December 25, 1997, ten
silver saucers flew westward from the Cordillera
Central, passing over San Jose.  "They flew over
the city for several minutes and were filmed by
TV cameramen."  (Muchas gracias a Len Fedullo,
Tim Hagemeister y otros para esas historias)

STRANGE SUBTERRANEAN
HUM HEARD IN INDIANA

     On November 30, 1997, Wayne T. was asleep in
bed at his home in Floyds Knobs, Indiana
(population 600) when a weird hum suddenly jolted
him awake.
     The hum appeared to be coming from the
gound outside his home, he reported.  "The hum
was evident mostly at night, but it may have been
during the day also.  It had a very low pitch.  It was
of a very low frequency.  It was not a constant
sound.  It became more intense and then less
intense.  It was the same sound for just about ten
to fifteen seconds and then peaked and then
subsided."
     "My wife could barely hear the sound.
Sometimes not at all."
     Asked if he had suffered any physical effects
as a result of the hum, Wayne replied, "The only
physical effect it had was that it made me
irritable because it was so constant."
     He said he first heard the hum "from about
March 20 to about April 20" in 1997.  The cause
remains unexplained.
     Floyds Knobs is on Indiana Highway 150,
approximately 6 miles (10 kilometers) northwest
of Louisville, Kentucky.  (Email Interview)

CUICUILCO: MEXICO'S
MYSTERIOUS PYRAMID

     All experts agree that the Cuicuilco pyramid
is the oldest structure in the Anahuac Valley,
which houses modern Mexico City, and the very
first monumental construction in the Americas.
     Disagreements as to its antiquity and the
people who built it continue to this very day.
Official records state that the Cuicuilco structures
can be no older than 600 B.C., but revisionist
figures claim the structure was built between
8,000 to 10,000 years ago, thus making it almost
as old as the "Tepexpan Man," the earliest
prehistoric dweller found in Mesoamerica.
     Cuicuilco measures some 17 meters
(56 feet) in height and has a diameter of 115 meters
(380 feet).  A series of ramps provided access to
its uppermost tier, which housed a temple with a
statue of Huehueteotl, the "Old God of Fire," the
first deity worshipped on this continent.
     The mighty circular pyramid is surrounded by
smaller structures and rectangular buildings with
well-finished floors which must have been houses.
     The contented lives of the prosperous,
unwarlike Cuicuilcans came to an end when
(Mount) Ajusco, a 4,000-foot tall peak located on
the same mountain range as the Popocatateptel
volcano began to exhibit volcanic activity.  The
earthquakes which rocked Anahuac Valley caused
an enormous hole to open in the ground--a smaller
volcano called Xitle, which poured a torrent of lava
that destroyed nearby Copilco before engulfing
Cuicuilco itself.
     The inhabitants fled before the destruction,
and all that was left behind as an eighty square
mile (128 square kilometer) lava field known as
El Pedregal.  Debate also rages around the date of
Xitle's eruption, which geologists have placed as
far back as some seven thousand years ago,
while archaeologists squarely place it at between
500 and 200 A.D.
     The circular pyramid's base, twice the length
of a soccer field, has also yielded its share of
mysteries.  The Spanish physician Hernandez,
sent to Mexico by order of (King) Philip II, visited
Cuicuilco and wrote his sovereign about having
found the bones of large beasts (including the
toxodon and the titanothere, now extinct--J.T.)
along with those of "men" in excess of five
meters (17 feet) tall.  Natives expressed a belief
that Cuicuilco's engimatic structure had been
built by giants.
     Whatever the case, serious archaeological
work was not undertaken until 1922 when a team
led by Dr. Byron Cummings of the University of
Arizona began digging what could well be the
oldest pyramid on earth.  The site was apparently
visited one night by an unidentified flying light
which hovered over the ruins before speeding off
into the distance.  (Direct reprint from the
article "Mexico: Forgotten Ruins and Ancient
Astronauts" by Scott Corrales, which appeared
in SAMIZDAT--The Newsletter of UFOs and the
Paranormal, Special Report: Mexico 1997)
(Editor's Comment:  According to my old geology
professor, El Pedregal is a typical a'a lava flow
of the late Pleistocene Period, meaning Xitle's
eruption probably took place around 8,000 B.C.
Interestingly, one corner of the Cuicuilco pyramid
is buried in Pedregal lava, which presumably
means its construction predated the eruption.)

from the UFO Files...

1948: THE MANTELL CASE

     January 7 marks the 50th Anniversary of Captain
Thomas F. Mantell Jr.'s fatal encounter with a UFO
over southern Kentucky.  Here is the actual 1948
newspaper account of the incident, which appeared
in the January 8, 1948 issue of a local weekly
newspaper, the Franklin, Ky. Favorite.

PLANE EXPLODES IN MID-AIR, CRASHES
KILLING PILOT ON JOE PHILLIPS FARM

     A P-51 Army fighter plane exploded in mid-air
and crashed on the farm of Joe Phillips about 5
miles south of Franklin yesterday (i.e. January 7,
1948--J.T.) afternoon about 3:30 p.m., killing the
pilot wearing identification tag of Thomas F. Mantell
(Jr.), 3533 River Park Drive, Louisville.  The wrecked
plane bore the (tail) No. Ky. NG 869.
     Mrs. Joe Phillips said she was sitting by her
fire when she heard the plane, with the engine
apparently in trouble, flying near her house.  Almost
immediately there was a large explosion.  Startled,
she glanced out the window and saw the disintegrating
plane hit the ground in a woodslot about 200 yards
away from the house.
     Pieces of wreckage were seen a quarter of a mile
from the point of the crash.  Several people in 
Franklin reported they heard the explosion.
     A vapor trail still floated in the sky an hour after
the crash.
     Another eyewitness, Barbara Mayes, a student
in the Franklin Grade School said she saw the plane
explode while high in mid-air.  She was waiting at
the Lake Springs School for her bus to take her home
when she witnessed the explosion.
     The plane crash marked the second in the past
few months.  The point of the explosion was perhaps
three miles as the crow flies from the spot of the
crash which took the lives of Ed Snow and Richard
M. Thomason on April 29, 1947.
     Mrs. Joe Phillips said she called the telephone
operator and asked that an ambulance and aid be
called to the scene.
     The remains of the dead flyer were removed
from the scene by ambulance and carried to the
Booker Funeral Home to await instructions from
the next of kin, who were to be notified of the
tragedy by Fort Knox officials.
     A veteran of World War II, Captain Mantell
participated in the (June 6, 1944) Normandy
invasion, winning the Distinguished Flying Cross
among other decorations.  He was discharged
from the Army a year ago (1946).  His wife and
two children survive.
     He left Louisville yesterday morning for
Atlanta and was enroute to Louisville on the
return portion of the training flight when the
accident occurred.  Authorities at Fort Knox
reported he left Atlanta at 2 p.m. yesterday.
     Reed Shoulders, assistant chief of police,
said Bill Horn, local constable, was standing
guard last night over the wreckage, pending
arrival of proper authorities to assume custody
of the wrecked plane.
     The plane was operated by the Kentucky
National Guards.  (Many thanks to local
researcher Lee Trail and Lou Farish of UFO
Newsclipping Service for making this article
available to UFO ROUNDUP.)
(Editor's Comment:  Well, it's been fifty years since
Tommy Mantell's run-in with that giant saucer, and
a lot has come out.  But the key documents--the
January 7 situation reports by Colonel Guy F. Hix
and other staff officers at Godman Field, plus the
transcripts of radio traffic between Colonel Hix and
the Air Defense Command at Mitchell Field, Long
Island, New York--remain classified.  If this was
merely a "training flight" and an "accident," why
are these documents still secret fifty years later?)

FUN UFO WEBSITES:
     Saucer Shorts, a weekly UFO newsletter by Loy
Lawhon, comes out every Sunday.  If you'd like to
subscribe, visit this site: http://www.springfieldmo.
miningco.com/library/weekly/aa121497.htm
     For a look at UFOs in Russia, drop in at Alexei
Kafidov's website, also known as The X-Laboratory
of Doctor Bit, at http://www.drbit.com.ru/x-lab
     UFO and crop circle reports in the Netherlands
can be found at Herman de Tollenare's website at
http://www.stelling.nl/simpos/graancir.htm
     What better way to start 1998 than a visit to
our parent site, UFOINFO?  Check out the fine
features, photos, artwork and news made available
by John Hayes at http://www.digiserve.com/ufoinfo/
     For a look at the estimated 500 pages (yipes!)
of UFO sightings that took place during 1997, visit
our website and download back issues from 
Volume 2 of UFO ROUNDUP.  We're at this URL:
http://www.digiserve.com/ufoinfo/roundup/

     And so we begin Volume 3.  New year, same
editor, and more of the comprehensive coverage
you the reader have come to expect from "the
paper that goes home--UFO ROUNDUP."  See
you next weekend!

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1998 by Masinaigan
Productions, all rights reserved.  Readers may post
news stories from UFO ROUNDUP on their websites
or in newsgroups provided that they credit the
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