I do not know what I expected but I know I was not ready for the degree of rural rustic lifestyle this man was living.

The cabin was a very old very dilapidated three-room building that he was holding together with duck tape and hope! Two large wood burning stoves heated it with his water supply borrowed by way of hoses from his neighbor’s barn. I do not recall if he had electric or not but I do know he heated water on his stoves to take a bath every few days.

He lived off the land, which meant he helped himself to the local farmers crops taking his vegetables and fruits from their farms at night by way of flashlight and climbing fences. He also hunted in restricted areas, fished often and always killed the ducks in the area for his seasonal dinner parties. He would brag openly at how little he actually purchased to live or entertain. I found him to be a cheap thief and tried to avoid him as much as possible.

Years passed and so did the distance between me my lady friend and her hippie boyfriend.

About 1999 I ran into this couple at a party being held out on the Island by a mutual friend who lived near South Haven Park. At the end of the evening we were sipping coffee and sharing the desserts we had all brought when the subject came up about the UFO crash in the nearby park years before in 92.

As the man who lived in the cabin and lived off the land devoured the homemade peach pie, he made from the peaches he had stolen the night before from his neighbors fruit trees- he grunted out something about seeing it.

Another guest heard him first and stopped the conversation and asked what the pie eating old hippie had seen? “I saw that crash” he said as if it were a off handed comment about the weather.

At once the people around the table became silent and turned towards him. “What do you mean? You saw the UFO crash in South Haven?” He kept chewing while his girlfriend picked up the subject for him. “Oh I guess we never mentioned it before. He was out gathering wood that night in the park and saw the whole thing.”

As you can imagine every set of eyes in the room were now focused squarely on the pie-eating hippie. He finally looked up from his peach pie plate at a room full of people waiting for him to explain more.

He looked from one to the other around the table knowing he had to confess now as all ears were waiting for his words as the room fell silent. “ Ok, I will tell you but you cannot talk about this as I will deny it. You know your not allowed to take wood out of the park but there were tons of it just laying there rotting. I live right near there and would wait till nightfall. I can get in there from a few back roads I know and go in and gather up what’s laying around.”

Knowing this guys way of life no one was at all surprised that he did this. In fact we knew that he would hunt there at night also. It was a favorite area to collect meat for his winter house parties!

He put down his fork, looked at us all, and as nonchalantly as he could told us his story. “ I was out for a wood haul in the park. It was early around 7 at night I think. I parked my truck on a back road like I always do and was getting out my ax and basket to carry the wood back to my truck. I first heard it, like a huge rushing air sound with a high-pitched whine to it. I looked around and didn’t see anything at first. It was getting louder. My senses just made me look towards the noise and I saw it coming in out of the night sky down towards the woods. At first it looked like a big fireball. As it got closer it changed direction and dipped lower coming in over the park. It was a huge dark colored UFO craft looking thing coming in on its side. It was partly on fire across the one side of it. It was really moving fast. Within seconds I heard it hit the ground. It sounded like a big splat rather than an explosion. I just stood there a minute kind of shocked and kind of frozen in fear. I thought I heard some kind of movement coming from the park from the direction of where this thing hit. I was really terrified as I didn’t have any hunting gear and no one knew where I was. I threw my gear in the truck and tried to start my truck. The damn thing wouldn’t turn over at first. I was thinking about making a run for it back to the main road and my cabin. I tried one last time to turn over my truck and she kicked in. I backed down that dirt road in record speed and got the hell out of there. I think I was just crazy scared and cant swear to it, but I thought I heard yelling or screaming coming from the crash area. I knew I was going to be in trouble if I was caught in there at night so I took off. When I hit the main road I saw all the red lights coming towards the park. I knew I had to get home and lock my self in and that’s what I did. I drove home and locked up that old cabin of mine. I stayed awake all night with my shotgun, just incase what ever was hollering in that woods found its way to my place.”

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