Imagine a winter’s morning with snow on the ground and thick ice on Scargo Lake in Dennis. The morning must have seemed silent and magical. Then, a mysterious object shoots across the sky and disappears behind a line of trees. This event happened on Jan. 7, 1971 when a strange metallic object was seen by two boys on their way to school.
Although the boys saw the bright orange object independent of the other, their stories checked out. The only minute detail separating their accounts was that one boy thought he saw “a small flame at the rear of the object whereas the second boy saw only the object.” (from an official NICAP probe). One boy ran to Scargo Lake and discovered a huge hole with steam rising out of it (the hole was reported to measure 25 by 100 feet). The other boy hurried on to school and told disbelieving teachers about his experience.
Over the next few days, police, newspaper reporters and the Air Force investigated the event. Residents also confirmed that there had been no hole in the ice the day before the glowing object was seen. According to the NICAP report, “there was no apparent way the hole could have been made literally overnight in subfreezing weather.” The temperature at the time of the object’s appearance was 22 degrees. Divers explored the area the following spring but nothing was ever discovered.
Almost a year later on Jan. 2, 1972, three Hyannis boys saw glowing lights over the athletic field at the Hyannis Middle School around 6:30 p.m. In a Cape Cod Times story, the boys described the lights as “belly-to-belly frisbees.” The boys, two brothers and a friend, watched the strange lights for five to ten minutes before the blobs started moving. Finally, the lights “headed northeast, going pretty fast but keeping together. That was the last time we saw them.” The boys told their skeptical mother about their experience and finally convinced her to investigate; however, nothing showed up at the Truro Air Force station, site of several big radar antennas.
After posting an entry last year on UFO sightings in the 1970’s, I received this comment:
“Back around the spring of ‘74, when I was a sophomore in high school, my dad and I were driving home from looking at a motorcycle one of his co-workers had for sale. Just after dusk along Route 1A in the Plainville area, I yelled out for my dad to pull over. To our right, about 200 yards over the sand and gravel pit, there was a large object with glowing orange lights hovering, a similar but much smaller craft lowered from the middle of the object and they both took off at a speed that was hard to believe … however, they made very little noise in doing so. I’ve spent a lifetime as a photojournalist … I’ve seen a lot in my years. I’m convinced if I had a camera with me that night, I may have some of the most compelling evidence ever of a UFO. The next morning I called the local police and they had no reports … to this day, I know what I saw.”
Over the years reports of UFO’s and other unidentified objects have surfaced. Fact or fantasy? I would love to hear your stories, ideas or comments. Cape history is full of mysterious and unexplained events.
(The original UFO stories were published in Jan. 2013)