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A few minutes with ... a man who believes aliens visited Michigan

Fifty years ago today, reports of Unidentified Flying Objects swarmed over Michigan. Headlines screamed from the pages of newspapers.

The headline on page 1 of the Detroit Free Press on Saturday, March 26, 1966 read: Those Saucers? Just Marsh Gas, Experts finds. It was a story about UFO sightings in Dexter and Hillsdale.

Fifty years ago today, reports of Unidentified Flying Objects swarmed over Michigan. Headlines screamed from the pages of newspapers. Reporters headed to a swamp near Dexter and to a girls’ dorm at Hillsdale College.

The witnesses were not few and far-between. The people who said they saw these things included law enforcement officers and college officials. The U.S. Air Force sent in an expert from its Project Blue Book program, which investigated UFO reports from 1952 to 1969. After a short time visiting and talking to witnesses, S. Allen Hynek declared that what everyone had seen was not some alien invasion, but swamp gas. In articles from back then, swamp gas was described as methane emissions from decaying vegetation, which can ignite spontaneously.

Some people had a hard time swallowing that theory. One of them is Harry Willnus of South Lyon, a retired high school teacher and UFO enthusiast. Willnus, who was not a witness but has researched the Swamp Gas Case, sat with me last week to revisit those events of 50 years ago.

One more thing. If you think people didn’t take this seriously back then, know this: A congressman from Michigan called for congressional hearings on the Michigan UFO sightings.

His name was Gerald Ford.

Mr. Willnus, can you set the scene for me? Fifty years ago today, what did people report in a swamp near Dexter?

People reported lights. There were a number of police officers there, including at least 12 officers from Washtenaw County. Several from Dexter, the city of Dexter. A host of townies, and this thing went on for about four hours, off and on.

What were they seeing?

They were seeing lights, they were seeing some kind of a craft. There were more than one craft in the area, which were reported over a number of days. Sometimes they were seen flying in formation, a group of three or four. Other times, we had cases where a UFO was hovering over a deputy’s squad car.

Is that right?

Yes.

So this all started March 20, 1966.

It was the beginning. … Before that there were many, many sightings in this area, other states as well, and it went on after this. But the two cases known as the Swamp Gas Case are the Dexter case of March 20, 1966, and the following night, Hillsdale College, behind a girls’ dorm, March 21. … There were at least 60, 70, maybe 80 coeds in a dorm and they observed these lights for some time. ... On one occasion, the lights came up very, very close to the windows of the dorm, scared the girls. And then the police would be called, object would leave, police would leave, eventually the object would come back.

Back to the swamp in Dexter. … This wasn’t just a man and his son out in the countryside after drinking a bunch of moonshine or something and seeing visions. Real, credible people, including sheriff’s deputies, reported seeing the same thing.

Exactly. Frank Mannor was a no-nonsense guy.

He’s the guy who first reported the swamp incident?

Yes.

Did he describe what it looked like? Have you seen reports of what this craft looked like?

It was about the size of a small car. He said it was football-shaped. It had lights on each end. The lights sometimes would vary in intensity and colors. There was somewhat of a haze underneath it, which is commonly reported around UFO sightings, some kind of a haze. It may have to do with their propulsion systems.

Tell me how this was portrayed in newspapers and television around Michigan at the time.

Fascination. There was a degree of fear, though, with some people. … I was teaching school and they called an impromptu staff meeting, one of the teachers immediately stood up and said, I’ve got a long drive home, get this thing over quick, I don’t want to be on the road if it’s even close to dark, with this UFO stuff going on.

OK, there’s all these reports, and the Air Force sends in an expert (Hynek).

Hynek had about a day and a half. He visited both places: Hillsdale and the Dexter swamp. Looked the situation over. He was constantly being hounded by the press. And he interviewed witnesses, basically. He was riding back in the squad car with Sheriff Doug Harvey, Washtenaw County Sheriff. ... He said he just couldn’t put it together, what people had seen. But after they got back to the sheriff’s office, this is when I think the big event happened. The dispatcher stepped into the office and said, “Dr. Hynek, you’ve got a call from Washington.” Hynek stepped out, he took the call, he came back in, he looked a little gray, shook, and he was mumbling, “Swamp gas.” I don’t think Hynek knew what swamp gas actually was until he got this phone call. …

When did you get interested in UFOs and these kinds of studies?

I was a young lad, maybe 10 years old or so, and I saw a couple articles in the local paper, the Detroit Times, in those days, about UFOs. That’s what got me interested. I began to read and eventually did some investigating.

You’ve been a schoolteacher, you were a history teacher, you’re a sane human being. What do you say to those folks out there who would question all this as nonsense?

I would say, if you do your homework, go into this with an open mind ... there’s a tremendous amount of information and proof and evidence there that Planet Earth is being visited on a very regular basis. ... Have you ever seen one?

I’m trying to think. I love looking at the night sky. I’m a big fan of star-gazing. I’ve seen plenty of satellites and things going around … I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything that I would classify as something from another world. How many people do you think have?

The estimate is as high as 14% of U.S. citizens have seen something that they cannot identify. Maybe most of those, they are something natural. But I say give me the top one-half percent. The military people, police officers, responsible citizens who’ve had sightings, and close-in sightings, and then listen to some of these. You’re going to be scratching your head.

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