UFOS INVADE THE POCONOS
For decades, the Poconos and the surrounding area have attracted visitors and guests who wish to enjoy the beautiful mountains and recreational opportunities. Some of those visitors may have come from very far away. Since the 1950s, there have been sporadic UFO sightings by local residents and visitors. Many of these witnesses have been very credible and have had little reason to risk ridicule by fabricating such claims. What, then, have they been seeing?
Ever since Kenneth Arnold spotted the first “modern” UFOs, or flying saucers as they were called, near Mount Rainier in 1947, the American public has been fascinated by the idea of visitors from space. In the post–World War II years, more Americans watched (and traveled in) the skies than ever before as new jet and aircraft technology developed. The onset of the Cold War brought with it the very real fear of death from above through nuclear annihilation. Against such a backdrop, the modern UFO phenomena emerged. Though UFO only means unidentified flying object, it quickly became associated with the idea that aliens from outer space were at the controls. For some people, the idea of aliens with technology more advanced and possibly more destructive than our own was unnerving. Government denial of the UFO phenomenon could cause a feeling of helplessness as individuals sought to explain the things that they witnessed. Much like the threat of nuclear destruction, there was no protection from the possible technological monsters in the sky.
The Poconos seemed to be a hotbed of UFO sightings in the middle of the twentieth century and provide good examples of the phenomena in this state. Beginning in the 1950s, at the height of the original UFO craze, a number of strange shapes and lights were spotted in the sky. The first recorded incident occurred on February 23, 1954, when some people from the Snow Hill area saw what was described as a “ball of fire” drop from the sky. The witnesses, who could see the object at a distance, believed that the object burned on the ground for about twenty minutes. Considering the possibility that an aircraft may have gone down, state police aided locals as they searched the woods where the object appeared to have crashed. Nothing was ever found.
Another sighting occurred that same year on July 6. Two men near Tannersville watched a UFO fly low near the top of Big Pocono and then fly toward Mount Pocono. One of the witnesses claimed the object was a large “shiny-white” box. A few years later, in September 1957, an object described as a flying saucer with a sphere-shaped tail was observed moving north across the Delaware Water Gap. One sighting that was quickly explained occurred in August 1959. Four children reported seeing “ghosts” flying around in the sky over Mount Pocono. When their mother looked at the lights, she thought that they looked vaguely saucer-shaped. Within a few days, it was discovered that the children had actually seen spotlights from a Tannersville carnival that were reflecting off the low clouds. A UFO spotted on April 4, 1965, also likely had a scientific explanation. Several residents of Marshall’s Creek witnessed a bright light with a tail head downward across the sky before disappearing. From their description, it seems likely that the individuals saw a meteor burning up in the atmosphere.
The strangest of the UFO encounters occurred on March 1, 1973, at nearby Saylors Lake. That evening, over a dozen witnesses, including a state trooper, watched waves of strange lights pass over the lake in fifteen-minute intervals. The witnesses counted between thirty-nine and forty-two objects in total between 7:25 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. According to Mrs. Howard Pfeiffer, the lights would come into view slowly from the west and pick up speed as they passed over the lake. The lights remained visible for about three minutes, and Mrs. Howard described them as being about the size of a “child’s wading pool.” Some of the lights were white in color, while others were reportedly blue and red. Some of the witnesses called the police, and Pennsylvania state trooper Jeffery Hontz arrived on the scene to investigate. He personally saw four of the lights and estimated that they were flying at about 1,500 feet. Hontz, when asked about one of the lights, said, “It was like a Christmas tree flying in the air.” Trooper Hontz and the other witnesses all noted that the objects were not making any noise, unlike an airplane.
In the days that followed the lengthy sighting, no satisfactory explanation was discovered for the strange lights. A reporter from the Allentown Morning Call did some investigating and found that the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton Airport (Lehigh Valley International) was not equipped with surveillance radar, so it was unable to detect the strange objects. The New York Traffic Control Center, which was responsible for monitoring East Coast flights, informed the reporter that aircraft at 1,500 feet or less would be difficult or impossible to detect. The reporter then turned to the air force for a possible explanation. Public information officer Major Larry Brown denied that there were any military operations in the area that night.
Before the incident even had a chance to fade into memory, the strange lights made a brief encore appearance. On March 13, residents of Saylors Lake saw lights in the sky again. Around 7:15 p.m., a dozen glowing disks crossed over the lake as before, eventually disappearing into the eastern sky.
Since the Saylors Lake incident, there have continued to be sporadic reports of UFOs in the region of the Poconos, though most of these incidents have had a practical explanation. For example, the descriptions of two fireballs spotted on different nights in early March 1991 seem to indicate that they were, in fact, meteors. In 1986, a hot air balloon triggered numerous UFO reports in Monroe County because it was misidentified. Still, several of the earlier accounts remain unexplained, especially the lights above Saylors Lake.
Flying Christmas trees, shining boxes and lights with no sound—can Cold War anxiety and the popular obsession with flying saucers alone explain these incidents? Those who saw the Saylors Lake phenomenon said that they did not feel threatened at all. Could it have been some type of misidentified natural phenomena or perhaps a secret government project? Since there was no video footage or other clues, it is unlikely that the answer will ever be found. Many of the witnesses were clearly willing to believe that they saw something strange—perhaps even paranormal. Ultimately, what people are willing to believe may be more important than what actually took place. With hundreds of UFO reports from around Pennsylvania and thousands from around the country in the decades since World War II, it is clear that the belief in UFOs and the associated belief in aliens has been permanently engrained in modern folklore. UFOs ultimately represent the unknown potential or horror of technology, something that Cold War America was all too familiar with.
SOURCES
“42 UFOs Spotted Over Lake.” UFO Investigator, April 1973.
McNaughton, Adam. “UFO Sightings Not Alien to the Poconos.” Pocono Record, January 19, 2008.
Seibold, David J., and Charles J. Adams III. Pocono Ghosts, Legends and Lore. Reading, PA: Exeter House Books, 1991.
“UFOs and Others in Poconos.” Pocono Record, October 22, 2013.
Wilson, Patty. UFOs in Pennsylvania: Encounters with Extraterrestrials in the Keystone State. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2011.