UFO Description: Two women, bicycling together, near the Willamette River in downtown Portland both see a cigar-shaped, dark UFO.  It appears first in the north, gets closer to them, and then disappears back in the north after a ten minute flight.  They see it continuously.

Witness(es): Two witnesses:  Sheila Woolcott (pseudonym) and friend Alexandra Miller (pseudonym).

Date and Time: May 15, 2004, at about 1:15 to 1:25 PM.

Duration: About ten minutes observation and one minute and 12 seconds of video.

Place: Downtown Portland, Oregon.

Weather: Gray, overcast, low clouds with occasional light rain; winds out of the north at 4.6 mph; visibility 10 miles; about 55.9º F.

Case Report: Eastbank Esplanade Cigar UFO. Investigated by Tom Bowden, OM State Director, and Keith Rowell, OM Assistant State Director.

Brief Narrative

This case offers much more than the usual UFO case.  We had two excellent witnesses that we were privileged to interview at the site of their sighting.  Additionally, the principal witness (Sheila Woolcott) took both photos and video and generously made them available for analysis.  (We would also like to thank Sheila Woolcott for allowing us to use her UFO image for one of our three genuine UFO images in our OM website banner.)

At around 1:15 PM on May 15, 2004, on an overcast, very light rainy day, two women—Sheila Woolcott and Alexandra Miller (pseudonyms) —were riding their bikes together recreationally on the Eastbank Esplanade on the Willamette River just opposite downtown Portland. The Eastbank Esplanade is a popular walk way immediately adjacent to the east side of the Willamette River.

Alexandra first spotted an odd dark object in the sky to the north, so she stopped to examine it more closely. Sheila stopped, too, and they both watched in amazement as a quite dark, cigar-shaped (or rod-shaped) object moved along in the sky. It was going along just below the gray overcast cloud layer.

The UFO kept moving closer to them and was now in the northeast. At about its closest approach off to the northeast, Sheila remembered her camera and ended up taking three photos and a one minute and 12 second video of the strange object. Soon, it began more or less retracing its path in the sky to disappear back in the north.

When the UFO was near its closest approach, Sheila strangely had mixed emotions about whether she should be photographing and video-recording this UFO.

As always, be sure to download the full case study and read it thoroughly before committing to judgment about just what this thing might have been.

Sheila Woolcott's Photo of UFO and an I-5 Freeway Light Fixture

Doug Helbling, chief investigator and organizer of the Strange Events Institute, and Keith Rowell, Assistant State Director of Oregon MUFON, have teamed up to sponsor a new UFO discussion group based in Beaverton on the westside of the Portland, Oregon, metro area.

Purpose

This new group is meant to bring together people sincerely interested in the UFO topic who would like to participate in a respectful information sharing environment. Participants will likely range from casually interested first timers to people with almost 40 years of experience in the UFO research and investigation field.

Not for Debunkers and Extreme Skeptics

Please note that this group is not for UFO debunkers or extreme skeptics. There are other places for you if you want to talk about UFOs. Try the Oregonians for Rationality people. They will be happy to have you. However, if you are a true, open-minded skeptic who can be respectful of other opinions, then you are welcome. Unfortunately, it is necessary to talk about debunkers and extreme skeptics because they can be disruptive when your aim is open, honest, respectful sharing of information.

The Genuine UFO Is a Reality

SEI and Oregon MUFON think there is plenty of evidence amounting to proof that there definitely is a genuine mystery surrounding the best of the UFO evidence so far gathered and evaluated after 60 years. We strongly suspect a human-like (but non-human) intelligence is associated with the genuine UFO phenomenon. A first guess as to the origin of this intelligence is the known physical universe outside Planet Earth. However, another good guess might be the "transpersonal world." Scholars and scientists concerned with UFO study know that genuine UFOs exist but there is lots more to learn.

Some Simple Guidelines

To help accomplish our goals for this group, we will be following some simple guidelines:

• The free discussion periods will be moderated with a five minute limit per person with a five minute follow up unless a majority of participants would like more time. Then we move on. This will ensure that everyone who wants to talk will get a chance.
• There is no requirement for an attendee to be a member of either of the sponsoring organizations.
• Participants may choose to share their personal stories, their knowledge of sightings and related research, or whatever is of interest to the attendees. The participants will drive the content of the discussions. Some may choose to make brief presentations based on their own research or experiences. We may occasionally show short videos or share relevant web content.
• There will be no restrictions placed on the subject matter except that it needs to be at least marginally related to UFOs and paranormal phenomena. (This includes a lot of stuff, however!)
• Individuals are free to take notes during these discussions, but the sessions will not be audio- or video-recorded.
• Food and non-alcoholic beverages are allowed, so you can “brown bag it” for yourself or bring snacks to share if you want to. Volunteers are welcome for that little bit of effort needed to help set up tables and chairs and to clean up the room afterwards.

Schedule and Location

• Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Beaverton Library in the Conference Room (on the left side of the lobby).
• Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Beaverton Library in Meeting Room A (on the left side of the inner library on the first floor).
• Sunday, March 25, 2012 at 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Beaverton Library in the Conference Room (on the left side of the lobby).

Location information can be found here: http://beavertonlibrary.org/about/hoursLocation.aspx

The Beaverton City Library is just a block away from southbound Tri-met lines 76 and 78, both of which are just a few minutes away from the MAX line Beaverton Transit Center. The returning northbound bus stop is right next to the library. Folks with a modest bit of pedestrian stamina can also easily walk from the Beaverton Transit Center to the library in 15 to 20 minutes.

Hope to see you there!

UFO Description: A father, son, and neighbor saw various parts of two separate events on two separate nights. One event involved a close encounter at night with a well-lit, saucer-shaped object. A second event involved two of the witnesses seeing a reddish, basketball-sized object maneuvering down their street with all three witnesses seeing a golden disk-shaped object streak by in the sky at the end of the event.

Witness(es): Three witnesses:  Charles Bradley, nine-year-old son Carl, and neighbor Britney Woolsey (all pseudonyms).

Time and Date: Sighting #1: 8/18/11, 9 PM; Sighting #2: 8/26/11, 12:00 AM.

Duration: Up to five minutes for Sighting #1; around fifteen or more minutes total for Sighting #2 including the end of the sighting when a third witness, Britney, came home, joined them, and then saw the yellow streaking object to end the sighting events..

Place: Sublimity, Oregon.

Weather: Sighting #1: 69.1º F; visibility 10 miles; wind from NNW at 8.1 mph; with clear conditions. Sighting #2: 66.0º F; visibility 10 miles; wind calm; with clear conditions.

Case Report: Sublimity Close Encounters. Investigated by Jason Ingraham, OM Field Investigator, and Keith Rowell, OM Assistant State Director.

Brief Narrative

This case report is a combination of two sightings happening at the same place a week apart to the same person and his family and a neighbor, so we decided to treat them in the same report. An interesting additional feature of this story is in the second sighting the possible "communication" of UFO propulsion knowledge from the UFO to the principal witness, Charles Bradley (pseudonym).

Sighting #1

The first sighting occurred just to Charles Bradley (pseudonym) when he was outside at night watering his lawn. He happened to look down the street in front of his house off to the east. He saw a far off, lighted, saucer-shaped object anywhere from about half a mile to a couple of miles away. The object bore bright yellow lights on the perimeter and blue and red lights below those. The object maneuvered around a bit and then moved off to the right (south), out of sight, obscured by neighborhood trees.  Then a few minutes later an orb-type UFO came over his head from the direction that the original UFO had disappeared in. The orb stopped and hovered behind the across-the-street neighbors' houses, apparently over a field Charles knew to be behind the homes. It then disappeared.

Sighting #2

A week after Sighting #1, Charles was out in front of his house again, this time with his son, Carl (pseudonym).  They both experienced all the following events:

• A loud firecracker like report and a simultaneous brilliant lighting up of the immediate neighborhood, which lasted a number of seconds.
• A strange beachball-sized, spheroid object appeared suddenly at the same time as the loud report. The object had a brilliant red interior with outer glowing blue and green illumination.  The red interior moved very actively around inside a clear globe part.
• The object moved at a fast jogging pace from west to east about 100 feet down the middle of their street about four feet off the ground. It was as close as around ten feet from them when it first appeared.
• As the object moved along, it slowly descended. At the point where it was over the top of a manhole cover, it seemed to hit the manhole cover and sparked and exploded with a loud sound just like when it first appeared. It disappeared with the apparent explosion.

Charles (alone) felt during the sighting that he somehow knew how this spheroid type UFO was propelling itself mysteriously down the street above the road. It had something to do with electricity, magnetism, and our own power lines and power grid.

Immediately after this was over, Charles' next door neighbor, Britney (pseudonym), drove up to her house and came over to see why they were out at midnight. A few minutes later, all three saw a golden streaking object moving in the sky over them. Additionally, Carl, who was standing behind Charles and Britney, saw a more craft-like, darker UFO directly overhead that Charles and Britney did not see.

For all the details and some analysis, download the OM case study.

Charles Bradley's Sighting #2 Drawing

Nine-year-old Carl's Rendition of the Sighting #2 UFO

Dr. Bruce Maccabee, a consultant to MUFON, has discovered new information in a very good daylight UFO sighting case by two NACA (the forerunner of NASA) employees while in Oregon near the mouth of the Rogue River.  The object described below in the AF's Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 (first published in 1955) as Case 10 was seen in 8-power binoculars.

Debunkers have said that it was just a blimp.  Maccabee has tracked down the log books of the only known blimp, a Goodyear blimp, in the northwest in May of 1949.  It was at Everett, Washington, at the time.

For the full story on this fascinating case, see An Assessment of the UFO Sighting at Rogue River, Oregon (May 24, 1949) at Maccabee's site.

Rogue River Case from the AF's Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14

A Reprinting and Analysis of Project Blue Book Special Report No. 14 From 1976