SUBJECT: BEMIJDI, MINNESOTA UFO SIGHTING ARTICLE             FILE: UFO1605




                               September 11, 1990

                                   Taken from:
                    The Pioneer, Bemidji, Minnesota, Friday,
                                 August 31, 1990

                       Witnesses marvel at mystery objects
                           by Pat Miller, Staff Writer

      It seems that Bemidji wasn't the lone city on the path of last weeks
      unexpected visitor from the sky as craft of similar description were
      sighted in every corner of the area.

      Reports of sightings  have  surfaced  from  Park Rapids, Clearbrook,
      Laporte, Zerkel and Turtle River  and  the  common threads among the
      varying accounts are the lack of noise and the shape.

      Between 9:30 and  10  p.m.  last  Thursday [August  23,  1990]  Dick
      McLaurie of Bemidji  and  his  son  Tony  were  heading  home from a
      fishing excursion east of Blackduck  when  they  saw  the craft near
      Castle Highlands Golf Course.

      We saw them  approaching  us from the direction of  Bemidji  and  we
      pulled over to  watch the show, said McLaurie.  They were about one-
      quarter of a mile away from us and  one-quarter of a mile in the air
      and we watched them for about three or four minutes.

      What McLaurie saw  was at least five different objects  shaped  like
      the bullet with  wings  that Julie Knutson described last week.  The
      objects sported a series of light  and they all traveled together in
      a convoy formation.

      There were five  or  six  different  vehicles  flying  in  a  group,
      McLaurie recalled.  At  first  they were moving slowly but then they
      started sparking and sped up.  All  of  a sudden all the lights went
      out and the  things really took off in the direction  of  Blackduck.
      They certainly moved faster than any plane I've ever seen.

      At 9:50 that  same  evening Tom Crissinger of Northward Ho Resort on
      Long Lake near Park Rapids was among  a group of about 14 people who
      saw a similar display.

      They looked like the space shuttle and were about the  size of a big
      jet.  But they didn't make any noise, Crissinger said.  They trailed
      balls of something  like  fire  about  a mile long and over the lake
      they were easy to see.  We also saw  about  20 square windows on the
      side (of the craft) and we kept asking each other  if  anybody  else
      saw the windows.  And everyone did.



                                       Page 1

      The objects continued over the lake in the direction of Bemidji and
      followed a slowly ascending course.

      Greg Gasman of  rural  Laporte also witnessed the show from his back
      yard between 9:30 and 10 p.m.  His  immediate  attention  was  on an
      airplane he could clearly hear and see high in the  sky but when his
      gaze returned earthward  it  was  interrupted  by the sight of three
      unusual visitors low to the ground.

      They were almost touching each other  and  each one had front lights
      and back lights,  he said.  The silhouette of each  was  of  a  long
      cylindrical object and they were traveling in a convoy.

      Unlike the other   reports   which   had  the  craft  heading  in  a
      northeasterly direction, Gasman's    objects   traveled   from   the
      southeast to the northwest.

      They were heading straight for Bemidji and going northwest, he said.

      What surprised me the most was that there were no sparks, no sign of
      what propelled them, and they made no noise.  It  was  a  very quiet
      night but still they didn't make a sound.

                                  ____________

      Additional articles appeared in The Pioneer on August 26, 28, and 30
      with similar information.

      Other persons sighting  the  craft were Wayne Bitz and Dave Mathisen
      of Bemidji, Diane Wagner from the  east  side  of Big Bass Lake, and
      Jami Knutson, 11-year-old daughter of Julie Knutson  of Bemidji, and
      NORAD tracked the object on radar.

                                  ____________


      Here is an interesting quote from the August 28 story:

           "The official  word on the mysterious lights which were visible
            over the Bemidji area Thursday night is (probably) a returning
            rocket body  that  decayed   in   space   and   reentered  the
            atmosphere."

      That explanation was offered by Major David Griffard  of  the  North
      American Air Defense Command based at Peterson Air Force Base near
      Colorado Springs, Colo.

      He said he  cannot  disclose  other information about the rocket but
      said NORAD received  calls  from   Minnesota,  South  Dakota,  North
      Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Trinidad about the object.

      A spokesman from the Grand Forks Air Base said that  no  planes from
      that base were  in  the  air  Thursday  evening  and the objects the
      Knutson's saw did not have their roots at the base.

                                     *******


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