◆ SpookStack

experienced supervisor the sightings were made by police personnel and the Hillsdale Civil Defense Director Wil- liam Van Horn. Information on this well documented sighting, bol- stered by the notes and sketches of the coeds and the Civil Defense Director and including the report that when po- lice cars approached the object, the lights on the UFO dimmed; when the police cars went away, the lights brightened, was submitted to Astronomer Hynek and at the end of the week, he submitted a five-page statement based on the two sightings, at the Mannor farm and at Hillsdale College. “Nothing more than marsh gas,” was his summation. “Rotting vegetation produces gas that can be trapped by ice and winter conditions. When a spring thaw occurs the gas may be released in some quantity.” In further de- tail it was said “the gas goes out in one place and appears in another, giving the illusion of motion.” He added that “a dismal swamp is a most unlikely place for a visit from outer space. It is not a place where a helicopter would hover for several hours or where a soundless secret device would be likely to be tested.” The explanation disappointed and offended many of the sighters. The director of public affairs at the college was quick to defend the girls and was said to have scoffed at the idea that the sightings could have resulted from nat- ural phenomenon of any sort. The Civil Defense Director took strong exception to the explanation. “Would marsh gas dim when police cars approached and brighten when they left?” one baffled coed asked. And others in both Hillsdale Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA- RDP81R00560R000100010002- 9 Dexter wondered how “marsh gas” could account for in detailed drawings provided by Frank Mannor and the coeds. ; It also was revealed that in addition to the two swamp sightings, there had been several other important sightings in the area during that week for which no -explanation was forthcoming; sightings that could not be attributed to marsh gas; one 17 miles south of Hillsdale; one in Bad Axe and a second in Hillsdale said-to-have been witnessed by the civil defense director and ten other Hillsdale resi- dents and to have appeared on radar at Willow Run. This last claim has been denied by the Air Force. In the now bulging files of reports in Project Blue Book, where the Air Force keeps records of all noteworthy sight- ings, the flap in Michigan was given its pages of space and the conclusion was typed in: Marsh gas. In the minds of all Doubting Thomases, who believe nothing they don’t see themselves and have reservations about much they do, the conclusion was engraved: Lunatics. But in the minds of the more than 100 persons who saw one of the two ma- jor sightings in Michigan the conclusion was more clearly defined. “We know marsh gas and we know what we saw.” Their conclusion: Not one and the same. The ranks of persons who have made sightings them- selves and who are convinced they have seen objects that cannot be written off as natural phenomena has now been swelled by police officials, farmers, students, administra-. tors and business men in southeastern Michigan, several of whom have said they know a cover-up when they see one ... and a runaround when they get it. At same press confer- ence, stemming from a nat- ural state-wide curiosity, Dr. Hynek identified photo taken by Michigan police officer as a time exposure of the cre- scent moon and of planet Venus.