- On Monday, March 01, 1999, the National
UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) received a call over its telephone Hotline
(206-722-3000) from an individual who identified himself as an employee
in the forestry industry in Washington State. The individual left a message,
in which he reported that a team of forestry workers allegedly had been
witness to an incident on Thursday, February 25, 1999, during which time
an elk was lifted off the ground and carried away by a very peculiar, disc-shaped
object. [*Click here to hear an excerpt from the hotline recording.]
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- Peter B. Davenport, Director of NUFORC,
contacted several of the individuals whose names and telephone numbers
had been provided by the first contact. Based on those telephone conversations,
he elected to initiate a preliminary investigation of the incident.
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- Because NUFORC traditionally does not
serve as an investigative body, Mr. Davenport contacted Mr. Robert A. Fairfax,
Director of Investigations for the Washington State Chapter of the Mutual
UFO Network, which does conduct investigations of alleged UFO sightings.
Messrs. Davenport and Fairfax traveled to the location of the alleged incident,
and jointly have been conducting an investigation of this elk abduction
case since Friday, March 05.
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- Their investigation to date has included
a trip to the site of the incident, an interview of three of the alleged
fourteen witnesses to the actual abduction, and several conversations with
individuals who work with the eyewitnesses. In addition, the investigators
inspected the carcass of an adult elk, a pregnant cow, which was found
dead beside a logging road on March 01 by other forestry employees within
a few miles of the principal event.
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- The investigation and collection of facts
surrounding the case will continue. This preliminary summary of their findings
to date is submitted jointly by Messrs. Davenport and Fairfax.
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- Incident Summary:
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- On Thursday, February 25, 1999, at just
a few minutes before noon, three forestry workers, who were planting seedling
trees in the mountains of Washington State, witnessed a small, disc-shaped
object slowly drift over a nearby ridge to their south, and descend into
the valley to the north of their position. The object descended silently
with what seemed to the witnesses a purposeful manner, exhibiting a slight
"wobble" to its flight.
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- The three workers at first thought the
object was some kind of parachute that was drifting and descending, but
they quickly realized that their initial impression was not correct. Hence,
they shouted to their eleven co-workers nearby, who were working on the
north-facing hillside, and all fourteen members of the work crew watched
the object for an estimated 3-5 minutes.
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- Within seconds of their first observation
of the object, the witnesses became aware that the object was travelling
generally in the direction of a herd of elk that they had been watching
all morning. They continued to watch as the object proceeded toward the
herd until it succeeded in getting quite close to the animals. The animals
apparently remained unaware of the objectís presence until it was
within a very short distance of the herd.
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- Suddenly, the animals bolted, most of
the them running up the slope to their east. However, one adult animal
was seen by the witnesses to separate itself from the herd and run or trot
to generally to the north, perhaps along a logging road. The witnesses
report that at this point, the object quickly moved directly above the
lone elk and seemed to lift it off the ground, although no visible means
of support of the animal was evident to the observers.
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- [Photo of incident site and reported
path of craft (graphic by Robert Fairfax)]
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- The witnesses added that shortly after
lifting the elk off the ground, the object seemed to begin to "wobble"
to a more pronounced degree than it had exhibited earlier. In addition,
as the object appeared to increase its altitude, the elk, which was suspended
upright below the disc, rotated slowly beneath it and appeared to be getting
closer to the ventral surface of the disc. They also commented that the
object seemed to increase in size slightly after it had picked up the animal.
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- With the elk suspended below it, the
object began to ascend slowly up a clear-cut slope to the east. However,
the witnesses watched it apparently brush the tops of nearby trees to the
east, at which point it reversed its course and proceeded to the west.
It executed a 360-degree turn to the left and may have gained some slight
altitude in the process, the witnesses thought.
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- After the object had completed its turn
and was once again proceeding in a generally easterly direction, it began
ascending very quickly at what seemed to the witnesses to be a rather steep
angle. It continued to ascend, and simply disappeared from sight of the
witnesses.
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- The witnesses stated that once the object
had started to ascend and had climbed to an altitude above their vantage
point, they no longer could see the animal suspended below the craft.
Their presumption was that the animal had somehow been taken into the craft,
although the witnesses could discern no "door," or any kind of
aperture through which the animal might have been conveyed into the craft.
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- The witnesses also stated that following
the incident, the herd of elk remained in the same general area, although
remained more closely huddled to one another than had been the case earlier
in the morning. The workers added that they, too, had remained closer to
one another until their departure from the area at the end of the work
day.
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- _______
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- Investigation summary prepared by Peter
B. Davenport, Director, National UFO Reporting Center, and Robert A. Fairfax,
Director of Investigations, Mutual UFO Network, for the Washington State
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