The Great UFO Chase of 1966

The Great UFO Chase of 1966

By Charles Shiver

There has been a big upsurge in interest recently in the subject of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) or the more modern, politically correct term, “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena.”

The Trump Administration has released and continues to release previously classified documents on UFOs and accounts of supposed “extraterrestrial life here on earth.” U.S. military pilots have even videoed UFOs flying near their aircraft, and the government is now releasing some of that bizarre footage for the first time.

In a few weeks, renowned movie director Steven Spielberg will release his new UFO film “Disclosure Day” that should be a blockbuster hit with people across the world who are fascinated by the mysteries in our skies and wonder if we are not alone.

Turning from Hollywood fantasy to gritty historical fact, please see this excerpt from the front page of the Adel News’ Feb. 12, 1969, issue. This article, written by the late Mona Darden of Lenox, was about a UFO chasing a young woman’s vehicle down I-75 during the pre-dawn hours in the late 1960s. The victim stated she saw an entity with glowing eyes watching her aboard the craft, shaped like two bowls fitted together.

According to Mrs. Darden’s story, there were multiple witnesses who saw the craft. I still get the creeps when I remember this tale when I’m driving home late at night on the lonely backroads of Cook County.

Investigators with the Air Force’s Project Blue Book reportedly looked into this case. Other credible witnesses have reported seeing a similar aerial craft in recent years haunting the community, but we’ll get to that.

The story titled “One UFO for the Road” also appeared in Fate magazine. Mrs. Darden was a very talented lady who also wrote articles for Reader’s Digest and the Atlanta Constitution. She seemed very interested in paranormal phenomena. I have read a whimsical story she wrote for Fate magazine about finding a fairy’s wing for her daughter when she was a little girl.

I have written about and researched the UFO chase story myself, as well as the rich lore of South Georgia. As far as I have been able to determine, the incident occurred 60 years ago and started on a lonely stretch of Barneyville Road, which is a very strange place. If I recall correctly, a resident in that area had pulled a petrified oak tree out of a swamp, erected it in his yard, and put Christmas lights on it during the holiday season.

Let’s take a look at Mrs. Darden’s story “Cook County’s Claim to UFO Fame” and reach back into the long-vanished days of the late 1960s, and then I’ll follow up with more of my research:

The United States Air Force, having spent thousands of our tax dollars for a committee to investigate “Flying Saucers” or Unidentified Flying Objects, recently reported that UFOs are not extraterrestrial.

No new sightings have been reported. However, Cook County probably has one of the biggest stories on record. It should rate next to the New Mexico sighting told by a police officer who made television [Lonnie Zamora], and better than the New Hampshire sighting told by a couple about whom a book was written [Betty and Barney Hill].

And why did the strange Cook County sighting not get top news rating at the time it happened two years ago? Because it was “hushed-up” by Air Force authorities for months. Then, when it was released by the Air Force, the girl involved had already granted an exclusive interview to this writer who sold the story to a national magazine. So only the gist of it can be told now.

Back then a reporter on the front page of The Valdosta Times could only state the “unidentified girl didn’t want to talk about it.” He never knew why. However, he did tell that other sightings were reported in Colquitt County the same night.

Also, that Mr. and Mrs. ___ of Sparks saw a similar object a couple of nights later near the same high voltage power lines.

The ___ had been visiting relatives in the area and were returning home late at night. Upon seeing the weird object in the distance, they stopped their car, backed up and took another route home.

The girl – we’ll call her Sally for she wishes to remain anonymous – may well have the biggest flying saucer story to come out of Georgia. Too, Sally had two witnesses, but didn’t know it at the time.

On that cold November day, Sally had cranked her car so that the heater could start warming up while she grabbed a bite of breakfast. It was 4:30 in the morning, long before daybreak, but Sally had to drive more than 25 miles to report for work at 6 o’clock on the Valdosta Telephone Exchange where she was a switchboard operator.

Sally lived with her parents north of Adel on the west side of Interstate Highway 75 which runs almost past the yard. To get on I-75 she had to drive west a short distance before circling back south to reach a paved road running east that overpassed I-75. However, Sally always left the paved rural road on the west side of the overpass and went down the ramp merging into southbound traffic of the four-lane highway.

She was within sight of her southbound turnoff as she rounded a curve at a rather high speed, but suddenly was forced to slow down and swing to the left as her car lights hit something that was blocking the road. She thought some farmer had left a piece of machinery parked overnight. At least he’d remembered to put lights on it to warn motorists. It took up both lanes of the road and she had to pull off on the grassy shoulder to pass.

She kept trying to figure out the type of farm machinery for she’d never seen anything like it. Since farm implements are usually bold, bright colors, she wondered at this particular piece having a silver finish. Alongside it, close inspection proved it wasn’t silver so much as it was luminous. “It glowed,” she said. “And then I could see that it looked like two bowls with their rims turned together. A string of white lights went around the outer rim with one red light on the side next to me.”

As high as a two-ton truck, Sally had to creep around “the thing.” The sight of it still had not made full impact on her mind probably because she had always said she didn’t believe in “flying saucers” and had laughed at people who told such tales.

Completing her swing around “the piece of machinery,” she looked over her right shoulder and realized it had a dome in its top where two “eyes” glowed – like a cat’s eyes glow in the dark when a light hits them. “They were looking right at me,” she said. “As I swung on around it to get back in the road, those eyes kept following me. They moved just like a person’s eyes only they were very large.”

And suddenly her car radio which had been playing extremely loud went dead. Now, thoroughly frightened, Sally stepped on her accelerator. Only when she had to slow down for her south turn onto the four-lane highway, did she look back – and discovered the eerie object was moving, following her!

There was no merging into four-lane traffic for there wasn’t a car in sight at that time of morning. The gas pedal was on the floorboard. “I didn’t dare look at the speedometer!” Sally said.

Part of the time the flying object was hovering directly overhead, she said, and it gave her the peculiar sensation that it was somehow trying to swallow up the car. Occasionally, when it dropped back a little she could see it in the rearview mirror near the trunk of her car.

TO BE CONTINUED – How does Sally get away? And a chilling connection.