UFOs of the 1970s--A Family Road Trip, Black Triangles, MIB

This is a seriously fun case! There isn't a whole lot of evidence to back it up, but it is a great story and completely worth sharing. I'm not going to pull any April Foolishness on ATS today (not this year, at least), but let's take the opportunity to celebrate this goofy day with a very odd and just-plain-fun UFO story.

In this little-known black triangle/Men In Black encounter from the 1970s, an adventurous family road trip takes an unexpected turn when the main witness, his three kids, and their Grandma spot three "funny looking airplanes" by freeway 84.

The witness didn't report this incident to NUFORC until 2005, but the incidents occurred on July 15, 1976.
NUFORC Cave Junction, OR 7/15/76 Triangular UFO Sighting: nuforc.org...

Family Road Trip Leads to Unusual Encounters

The witness, a computer tech/electrician and former engineer, decided to take some time off of his busy schedule for a much needed vacation with his three young children and their Grandma to Salt Lake City. He loaded camping gear into his trusty Olds Cutlass Supreme--a reliable set of wheels in perfect condition. On Sunday morning after church, the family drove up to Hat Creek for the night, and down Reno the following morning. After seeing the town, they headed out to Winnimmucca, Nevada for lunch before continuing on to Salt Lake City. They spent the day exploring and sightseeing before heading out to a beautiful lake campground east of town for the night.

They heard a warning for a severe storm on the radio, so they had to leave early. They drove to Pendleton, Oregon and bought some stylish souvenir clothing, then to Portland, then down the Columbia river and over to Maryhill, Washington to see the stonehenge replica. They were having a great time. The witness said he provided the details about their trip in the NUFORC report "to show their frame of mind" during the vacation.
While heading west to Maryhill on freeway 84, the main witness was thinking about the Hanford Atomic facility in the area to the north when Grandma said, "look at those three funny airplanes." Looking north, the main witness saw three black triangular craft above the other side of the river gorge flying in their direction. The three kids were excited to see the unusual "airplanes".

As the witness focused on driving, the entire vehicle stopped working from the engine to the radio, CB, dash lights, etc. He coasted over to the side of the road wondering what the problem was. He got out to check out the vehicle but found himself in a confused state wondering what he was doing out of the car. Grandma and the kids were still in the car, visibly confused.

He got back in the car, the engine started just fine and everything was working again except the clock on the dash. Everyone in the car experienced disorientation following the incident. They decided to stop in the next town for food before continuing to the dinosaur attraction in Fossil, Oregon that everyone was so excited to see. They stopped at a drive-in restaurant in The Dalles, Oregon, and ordered some burgers and fries. The main witness felt a strange discomfort as if someone was behind him. He turned around to see a strange man sitting two tables away. The man had no food on his table, and he was sitting there staring at the family. The witness sensed danger.

The man was sickly thin with dark olive skin, a pointed chin, pitch black hair and beady eyes framed by bushy black eyebrows. He wore a white shirt with a black suit and black shoes

The witness got up from his table to approach the stranger and asked, "May I help you with something?" The strange man shot back crisply, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to take the family down to Fossil and see the sights!"

In a low but distinct voice, the strange man replied, "Do not go down there. Things bigger than houses, come in over tops of the trees."

The stranger stood up and walked out the door. The witness sat back down at the table with his family. As they discussed the strange occurrences of the day, they realized they were unable to account for three hours of time. All of them then saw the strange man drive slowly past the glass door side of the diner in a very black, highly-polished utility truck (painter's vans as they called them in the '70s), staring at them as he passed by.

Panic setting in, the family voted to go home immediately. They got in the car and raced down highway 97, feeling safer as they passed Bend, Oregon. They were settling down and admiring the beautiful starry sky when a big black car passed them as if they were standing still. The same face was staring at them as he passed (the family was doing 65 miles per hour). This upset everyone in the car once again.

The witness mashed the gas pedal up to 80 and let it roll. Again, the same black car with the stern face passed them. Panicking, the family hurried to find a place with more people. Grandma found Dechutes State Campground on the map just ahead. They took a quick right turn and saw the same strange man standing on the side of the road! Upset and shaking, they arrived at the campground and found a camp site near a bathroom. The main witness removed his 30-30 from the trunk and stood guard all night long. The next morning, they went home wondering what happened.

The Aftermath, Further Investigation

The formerly reliable Olds never ran right after that trip. The witness noted that the Estes Dam broke during the storm on their trip, and wondered if the "Man In Black" was a "good guy" or a "bad guy". He wanted to say the stranger was benevolent, but he expressed no desire whatsoever to encounter the man again. He was still unable to account for the three hours of missing time, and decided he wasn't sure he wanted to know. He also mentioned having other strange experiences "since he could remember" but he did not know if the experiences were UFO related. He did not provide any further details.

The triangular aircraft were most likely human-built craft, perhaps early concepts leading up to the later (1980s +) stealth designs such as the F-117 Nighthawk. The electrical malfunctions experienced in the witness's vehicle could have been the result of exposure to a high powered RF (radiofrequency) signal emitted from experimental systems aboard the craft--not an uncommon occurrence in anomalous aerospace object encounters. It is unlikely that the aircraft encountered were alien. The encounters with the strange man, however, are a bit weirder to explain.

There is a chance that the witnesses were not seeing the same man over and over, rather they may have been seeing a series of similarly dressed individuals. The vehicles were in motion and it would be difficult if not impossible to get a good, solid look at the face(s) looking at them from the black vans. In their state of panic, they may have mistaken the men as being one individual. The appearance of this man (or, these men) is strange regardless. Were these men simply agents involved with the aircraft tests occurring in the area at the time? Foreign spies?



Whoever they were and whatever their purpose, their behavior deeply unsettled these witnesses. As with any of these Unidentified Encounters, the chance remains that the entire thing was either a fabrication or a partial or embellished truth (an efficient method of fabricating a convincing story is to wrap the lie in truths). Taking these reports at face value isn't advisable, but as I always say, comparing reports and common elements does paint an interesting picture over time for the curios researcher to ponder. Either way, whatever it was that really happened to this family on that summer day in Oregon, it sure made for a trip to remember.

originally posted by: wavelength

This is a seriously fun case!

Sure is and lovely old school UFO case thread mate with time anomalies and MIBs to boot!

originally posted by: wavelength

The triangular aircraft were most likely human-built craft, perhaps early concepts leading up to the later (1980s +) stealth designs such as the F-117 Nighthawk

Could very well be the case although as the researcher posits below, other FBT reports go waaay back further than the 1970s.

• "Over a thirteen year period roughly I started amassing a huge collection of casefiles and material and then parsing the data to look for commonalities in the reports - common characteristics. I worked up a working profile if you will of these triangular UFOs, put together a comprehensive timeline showing that these reports not only went back to the 1980's and 1990's but in point of fact went back to the 1970's, 1960's, 1950's and 1940's."

Researcher and archivist David Marler.

a reply to: karl 12

Hi Karl! Glad you enjoyed this case. Interesting how so many incidents involving time anomalies also involve a malfunctioning vehicle. I have another one from Australia similar to the report in your thread--in this case, the vehicle only malfunctions for a brief moment before recovering.

Ravenshoe, Queensland, Australia, July 19, 2005, 0330A UFO Roundup Vol. 10 #31

Witness Dina Holdcroft was driving on a country road in the far north area of Queensland, Australia when she started hearing strange sounds on her car’s radio. Her mobile phone kept sounding, but when she picked it up and said hello, there was no response. Suddenly, a light engulfed the car and the engine cut out for a split second, then started again with great power as if the battery had just been fully charged. A luminous mist surrounded the car and she heard a “whirring” sound. Dina does not remember anything of the incident after that moment, but she did report about 30 minutes of missing time. (source) (source also)

Time is a malleable thing once you know what you're doing with it...

One of my first threads on ATS explored the concept of time and perception as well as several potent methods of achieving distortion-like effects.
In some cases, it may not necessarily be that the object/entity created a generalized time anomaly, rather that it distorted the witness's perception of time. In this theory, the time anomaly would be localized within the witness(es) and the object(s)/entity(ies), the witness perhaps being 'synched' to the "time cycle" of the object/entity for whatever reason (say, research or observation purposes, or for temporal navigation).

the witness perhaps being 'synched' to the "time cycle" of the object/entity

One wonders if time itself has frequencies. Perhaps we are tuned to one of its frequencies and The Others operate on a different frequency.

Sounds like the notion of higher and lower vibration rates.

ETA. Time as the carrier wave with other signals (like the rate at which we experience time) modulated onto it.

Cheers

I lived in Ballard, Washington when I was five. Car horns started blaring, and we all ran to the picture window to see what was going on from our second story view.

All traffic was at a standstill and one block down from the apartment was a cigar shaped craft hovering motionless over the train tracks.

After about ten minutes the craft began to move and when it was out of sight the car horns quit blaring and cars began to move again.

I'm doubtful any off-world species had the ability to enter our galaxy with such inefficient craft.

a reply to: F2d5thCavv2

The more you dive into it, the more you realize how important the concept of frequencies/wavelengths/harmonics etc are at play. The tricky part is engineering them to get them to do what you want them to do (rudimentary example: radio communications).
Over time (no pun intended), it would be reasonable to imagine that an advanced civilization would (hopefully) have figured a lot of those mathematical/frequency problems out, and, importantly, how to work with (manipulate) them.

originally posted by: nugget1

I'm doubtful any off-world species had the ability to enter our galaxy with such inefficient craft.

Wow! It would be interesting to see if any other witnesses submitted any reports of this sighting. I would love to know more details about that incident.

Regarding the quote snipped from your post: I tend to lean toward the idea that any sufficiently developed civilization with off-world traveling abilities would (hopefully) have figured out how to cruise around another world without burning the natives and interfering with local technology... but then again, it might not be that simple.

originally posted by: wavelength

Hi Karl! Glad you enjoyed this case. Interesting how so many incidents involving time anomalies also involve a malfunctioning vehicle..

Yes mate have read all your threads and hats off to you for some sterling research - fascinating stuff.

To my mind one of the most (in)famous series of truly puzzling UFO car stalling events was Levelland and can't seem to remember any temporal anomalies but some very interesting insight nonetheless.





Luminous mists (and EM effects) are also reported in apparition and cryptid cases although I don't know what to do with that information lol.

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2

One wonders if time itself has frequencies. Perhaps we are tuned to one of its frequencies and The Others operate on a different frequency.

Some fascinating speculation there mate and suppose it would explain all the different shapes.

Just rewatched this Marc Davenport clip and thought it deserved a post.

See 2:30

originally posted by: wavelength

originally posted by: nugget1

I'm doubtful any off-world species had the ability to enter our galaxy with such inefficient craft.

Wow! It would be interesting to see if any other witnesses submitted any reports of this sighting. I would love to know more details about that incident.

Regarding the quote snipped from your post: I tend to lean toward the idea that any sufficiently developed civilization with off-world traveling abilities would (hopefully) have figured out how to cruise around another world without burning the natives and interfering with local technology... but then again, it might not be that simple.

There really isn't anything else to tell. The babysitter's husband ran to the window and exclaimed "What the he!!", then grabbed his binoculars for a better look.

He was an Army Sargent who had been a POW for nearly a year in WWII and not prone to deceptions, so all of us kids knew we were witnessing something phenomenal.

I've only tried reporting one incident-the one we photographed in a rainbow; MUFON wasn't interested because we didn't remember the exact date and time it was taken, only the month and year.
I've seen several unexplained 'craft'-and other things in more recent years, but won't bother trying to report them. I don't have a cell phone, so it's just stories that I would be accused of making up.

I wonder how many other people have similar experiences they're hesitant to share?

a reply to: karl 12

Just a bit more on this, karl ... you know what can happen when two dissimilar signals try to occupy the same domain (frequency, phase, etc.) ... interference.

Perhaps stretches the comparison to signals a bit too much, but there appear to be some similarities.

Cheers

Hypothetically,
If those craft were ours, taken out for a test run or just one in a series of test runs I would think there are bugs still to be worked out with them. The car stalling out a the family's disorientation may have just been an unforeseen issue, one of the bugs?

Since to my knowledge when an experimental craft takes off everyone on the airfield is busy & no ones driving their vehicles under it "to see what happens". We've come a long way since the 70's but that's the time frame. Back then design & engineering was different than today due to materials used back then. It may not have been on anyones radar that unshielded EMF would be a problem. Or they thought their shielding was sufficient?

I'm fine with BT's & MIB's just tossing out this hypothetical cause haven't seen it thrown around like other explanations.

originally posted by: nugget1

I've only tried reporting one incident-the one we photographed in a rainbow; MUFON wasn't interested because we didn't remember the exact date and time it was taken, only the month and year.
I've seen several unexplained 'craft'-and other things in more recent years, but won't bother trying to report them. I don't have a cell phone, so it's just stories that I would be accused of making up.

I wonder how many other people have similar experiences they're hesitant to share?

Interesting!
If you ever do change your mind and get the urge to send in a report, NUFORC is a bit friendlier and maintains a great database of US cases throughout the years (arranged by state and date), and they accept most reports. I enjoy browsing through NUFORC reports over a hot cup of tea.


I often wonder the same thing. There are probably hundreds of thousands of experiences that will never see the light of day.

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originally posted by: Caver78
We've come a long way since the 70's but that's the time frame. Back then design & engineering was different than today due to materials used back then. It may not have been on anyones radar that unshielded EMF would be a problem. Or they thought their shielding was sufficient?

Yes, yes, and yes.
EMF was reasonably understood by the 1970s, with serious research (particularly regarding radar) on its effects on humans going back to the 1940s. In the 1960s, scientists began investigating neurological effects including Microwave Audio Effect following reports of odd noises heard by radar technicians "from inside their heads".
So, engineers and scientists technically knew (to some degree), and some of them were well aware of possible technology interference as well as physiological effects on biological tissue (and on the human brain).

However, you are correct in the sense that "less-than-desirable" side effects of high levels of electromagnetic radiation were often overlooked, especially in the 1970s, and even if these side effects were well known, the exact mechanisms (power levels, frequencies, etc) that caused them were yet to be well understood.

So, the bottom line is, yes, it is very possible that some of the engineers at the time were unaware of the possible adverse effects of their experimental systems on cars, humans, etc. It is also possible that they were aware, but decided somewhere along the line that the chances were slim of anyone "taking a hit" and catching on to the fact that the experimental equipment was to blame for unwanted vehicle malfunctions (or physiological issues), and testing would go ahead anyway (!). Or, as you suggested, they may have felt their system was sufficiently 'safe'.

originally posted by: karl 12

To my mind one of the most (in)famous series of truly puzzling UFO car stalling events was Levelland and can't seem to remember any temporal anomalies but some very interesting insight nonetheless.

Thanks Karl!

I will give that video a watch soon, definitely worth setting aside an hour of movie-time for this one. As most of ATS can probably tell by now, I'm "magnetically" drawn to any case involving EM effects.


______________________________________________

originally posted by: F2d5thCavv2
a reply to: karl 12

Just a bit more on this, karl ... you know what can happen when two dissimilar signals try to occupy the same domain (frequency, phase, etc.) ... interference.

Perhaps stretches the comparison to signals a bit too much, but there appear to be some similarities.

Cheers

To further complicate the issue, it's entirely possible that 'interference' can happen on a much larger scale, perhaps the scale of an entire universe. That might be a possible motive for 'visitors' to come and investigate...

Fantastic story WL. Thank you for sharing.

OT - one of the first "boats" I had the pleasure of driving was a 74 Olds Custom Cruiser station wagon. This thing was a monster. 455 Rocket under the hood. Rear-facing flip-up rumble seat in the back. Large glass rear window.
Punch that pedal and the entire front would lift up. You could lay a rubber streak over 10 ft long in reverse! Best was in winter when the studded snow tires were on it. Talk about a light show peeling out at night!

a reply to: TXRabbit

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading!
Aw man, that had to be an awesome ride, they just don't make 'em like that anymore. Olds was all about the power. We had a few 98s in the family at some point, and they were not slow.

Who doesn't love an interesting story? Unfortunately there's no way of really corroborating any of it now.

As Karl mentioned earlier, there were multiple cases in 1957 of vehicle interference from UFOs.



See PDF for full report : The South Western UFO Wave 1957

With events in Levelland, Texas being the most well known. It was investigated by Project Blue Book and explained away as ball lightning! I don't think there was any particular technology that was known that could stall vehicles at a distance in 1957. Nor even in 1976. But EM frequencies can disrupt the electronics in modern vehicles.

The missing time component is a difficult one to explain. If we accept, they are not all hoaxes. Then in some cases, it is probably due to human misperception. But at a whole other extreme we have theses 'timeslip' stories. Where people report an experience as if they have travelled years into the past.

a reply to: wavelength

Just one point about this story. it says

.....They were settling down and admiring the beautiful starry sky when a big black car passed them as if they were standing still. The same face was staring at them as he passed (the family was doing 65 miles per hour). This upset everyone in the car once again.

The witness mashed the gas pedal up to 80 and let it roll. Again, the same black car with the stern face passed them. P

At what point did they pass this same black car again for it to be able to overtake them again?

originally posted by: mirageman
With events in Levelland, Texas being the most well known. It was investigated by Project Blue Book and explained away as ball lightning! I don't think there was any particular technology that was known that could stall vehicles at a distance in 1957. Nor even in 1976. But EM frequencies can disrupt the electronics in modern vehicles.

Great source, thanks for sharing!
Yes. It's difficult to say for sure if the military was working with any airborne (or otherwise) systems capable of disrupting vehicle systems at a distance. I do know, however, that electronic warfare has been evolving for at least half a century. Radar got its active start back in the 1940s during World War II, jamming operations began in the late 40s/early 1950s, the Soviets had fairly advanced EW capabilities by then (and the US knew that).
This article has details on some of the earlier electronic warfare milestones to give you a general idea of how long the military has been developing in this field:
History of Electronic Warfare
So, theoretically, it's not impossible to imagine that they had some clumsy system with a side-effect of stopping vehicle engines. In fact, a device designed to deliberately stall an engine may have been in the blueprints by then, but it would have been very heavy and very large at the time (i.e. difficult to apply to an aerial platform).

Interestingly, as the Levelland case was explained away as ball lighting (an explanation of which I am doubtful), it should at least be noted that the case in the OP included a severe thunderstorm in the area, hence they had to leave Salt Lake City early, so there may have been some exposure to rain and lightning.
Also, issues with the car may have been slowly cropping up during the trip. The driver may have been startled and "jinked" something in the car causing it to stall upon seeing the unusual aircraft and detecting the radio malfunctions. I realize that explanation is a stretch, but it did cross my mind while I was writing the OP.

originally posted by: mirageman
a reply to: wavelength

Just one point about this story. it says

.....They were settling down and admiring the beautiful starry sky when a big black car passed them as if they were standing still. The same face was staring at them as he passed (the family was doing 65 miles per hour). This upset everyone in the car once again.

The witness mashed the gas pedal up to 80 and let it roll. Again, the same black car with the stern face passed them. P

At what point did they pass this same black car again for it to be able to overtake them again?

This one got me, too. It doesn't make a lot of sense. I have a feeling the car was not the same black car. There may have been a few of them out there, and in the witnesses' states of panic, they may have mistakenly assumed it was the same vehicle and stranger that they were seeing over and over. Off the top of my head, I hypothesize that it was either several 'Men In Black', a group of agents involved with the military activities in the area, or foreign agents/spies.

I doubt they would have been able to get a good look at the man in the vehicle if it was passing by so fast. Certainly not good enough to say without a doubt that it was the same man.