UFOs Over Kentucky

On the night of August 21, 1955 a strange event happened on a family farm, near the southern Kentucky towns of Kelly and Hopkinsville, that to this day has not been explained. This is a very well-documented and widely reported event. There were at least eleven people, eight adults and three children, at the farmhouse that night, as friends from Philadelphia were visiting at the time. Reportedly, one of the men had gone outside to draw water from the well. The story he told when he came back inside excited everyone in the house: he reported that he had seen a UFO land nearby.
The initial excitement quickly turned to terror when strange creatures started approaching the house. The creatures were described as having huge heads with large green eyes and bat-like ears. They also had big hands with long fingers that had talons at the end. The creatures were also described as silvery, almost luminous in appearance.
Feeling threatened, the men started shooting at the creatures. The bullets made a clanking sound when hitting the creatures, but the creatures remained unharmed. To make things worse, the creatures seemed to almost be taunting the families, as some would suddenly appear in windows to the screams of the children inside. Others would hang from the porch awning and grab at the men's hair when they went outside to investigate. One creature was said to have been shot out of a tree but floated softly to the ground in a strange way.
Finally, the two families fled the house in terror and drove to the Hopkinsville Police Station. Police officers have reported that the families seemed sincerely terrified upon their arrival at the police station. To add credibility to their story, one state trooper had independently reported seeing meteor-like objects in the sky close to Kelly around the same time the incident occurred. Several other people also reported seeing meteor-like objects and flashes of light in the sky that night.
Following the events that took place that strange night, media from all over the country descended upon the farm. The United States Air Force took the allegations serious and sent two officers from Fort Campbell to investigate. Their findings were inconclusive, and the case remains open to this day. Overwhelmed by the publicity, not sure if the alien invasion or the media invasion was worse, the family became reluctant to discuss the case and posted a "no trespassing" sign.
Thanks to the staff at the Pennyroyal Museum in downtown Hopkinsville for their help with this article. A more detailed account of the events of that night is on display at the museum and was used as a reference for this article.

One of the most famous UFO incidents in modern history occurred near Franklin, Ky. on the afternoon of January 7, 1948. That afternoon, Kentucky State Highway Patrol notified Quinton Blackwell, a tower operator at Godman field, serving Fort Knox, that several reports had been coming in of an unusual flying object, described by some as bright white and the shape of an umbrella. Blackwell notified Capt. Thomas F. Mantell, Jr. and two of his buddies, of the Kentucky National Air Guard, who were flying in formation, to be on the look out for the object. As the three searched, Mantell suddenly shouted, "Look, there it is at 12 o'clock!" Mantell chased after the flying object, leaving the other two pilots behind. Eyewitnesses reported seeing Mantell's plane arc high in the air just before it crashed to the ground. It is believed that Mantell had flown too high and lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen. To this day it is not known for sure what mysterious flying object had been seen hovering over the skies of Kentucky that afternoon. Pictured above is a photo taken of the crash scene.

Another possible UFO sighting, as was told to me by a lady who at the time of the event was living in Harlan Kentucky, occured in 1973 at about 04:30 am. Hearing the sound of distured cows, she looked out the window of her house and saw a ball of orange light that illuminated the entire field behind her house. The frightened cows were bawling and running in one direction and then another in confusion. She woke up her husband and the two stared at the light as though in a trance until the light faded and the field was dark again. Talking to neighbors the next day, they discovered that, although it had occurred very early in the morning, a few others had also seen the mysterious light. One neighbor in particular described a very strange event. His daughter lived across the street and would get up early during the week to walk down the road to baby sit. The man would always stand on the porch and look out for her at this time because being so early it was still dark out. On that particular morning as his daughter began to walk, they could see the orange light in the distant field. As they were looking at the light, a movement between their two houses startled them. They looked and saw a saucer-shaped object about the size of a volkwagon rise up on spider-like legs and run away toward the orange light. The people who had seen the orange light that night and the strange object contacted the authorities regarding what they had seen but were never given an explanation as to what had occurred.

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