SIGHTING: VIRGINIA CITY, MT

Witness Testimony

"While elk hunting South of town I sighted a huge object which was shiny like mylar or a mirror but seemed metalic. It was shaped like a (vitamin capsule) not really cigar shape more full. The object rose over a hill where I was looking for elk and sat just above the horizon for about 10 mins then kind of faded away. The object was huge maybe 300 feet long and 100 feet high. I was looking from the north but the object was a shiny as if it was in full sun. It rose very slowly almost as if a cloud. I'm curious if objects like this have been seen before all I seem to hear about are discs and lights. This was real!As I said above I was elk hunting in the late fall of 1978 about 4 miles south of Virginia City, Montana. It must have been about 1600 or 1630. I was sitting on a south facing slope looking across a small valley perhaps 500 yards across. I was scanning the sparce timber just below the horizon when a huge (vitamin capsule shaped) object perhaps 300 feet long and 100 feet high, it may have been larger but those proportions are pretty close, and I'm sure it wasn't smaller. The object was more shiny than metal it looked like mylar, or a mirror, in reflectance but seemed hard surfaced. The side I was looking at was facing north with the sun behind and to the right of it, but not visible, yet the object was as shiny as if it were in full sunlight. It was the brightest thing in the sky, much more intense than the sky. It seemed to rise very slowly and as it was doing so didn't alarm me, it was as if I were a child watching a cloud rise over a hill. As it rose up from behind the hill slowly it rose to a point maybe 100 feet above the horizon then gradually decended until part of it was below the horizon meaning it was on the north side of the ridge I was looking at giving me a sense of the scale against the hillside. I had no emotional reaction just ho hum which when looking back seems really strange. Anyway I sat there and watched the object for what must have been 10 minutes and honestly I don't remember how it disappeared. I just remember thinking that I had better leave to get back to the car before dark because I still had a ways to drive on an unimproved road before getting home. That is another strange thing I then remember being about 200 yards from the sighting place causually walking down the trail totally unconcerned, not looking over my shoulder to see if it re-appeared or anything. When I got home I don't even think I told my wife which really puzzles me in retrospect. Normally we talked about everything. I am very curious as to whether any other people have seen an object such as this as it seems ! like all I hear about is saucer shaped objects or lights."