SIGHTING: PRINEVILLE (30 MILES EAST OF), OR

Witness Testimony

"((NUFORC Note: Date is approximate. Location could be "Pineville." ?? PD))Fast moving ball of light that can move at right angles.First, I need to tell you that I really feel funny giving you a report that had happened to me more than 10 years ago. The only reason I am giving you this "report" now is that I feel compelled to do so after I had heard a very similar report on an Art Bell program in June of 1999. This report was given by, I believe, a pilot who had witnessed this at night near or in some wooded area that either he lived in or was camping near. Sorry, I don"t remember the exact details except for his description of the object that he saw. I was getting ready to be married in August of 1999 so I just procrastinated on getting this report to you. My story. In October of 1990 I went hunting with three other hunting partners about 30 miles east of Prineville, Oregon in the Ochoco national forrest.. We made camp in an area that was fairly open and not too close to trees so we could avoid the risk of setting the area on fire from our much needed campfire. We found an open area that seemed perfect for camping with a nice view of the surrounding countryside. The terrain of this area is somewhat mountainous but is a combination of tall pine and lots of open areas which is also fine for hunting. East of the camp is the ridgeline of mountains that make up parts of the Ochoco national forrest and to the North is one of the main highways that run out of Prineville. This highway runs parallel to a river (the Crooked River, I believe), which runs east to west through a canyon. On our second night there we had finished supper and were getting ready to get some sleep. My other hunting buddies had already gone to the tent to "turn in" while I was standing by the campfire finishing up a cup of tea ( I have to add this part about the tea because, to be honest with you, when I hear of UFO reports coming from hunters I really wonder how much they have had to drink when they see these things). Anyway, a few minutes passed and I was still standing by the campfire looking east towards the top of the mountain range when I saw a very bright bluish-white light traveling at a very high rate of speed above the treeline. . It was travelling downwords, heading due north at about a 25 to 35 degree angle. It seemed to be leaving a "trail of light" behind it , but I think that was more of an optical illusion that it created because of the speed it was travelling and the intensity of the light. When I first saw this object I thought that is was a meteorite. I couldn't tell anything about it's size or how far away it was from me because, at that point, I didn't have anything to reference it to. It was definately between the mountain range and our camp but that only narrowed it down to be no more than four miles away maximum. It wasn't until it "travelled" down towards the highway that I could make a reference to how far away it was from me (about a half mile, I guess). When it got down to the highway I thought I would hear an explosion or something, but it just made a right turn and headed east up the highway. When I say right turn , I mean "right turn". There was no slowing down or anything. There was no "easing" into a turn like an aircraft would do but just a right angle turn. Then as the object headed east it "lit" up the whole area. Before, when a car or truck would travell on the highway at night we could just barely see the glow of the headlights because of the distance we were from them, but when this object went down to the highway and headed east it just lit up the whole canyon I mean, you could see every detail just like it was daylight except it had more of bluish hue to the light, kind of like an arc welder. It was completely silent. It made no sound at all, not even a sonic boom. Judging from the time it took from near the mountain top and by the time it had arrived at the highway not more than 4 seconds had gone by. That means that it had travelled about a mile per second. When it continued to travel east it took another two or three seconds before it was gone and out of sight. After all this had happened I yelled over to my hunting buddies about the bright light that I had just seen but got a response about it was probably was a meteorite (yeah, right!). I stayed up for another few minutes hoping it would come back or another one might show up, but it never did. The campfire had burned down to glowing embers and to be honest I was getting just a little "spooked" standing out there by myself so I decided to head to the tent to get some sleep. One of my buddies was still awake so I told him what had happened but I didn't know if he was really believing the story of what I had just witnessed. Anyway, not much else was said and we decided to get some sleep. I was so "wired" I just couldn't think about anything except what I had just seen. Then the really weird part happened. While laying there sorting out what I had just seen, a pack of coyotes started "yipping and yelping" and making the typical coyote noise that they usually make. But this was coming from just east of our camp (you know, from the direction of the UFO). It got so loud that everyone of us was up. I always carry a side arm and I was "ready" if the coyotes were going to go bezerk or something. I really thought that they might try to get in the tent. They continued making this comotion as they ran just outside our camp and headed west. I don't know if this coyote incident was related to what I had seen, but in my many years of hunting and camping I have never had something like pack of coyotes come into a camp like that with a fire still smoldering. It really did seem like something spooked them. I know that they always try to avoid human contact at almost any price. I didn't bring up the incident again but a couple of weeks later one of my hunting buddies said that he had read an article in the paper ( The Oregonian) about the "light" that was apperently reported by some other witnesses that were in the area. Well... I did feel a little more credible. I never did try to look for the article so I can't say for certain when it was in there, but it would have been in the paper the last half of October, 1990. I used to be an avid hunter, but that was the last ime that I went and I've never had the desire to go hunting again. End of my story.....I hope! If you have any questions please email me and I can either call you or email you. Thanks for listening, Terry"