SIGHTING: BEULAH VALLEY, COLORADO (UNITED STATES)

Witness Testimony

"I could not sleep and went outside onto my driveway about 11:55 pm on sat. night. could not help but see rectangular lights fluttering about (3) to the south. actually trapezoidal shapes. at first thought they were searchlights from big cities being directed to the bottom of cloud-decks. in this case clouds were probably 10,000' up, fracto cumulus. there was enough space in between the clouds to see scorpio (the constellation), the milky way, and many many misc stars. problem is looking south toward the mountain ridge there are no big cities on either side, just some gated communities with maybe a dozen expensive homes/ranches on large acreages. very small population; maybe 12 residences. could have been from one of them i suppose. in any case, i watched the white light shapes move around rapidly. had no feelings one way or the other. phenomenon was probably too far away (2 to 3 mi), reflecting off the bottom of the clouds. then the lights disappeared and a beam appeared, either shining up from ground level about 3000' up to one of the clouds at a probable 10,000' (my base level is about 7000'), or down from the cloud. it appeared to be about 1/4" across (2 or 3 mi south), was consistent from top to bottom, and had a plasma-like interior, with debris inside (it was clear mountain air). i saw nothing else travel up or down the interior of the beam. it lasted about 15 seconds, then disappeared and the phenomenon ceased, incl the rectangular lights. i should mention that the night before a very large apparent blackhawk helicopter (twin prop, maybe 40'long) with white lights on the front with red on the back was looking for something in the area. was doing touch and go maneuvers on school football field a 1/4 mile north, + shining searchlight on farm field across the road. was hovering and very noisy for about 10 min; took off back toward pueblo. appeared to be looking for something and seemed to be military (co spgs bases are not far to north). was it related to the observations the next night? unknown. unless their searchlight beam can travel 3000'and also cast a rectangular beam. do not have sketch to submit of sighting i drew afterward on sat night until i scan and digitize it. no sketch of helicopter incident previous night."