The Vagabond has placed together several strange happenings in Etowah County. We have discussed such things as a Bigfoot roaming here locally and 12-foot giants found buried in Whorton’s Bend. The Vagabond actually has witnessed some of these strange happenings, including sightings of UFOs and aliens.
This week we continue our discussion on UFOs found around Etowah County. Unfortunately, there have been so many local UFO sightings that The Vagabond will not be able to publish but only a few. The persons’ names have been left out.
Oct. 6, 1014, Gadsden
“Strange cylinder shaped object appeared huge in size and illuminating white lights over Hwy. 278 then disappeared in thin air. While taking my trash to the dumpster, I looked up when I saw a light in my peripheral vision. When I looked in that direction, I noticed a cylinder-shaped object with white light illuminating from it in 10-foot sections. It was stationary over the highway. Soon afterwards, the object disappeared without a trace. It must have been low to the earth, because it was huge. It gave me the creeps. I ran in the house once it disappeared to call my mother about this strange phenomenon.
Aug. 17, 2008, Gadsden
“My dad and I were sitting on our deck talking when two bright orange and green lights appeared. We saw them go away and then they came back. It was so cool!”
Sept. 30, 2007, Gadsden
“A hovering light in the sky that was too big and bright to be a star or planet moved slowly in various directions. My brother and I were driving home from Wal-Mart at 4:04 in the morning. While driving on the off-ramp leading to the road back to our house, we looked up at the sky and noticed a very large yellowish-white object in the sky. While we were stopped at the red light at the end of the off-ramp, we also noticed it was moving slowly to the left. Since planets do not move that quickly from a point of view on earth, we also knew it wasn’t a planet. When viewed with the naked eye, we even noticed wing-shaped protrusions. I though it looked like a phoenix. When we finally arrived home, we could no longer see the object through the tall trees, so we had to walk down the road to view the craft with a pair of binoculars. We stood there for 20-30 minutes watching the craft. We noticed that it had a flashing red light on its underside and had a faintly visible flashing red dot moving around it. We are not sure whether or not this was another craft, but if it was, we believed the larger craft was a mother ship. The larger craft also had a starburst light pattern around it, which did not twinkle, indicating that this definitely was not a star. While we watched it, it stayed still for the majority of the time. Every now and then, however, it would noticeably move to the left, then to the right, then up a little, and then further away. At one point, the light moved closer to us. It also occasionally changed shape. We walked back to the house at about 4:30 a.m. and noted that the light was much higher up in the sky. We could see it over the treetops while standing next to the house. The light also was moving much more frequently and slightly more quickly. At approximately 4:56 a.m., I ran into the house to wake my mother up to show her the craft. At approximately 5:20 a.m., after my mother and brother had gone back into the house, I noticed that the red dot that was flying around the object had flown into the object, and a dim blue light flew out in its place.”
Dec. 1, 2005, Gadsden
I was on my way home from work with my two-year old son and I saw what seemed to be a triangle-shaped light very close. I thought to myself, ‘I am not going to say anything.’ When I pulled into the driveway, my husband and brother met me. They were ecstatic and asked if I saw the UFO. I got out and looked and it was still there! I got a little spooked. We live on the Coosa River with dark and a very clear view of the sky. Four adults and two children sat and watched a spectacular show! Not only was there the large and bright triangle-shaped light; there were white sphere-shaped balls with a blue hue that were jetting all around. At one time we counted four such balls. We saw one of the spheres looked as if it went through the bright triangle. The spheres would move from side to side and up and down before coming to a dead stop. As we watched, we saw an aircraft coming around. I’m not sure if it was investigating the lights in the sky or just a normal commercial aircraft. I watched one of the aircrafts coming close to the blue spheres, and the sphere looked as if it was touting our aircraft. At one point I started worrying and thinking about what happened to the 30-second sighting. Anyway this went on for an hour and then the triangle light went off northwest over the mountains. But the spheres stayed at least 30 minutes. Our faces were glued to the window the whole time. At one time I felt scared that this was the War of the Worlds. I’ve yet to read the book or watch the movie, but it was a surreal feeling. I kept my children close and the windows locked.”
Sept. 12, 2004, Attalla
“I went walking as I always did around 9 p.m., because that’s when the sun would go down and the temperature would cool off. I looked in the sky behind Curtiston Primary School and saw a shape moving over some trees. I felt the wind blowing, but heard nothing. I jogged down the street beside this school and looked into a field. The shape was much lower to the ground and looked to be lifting off and floating. There was no sound and no wind anymore. The shape was black with no lights and looked solid. I didn’t see any windows or lights. The shape was a perfect triangle. I tried to spot it again but it was gone.”
April 30, 2004, Gadsden
“The pinpoint of light that eight minutes ago was many thousands of yards away grew uncomfortably close. Lindsay and I sat on the dock in Riddles Bend over the dark waters of the Coosa River beneath a spray of stars, mystified. I do not remember the moon. As the lighted craft approached, we wondered to each other why a boat would be cruising down the river at 9 p.m. The light was brighter now and concentrated on the opposite shoreline like a spotlight. Perhaps it was a police cruiser. But it was so huge, maybe 40 yards long. And there was complete silence: no whirring of a boat motor, no helicopter blades chopping and stabbing at the air, no frothy wake smacking against the dock.
Considering the object’s great size, this lack of natural physical effects was eerie. We were immobile as it moved past us. It seemed to hover above the water as opposed to gliding through it. Three ovular white lights on the bottom barely illuminated the river below. Frightened yet astounded by the sight, we understood the boundlessness of the galaxy. At that moment we became the hostesses of this planet. We had been visited. Walking back to my grandmother’s house, I could feel the hair erect itself on my arms, the back of my neck. Shaken and bewildered, we whispered of the possibilities. To think that we remain the sole occupants of the universe is arrogant and absurd.”
Aug. 15, 1978, Gadsden
“I was piloting a Piper Cherokee 140 airplane returning to the Gadsden airport after some recreational flying. I was approaching from the north about five miles out when I passed an object at about 1000 feet above ground level. It was about 20 feet off of my left wing. It was about three feet in diameter, tan in color, and looked like a weather balloon except that it had no inflation nozzle, no radio attached to it, and was perfectly round. Weather balloons have a teardrop shape to them when strapped to a weather-gathering payload. I circled back to get a closer look and noticed what appeared to be a red-crescent moon or a hammer and sickle shape on it reminiscent of the emblem on the former Soviet Union flag.
As I circled around a second time to get closer look, the object moved away and maintained a distance of about 50 to 75-yard spacing between itself and my plane. I was certainly rattled when I became aware that the object could maneuver. I tried to pursue the object about a minute or two, but it accelerated away to the point that I could not keep up with it. I was traveling at 120 knots. Scared, I opted to return to the Gadsden airport. When I arrived home, I reported the sighting to the Anniston Flight Service Station. I believe the attendant at the FSS was unofficially impressed but I don’t know whether or not he officially filed my report. I believe the UFO to be either alien, a Top Secret USA probe or the Russians aren’t telling us something. I maintain that what I saw was not a weather balloon and flew under its own power. I strongly believe that the markings were used to camouflage the UFO from earth.”
July 1, 1976, Gadsden
“A friend and I were sitting on the back of his car. We were out in the country looking up at the stars. We saw a circular object with flashing lights move quickly across the sky. It definitely was not an airplane. It stopped and moved straight down to the ground. We did not actually see it land. Then at least three jets zoomed across the sky. We knew that they had been scrambled to intercept the UFO. We were excited and thought that we could find it. We drove around where we thought it might be, but it must have been farther away.”
June 1, 1968, Gadsden
“I was about 9 years old, playing in my backyard. I looked up over the house at about a 45-degree angle and saw a craft. It was like nothing I had seen before or since. The craft was multi-faceted and it seemed like there were antennas sticking out. There was no sound or lights. The craft was huge. I watched it come out of the west and at first thought it was an airplane. It left no trail and finally stopped. I guess the craft was about as big as my thumbnail if I held my arm outstretched. It was daylight. I can only guess at the time. The sun did not reflect off of it. It was a slate gray color. After a short time, the craft turned back to the west and slowly left my sight.”
Feb. 9, 2014, Gadsden
“My son woke me at 4:10 a.m., telling me he had been watching a UFO for 20 minutes or more. We watched it from my room for around 30 minutes, then got in my van and began to head toward it. It was higher than we thought, so it must have been large. We parked on a country road and watched for another hour until some clouds passed over before daylight and then it was gone. It was like a star but very large. A white light would become tiny and you could see red light under it. Then it would get large again, over and over, hovering the whole time. Movement was minimal. My son videoed it on his phone but it looks like a light in the sky. This was really cool.”
September 1966
Birmingham News employee John Padgett and his wife were driving from Gadsden to Birmingham when they spotted a bright light sitting about half a block off Interstate 59. The object appeared 15 to 20 feet in diameter, round in shape with 15 to 20 pulsating lights.”
Jan. 24, 1969, Gadsden
“There have been tales of strange lights in Greasy Cove, just south of Gadsden. A young man was driving through the area one foggy night when he was followed by an unusual light. He said that the light hovered above his car for a while, almost causing the engine to cut out. After a few minutes, the light just vanished.”