In 1969, residents of Berkshire County, Massachusetts (USA) fell into panic after many people reported seeing a flying saucer (UFO – unidentified flying object).
About 40 people in the Berkshires reported witnessing a UFO in 1969. Photo: FlickrThe panic surrounding that scene extended far beyond the region and shocked people across the United States. In Roswell, New Mexico, a replica of the flying saucer is even on display at the International UFO Museum.
This strange case will be simulated through an episode of the Netflix TV series, scheduled to premiere this July. And here is the strange story behind the incident.
Strange evening
On the evening of September 1, 1969, strange lights suddenly fell on the town of Sheffield, in the southern Berkshires. Many people who have seen these glowing lights say they are mounted on a UFO.
According to eyewitness reports, the UFO in the incident was a saucer-shaped plane that performed acrobatic maneuvers in the skies above the Berkshires. It’s unclear exactly how long this phenomenon lasted, but many eyewitnesses to the UFO encounter describe losing their sense of time.
In 2015, a group of residents who witnessed the 1969 UFO incident raised funds to build a UFO memorial. Photo: The Berkshire EdgeThe Berkshires are a rural highland region in western Massachusetts. It has vast wastelands, making it a popular tourist destination for hikers and nature lovers in the summer. The Berkshires also include many small towns, and with curious extraterrestrial beings, this could be an ideal place to visit.
The UFO encounter at Berkshire seemed powerful enough to leave a lingering sense of confusion. Students were absorbed in drawing UFOs in the classroom while adults kept calling radio stations to explain what they had seen.
“We had a lot of listeners calling the station that evening,” said David Isy, General Manager of Local Radio WSBS. “They didn’t know it was a UFO at the time, they just called the station saying something strange had happened.”
Many people who saw the strange glowing ship in the night felt very bewildered. No one seemed to know exactly what they saw, but they clearly knew they had witnessed something strange. The incident has since been known as the 1969 Berkshire UFO event.
The entrance to the town of Sheffield, where many UFO witnesses reside.After the night of September 1, 1969, about 40 people reported seeing UFOs. Some of them were children, and all live locally to this day.
“Children go to school, talking about this event,” said Robert Krol, director of the Great Barrington Historical Society, in 2018 – “One was a former student of mine. One was a local shopkeeper whose father was the town police chief. So they are trustworthy people. This is not a personal PR game.”
Eyewitness reports were so rich and compelling that about 45 years later, the local Great Barrington Historical Society recognized the Berkshire UFO encounter as the “first extraterrestrial/UFO case in history.” American history”.
Is the 1969 Berkshire UFO real?
Whether you believe the eyewitness accounts or not, the 1969 Berkshire UFO case was certainly a remarkable event for the townspeople of Sheffield.
Of the many people who claim to have seen the UFO or its strange lights, the most prominent witness is Thomas Reed. According to Reed’s report, he saw the UFO on the evening of September 1, 1969, when he was a 9-year-old boy. At that time, the boy Reed was sitting in the car with his mother, grandmother and brother. As Reed recalls, his family was returning home from the Village on the Green restaurant. Suddenly, they noticed a bright mass of images emanating from behind the lush trees on the empty road.
Strange lights continued to spill out from behind the trees as the Reeds crossed the covered bridge in Sheffield, but they don’t know what caused the sight.
Both children and adults witnessed the 1969 Berkshire UFO.“We all looked in that direction, because it was a streak of light. Then it went up a little bit. Looks like it’s following a dirt path… Light starts to pour in as we try to get closer. The light flooded into the car, making us see clearly in our car.”
After an amber light emerged on either side of the road, Reed remembered being taken to a hangar-like area, larger than a football field. “We were up against something. It certainly does not belong to this world. We had black and white televisions back then and the images we saw on this object were unbelievable. There are fluorescent tube-like lights inside this hangar,” Reed said.
Watch the trailer for Netflix’s Unsolve Mysteries with an episode simulating the Berkshire UFO incident, scheduled to premiere in July 2020 (Source: Netflix)
“The corridor we saw was circular with a Y-shaped interchange almost to control the flow of traffic. This room has a bow-shaped wall. It’s not something you see in 1969 anywhere. I don’t know where I am, but I know what I see is very different from anything I’ve seen today, 50 years from now.”
Even fleeting glimpses of this strange place stuck in Reed’s mind, until he realized they were back in the car. His grandmother and mother had switched seats. What’s surprising is that there isn’t much of a bright light anymore, Reed said.
Thomas Reed (left), who saw the Berkshire UFO when he was 9 years old, and his younger brother.Reed became the most vocal witness to the 1969 Berkshire UFO incident. He convinced other witnesses to raise money to erect a concrete memorial next to the Sheffield Bridge where he and his family had seen the UFO. Later, Reed also established the non-profit UFO Monument Park to maintain the plot of land where the monument is located.
Controversy in the town of Sheffield
But the Berkshire UFO monument became the subject of tension in Sheffield before it was dismantled in 2019.
A memorial has been erected near the covered bridge in Sheffield, where residents reported seeing UFOs. Photo: FlickrDisagreements between those who believed that the UFO memorial marked an important event in the town’s history and others who viewed the monument as an eye-popping object began to boil over.
In 2019, just about four years after Reed erected the UFO memorial, the town government had it removed for good.
Still, the 1969 Berkshire UFO case continues to fascinate UFO enthusiasts from around the world. Perhaps the Netflix series “Unsolved Mysteries” will bring us a little closer to the answer.
The 1969 Berkshire UFO story extends beyond Sheffield. In Roswell, New Mexico (the site of another famous UFO encounter), the International UFO Museum displayed a model of the UFO that allegedly visited Berkshire.