Rectangle over Independence, OR
A witness account on file, unevaluated. Most of the archive rests here, and honestly so.
The report, as filed
driving backroads, saw a "bank of lights" moving, and an orangeish disc in the distance, both too low for stars and no blinking aircraft lights. bar moved quickly, until almost over us, it had colored lights and then closer to us turned all white, we sped up to move away because it appeared to moving directly at to fly over us. We turned onto bridge to go to south River Road and were between the two, and noticed the orange disc was flashing/blinking a pattern, and then looked at the bar of lights, and noticed it would remain steady, then blink back the same pattern as if communicating. We witnessed this exchange at least 5 times before turning onto mountain road where we could no longer see.
Held as-reported from National UFO Reporting Center (record NUFORC #168503). Witness text is preserved verbatim, including its spelling; nothing is edited beyond formatting.
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Routed to: Federal Aviation Administration · records window 2022-05-13 → 2022-05-30
From the same sky
Related entries
July 4, 2021 · 4:23 PM · DISK
Independence, OR
I was driving, it was daylight and the sky was blue and clear, my passenger and I were discussing time as we were late for our event, I looked at the car clock and said we were 23 minutes late (meant to be there at 4:00, hence 4:23 pm) as we were driving, there is a straight stretch of road where 2 fruit fields are, immediately before driving up onto bridge going into Independence. I looked up and saw on small cloud that seemed very odd shaped, domed top, slighted lesser domed bottom and the sides sloped down/up into 'points' - very "classic" flying saucer shaped, only it was white and looked slightly "cloud-like". I jokingly said to my passenger "um - is that a cloaked ufo cloud?" and looked their way, noticing my passenger was leaning forward in their seat, looking up to the left of the "cloud and remarked overlapping me "hey there's something like glinting up there, but nothing's THERE..." and then we looked a! t the cloud again and it was gone, nothing but blue sky, we looked for the shiny glinting spot and it too had disappeared - both in a matter of under about 3-5 seconds. I didn't even have time to ask if they would take a picture with my phone - it was EXTEMELY fast. The cloud shape was directly over south Independence looked to be around the areas of Talmadge Road, Stapleton Road vicinity of south Independence in farm/country, but could be clearly seen as we approached the bridge.
May 23, 2021 · 3:30 PM · CIGAR
Independence, OR
My passenger and I were driving to Independence, and were in the straight stretch of road right before the base of the bridge, about a mile prior. From this distance you can see through the tree that flank the river. I commented to my passenger that there was something between the trees "glimmering", assumed out loud it was a plane then joked "it must be a ufo!" Passenger looked and kind of gasped at the same time I realized it could not be a plane at the low of level unless crashing - it was cylinder shaped and silver, almost like a small blimp shape, 'milky' or brushed silver looking metal (not like a stainless steel look) and the sun was making it 'glisten'. We could see it between the trees, and only caught sight of it for a few seconds before we started up the bridge and thicker trees blocked our view. One we cleared the trees on the bridge where we could see I slowed to a near stop and looked, and there was nothing there - we looke! d on both sides and it was too large to fit under the bridge and not stick out. We kept watching as we descended the bridge, and then as we turned onto another country road where we could see the skyline, sky and area, and saw nothing, and no planes were in the air that we might have mistaken it with - the sky was entirely void of aircraft.
April 5, 2021 · 9:04 PM · CHEVRON
Independence, OR
The thing was absolutely silent - we rolled down the windows to listen because we were in the country, remote, and no sound was around. It "floated" away heading south over farm land between Corvallis Road and Bunea Vista Road and then in about 5 seconds it was gone, had entirely disappeared.
December 8, 2017 · 5:34 PM · DISK
Independence, OR
On December 13, 2017, at 4:58pm, this investigator was contacted by a relative through Facebook messaging on a sighting in the Independence/Buena Vista area of Oregon. My cousin, 25 years in law enforcement sent a link from one of his contacts on Facebook for me to look at. December 14, 2017 @ 4:32pm This investigator called the Independence Police in Independence, Or. I spoke with the officer on duty and asked if anyone had called in about lights in the skies over that area for the last week on the early evening of Dec. 8th, and had mentioned to her several cars were stopped looking at the lights in the sky, she checked her log and nothing was called in for that period. The following is both the post from main witness and our conversation through messaging on Facebook on the encounter. FRI. December 8, 2017, at 6:36pm · "There were several in the sky as we drove into Independence this evening but this one was HUGE and people were pulled over watching it. I need to keep a camera in the car because my phone just doesn't cut it." SAT. December 16 2017 7:46 pm "Hey, I'm afraid I can't really give you a lot of info about this sighting(s). We live in Buena Vista about 7-miles south of Independence and we see different craft with various light formations. The most common is as described in the second message you sent me. They are either clusters of red lights or actually appear to be in a square or rectangular pattern. There are others that are clusters of both red and white lights but none have green. This first pic was taken with my iPhone 5-s and I didn't even realize the image was there for several days. I didn't think it had come out. It was taken just outside of Independence, Oregon, on November 21, 2017 at 7:05 pm The next three were December 8th at 5:34 in the evening. The light at the bottom is a house. The large light in the sky state stationary for a long time while another small light (seen best in most distant pic) circled it. This last one was one of the red cluster lights but it was so far away I didn't get a great pic. This one was taken Thursday December 14th at 6:57 pm. I see these things pretty much every night so should you ever want to come down with a good camera I would be happy to point them out. Sorry I can't offer more information." SUN December 17, 2017 1:35PM "Hey, the saucer shaped one (I swear I can see faces in it) was taken from Buena Vista road (they all were) I was close to the community of Buena Vista and facing north. There is a small range of hill there and consistent activity over them. They would be in far South Salem area but are north of Buena Vista. It's so hard to judge distance, not knowing the size but that night I thought it looked like, "a big one" so he stopped the car and took the picture. Now as I look at it, I'm feeling as though it was much closer than I thought and smaller than I was thinking. This one had a combination of red and white flashing lights and I did not notice the shape until I saw the picture. The other two were also taken from Buena Vista Road only they were moving slowly from just south of Independence, over to BV and then across the Willamette River heading towards Jefferson. Each time my partner is with me. I mean it when I say we see then almost every night. We are both spiritualist who work with a variety of clients, primarily as spiritual counsels. I am not surprised that you know others who have seen them. Honestly, we've been shocked that more people don't because as I mentioned they seem to appear very regularly. I do find an interesting correlation in our work and their constant presence in our skies around our home. I know that sounds crazy to many but.... what can I say...lol I'm going to try and take a little better camera out this evening and see what I see I hope I answered your questions. Have a great day!" SUN December 17, 2017 9:35pm "Just returned from our nightly trip to Independence and unfortunately I wasn't able to get a pic of the one we saw tonight. It was the square light pattern in the same area, north of Buena Vista. I see this next week is supposed to be clear and cold, which should be nice viewing conditions. I'll keep you posted on what we see." WED. December 20, 2017 7:42pm Recieved a call from witness on this day. I went on to ask some specific questions about the sightings. As the witness had seen these strange lights on several occasions, the most objects at one time was 3. One large light in the sky had small lights circling it. At one point beams of lights seemed to connect the smaller ones with the larger object. The encounters were silent, no sound was from the objects. Military helicopters were seen and heard in the areas on one occasion. There was also a surge in power outages in the area. On the December 8th sighting, besides the 2 witnesses that had pulled over to the side of the road, three other vehicles had also stopped and individuals exited their vehicles to watch the lights. The main witness did mention that he could see 'figures' in the windows of one of the craft. Witness estimated the closest craft was maybe 1/4 to 1/2 mile in distance. The longest duration of any of the sightings was estimated at about 15 minutes. Investigator's closing notes. I am familiar with that area in the Willamette Valley, farm land, cattle, small ranches, logging and a country community. For years I have heard stories and even myself witnessed un-explained lights in the Falls City vicinity in 1979. So, this area of the Willamette Valley has been a 'hot spot' of un-explained lights in these areas for years. What is interesting about this witness report is the square windows and or lights seen in their encounter. When I just posted a photo on my Facebook of one of the photos, another cousin came forward and said he had seen some lights that same week in December, either the 5th or 6th hovering out over Salem as he was looking west. What is intriging about his sighting was that he mentioned 'square lights' just as the witness in this report did. (My cousins report will be filed later this week) Military bases in Oregon. Kingsley Field, Klamath Falls, Or. home of the 173rd Fighter Wing. They fly the F-15c, as does Portland Air National Guard out of the Portland International Airport. Home to the 142nd Fighter Wing. Coast Guard Air Staion, North Bend, Or. Search and Rescue... their aircraft is the Mh-65c helicopter. Umatilla Army Depot, Umatilla, Or. this base is projected to be completely closed by 2021 as their permit expires that year. No flying mission. Mount Hebo Air Force Station, Hebo, Or. Home to the 689th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron. This operation closed down in 1980. The military does fly training missions all over Oregon, as in my region near Klamath Falls, the F-15's do day and night time training. So, what did these people witness? Doing some research I came across a drawing done by a grandmother from Florence, Or. Her encounter from March 9th, 2015 witnessed by her and her grandson is uncanny in its similar appearance with the 'square windows'. This was on www.midnightinthedesert.com website. Another article written by Tyler Rogoway twitter.com/Aviation_Intel, November 15, 2017 reads; "Airliners and F-15s Invovled in Bizarre Encounter with Mystery Aircraft over Oregon." This article stirs speculation as to what was in the skies on Oct. 25, 2017 as an object was seen between California and Oregon border and involved multiple pilot eyewitnesses. Confirmations between both FAA and NORAD that it did occur. Another article by Jamie Seidel November 16, 2017, with the News Corp Australia Network wrote about the incident also. As did Micah Hanks on November 17, 2017. On the National UFO Reporting Center website, a photo from Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico, Tuesday, December 12, 2017 @ 8:30 p.m is similar in the light formation also. On November 23, 2017 I wrote the Public Affairs office
October 3, 2017 · 2:58 AM · CIRCLE
Independence, OR
We were driving on Highway 26, between 2:50 and 3 p.m., headed towards Salem, Oregon, and in the sky over the area that would be Independence. A large object in a circular shape the size of about an automobile there was a metallic flash and a white jet trail that appeared about three times and length of the object itself extremely thick extremely bright white and it seems like the object was moving really fast then it stopped and the vapor trail sucked up into the object and it vanished.
July 6, 2014 · 10:25 PM · FIREBALL
Independence, OR
Appeared to be about the size of a pea at first, and quickly got smaller eventually disappearing.