Since Oregon has recently been reported as quite high in the rankings of UFO sightings, a trip to the National UFO Reporting Center website was in order for more details.

City by city, here are some sighting statistics: Astoria, 22; Knappa, 5; Warrenton, 5; Gearhart 2; Seaside, 29; Cannon Beach, 9, Depoe Bay, 8; and Lincoln City, 52. 

A real eye-popper in the sightings listings happened at 6 a.m. on Dec. 31, 2005, in Astoria (Svensen). There were three witnesses, a driver and two passengers.

They were driving east on Highway 30, where it’s densely forested, and there are no street lights, when a strobing light appeared in the sky to the north. As they were crossing the Mary’s Creek Bridge, an enormous saucer-like object appeared to the south, just above the tree line. 

While it hovered silently, they could see it had three windows with lights streaming out, and lights strobed from the bottom of the object. The driver couldn’t stop because it would have been too dangerous, but did slow down.

The incident was reported later that morning, and an investigator came out to interview the driver. “I rate this case as a ‘strong’ unidentified,” he noted, “because of the very low clouds (meaning that object was flying very low), the fact that witnesses heard no sound (eliminates helicopters), and how ‘shook up’ the witnesses were after the sighting.” (Drawing: Linnaea Mallette)