Where The Waters Mingle by Mary Hyre

The following are transcriptions of the 1967 newspaper column "Where The Waters Mingle" written by Point Pleasant WV reporter Mary Hyre of *The Athens Messenger*. In her column Hyre often reported on UFO sightings and other local lore like The Mothman.

* (Printer friendly versions of Hyre's column) 1-22-67
* 1-29-67
* 3-5-67
* 4-2-67
* 4-9-67
* 4-30-67
* 11/16/67
1/7

### **The Athens Messenger (Sunday, January 22nd 1967):**

It seems that West Virginia is seeing its share of strange objects. The latest was by Tad Jones of Dunbar who said he came upon the Unidentified Flying Object on Interstate 64. Its description is like the of many which have been reported in many areas of the United States and around the world.

One woman in Point Pleasant reported several weeks ago about seeing something like that but it was in the air several hundred feet. There are also, of course, the sightings of the monster and the unidentified objects seen recently by people in Cheshire, Gallipolis, Eureka and Addison.

There is an interesting article in the February issue of True Magazine by John Keel of New York, who was here doing research for another article about the strange sightings in this area. The latter article will probably appear in the August or September issue.

In the article appearing this month, he says that each new sighting only adds to the mystery, one that the government has assigned scientists at the University of Colorado to solve. Any immediate solution, however, seems improbable.

The origins and motivations of these creatures, if they are real, can only be speculated. But millions of people throughout the world are now convinced that something is going on, and that there is "somebody out there." More and more, respected scientists are beginning to take the matter seriously as they delve into the question of life on other worlds.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=916*

### **The Athens Messenger (Sunday, January 29th 1967):**

Today we read much about persons seeing strange objects in the sky throughout the world, but it isn't a new thing for Mason County.

Area residents have been excited before by unsolved reports of unusual sightings.

According to reports in [the] newspaper on Oct. 10, 1931, there was a lot of excitement at Gallipolis Ferry; and as far as I have found out, it took place on the Popular Grove Farm. At that time I lived on the next farm, but I guess I wasn't old enough to remember the account.

The first sighting was supposed to have been by Harold Mackinzie, who was at the river on the Ohio shore in Gallipolis. He called two friends to see if they wanted to see a "dirigible."

The group assembled, and Mrs. Robert Henkle, according to the newspaper account, saw the object through the field glasses of Mrs. Claude Parker. They reported that it seemed to buckle and fall. Others who saw it said four persons jumped from parachutes.

It was also reported that it seemed like there was smoke surrounding the object, but it could have been a cloud they saw, according to the account.

The late Dr. Charles Holzer Sr., owner of the airport at Gallipolis, sent out a plane to look for the wreckage of the craft but did not find anything. The account also says that the people reported seeing the blimp fall after white spots were seen drifting from it. People from both Gallipolis and Point Pleasant reported sighting the strange object in the sky.

It was also reported that most blimps carried water ballast and that it might have been found necessary to lighten the ship quickly by dropping the ballast.

Herbert Burdette, who now resides in Leon, was sheriff of Mason County at that time. He, along with State Trooper H. E. Pomeroy, headed a search party which checked the area but found nothing.

A later newspaper account says that the solution to the mystery shrouding the reported fallen blimp Oct. 10 was believed to be that Henkle and the others saw an army of blackbirds.

Rolfe Lee, Gallipolis Ferry, said Friday night that he recalled the incident and that he thought that starlings were confused for a blimp. He said that he saw hundreds of them in a flock as large as an airplane. Their wings on the underside were light-colored so that when they turned a certain way they were invisible, and therefore, everyone thought they had disappeared, he said.

No further developments resulted from this sighting of something strange in the sky, and all hoped it was just the birds having fun. But if it wasn't the birds, I doubt if we will ever really know just what it was. No aircraft was ever reported missing.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=967*

### **The Athens Messenger (Sunday, March 5th 1967):**

POINT PLEASANT - The high water may have been exciting for many people around Point Pleasant, but for some it was something else - something that you couldn't believe that you were seeing.

I was driving south on Viand Street at the intersection of Sixth, along with my husband, Scotty and his sister, Mrs Alice Bradshaw, when I noticed that the boys at the Park Pure Oil Station on the corner were looking upward. As I drove out Sixth Street I told my husband and sister-in-law to look in the sky and see if they could see anything and they saw this strange UFO. I parked in front of the State Theater and along with others watched it travel very slowly southward. There were no sounds.

When we first saw it we could see an outline of a spherical shape with lights on the bottom, It looked very tall with its longest part upward.

Danny Wamsley and Jimmy Mattox who work at the Park Pure Oil Station, and another young man, Archie White, saw it first.

Danny said when he first saw it he thought "What the heck is that thing?". It was about 300 feet above the New York Central Railroad bridge on Seventh Street. He, along with the other men, described it as being a round and shiny looking thing with lights of several different colors. When they first saw it, the lights were orange and white. They watched it travel very slowly southward and said it looked like it separated.

Mrs. Dolly Grady of 30th Street, said she had watched a similar UFO on Tuesday night for nearly an hour and said it had different colored lights. We watched it for about 10 minutes.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=923*

### **The Athens Messenger (Sunday, April 2nd 1967):**

People are really becoming interested in UFO sightings, not only in this area but in other communities, too. In fact, they are forming groups and holding "watch-parties."

I was on vacation this past week and Friday John [Keel] of New York, a well known ufologist, lecturer and writer, and I, appeared on the "Jackie Oblinger Show" on WCHS - TV in Charleston and discussed recent sightings of unidentified flying objects in West Virginia.

Jackie, herself, said that she made a UFO sighting last week. She described the object as having bright lights, silent and unlike anything one would usually see in the sky. She and about 15 neighbors watched the object for several minutes. She said that she contacted the Air Force and was told that no aircraft was in the area except for regularly scheduled flights.

Recently I also had the opportunity to meet and talk with Tad Jones of Cross Lanes, who says he witnessed a landing of a UFO Jan. 19 on Interstate 64 near Institute. He came across the object hovering over the middle of the highway, he said.

Jones, Keel and I viewed this area Friday and found some very strange footprints, similar to those that were seen in the abandoned power plant in the TNT area where the "monster" was first sighted on Nov. 15 of last year.

Also at the scene of the Jones sighting there was a lone foot-print that looked like that of a barefooted man. There were other footprints that looked like they were made by something that had hoofs and claws, something that must have weighed at least 200 pounds.

I also learned that in this same Interstate 64 area several people have reported seeing a monster or "moth man."

This week a Point Pleasant couple told me that while traveling on Route 35 at dusk one day last December, a creature hovered over their car for about two miles. They first noticed it when they saw the people in the car in front of them looking back. Another car was following them.

All three cars increased their speed up to about 70 m.p.h. but the creature stayed right with them. When they slowed down, it did too, they said. The couple said that it had a wingspan as wide as the highway.

This makes 11 different parties who have reported seeing this creature, whatever it is. Quite possibly others have seen it but have not reported it. The family who saw it on Route 35 recently said they believed it was operated by some mechanical device. Friday night I received more calls of sightings over Point Pleasant.

Keel, who has been doing extensive research in UFO sightings, says he doesn't know if these sightings in the Point Pleasant area are "the real thing," but he doesn't say they are not. In the near future he will have an article in one of the national magazines about sightings in this area. He is also writing a book in which he will refer to West Virginia sightings.

If I interviewed all the people who report seeing unidentified flying objects I would have a full time job, but I am interested in hearing about sightings even if I cannot contact every one of the witnesses.

I run into people who tell me that they saw something several weeks or months ago but that they were afraid they would be laughed at if they told about it. But if you see something, there is nothing to be ashamed of in telling the truth. Perhaps if everyone would report their sightings, these mysteries might soon be cleared up.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=928*

### **The Athens Messenger (Sunday, April 9th 1967):**

A retired Mason County school teacher is the latest person to relate a UFO sighting. Wallie Barnett, 77, Point Pleasant Route 2, said when he first sighted the object, he thought it was a plane crashing on the hilltop [near the] back of his home.

The object, about the size of a Volkswagen, came within 60 feet of him. He said it had two red lights about four inches in diameter in front. In the back, there were several little white lights that looked as if they were doing a square dance.

Barnett reported that when it came near him, it appeared to have windows with lights, but as the object got closer, the lights went out. He went around his dog house to get a closer look, but it disappeared suddenly.

He had gone into the yard when he heard his dogs barking. The object hovered in front of the dog kennel for a short period.

John Keel of New York, who is making a study of UFOs, and who has been in this area for about three weeks talking to area persons who have reported strange sightings, made one of his own.

About 1:35 a.m. on April 3, he was in the Gallipolis Ferry area when he saw a large object descend behind some trees for about 10 seconds, and then disappear into a ravine.

Keel said the most prominent light was one of a brilliant green, but it had a red light on top, and also had bright lights that looked like portholes. He said it appeared very suddenly and was no more than 100 or 150 feet from him.

He and members of the sheriff's department went into the area the next day with a geiger counter, but they were unable to find anything.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=936*

### **The Athens Messenger (Sunday, April 30th 1967):**

In a very old newspaper clipping, I read a story with a headline "Legend of Headless Soldier of Donohue's Lane Told With Early History Viewed."

The story in part says that in the region of Jackson County a distinctive type of farm-folk dwell. Their family history dates back before the Civil War by a half century. Their land has been handed down from generation to the succeeding, until the good earth has become a traditional heritage.

Down through the years have also come a wealth of family traditions and superstitions. Around the fire-side on a winter evening you would hear the stories of the "Headless Soldier of Donohue Lane," the "Haunt of Beech Thicket," and "The Strange Appari[ti]on at the Dutch Ridge Crossing."

Sometime during the Civil War, presumably about 1863, Stuart Donohue, a federal soldier, returned from the Army of the Potomac to his home on Little Mill Creek. A few days later he was warned that a detachment of home guards led by a native of the community was on their way to arrest him as a deserter and return him to Virginia. Donohue met the home guard unarmed, having stuck his carbine in a decayed stump, and agreed to accompany them to Cottageville where a hearing would take place.

After the party had crossed Little Creek at Click's Ford, a member of the guard shot Donohue in the back, inflicting a mortal wound.

The murder became a local item of interest. Although the man who committed the crime went unpunished by the civil law, there were mutterings after the war that the victim's family might avenge the killing. Perhaps it was their threat that kept the incident foremost in the minds of the people and acted as a psychological effect on the happenings which followed.

Natives of the section began to report they had seen a strange and unaccountable phanto[m] near a large beech tree which overshadowed the lane - the spot where Donohue was killed. To some, it is said, the murdered man appeared as a black colt, to others, a ball of tawny dust. To an early United Brethren minister, he appeared as a headless soldier climbing through the rustic rail fence. As to what facts these stories base their truth on was not learned, but they had an ominous and paralyzing effect on the countryside. Grown men refused to travel the lane, children shunned the spot as if it held the devil for them and the late traveler glanced frequently at the sinking sun and lengthened his stride.

One resident of the community, a brother of the deceased man, vowed he met the strange figure one rainy night. The shock of the encounter sent him home as fast as his legs could carry him. When he came to Little Mill Creek, swollen by the spring rains, he plunged into the swirling waters and swam to the other side. Never again did he pass the spot where his brother died.

The years passed and the memory of the haunted lane dimmed. The beech tree died and piece by piece fell onto the highway. Many throughout the years went to the spot but never saw or heard anything.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=2122*

### **The Athens Messenger (Thursday, November 16th 1967):**

Just one year ago today, a news story appeared in the local papers that eventually was widespread across the nation telling of the experience of two married couples who were frightened by a "man-like thing" shortly after midnight early that morning. It was promptly lab[e]led the "Mason County Monster."

The two young Mason County couples told of being chased by the "strange creature" which looked as if it stood six feet tall, had wings, and two big red eyes six inches apart. They reported that it was able to glide along behind their car at speeds up to 100 miles per hour.

Mr. And Mrs. Steve Mallette and Mr. and Mrs. Roger Scarberry described their hair-raising experiences to newsmen following the events, which began in the TNT area.

This was not the last of this creature. A Clarksburg man later reported that he had seen it near the same area in the daytime and Connie Carpenter of New Haven saw it near the Mason Golf Course, also in the daytime. The next night after it was seen by the two couples, it was sighted by seven people.

The reports have continued throughout the year, the many of them coming from reliable people who have asked me not to use their names.

Just two weeks ago, it was reported to be seen running very fast on the ground in the TNT area, and this week two hunters in the area also saw the creature. Others have reported seeing it along country roads, and all describe it as a man-like thing with hair. One man saw it on Route 33 when it hovered over his car.

Is this thing still here? If the reports are true, it apparently never left the area.

Throughout the year many people have reported other sightings, including strange lights and daytime sightings of disc-shaped UFO's that certainly were not airplanes as sometimes has been claimed.

Just this week in the area, several industrial workers saw an aluminum cigar-shaped object hovered in the area for nearly two hours. It was also reported on another day about the same hour, but that time it went around in circles with a rapid speed.

While many people just laugh and say that it is all a hoax, others are interested in finding out just where they are coming from and what they are. Those who have experienced seeing the creature or other strange objects will tell you that if you ever see one of things you will be a believer, and be frightened.

Soldiers stationed overseas read in the Stars and Stripes about the "Mason County Monster" and many of them sent clippings home. Thousands of people have come to the area during the past year just to see what is going on.

This area and the creature sightings and UFO's have been written up in many magazines throughout the past year, and one New York TV firm has expressed an interest in making an educational movie of this area on UFO's.

If they plan to stay here, we hope that in another year, someone will find the answer to just what is taking place.

*Source(s): http://www.johnkeel.com/?p=950*