Montana News

New book profiles Montana UFO sightings

Posted: Dec 1, 2012 8:40 PM by Bernie Riggs (Missoula)
Updated: Dec 1, 2012 8:41 PM

Have you ever had a unexplained run-in with a UFO or extraterrestrial?

Helena author Joan Bird has written a new book on Montana's encounters with such phenomena.

The first chapter of the book covers what may be the first ever camera footage of "flying saucers," taken in 1950 near Great Falls.

It was the "Mariana sighting," and it remains one of the most famous of all supposed UFO sightings (see below).

Bird said, "They were hovering and when he put the camera on them they were still hovering and then he said they moved across the river and behind a grain elevator and behind a water tower, so we have these objects in the landscape to be able to judge their relative speed which was very important in later analyses of the film."

The book "Montana UFOs and Extraterrestrials" also covers crop circles in the Flathead Valley and UFO sightings over Minutemen missile silos during the 1960s.

Bird hopes that skeptics will keep an open mind and not ridicule people who come forward with their experiences.

She said, "Just take a look at the evidence and the other thing I would really encourage people to do is to allow people tell their stories without judgement. So many people are fearful of sharing this information because they feel like they'll be ridiculed or persecuted or thought crazy."