"WOW, WHAT WAS THAT?" - Unexplained Mysteries Over 60 Years Ago: Silver Slivers, Brilliant Lights, A Flying Object

(06/12/2023)

Spot in a meadow where we were standing, now with trees, from which a super, super brilliant light was spotted next to the ground, in area shown at distance

It was near this heavily wooded remote area that the
slowly moving, ultra-bright light was hovering

Silver slivers were in a neat, straight, undisturbed bonfire-like pile, hundreds of slivers, unlike the faulty recreation (left) using Christmas tinsel, they were round and precision cut, about 6" long and stacked in a pile about 6" across, more like the drawing (right) shining and glittering in the sunlight from a distance

By Bob Weaver 2010

When people see things that do not appear ordinary, not matching events that make sense in the collective memory, it causes a stir.

Here are three such events that happened within a short time frame in 1957 near the Village of Hur that caused a "Wow, what was that?"

While one can congregate speculation and theories about these events, we have chosen to best recall them as they happened.

There could be reasonable explanations for all of them, although we have not been able to come up with such these years later.

Not unlike other nights, my friend Ronzil Lynch and I went to a sprawling meadow just off the Joker Ridge to observe the universal sky.

While we frequently saw fascinating objects shooting across the night view, noiseless and at high speeds, or flares shooting up from the horizon, this night was different.

Positioned on a meadow knoll, suddenly a super high-intensity bright light appeared in the woods about 200 yards away. The brilliant light was moving around close to the ground, casting long shadows through the trees into the meadow were we stood.

Keeping in mind this was the 1950s, long before high-intensity hand-held lights, and in this case, no vehicles with headlights could access the location.

While standing and looking at this brilliant phenomenon, it was quickly apparent that this shining light through the trees and into the meadow made no sense.

The illumination came from an area where the Ward one-room school once stood.

Ronzil claims that after a few moments, I broke and ran to the car. He quickly followed.

A few days later, I was walking though the same meadow with one of the Burch boys, intent on finding some deer tracks, when we spotted a brightly shining object in the sunlight, which turned out to be a pile of silver slivers.

It was near the spot where we stood when spotting the brilliant light in the woods.

The hundreds of straight silver slivers about six inches long were in a neat bonfire pile, as if each sliver had been placed there by tweezers.

It was fascinating, so much so we went back to the house to get a camera. Returning in short order, we arrived to find the slivers gone.

A distance away was a man and woman walking through the field, the man pulling the slivers from his pocket to ask, "Are you looking for these?" The man gave me the highly crumpled slivers.

A short time later, Ronzil and I took the slivers to science professor Dr. Max Ward at Glenville State College, who said he had no idea of their origin, but examined them under a microscope, saying they were made of light-weight aluminum alloy, round and precision cut.

Shortly, I sent a few to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, whose report said the silvers were chaff used from planes to disrupt radar.

Since that time, I've been unable to come-up with radar chaff photos that resemble the slivers, further questioning if the slivers were radar chaff.

How in the world could such light objects have fallen from an airplane and landed in a neat symmetrical pile, no sliver disturbed or scattered?

I kept the slivers for many years, and then gave them to my son Eric, who has apparently lost them after many moves.

The third event during this period was a sighting of an object that streaked across the sky in front of our house in the Village of Hur.

My dad, mom and myself were sitting in the front yard, facing what was then an unobstructed view of the Rowels Run, Joker and Rattlesnake Knob area.

Quickly appearing from the north was a glowing object, appearing to be a number of feet in diameter, a white light muted with other colors, traveling at a very high rate of speed.

The object, in less than three seconds, traveled silently across the valley view right to left at a not too high distance from the ground.

My parents said, "Wow, what was that?"

We had no answers.

Simply put, all these years later, I have not been able to give reasonable explanations to these three events.

Maybe never will.