Is Arizona Alien Territory?
From the Arizona Republic
Dec. 8, 1992
Strange things are afoot in northern Arizona, where Lyle Vann says he's seen scores of aliens, Bigfoot creatures and UFOs.
Perhaps Vann's hometown of Paulden is in some sort of flight path, or is enveloped in vortex energy seeping from the red rocks of Sedona, which is about 40 miles west of the community.
Vann's digs include a basement office filled with photographs of Elvis and aliens, casts of Bigfoot footprints and such tomes as The Bigfoot Casebook.
A slide show on the creatures proved how blurry they could be. Why does it seem that UFO photographers never get pictures that are in focus? What Vann identifies as Bigfoot beings and aliens could have been just that--or they may have been tree branches or shadows.
Perhaps to confuse humans the strange beings from other worlds send out rays that interfere with a camera's inner workings.
Maybe it's part of an effort to ensure that gun-happy hunters don't get on their trail.
"They go out and shoot at almost anything that moves," Vann said of the hunters around his area.
And why do Bigfoots (Bigfeet?) and aliens hide in trees all the time? They're using camouflage, Vann tells us.
In his slides, Vann sees an ET accompanied by alien dogs and one aiming an arrow.
"UFOs are like cars," the flying-saucer watcher said. "Every one is different."
One slide shows a wolf snagging sardines Vann had left out to attract Bigfoot creatures, he said.
"Bigfoot loves bacon and sardines," Vann said.
Venturing out onto the land around Paulden revealed a 50-foot-wide circle where the grass grows taller than the surrounding scrub, with two similar 30-feet-wide circles on either side of the larger one. Vann says the markings suggest a UFO landing site.
Lyle Vann, the director of the Arizona Bigfoot Center, points out circles of overgrown grass in a field near Paulden, Arizona where he says a UFO might have landed.
Vann, a self-described Bigfoot researcher and "UFOlogist," says he encountered his first flying saucer when he was 6 years old in Geneseo, Ill., in 1955, and saw his first of countless aliens in Arizona on April 17, 1989.
Although he can't explain the encounters, Vann believes the creatures are appearing in response to crises such as AIDS, a damaged ozone layer and natural disasters.
Landing in Arizona makes sense for the creatures because the state isn't heavily populated, and the state's mining attracts aliens who have a taste for gold, Vann said. Vann said Alien Evidence, his tome of encounters with otherworldly beings, should be out sometime next year.
Skeptics and those who don't believe aren't a cause for great concern.
"Just wait and see," he said. "What do you tell people who don't believe in God? ... You've got to believe in things."
"If people do laugh, I don't let it bug me. I laugh with them."
Aliens may have decided to appear before Vann because of his peaceful nature.
"I have no bad intentions toward any living thing," he said. "I'm not some damned voodoo."
For more information about Bigfoot in Arizona, contact the Arizona Bigfoot Center, P.O. Box 412, Paulden, AZ 86334.
Click here to send email.