The Great UFO Wave:
October, 1973

UFO reports and pranks continuing

The Cincinnati Post
October 19, 1973

United Press International

Reports of strange flying objects were just about as comman as explanations for their existence yesterday, but police at New Albany and Clarksville, Ind., staked out a field where UFOs had been reported and made three captures.

What the police caught was three plastic trashbags with wooden crosspieces supporting tiny lighted candles. An officer blamed the creations on local children.

Traffic backed up for miles near Greenwood, Del., as motorists stopped to stare at a bright orange disk that proved to be a seven-foot hoop dotted with orange lights powered by a fire department generator. Five local volunteer firemen were charged with disorderly conduct.

Residents at Bedford, Mass., reported mysterious flashing objects to police. They turned out to be a search light marking the opening of a new store.

Not all of the sightings reported last night were explained so easily, however. Outside Minneapolis-St. Paul, Patrolman Bradford Roy said he saw a "flying pancake triangle" with red and white lights that darted through the sky in silence.

Hundreds of Ohio residents flooded police and sheriffs' switchboards with frightened calls of very bright lights moving through the sky and more than 50 residents in the Florida panhandle reported UFOs, some flying in formation.

In Texas, Palacios (population 4000), a fishing and farming town on the Gulf coast, is making itself the official host for UFOs.

"It just occurred to me that no one has ever made those little fellas welcome," Mayor W.C. Jackson said "So we -the town council- issued a proclamation designating next Wednesday as Palacios' first annual UFO Fly-In Day at the municipal airport. The hours are 1 to 5 p.m."

In Tucson, Ariz., L.J. Lorenzen, director of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, said the sightings result from Americans' needs for diversions from scandals at home and wars abroad.

"People are also tending to view the phenomena with more respect and less ridicule than ever before, which has encouraged more people to report what they see," he added.