Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode we're talking about the George Wheeler UFO
encounter. That's correct, the George
Wheeler UFO encounter. Now I found this article over
here at newspapers.com. This is a famous sighting
happened back on May 26th. That's when the article came
out, 1976. If we go to newspapers.com, we
can find this article and the title of it, says Suddenly, the
chief believes begins by telling us.
George Wheeler, a police officer in the small Pierre County
community who says he used to think that unidentified flying
objects were figments of others imagination, recently reported
seeing his second UFO. And slightly more than a year.
I don't know what I saw, he said.
But all I know is that I don't want that experience repeated
ever again. Now he says that he is not only
a believer in UFOs, but thinks the occupants of such craft are,
quote, out to kill us. Wheeler, a veteran of 30 years
in law enforcement work, said he made his latest sighting late on
the evening of April 22nd when he went to the area of a quarry
just South of Elmwood to investigate what he thought was
a fire. He said he found a flaming
orange object about 250 feet across and as large as a
two-story building hovering above the ground.
He said he could see shadowy figures inside.
So think about the same 250 feet across, OK, that's almost the
size of a football field and height of a two-story building,
he says. Elmwood Police Chief Gene Helmer
said Wheeler's police radio went dead as he was describing the
object and Wheeler was found semi conscious in his squad car
a short time later. The car, which had been working
well, was found to have burned out spark plugs and points 3.
Area residents reported that their television sets went off
for about 10 minutes about the time Wheeler said he saw the
UFO. Wheeler said he had been struck
by a bluish white light which came from the craft.
He developed severe headaches several days later and was
hospitalized in Menominee and Nuclear for test.
Helmer said he had never seen Wheeler as shaken as he was the
night of the sighting. George saw something all right
or he never would have shut off the squad car engine nor kept
the lights off except under extreme circumstances.
Helmer said the police officer was not the only person to see a
UFO in the area that night. Another was Paul Frederickson,
administrator of a nursing home. While Hammer works part time.
He lives near the field where Wheeler was found and was
notified of the officers sighting by a nurse after a call
was placed to the home in an effort to locate the sheep.
The chief I got up and looked out the window and saw this
flaming orange object in the sky.
Frederickson said Wheeler's first sighting of a UFO occurred
April 7th, 1975, when he initially thought he saw a huge
play on fire heading toward the ground north of Elmwood.
He also described that object as flaming orange and said it was
about the size of a football field.
Wheeler said he detected a hose dangling from the latest UFO he
saw and noted that both sightings were near a 69,000
Volt power line, which is located in an area.
He speculated that the craft might possibly be using the
vicinity as a recharging site. Wow, that's really a crazy one.
Now, some people also think that maybe this hose was dangling off
of this thing, could have been trying to suck water out of that
quarry. Either way, it happened.
This seemed like there's a tremendous amount of energy
involved. Now I want to take a look at
another article about this. Now I want to take another look
at this Wheeler case here. This is from up nnewswi.com and
I'll have a link at the Kofi site.
It says that the eight most convincing UFO sightings in
Wisconsin history. We'll look at this Elmwood UFO
sighting first. It says in 1976, police officer
George Wheeler witnessed what he thought was a fire in a quarry
in Elmwood, WI. When he got a closer look, he
reported back on his radio that it was a UFO instead.
Then his radio went dead. Wheeler wasn't the first person
in Elmwood to spot something unexpected in the sky.
Locals in the western Wisconsin village had been reporting UFO
sightings for nearly a year before the police officer had
his encounter. After his sighting, Wheeler was
found sitting in his car, which had stopped working.
The police officer said that he was zapped with a blue light
from the UFO and didn't remember anything else until he was
found. Adding to the mystery of this
encounter, Wheeler died less than a year later.
And then it goes on here and has a, a little talk about they have
a UFO convention up there at the last weekend of July.
That's some strange stuff. Now, this guy had two different
encounters. I read somewhere where he was
actually a World War 2 fighter, combat fighter pilot, veteran.
And of course this town only had like 1000 people in it or
something, maybe 700 back then. He was just, he was filling in
for the one law enforcement officer they had that they
employed that day. He was kind of a substitute guy.
He sees what he thinks is a fire over on this place called Tuttle
Hill, and he goes over to investigate and instead of
fighting a fire, he finds this giant almost like a flaming UFO
in the sky. Now, he reported this thing
being like 200 feet across, 250 feet across, saying it was two
stories, that there are portals in it and that he could look
inside and see these entities or aliens or whatever walking
around in there. So he had a really up close and
personal experience. Very, very strange sighting.
It's got some other sightings listed here.
Seems like there's a lot of activity in that area, It says
it talks about these Mayville crop circles.
It says one of the state's most interesting and convincing UFO
stories doesn't even involve an actual UFO sighting.
Instead, it centers around crop circles that were found in
Mayville, a city located in southwestern Dodge City, in 2000
Dodge County. Rather, in 2003, Mayville
resident author Rentella said that he watched 3 crop circles
appear in a field near his home. Rentella said he first noticed
when a strong wind picked up and he saw trees in a cornfield
violently moving around. Members from MUFON investigated
the crop circles and have said that they did not believe it was
a hoax. However, the legitimacy of the
crop circles has been questioned.
And then it quotes Some silly Reddit user here.
I don't know why they want to do this.
You've got a good a good report and MUFON has investigated it
and then in order to refute roof on people that do this
professionally, they investigate these scenes.
They quote some random unnamed Reddit user who says, well, this
could have been a prank. I I just not very good writing
really. Anyway, goes on down here.
Ask a couple more Dundee mountain UFO sightings.
It says mountains aren't a common sight in the Midwest, but
there's something extra unusual about Dundee Mountain.
Some nearby residents believe that the 270 foot formation has
a UFO hiding underneath it. For decades, residents who live
near the massive hill and surrounding lake have reported
seeing glowing orbs near the top of Dundee Mountain, including
resident Bill Benson, along with five others who spotted an
orange ball over the mountain in 1998.
For more than 30 years, residents of Dundee and UFO
enthusiasts have gathered together at an annual event, UFO
Days has spelled Daze, organized by Benson.
The event, which was held annually in July, officially
ended in 2021 after Benson passed away.
But for three decades it was an opportunity for the local
community and visitors who are passionate about UFOs to come
together to discuss the unusual sightings in the area.
And sounds fun. And then here we have Coral
Lorenzen's 1934 sightings. This is before 1976.
Coral Lorenzen was a biographer, journalist and Co founder of the
Aerial Phenomena Research Organization.
But before any of that she was a young girl in Baron, Wisconsin
who saw a UFO. Baron, a small city in
northeastern Wisconsin, was home to 9 year old Lorenzen who
noticed something floating in the sky and pointed it out to
two of her friends. The soundless saucer like object
appeared to Lorenzen as an open umbrella without ribs or spurs.
According to Wisconsin Frights, the 9 year old told her father
about what she saw, but no other sightings of the object were
recorded that year. That would have probably been
pretty scary for a nine year old kid.
Here's 1 from 1934 says flying saucer spotted in Door County
The 1934 sighting wouldn't be the last time that Lorenzen
spotted a saucer in the sky. Nearly two decades later, in
1952, the journalist and Wisconsin resident, along with
many other Door County residents, witnessed a large
flying saucer over Sturgeon Bay. According to Lorenzen's
description, the UFOs were large metallic flying saucers with red
glows emerging from the bottom. That wasn't the last time that a
UFO was reported to be spotted over Door County.
Ellison Bay resident Ryan Mueller had seven UFO sightings
within a year, according to Door County Pulse, and took pictures
of a mysterious white light that he's seen several times near his
home. And here once says UFO, pancakes
and numerous examples from pop culture.
Extraterrestrials normally demand to be taken to a leader,
but in the case of Joe Simonton, a Wisconsin resident who claims
he saw a UFO and then three small aliens emerged from it,
all they wanted was pancakes. Yeah, we did a podcast on this a
long time ago. I should do another one.
According to Cult of Weird, a UFO landed at Simonton's Eagle
River home in 1961. When 3 extraterrestrials
emerged, they gave the Wisconsin man a large container, which
Simonton somehow interpreted needed to be filled with water.
After he filled the container with water, the aliens proceeded
to make pancakes with their concoction, which they left with
Simonton before departing. While the story sounds
unbelievable, it was credible enough to be investigated by the
United States Air Force, who concluded that the mysterious
alien pancakes seem to be buckwheat pancakes.
Interesting. And it's got a picture of this
Simonton fellow here. Now it goes on and says at 2022
Western Wisconsin sightings. Many potential UFO sightings are
able to be ruled out or explained by more realistic
reasoning, like the lights of a bright city or a plane in the
sky rather than an unidentified object.
But there's still plenty of mysteries surrounding several
sightings that happened in western Wisconsin.
In December 2022, a woman in Howard, WI, a village near Green
Bay, witnessed flashing and swooping multi colored lights in
the sky. A few hours later, a West Bend
resident saw a glowing white object swoop down in front of
her while she was driving. The next day, a couple in
Greenfield saw unexplainable lights in the sky over the Fox
River. The reason that these sightings
are so convincing? Well, there's a ton of footage
of them. A 2022 article from the Daily
Mail has photos and videos of from several sightings across
these parts of western Wisconsin, as well as multiple
locations in Michigan and some crazy stuff.
Here's one that says one of the state's most eerie UFO stories
is also one of its most recent. According to Wisconsin Frights,
a married couple experienced a UFO sighting in Hell's Corners
in late 2023. While the couple was driving,
they initially noticed a bright light that looked as if it was
on top of a pole, but then the shape took on more of a saucer
form. But beyond the initial sighting,
the couple has no recollection of the rest of the experience.
They believe the UFO caused them to lose their memory.
Despite, or maybe due to the bright lights of the city of the
state's largest city, the Milwaukee area is a hotbed for
UFO sightings, including a recent occurrence when residents
mistakenly thought that bright lights in the area could be a
UFO. In early 2023, the same year as
the Hell's Corner sighting, bright lights were seen by
Milwaukee residents, but those turned out to be Jupiter and
Venus. I mean, turned out to be Jupiter
and Venus. Maybe, maybe.
Were they there watching them? Were they there?
Were they there measuring? I mean, I don't know the
pictures. I, I The thing is, with an
article like this, it's got some decent information in it, but
the person writing it seems to be so bent toward debunking that
they really kind of degrade the article a lot.
But still, it shows that there's a lot of sightings happening up
here with this old World War 2 pilot had his experience at the
stuff still going on. Now.
We'll take a look at another article here.
Now back to Wheeler. I found this article at SCUSE
dot IO. It's a little history website.
It looks like it says police Officer George Wheeler and it's
got a picture of this fellow pointing at the area where he
saw this UFO at. After police Officer George
Wheeler first encounter with UFO at Elmwood in April 1975, he was
eager to see another as respected Pierce County Village
police officer who has a satisfaction of knowing that
many other persons saw the same flaming ball he did six months
ago, confesses his life isn't what it used to be.
First, George Wheeler hasn't felt well since the clear spring
night, April 6th, when a flaming ball the size of a football
field raced over a hill from the northeast and flew silently over
Wheeler after he halted his squad car abruptly and drove
into a nearby ditch. Nobody seems able to determine
what my ailment is. The 70 year old Wheeler said,
even though he looks 15 years younger than he is.
I'm reluctant to say it, but I think it's possible I got a good
dose of radiation from that UFO. Second, the veteran police
officer, 20 years here in Pierce County in 10 years as a New York
State Highway Patrol trooper says he's a believer now that
UFOs exist. Before April 6th.
I more or less shrugged them off.
Third, Wheeler's name has been added to the mailing list of UFO
enthusiasts all over the US and Canada, and he has received
correspondence from government agencies as well as from many
organizations interested in UFOs.
Wheeler's story has appeared in the weekly tabloid The Tattler
Magazine, and in about two weeks this same picture of him with
today's story will appear the National Enquirer, another
weekly tab newspaper distributed nationwide.
His voice will now be on a new record being produced by
Columbia Records, which is compiling eyewitness accounts
from many of the estimated 32,000,000 Americans who claimed
to have observed UFOs. That record is due for release
late this year or early 1976. Man, I'd love to listen to that.
But what is past is prologue. And the next time George Wheeler
sees a UFO, he'll be prepared. In his squad car now are field
glasses and two types of cameras, including one spatially
adapted to night photography. I'm dying to get another chance
at seeing one, he said this week.
Last April 6th, while on night patrol just north of this small
Pierce County village, Wheeler saw what appeared to be a huge
airplane in distress coming right at him from over a hill to
the northeast. Wheeler halted his car, drove
into a nearby ditch, and prepared to brace for the
expected whine of jet engines. While he must have really
thought this thing was on top of him, instead he heard no sound.
The silent flaming ball he estimated to be about 1500 feet
above and about the size of a football field made no noise.
Still thinking it might be a 747 jet attempting to avoid crashing
in the village, Weider hopped back into his squad car and
drove to the South side flats where he hoped to get a better
look. When he arrived there and
stopped, he observed the flaming craft hovering motionless before
it speed up at tremendous speeds, making 90° turns without
slowing. It finally took off to the West.
Wheeler, father of a former University of Wisconsin football
player Sam Wheeler, later learned that several persons in
North Carolina also observed a UFO the same night.
What saved me, Wheeler recounted this week, is that several other
respected persons in Pearson County saw the same thing.
These persons include a young mother and Pierce County Deputy
Sheriff's. Before April 6th, George Wheeler
was, like most Americans, doubting stories told by UFO
siders. Wheeler said that whenever he is
on night duty assisting Elmwood Police Chief Gene Helmer on a
part time basis now that he has retired, he is constantly
looking up in the sky. I am a firm believer that they
are coming back and that we'll see them again.
Many persons around here are skeptical when they first heard
a Wheeler spotting the flaming wall, But when others said they
saw the same thing and stop being a joke, Wheeler said the
craft made no sound. There was no radio interference
and my wife knew the minute I arrived home that something was
wrong. I guess it was written all over
my face. Yeah, that's a pretty good take
on this article. OK, so we've kind of got a
couple different perspectives from George Wheeler's
experience. And then I I want to look at
some recent stuff that's happened here as we tie this all
in together about these really strange sightings happening,
happening in and around Elmwood, WI.
So we'll finish up here at this last article comes from
thesun.com. thesun.com. I'll put the link over COFI like
it did with the other stuff. The title on this says not so
alien. I saw my first UFO when I was
four years old. It first looked like a bright
star but made me stop in my tracks.
And this is written by Rachel Dobkin, published July 3rd,
2023. And the article says a Midwest
man has recalled his close encounter with UFO when he was
just four years old. Tom Forster from Elmwood, WI,
said that he and his family saw something strange in the sky
when he was a boy in 1975. So you see you're back here in
the same time frame that George Wheeler had his first experience
and then I think he had the second experience.
April was the 8th or 22nd and 1976.
Now they began by saying we were coming home from my grandma and
grandpa's and we had seen a bright star in the sky,
Forrester told ABC affiliate WQOW.
He explained We were singing Starlight Star Bright and it
didn't land in the road in front of us, but it came close and
stopped us and we stopped at a neighbor's.
Are they from outer space? Is it the government
experimental ships? Forster said.
Will we ever know? Elmwood, known for the many
reported UFO sightings in the town, is near the West border of
Wisconsin, about 60-7 miles away from Minneapolis.
While Forster may have seen his first UFO at age 4, it certainly
was not his last. Forster and his wife saw a UFO1
night on top of the pole shed on their property, he told
Republican Eagle in 2019. His wife was concerned and asked
him what they should do, Forster said, to which he recalled
saying I'm going to bed. Forster said at the time that
the most recent UFO he saw it was in 2007, and he said he was
never drinking when he saw one of them.
No one claims to be the UFO capital Wisconsin, however it
has competition from Bellevue and Dundee who have also claimed
the title from 1975 to 1976. Local police officer George
Wheeler. Claimed he saw multiple UFOs
near a rock quarry right outside of town.
People started talking about it because he doesn't have anything
to gain. His whole reputation is at
stake, said Amy Beckel, president of the Elmwood
Community Club. Beckel's group puts on the UFO
Days festival every year in late July, which includes tours of
reported sighting locations. We're not the state football
players every year. We're not the state basketball
players every year. So that would be our claim to
fame, would be the UFO sightings and our talent celebration.
Bekel said Elmwood's 44th annual UFO Days will take place from
July 28th to July 30th. Not that would have been last
year. Yeah, very cool sightings.
I mean, you can just see it. It seems like a lot of stuff
going on there over the years and especially back in this
197576 period seems to have been just a hotbed of activity.
Now were these things coming down there like like Wheeler
said to possibly draw energy off the power good?
Were they there to bring up water into the spaceship?
And what was it that possibly caused the death of George
Wheeler just a year after the 2nd sighting?
All really cool stuff and interesting stuff.
Sad for George that he passed away so shortly after the
sighting, but you know these things are still showing up in
Wisconsin. Until next time, this is UFO
warning over and out.