Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning.
In this episode, we're talking about the 1957 Platte River
encounter. That's correct, the 1957 Platte
River encounter. Now you might you might remember
that this year, 1957, there was this vast UFO way that just
seemed to take over the United States.
Many famous cases, many encounters, even abductions.
But we're going to focus on this Reinhold Smith contact claim to
begin with. And this is from the website
ignaciodarnade.com. I'll put a link there that buy
me a coffee website. As always, thank you to the
people that support the program over there and at Spotify.
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So they begin by saying in early 1957, this is November.
A wave of UFO sightings hit the United States, beginning in
Texas and quickly spreading throughout the country.
One of the most spectacular reports came from a 60 year old
grain buyer, Reinhold O Smith, a Bakersfield of Bakersfield, CA.
Late on the afternoon of the 5th, Smith showed up at the
Sheriff's Office at Kearney, NE. Pale and shaken.
He asked to see a minister, then explained that he had just had
an incredible experience. While driving along a sandy
expanse near the Platte River, he saw a flash of light in the
sky. When he went to investigate, he
observed A blip shaped flying object resting on the ground.
It was, he said, 100 feet long, 30 feet wide and 14 feet high,
and it caused his car engine to die.
When he got too close to it, he got out of the car and started
toward the UFO, only to be hit by a beam of light which briefly
paralyzed him. Two men came out of the craft
and ushered him inside. Inside he met the crew, 4
conventionally dressed men and two women who spoke high German
to each other and German accented English to him.
After a brief conversation about the United States space
satellite program, Schmidt was asked to leave and the craft
departed on his way to Kearney. The full impact of the
experience hit Schmidt and he decided he had to walk with a
man of the cloth. After calling on one who wasn't
home, he went to the Sheriff's Office, accompanied by Deputy
Sheriff Dave Drag and Police Chief Thurston Nelson, Schmidt
returned to the site of the landing where three sets of
footprints, 2 meeting the first, then advancing together and
suddenly disappearing, were visible in the sand.
The investigators also found a greenish, greaselike substance
where the UFO allegedly had come down.
Smith was held overnight in jail and grilled by skeptical police
officers, as well as two officers from the Continental
Air Defense Command and U.S. Army Intelligence.
By morning, authorities learned that Smith had received had
served time for embezzlement in the Nebraska penitentiary in
1938 and 39. They also recovered an empty
cannon, green motor oil not far from the landing site, and
another empty cannon of the same material in Smith's trunk.
Smith refused to take a polygraph test.
On the evening of the 6th, 2 psychiatrists examined him and
after two hours of questioning decided that he believed what he
was saying and therefore was mentally ill Within 24 hours, he
was placed in the Hastings State Hospital.
He was released a few days later.
That's 1957. So that's how people were
frequently treated, I think when they reported seeing UF O's or
having made contact with aliens. And you can kind of understand
why that might not have been a thing that a lot of people
wanted to do. Now, as far as he's alien
speaking German to him, I wonder if that's if that's not how he
interpreted it, because it was a language that he understood with
the, you know, last name of Schmidt.
Secondly, the fact that these things would be talking to him
about the US satellite program, also interesting.
I don't know what he would know about that.
It would be a particular interest to any kind of an ET.
This whole thing could just be his interpretation of the
encounter that he had. I mean, I think sometimes these
things are so advanced that how we see them, how we interpret
them in the conversations that people have with these ET are
often time more just projections of our own beliefs, systems, our
own selves on to whatever these things are, he says.
Within short order, Schmidt was on the was on the Contact T
circuit, lecturing in the company of fellow space
communicant Wayne S Aho and Chicago UFO enthusiast John
Otto, who charged that all the apparent incriminating evidence
had been planted as part of a government conspiracy to smear
the contactee Otto 1958. Smith was now claiming
additional contacts. The first of these occurred on
February 5th, 1958, when he saw a flying saucer land a few miles
from Kearney and encountered Mr. X, captain of the crew he had
encountered. In November, Smith was taken for
a short ride, during which X and his traveling companions
informed Smith they were from Saturn.
One evening in April, after a lecture in Tulsa, OK, Smith went
for a walk and spotted X and a space woman in a black sports
car. The three of them drove out into
the country and a saucer beamed them in the car.
Inside, they talked for two hours.
Other contacts followed. On one occasion, Smith was flown
to the Arctic Circle. The ship plunged into the ocean
and remained there for three hours, where Smith saw Russian
submarines and other adventures. He went into space and to Egypt
to learn the secrets of the Great Pyramid.
Like all contactees, Smith's was given a mission.
Our space friends can show us the way to a new and wonderful
world, he wrote. But they said that it is up to
us to bring it about. There's so much to be done and
due to the present crisis on earth which affects the welfare
of all our people, not a moment should be wasted And applying
the solution to our problems which have been given us.
That just sounds so familiar to what we hear today from many of
these experiences. Sometimes people have
experiences and they just say, wow, that was interesting.
Sometimes people have experiences and they feel
compelled to go on the UFO circuit and tell the rest of us
what we need to do and what we need to do.
Usually is not always that clear.
Now he goes on. He says Smith's career had
peaked six months later, in October, Smith's went on trial
in Oakland, CA for Grand Theft. Alameda County prosecutors
charged that he had built a widow, Eva Newcomb, out of
$5000. The money was to go into a
worthless mining venture in Tulare County, where he claimed
to have viewed quartz crystals from a spaceship, Smith further
claimed. According to prosecutors, though
Smith denied it, that these free energy crystals had healing
powers, He acknowledged he had collected over $25,000 from
elderly women, but insisted he had not done so through loving
talk as they charged. The jury saw Edge of Tomorrow,
which Smits apparently thought would convince it of the
authority of his contacts with the Centurions, but the
prosecution countered this by summoning a young astronomer,
Carl Sagan, to the stand. Sagan testified that Saturn
could not possibly harbor human life.
That is really funny boy. Carl Sagan, Corbec in 1958.
On October 26th, after a 7 day trial and 4 1/2 hours of
deliberation, a jury of seven men and five women convicted
Smith. Subsequently, Judge Donald K
Quayle sentenced him to 1 to 10 years in prison on 2 counts of
Grand Theft. Smith's four years on the UFO
stage and ended and he slipped into obscurity.
I think that's kind of a fascinating story.
Whether this guy saw anything or not, I don't know, But it's just
interesting to me how his life just seemed to have spiral out
of control after that. Whether he whether he really
knew what he was doing, whether he believed that he'd found this
place where he could, he could, you know, mine valuable minerals
out, or whether this was just a way that he took advantage of
people that he met on this UFO circuit, I guess is something he
knows. And we can only speculate on
pretty much the story of the Platte River UFO contactee.
Now I want to take a look at another pretty famous case that
happened in 1957, which seems like it has a little more
veracity to it. Now, this was a site that also
happened in 1957, and it might be more believable to some
people because the star witness here was astronaut Gordon
Cooper. I found this and
thinkaboutitdocs.com. It says 1957 astronaut Gordon
Cooper. Witnesses UFO landing at Edwards
Air Force Base. It just lists the date is 1957
location. Edwards Air Force Base gives it
a highly classification that says observation of an object in
close proximity to witness where physical traces, impression,
burn, medical effects are are left or electrical effect or
heat or felt. In this considered a close
encounter of the second kind they don't have a time on the
duration. It just says number of objects
one size of object 30 feet across distance 20 to 30 yards.
Shape of object saucer shiny silver and smooth and then
number of witnesses Multiple Source John Cook I had a camera
crew filming the installation when they spotted the saucer.
They filmed it as it flew overhead, then hovered extended
three legs as landing gear and slowly came down to land on a
dry lake bed. It was a classic saucer, shiny
silver and smooth, about 30 feet across.
It was pretty clear it was an alien craft.
So this other words, this thing was so advanced that he didn't
think there's any way it could have been man made.
And then Intel says the Ford Port.
In 1957, Cooper was one of an elite band of test pilots at
Edward Air Force Base in California, in charge of several
advanced projects, including the installation of a Precision
landing System. Quote.
I had a camera filming the installation when they spotted a
saucer. They filmed it as they flew
overhead, then hovered, extended three legs as landing gear, and
slowly came down to land on a dry lakebed.
These guys were all pro cameramen, so the picture
quality was very good. The camera crew managed to get
with him 20 or 30 yards of it, filming all the time.
It was a classic saucer, shiny silver and smooth, about 30 feet
across. It was pretty clear it was an
alien aircraft. As they approached closer, it
took off. When his camera crew handed over
the film, Cooper followed standard procedures and
contacted Washington to report the UFO and all heck broke
loose, he said. After a while, a hand ranking
officer said when the film was developed, I was to put it in a
pouch and send it to Washington. He didn't say anything about me
not looking at the film. That's what I did when it came
back from the lab and it was all there, just like the camera crew
reported. When the Air Force later started
Operation Blue Book to correlate UFO evidence and reports, Cooper
says he mentioned the film evidence but the film was never
found. Supposedly Blue Book was
strictly a cover up. Anyway, Cooper revealed he's
convinced an alien craft crashed at Roswell, NM in 1947 and
aliens were discovered in the wreckage.
Had a good friend at Roswell, a fellow officer.
He had to be careful about what he said, but it's but but it
sure wasn't a weather balloon like the Air Force cover story.
He made it clear to me that what crashed was a craft of alien
origin and members of the crew were recovered.
Why has the government kept this UFO secrets for so many years?
It started in World War 2 when the government didn't want
people to know about UFO reports in the case.
In the case, they panicked, said Cooper.
They would have been fearful it was a superior enemy technology
that we had no defense against. Then it got worse in the Cold
War for the same reason. So they told one untruth.
They had to tell another to cover that one, then another,
then another. It's just snowballed.
And right now, I'm convinced a lot of very embarrassed
government officials are studying there in Washington,
trying to figure out a way to bring the truth out.
They know it's going to come out one day, and I'm sure it will.
America has a right to know. Wow, that's really neat.
It's got some pictures here from different UFO sightings.
So you kind of have a contrast between 2 two different UFO
encounters, one from a guy who's been convicted, you know, of
crimes, larceny and whatnot. Crimes of deception, basically.
Who says he has this had this experience where he had a UFO
encounter was taken on board and was shown things, was given this
kind of a generalized message that we needed to shape things
up here on Earth. And then you have national hero
Gordon Cooper an astronaut who says no.
I've seen film of 1 landing here at Ed Edwards Air Force Base
just showing it, basically saying yes, here we are.
It's and it's just two of these different encounters that happen
1957 that I think are so far apart.
But the debunkers like to focus on the ones like the first
fellow Mr. Smith. There were some questions around
his personal character, even though he did show up that up at
the Sheriff's Office that day and did they said he said he
seemed to be frightened, upset as if he had actually seen
something. So what happened after there, we
don't know. Now I want to look at this one
last case from 1957 before we close this out.
And so we talked about the Platte River encounter.
We've talked about the Gordon encounter there at Edwards Air
Force Base. Here's one from Texas in 1957.
This is from housedupworks.com. It says the 1957 Loveland UFO
encounter. On November 2nd, 1957, the
Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 into orbit.
Within hours, coincidentally or otherwise, a UFO wave erupted in
the United States. At first, the wave appeared to
be concentrated in a small backwater area of West, TX where
a series of remarkable UFO encounters took place.
The Sheriff's Office in the town of Loveland scoffed that evening
when a frightened man called to report that he and a friend had
driven on a country Hwy. 4 miles West of town, and it's seen a
200 foot long rocket rise up from a field and rushed toward
their truck. Terrified and of an imminent
collision, the two flew out of the cab and hurled themselves
into the ditch as the UFO passed just above the truck, rocking it
with a blast as loud as Thunder, the vehicle's engine died and
its lights went out, only to resume a few seconds later when
the mysterious object disappeared from view.
Wow, that's amazing. That almost sounds like this
thing is is one of these interdimensional craft where
what they are interpreting as this sound of a rocket, Who
knows if it's if it's if it's from one of her power sources
thing is using, or if that's just the Sonic boom being
broken. But obviously these guys had an
amazing encounter with this saying.
And what did the sheriff do? Well, they laughed at him, which
I guess is better than putting them in a psych word for a few
days. An hour later, another caller
recounted his experience with an identical UFO that had also
interfered with the electrical functioning of his car.
The scoffing stopped and sheriff's officers soon found
themselves handling comparable stories from frightened
observers who had seen a giant light and engine killing UFO at
locations WE and north of Loveland.
At 1:30 AM, Sheriff Weir Klim and a deputy saw the UF O's
themselves. A few a few minutes later, Ray
Jones, Loveland's fire marshal, experienced motor difficulty
when the same or similar phenomena was in view.
The official Air Force explanation?
Ball lightning. But ball lightning never exceeds
more than a few feet in diameter and is usually only inches
around. Project Blue Book claimed an
electrical storm was in process during the sightings.
There was no storm by 1957. Project Blue Books
investigations quote, UN quote or perfunctory at best, even as
Chief Scientific Advisor, astronomer Jay Allen Heine would
later remark on the absence of evidence that ball lightning can
stop cars and put out headlights.
I mean, that's more ball lightnings than most people have
in a lifetime sightings. So that's just a quick little
synapses there. And let's look at another
episode here from Loveland, Texas because I think this is
where a lot of the stuff kicked off in these 1957 sightings at
Now we'll take one last look at this 1957 case from Texas as we
just compare these different cases from 1957 and how they
affected the UFO community. This is from
everythingglobic.com as dated November 2nd, 2017.
Keep in mind that be six years ago it says whatever happened in
Loveland, it became a world famous mystery on November 2nd,
1957. 60 years ago, Loveland became home to one of the
strangest mysteries in U.S. history.
A large, bright object appeared to hover above several different
roads outside of town, causing cars to lose power and shut off.
The object was described as egg or Oval shaped by some.
Others said it was more like the shape of a torpedo or rocket.
All the witnesses reported the object was very bright.
It was described as orange or blue to green.
Some described it like a fireball.
One witness said it made a thundering or rumbling sound.
I hit the ground, man, said eyewitness Pedro Susido.
Susido spoke in 2003. At that time, he said.
I started saying something's going on here, so I hit the
ground. I got almost to the top of the
truck. That's when the truck started
shaking. Lebanon Police reported a total
of 15 phone calls related to the bright object that night.
The then sheriff of Hockley County, Weir Clem, reported
seeing something strange about 300 yards ahead of him when he
went to investigate. Possible explanations have been
offered over the years, such as weather phenomena like St.
Elmo's fire, which is created by electrical discharge in the
atmosphere. Other possible explanations
included a reflection of burning gas from low cloud cover, or an
extremely rare weather event known as ball lightning.
UFO buffs say it remains one of the best cases to show the
extraterrestrial life visited our planet.
Interesting. So you had this UFO wave
happening basically down there in Texas, clear up into
Nebraska. Something was going on, and it's
interesting to see how people react to it in different ways.
Whether you're an astronaut, whether you're a farm worker
down in Texas, or whether you are a grain bar with a somewhat
sketchy criminal record in Nebraska is going to make a big
difference in how you're treated.
But what I find out so fascinating about these cases is
the similarity in all of them. You know how these people had
these encounters where they were really impacted by them or
they're impacted enough to report to the authorities?
And sometimes the reactions of the authorities was simply to
scoff somebody and sometimes it was to have that person locked
up for a few days. That's why I think that the
Platte River encounter there with Mr. Smith is important
because even though this guy had a somewhat sketchy past, let's
say, and even though it seemed like this encounter that he had
definitely spiraled into an overall a negative impact on his
life. It just goes to show, I think,
that these things are seen and encountered by people from all
different walks of life. Whether you're a hero astronaut
like like Mr. Cooper there, or whether you are somebody who's
been locked up for crimes like Mr. Smits, these things don't
seem to be any respecter of people.
And each person's encounter and observation of them does, at
some level, seem to be a very intensely personal thing.
And there were an awful lot of encounters with these things in
1957. Until next time, this is UFO
warning. Over and out.