4 minute read
A Brief History of Extraterrestrial Activity in the Poconos
By Elizabeth Decker
Perhaps you have heard anecdotal accounts of extraterrestrial activity in the Poconos; stories recounted by acquaintances of driving home very late at night on otherwise empty streets and seeing what appear to be two moons floating in the sky above: Tales of friends who claim to have repeatedly seen strange orange lights that seem to hover in the sky and abruptly change direction before disappearing into the black night. However, did you know the Poconos has a history with otherworldly origins and a long history of recorded Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs)? Among tales of descending from somewhere far away in the cosmos, the region is rife with tales of extraterrestrial and UFO sightings. With a narrative not only based in the tales of Indigenous peoples which date back millennia before what anthropologists define as “human civilization,” paranormal phenomena have held a dominant role in the Poconos’ history.
Many Indigenous people called this area home many thousands of years before European explorers even dared to sail across uncharted ocean waters on an Earth which was then believed to be flat. Although reports of strange lights and flying objects were reported when Europeans landed on the soil of the northeastern United States, tales of cosmic origin are the basis from the oldest narratives of people who called the Poconos home.
Perhaps the first people to inhabit the Poconos, the Leni-Lenape, believed that humans initially existed somewhere in the stars before landing and settling on Earth. It was believed that this planet and area was chosen to be the home for these “great ancestors” because of the number of rich natural resources such as fresh water which are particularly abundant in this area of the world. The name “Leni-Lenape” literally translates into “the original people.”
Lenape legend is based on “Thunder Beings,” beings who lived in the sky who could descend to Earth “on the wings of birds with great thunderous noise and fire” (https://m.youtube.com/ watch?v=Yd6KBxS597o).
Legends of the Lenape tell of a man who ascended into the sky to bring knowledge back from the “Thunder Beings” while other legends tell of magical little people and giant beings who lived in the forest whose presences were dangerous if these beings were not respected.
During European settlement, early explorers of the Poconos wrote about strange but commonplace visits from angels and “unusual beings” as well as balls of fire and unknown objects flying in the sky. In time, the region began to be excavated for its natural resources. Perhaps the most infamous extraterrestrial encounter reported in the industrial era (long before there were planes) was of a lumberjack who had gone into the woods to survey the area for valuable timber when he came across a forest clearing where there was a strange aircraft, pulsating with light.
When the lumberjack approached the object, a bright flash of light blinded him. When he was found by hunters six days later, he was wandering through the forest without any memory of the previous week.
Many stories of such UFOs and encounters with unknown beings have been noted throughout the history of the Poconos. There are several notable stories from the 20th century through today. One notable story from October 29, 1956, involved a woman referred to as “Mrs. D,” who resided in Milford. One evening, she took a flashlight to scan her backyard for deer: What she saw were what she described as two 3-3.5’-tall muscular “men” wearing what she described as tight silver spacesuits and helmets standing side-by-side next to her garden. Unbeknownst to “Mrs. D,” earlier in the day, a long, large, and wingless silver-shaped object was reported to have been seen flying over the Tobyhanna Army Depot flying at very fast speeds, approximately 3,000-5,000 feet in the air, and stopping abruptly in midair to hover over the Army Depot (J. E. Myer).
In September of 1957, for the second time that year, saucer-shaped crafts were reported flying above the Delaware River by over half a dozen residents in the Delaware Water Gap. On March 1, 1973, a state trooper and 11 residents reported approximately 40 circular-shaped objects flying at low altitudes around Saylors Lake. The same objects were reported flying over Saylors Lake again on March 21 and were later seen by residents as they flew over Northampton County and into Western New Jersey. More recently, a green fireball has been reported flying across the sky; this sighting has been confirmed by airline pilots flying through the region: Investigations of this object have only revealed that it is not a known natural phenomenon or space debris and has been reported as recently as 2021 ((https://m. youtube.com/watch?v=Yd6KBxS597o).
Have you seen any inexplicable objects flying in the sky? If you are interested in UFO sightings or potential encounters with beings from unknown reaches of space, the Poconos is a great place to investigate! Hotspots of UFO activity, as logged by the National UFO Reporting Center, seem to include Milford, Stroudsburg, Dingmans Ferry, Bushkill, Mt. Pocono, and Lords Valley (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd6KBxS597o).
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