UFO Case Report:

Idaho 'Mining UFOs'

Date: , 1965
Location: Spring Creek Ridge, Idaho, United States

Two men were camped on a bluff overlooking a valley. When they awoke in the early morning they noticed a shiny spot on the ore dump of a Spring Creek Mine across the valley. Using the scopes affixed to their rifles, they observed the "shiny object" which actually was one of four which were hovering over the ore dump. Protruding from the top of the objects were four hose-like devices which were inserted into the slag piles and were moving around.

Artwork by Brian James, Staff Artist, APRO.

Classification & Features

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase
Hynek Classification: DD
Shape of Object(s): Disc
# of Witnesses: Multiple
Special Features/Characteristics: Portholes/Windows, Multiple UFOs

Full Report / Article

Source: APRO Bulletin, Vol. 22 No. 2 (Sept/Oct 1973)

In 1967 Mrs. Lorenzen, APRO's Secretary-Treasurer, received a letter from Mr. Buzz Montague who had just finished reading one of the Lorenzens' book, and related his experiences in the wilderness area of Idaho over the years. Two of his sightings were particularly interesting because of detail, and one of them involved a second witness. Unfortunately the second witness has not been located (Montague himself does not know where the man is currently living) but because of the nature of the sightings it was decided that an artistic rendering should be attempted and Mr. Brian James, one of APRO's staff artists, was put in touch with Mr. Montague and the accompanying artwork was the result.

APRO was not able to investigate this series of events until approximately 18 months ago because we did not have a Field Investigator in that particular area at the time. However, when Allen Benz, APRO's Staff Librarian, moved to Twin Falls, Idaho, he undertook the investigation, contacting Mr. Montague and eventually visiting the sighting location. He learned the following:

Mr. Montague often hunted in the area of the Spring Creek Mines which is near Spring Creek Ridge in the Sellway wilderness. He first observed the objects in the early 1960's (he cannot pinpoint either the year nor the exact date) and his last sighting was in the fall of the middle 1960's in the company of his friend, William Andrews. Both sightings were approximately the same, so we will describe here the latter one:

The two men were camped on a bluff overlooking a valley. When they awoke in the early morning at about 6 a.m. they noticed a shiny spot on the ore dump of a Spring Creek Mine across the valley. Neither took particular note of the time as they were engrossed in looking at the objects. Using the 10-power scopes affixed to their rifles, they observed the "shiny object" which actually was one of four which were hovering over the ore dump. Protruding from the top of the objects were four hose-like devices which were inserted into the slag piles and were moving around. After a period of time, one by one, the objects elevated and ascended into the air; at this time the large object hovering at about 1,000 feet above the terrain, was spotted. An elongated, cigar-shaped object, it had four depressions on its underside. When the small objects reached the object, they fitted themselves into the depressions after which there was no indication that there had been a depression there to begin with. After another short period of time the objects detached themselves from the cigar-shaped craft and returned to the slag heap.

The two men were so engrossed in what they were watching that they made no attempt to note the time but later estimated that they had watched the objects for approximately 45 minutes to 1/2 hours while they made four trips from the slag heap to the craft hovering overhead, at which time they remained a part of the large object as it moved slowly into the northwest and out of sight, ascending all the while.

One other detail which is noted in Mr. James' drawings, is the transparent "dome" atop the disc-shaped objects on the slag heap. Mr. James' rendering was done via mail with Mr. Montague okaying every detail. All of the craft were silvery in color and windows or ports were visible on the large one, as indicated in Mr. James' drawing.

It might seem logical to assume that the objects in this instance were engaged in mining operations (as indicated in the headline) but we should note that the areas being probed were slag piles-in other words, certain materials deemed important to mankind had already been "mined" and removed. If the objects were engaged in pure research they could have been engaged in an attempt to determine the type of ore which had been extracted.

Case ID: 300 edit: 300

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