UFO Case Report:

Football shaped UFO hovers near milk barn, scares animals

Date: August 19, 1965
Location: Cherry Creek, New York, United States

Sixteen year old Harold Butcher was milking the cows in his father's barn in Cherry Creek, N.Y. Harold heard one of the bulls outside make a noise "like I have never heard come from an animal before." Simultaneously he saw a metallic-looking, football-shaped UFO about 50 feet long and approximately 20 feet thick hovering just above the trees an estimated 450 feet from the barn.

The Cherry Creek, N.Y., UFO, August 19, 1965.

Classification & Features

Type of Case/Report: StandardCase
Hynek Classification: CE2
# of Witnesses: Multiple
Special Features/Characteristics: Animal Reaction, E-M Effects, Physical Trace

Full Report / Article

Source: NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomenon), 'Strange Effects from UFOs', by Donald Keyhoe and Gordon Lore

Bull Bends Pipe

Sixteen year old Harold Butcher was milking the cows in his father's barn in Cherry Creek, N.Y. As he was working, he was listening to Radio Station WKBW. Just outside a three-year old bull was tied by the nose to a metal pipe. It was about 8:20 p.m., August 19, 1965.

Harold heard the bull make a noise "like I have never heard come from an animal before." Looking out of the window, the teen-ager saw the animal was actually bending the pipe. Simultaneously he saw a metallic-looking, football-shaped UFO about 50 feet long and approximately 20 feet thick hovering just above the trees an estimated 450 feet from the barn.

Slowly, the object descended behind a maple tree, emitting a red vapor from around its edges and a "beep-beep" sound as it did so. Meanwhile, the radio was emitting a lot of static, even though WKBW usually has a clear signal in that area.

The witness, using a connecting telephone, called the house, then ran outside. As he approached the bull, the UFO rose to behind some clouds "as fast as a snap of my fingers."

"As it began to rise," reported Jeffrey J. Gow, who investigated the sighting for NICAP, "the red vapor, which was about 50 inches wide, shot from the edges toward the ground, then bounced back to the ship as it hovered about 10 feet in the air."

The noise pitch of the object also increased to a level approximating a sonic boom as it rose. As the UFO disappeared behind the clouds, the clouds became green.

Harold ran into the farmhouse. Inside, the boy's mother, Mrs. William Butcher, noted that there was "definite interference" in her radio reception. Harold's brother, Robert, also went outside and the two boys saw that the UFO had reappeared, this time hovering over a pine grove. Again it ascended, emitting the red vapor and turning the clouds green. Others in the house included Mrs. Butcher, William Butcher, Jr., and Kathleen Brougham, a friend. They did not see the object at this time.

Immediately Mrs. Butcher telephoned the Fredonia State Police Station. They said they would dispatch an officer to the scene. Then all except Mrs. Butcher, who was looking after a small daughter, went outside to look for the object. They saw nothing. Harold and Robert returned to the house. William, Jr., entered the milk house.

Object Sighted Again

At 9 p.m., Kathleen Brougham rushed screaming into the house, stumbling over the Butchers' small daughter.

"It's here again!" she exclaimed.

All but Mrs. Butcher rushed outside. The witnesses saw the UFO hovering "with a glowing yellow vapor trail." There was still a green glow to the clouds. The object headed southwest toward Jamestown.

Trooper C. J. Haas and a fellow officer arrived on the scene shortly thereafter. As the policemen and witnesses walked out to inspect the area ot the initial sighting, all noticed a pungent odor. Harold and the young daughter suffered from upset stomachs. Mrs. Butcher said that the cows gave only one can of milk that evening as opposed to their usual two and a half cans.

At the same time as the sighting, Mrs. Butcher's niece, Mrs. Sharon Rouland,who lives five miles from the Butcher farm, reported that her television set experienced interference.

Harold discovered a purple liquid oily-smelling substance and gave a sample of it to the state police who turned it over to Capt. James A. Dorsey and five others from the Niagara Falls Air Force Base, who came to investigate the report the following afternoon.

When Jeffrey Gow arrived on the scene, he noticed the foot tall grass in the area "seemed to be bent over in long curved sweeps."

"I picked up plants which seemed to be singed on one side but were still green on the other," Gow said in his report to NICAP. "1 also dug up a one-foot-round area which seemed to be very slightly singed. ... We discovered parallel two-inch-wide tracks separated by two inches of sod. The tracks were two inches deep. ... In the tracks, the soil had been just recently exposed. The sod that appeared to be scooped out in these tracks could not be found at the site."

The physical evidence was sent to Henry C. Hawecki, consulting engineer and NICAP adviser, who reported that the presence of phosphorous in the grass could have accounted for the odor of phosphene.

Case ID: 572 edit: 572

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