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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (May 13, 2015)
Focus News McMenamins UFO Festival Features Hills’ Abduction Many lectures, events and free family activities this weekend in historic McMinnville By Lisa Loving Of The Skanner News A fter New Hampshire residents Betty and Barney Hill were forced by circumstance to publicly recount their story of being abducted by extra- terrestrials, their lives changed forever. As an interracial couple during the Civil Rights era, they were already familiar with stress and public pres- sure. But the unexplained incident in 1961 triggered their even deeper fear that people would think they were “crazy” – after all, theirs was the first alleged alien abduction ever pub- licly reported. Hear the couple’s story from their niece Kathleen Marden this weekend at the McMenamins UFO Festi- val, which runs Thursday through Sunday, May 14- 17, at the extraterrestrial- themed Hotel Oregon in McMinnville. The event is held there to commemorate one of the most famous incidents in world UFO history – the snapping of two black and white photographs of what look like a flying saucer, taken in 1950 by a Willamette Valley farmer named Paul Trent. In addition to ticketed lec- tures, the weekend features free, family friendly live music, the famous tinfoil hat parade through McMin- nville’s old town, contests, a fun run and a movie. Featured speakers include Marden, one of the most famous alien abduction researchers in the world; Canadian historian Grant Cameron — an expert on US Presidents’ knowledge of UFO activity – speaking on the question of whether UFOs can affect human consciousness; Stanton T. Friedman, “the godfather of ‘ufology;’” and UFO Reporting Center Director Peter Davenport. A former nuclear physi- cist, Friedman was the first “civilian” to investigate the Roswell, New Mexico site where a UFO was believed to have crashed in 1947 (US government officials now say it was a string of high Betty and Barney Hill with Desley altitude balloons equipped with microphones to detect suspected Soviet bomb tests, called Project Mogul). For enthusiasts, Fried- man’s lecture this year is extra important because the 80-year-old scholar is set to speak for the first time about “the Majestic 12,” allegedly a panel of scien- tists convened by the US We honor the many accomplishments of African Americans. It is our primary goal as a labor union to better the lives of all people working in the building trades through advocacy, civil demonstration, and the long-held belief that work- ers deserve a "family wage" - fair pay for an honest day's work. A family wage, and the benefits that go with it, not only strength- ens families, but also allows our communities to become stronger, more cohesive, and more responsive to their citizens' needs. Our family wage agenda reflects our commitment to people working in the building trades, and to workers everywhere. In this small way, we are doing our part to help people achieve the American Dream. This dream that workers can hold dear regard- less of race, color, national origin, gender, creed, or religious beliefs. The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters Representing more than 5.000 construction workers in Oregon State. Do you want to know more about becoming a Union carpenter? Page 8 The Portland and Seattle Skanner May 13, 2015 government in 1947 to investi- gate UFO sightings. Hills says the Saturday night panel discus- sion will be a key event for anyone with questions about UFO phenome- na because all the experts will be on hand to answer ques- tions from the public. The Skanner News spoke with Marden about her aunt their dog and uncle and why their story is important. The Skanner News: What were your aunt and uncle like? iting Niagara Falls, they drove up to Toronto and then on to Montréal the fol- lowing day. They had been sightseeing for the after- noon and decided to head back to New Hampshire to their home on the seacoast. They heard there was a hur- ricane coming and so they wanted to put it where their lawn chairs and get the house ready for this hurri- cane they might have. They were driving home through the night, when at about 10 o’clock Betty saw a light in the sky. She con- tinued watching it, it grew larger and larger and it was traveling along beside the car. They got out and they looked at this thing three separate times. On the third time it came down so low that it actually stopped about 200 feet about their vehicle. It was just right just drove home. When they arrived home they realized that they were later than they anticipated, and they discovered that there was some physical evidence that shouldn’t have been there. Betty’s dress was torn, and Barney’s shoes were deeply scuffed though he was a meticulous dresser. Their watches had stopped working. There were shiny spots on the trunk of the car that hadn’t been there. This started to bother Bar- ney especially, and he was eventually referred to Dr. Benjamin Simon, who is a very prominent psychiatrist in Boston. He and Betty underwent hypnosis sepa- rately for a period of six months. At the end of each session Dr. Simon instilled amnesia again for this two hour period of missing time The Saturday night panel discussion will be a key event for anyone with questions about UFO phenomena because all the experts will be on hand to answer questions from the public Marsden: Well, they were the most unlikely experiencers if you could ever meet. Betty was a social worker for the state of New Hampshire; Barney worked for the post office. But both were very actively involved in community affairs and the civil rights movement. They helped to set up the Rockingham County Community Action program in New Hamp- shire. Barney was first chairman of the executive board for that organization. He was given an award by Sargent Shriver (a states- man and diplomat, the brother in law of President John F. Kennedy and first director of the Office of Economic Opportunity) for his work. They were politi- cally involved in this state. He was appointed to the US Civil Rights Commission State Advisory Committee. So they were very political- ly active and socially involved. Also they were very active members of the Uni- tarian church, and they event went to the United Nations with their church. That is what they were interested in. They had no interest in UFOs. They were good, honest, down to earth individuals. TSN: What actually hap- pened to Betty and Barney? Marsden: What hap- pened is Betty and Barney took a few days off from work to go on a short trip to Niagara Falls; Betty had never been there. After vis- over their head. Barney took his binocu- lars – remember they were sightseeing so they had binoculars in the car – and he stepped out and looked up at this thing as Betty sat in the passenger seat look- ing at it. They could see that it was a large silent hover- ing disc just sitting there in the sky above them. Then it shifted location to an adjacent field and it descended about 100 feet from Barney; he walked toward it. He looked up through the binoculars and he saw figures inside that craft that he stated to Walter Webb, the original investi- gator from NICAP, were “somehow not human.” They frightened him terri- bly. And he ran back to the vehicle because he feared he was going to be captured. And he got into the car and started speeding down the highway. He shouted to Betty to look up and see if she could see the craft, because as he was running back to the car he noticed that it appeared to be fol- lowing him. The next thing they knew they were 35 miles down the road and they had no idea how they had gotten there. They didn’t remem- ber driving that stretch of road. They had spotty mem- ories of encountering a roadblock somewhere along the way, of observing a fiery orb on the ground. But noth- ing else. They heard another series of buzzing sounds, they did- n’t see the UFO. And they that they had. Then he let them listen to each other’s statement at the end. What they discovered is that they told precisely the same story of being stopped, of being taken aboard a craft, being given a very strange kind of exami- nation and then released by these nonhumans that he had actually seen for the first time when he looked up at that UFO as he was stand- ing in the field in Lincoln New Hampshire. Dr. Simon’s recordings helped relieve Barney’s anxiety about all of this. But it was all to remain a secret. Such a weird story – You don’t want anyone to think that you’re crazy. So it was going to remain with some scientists, with some inves- tigators with the family, and not be told to the public. Marden’s book is “Cap- tured: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience.” Read more about her at www.kathleen-marden.com. A made for TV movie about the Hills, “The UFO Incident,” starred James Earl Jones and Estelle Par- sons; the X-Files episode titled,” Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” includes part of their story; and a televi- sion series based on their lives that aired in the mid- 1990s was called “Dark Skies.” Find out more about the McMenamins UFO Festival at www.ufofest.com.
