Date: March 31, 1998 5:00CST
Location: Baraboo
County: Sauk
Source: National UFO Reporting center
Details of Incident:
A yellow-orange light that zipped or zig-zagged, apparently a mile or two away on the southeastern
horizon.
I am an associate editor at FATE magazine, and was investigating a report of a recurring UFO
sighting in Baraboo. I met the witness, a Baraboo resident, on both March 31 and April 5, and we
had sightings on both mornings, which were shared by one friend of mine on March 31 and two
different friends on April 5. I will enter data on the more interesting April 5 incident in a
separate posting to come. I have written about my experience in the forthcoming June issue of
FATE, but wanted to place the information here since I am not getting a response from members of
Wisconsin MUFON after three weeks since contacting them. This is apparently a recurring incident.
At 4:45 a.m. CST on March 31, I met the witness. I was training my binoculars on the southeastern
horizon (an area known as the Baraboo Bluffs, in the vicinity of several radio and microwave
towers) when I saw a orange-yellowish light soar a few degrees across the horizon. My friend,
viewing with the naked eye, said she saw it zig-zag. I had the impression of an old-fashioned
orange computer cursor that leaves a trail as it glides across a blank screen. It was bright,
anomalous, very short-lived, and not easy to explain. We then ruined any further opportunity to
observe the light by driving off in the wrong direction, after which it was too bright and too
foggy for us to see anything more. We concluded that the sighting may have been a UFO or other
kind of anomalous ground-light activity. I returned to Baraboo on April 5 with two other friends.
We discovered then that at least part of what our witness was describing, observing, and
photographing was nothing more than good old planet Venus, in the southeastern sky. Disappointed,
we waited around for a few hours and prepared to leave. But once again, while I was training my
binoculars high in the southern sky on Venus (at 8:10 a.m. CDT), my friends and I had another
strange sighting. This time, a bright white light seemed to emerge from behind the center of a
thin cloud, a few degrees "below" Venus. It was tens of thousands of feet high. It "swooped" below
the cloud (from our perspective) and seemed to leave a bright light impression or reflection
before vanishing. I had the impression of the shape of a powerfully lit electric moth. Again, this
was seen by myself, two friends, and the Baraboo witness. The whole thing seemed to resemble an
extremely odd entrail from a plane, and I have not been able to look into this yet, but (1) we saw
no physical craft, and (2) we agreed that it motion was far too anomalous, especially since it was
8 a.m. on a Sunday, and supposedly recurring. I believe there is some basis in truth for what the
Baraboo witness has been reporting, but fact and fallacy have been difficult to separate. The
Baraboo witness may report his extensive sightings soon by phone, but I personally can offer
these two reports which were shared by a number of my friends, and seem to be consistent with
most of the witness's claims. Since this is apparently a recurring event, I personally recommend
that somebody with more resources investigates. I am available for more information.
Help show your support for this site and our efforts by
visiting
www.GetGhostGear.com and any links
below!
All information contained above and elsewhere on
www.UFOwisconsin.com has rights
reserved to GetGhostGear.com Enterprises
and appropriate permissions must be gained before utilizing anything contained
here on www.UFOwisconsin.com to aid in
assuring our visitors, report filers and resources used to bring this site to
you have all protections and due rights made available. Interested parties
please contact us through "Copy Right Services @ GetGhostGear.com"
Disclaimer: UFOwisconsin.com has not verified the validity of every UFO report
published within UFOwisconsin.com. All reports are added to the database
'as is' received. The sighting reports posted have many possible
explanations, including but not restricted to stars, planets, airplanes, known
natural earthly phenomena, hoaxes etc. We leave it up to the individual
viewer to judge the report based upon the content of the report itself. As
investigations occur, that information will be notated on the individual report.