Print
Category: The Chronicles of Grant County The Chronicles of Grant County
Published: 08 March 2023 08 March 2023

The Chronicles Of Grant County

UFOs Seen In Grant County
Part Three
Buckhorn

sunset mary alice murphy three 25A sunset in New Mexico. (The photograph was provided courtesy of Mary Alice Murphy.)

In the first two parts of this series of reports of UFOs Seen In Grant County, The Chronicles Of Grant County, detailed information about UFOs that were seen in the skies above Cliff, Fort Bayard, and Gila. This news column details information about a UFO that was reported in the airspace above Buckhorn.

As noted previously, on January 12, 2023, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the United States Secretary of Defense, reported that it had submitted a classified report to the U S Congress detailing Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) in 2022. The Office also released an unclassified report to the general public.

"Unidentified aerial phenomena" is the term used by the U S Department of Defense for what Americans usually call "Unidentified Flying Objects" or "UFOs."

Also, as noted in the previous parts of this news series, according to unclassified report from the Federal government, no alien life from locales beyond the Earth was found in the U S in 2022. The unclassified report does not detail any specific incidents of a UAP being seen in New Mexico in 2022.

The National UFO Reporting Center, a private entity unrelated to the Federal government, publishes a database of reports from people who have reported seeing unidentified flying objects.

This database of self-reported sightings includes a number of reports of UFOs seen in the skies above Grant County in recent years. In some cases, the National UFO Reporting Center indicated in notes that the sightings were actually of or possibly of specific military activities or scientific events.

For an hour and a half on April 17, 2012, a UFO was seen above Buckhorn in Grant County. According to a report filed with National UFO Reporting Center, this reported sighting involved a "bright flashing object…" and had characteristics of "…lights on the object. The object emitted beams. The object changed color. There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object."

The individual making the report explained that "I went out behind our home for a cigarette and looked to the west over the Arizona-New Mexico line and noticed a light about a hands-width from the top of the mountains. The light alternated from blue, white, and a very brilliant red. The pattern of the flashes was not like that of aircraft."

"It hovered over the mountains for about 15 minutes, then moved to the left and the right very slowly," this report continued. "Later it moved straight up and in like a very fast zigzag pattern. We also noticed to the northwest a red light that was matching the larger, brighter objects movements."

He continued by stating that "what really caught our attention was when my wife noticed 'beams' coming from the bottom with blue and red flashes emitting from behind the mountain. The larger appeared to move due west at great speed and disappeared. We never saw the red light again either."

"During all this there was no noise," the report continued. "We also noticed commercial airliners pass in the vicinity of the brighter object with no response. My son had brought out his rifle which had a scope on it and this is when we noticed it was flat, or disk shaped. The brilliant red lights were in the center and the blue was on the outsides. The disk was a very white, bright color. The flashes appeared to be random with no pattern to them at all."

Additional reports of UFO sightings in the skies over Hurley, Mimbres, Pinos Altos, San Lorenzo, and Silver City will be detailed in the next editions of The Chronicles Of Grant County.

Do you have questions about communities in Grant County?

A street name? A building?

Your questions may be used in a future news column.

Contact Richard McDonough at chroniclesofgrantcounty@mail.com.

If your email does not go through, please contact editor@grantcountybeat.com.

© 2023 Richard McDonough