The Chronicles Of Grant County

UFOs Seen In Grant County  Part Eight  Silver City

The sky over Silver City looking northeast into the Gila National Forest and the Black Range. (The photograph was provided courtesy of Steve Douglas, October 3, 2012.)

In the first seven 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 Buckhorn, Cliff, Fort Bayard, Gila, Hurley, Mimbres, Pinos Altos, and San Lorenzo as well as some of the reports of UFOs seen over Silver City.

While the other communities had relatively modest numbers of reports of UFOs, there were 22 separate reports of UFOs in the skies above Silver City or nearby.

This news column details information about additional UFOs that were reported in the airspace above Silver City.

Five months ago, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the United States Secretary of Defense, reported on January 12, 2023, 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," as noted in earlier news columns, 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 an 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. Please note that the reports listed here were lightly edited for spelling and punctuation for publication.

Late on the night of January 20, 2012, a UFO was reported in the skies just outside of Silver City. The event lasted about 20 minutes. "There were lights on the object," according to the individual making the report. "The object emitted other objects, [and] the object changed color. There were aircraft in the vicinity or aircraft chasing the object."

The reporter of this event indicated that a "red/orange orb interacts with jets, chased by more jets, [and re-appeared]…four days later… They all turned towards the south and merged to form an equilateral triangle with the point directed upwards, facing us. This triangle appeared to have a mass connecting the lights."

"There were no clouds in the sky, the stars were very bright, and the light of the city was blocked by a ridge," the report continued. "The triangle slowed down its movement to a crawl, yet still covered a massive distance very quickly, circling from west, to south, to east, and finally northeast while it disappeared into what appeared to be space."

For one minute, a UFO was seen above Silver City in the Summer of 2010.

"I am a star-gazer, and love to sit out on my porch steps at night watching the stars," an individual who saw this UFO detailed. "I am quite accustomed to seeing satellites, shooting stars, and assorted aircraft, but last night [August 3, 2010] was different. I live outside of town and am very secluded. The nights are gorgeous since there is no light pollution."

"I sat outside for about half an hour and was able to track several satellites," the report continued. "Suddenly, above the tree line appeared what I first thought was a star. It hadn't been there a minute before. It [shined] intensely bright, and I could not figure out what star, at that intense a magnitude, would be coming up in that place at that time. It was way brighter than anything else in the sky. I continued to think it was a very bright star when I suddenly realized it was moving very, very slowly. Then I got excited and thought perhaps I was looking at the ISS [International Space Station]. I have no idea how high it was, and there was no noise connected to it…The only way I can describe the object is that of a very bright, white light – like a huge star. I have never seen anything act that way."

There were two UFO sightings reported in Silver City in March of 2007.

On March 12, 2007, an individual reported a "UFO with green, red, and blue lights that split into two, formed back into one, then shut off and fell from the sky followed by two circles."

"I saw a black circle shoot down from the sky at a very high speed, with a thin white tail – right where the UFO had gone down," the individual continued. "I almost dropped the binoculars…but managed to get them to my eyes to see one more black circle shoot towards the area. The area behind the mountain lit up dramatically and then quickly died down. We checked out the [area] from a hill. There were flashing red and blue lights, surrounded by little lights all around. Slowly, over the course of an hour, they all died out. Save one. It descended further down the mountain, until we could no longer see it in the darkness of the trees."

Seven days earlier, on March 5, 2007, an individual explained that at about 7:40 PM, "I noticed a large [multi-engine, turbo-prop] aircraft – possibly a C-130 transport – as that is the most frequent type seen around here. The aircraft came in from northeast of town, circled around the north of town to the west of town and then went to the south-southwest. I followed the aircraft until it got approximately 5 miles to the southwest, when something caught my eye, above and to the south. There was a dim flash of light, followed by what appeared to be a disk type of craft suddenly appearing. All the edges of the craft appeared as though they were imbedded in clouds, although the night was cloudless. I could briefly see lines and a circle around the center of the of the bottom of the craft. It exhibited a color of burnt orange, which I later discovered was the reflection of the lights of the city. It was about the size of a nickel held at [arm's] length. It suddenly started to move, and started to fade out of sight and moved toward and followed the aircraft to the south."

"It is interesting to note that on the day before (Sunday) an AWACS [Airborne Warning And Control System] E-3 airborne radar aircraft orbited around this city for approximately four hours," the individual continued. "This is very unusual because military aircraft don't fly around here on the weekends. It was as if they were looking for something. In the past few months, I have witnessed craft landing to the northwest up in the mountains, usually during the week, not on the weekends."

Additional reports of UFO sightings in the skies above Silver City were reported to have occurred in 2006 (twice on July 12 and once on October 1 and October 16), in 2005 (twice on September 22 and once on October 22), in 2004 (on January 21, May 18, and August 23), in 2001 (on December 1), and in 1997 (on June 15).

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