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| Area UFO Sightings Attract Interest By Sherri Gallant Lethbridge Herald It's been seven years since any reported UFO sightings occurred in Lethbridge, but the matter is beaming up again, with requests for information coming from both ends of North America. Brian Vike is a UFO researcher from Houston, B.C. Vike is asking people in southern Alberta - and elsewhere - to share their stories about UFO sightings with him. Not keen to re-invent the wheel, he is only interested in virgin material, tales yet to be shared. "I started about a year and a half ago on a serious note dealing with the subject of UFO phenomena here in British Columbia and Alberta as there have been so many sightings slipping through the cracks," said Vike. "A lot of these sightings can be explained, but there are the few good sightings that are still a mystery." Vike is interested in interviewing people about their experiences and then, if it appears as though their encounters cannot be explained, he may consider compiling them for publication. "I live in a small town called Houston in the northwest of British Columbia and at times find it hard to find information," he said, via e-mail to The Herald. "Being in a small town people are rather tight-lipped at times. But over the years, I have found through trust, some of the older folks are now talking, and talking about the things that have not been reported before. "To me, this is so very interesting and can add to the thousands of sightings around the world. The work I am now doing is very serious; it has, and is taking up so much of my time. The nice thing about this is I do have the time to research on a proper level." Vike operates under the name HBCC UFO Research, and can be contacted via e-mail at yogibear@bulkley.net or through snail mail at HBCC UFO Research, Box 1091, Houston, B .C., V0J 1Z0 HBCC Report #1 In 1966, finding myself alone, except for the family cat, Caboodle, after the family breakup and ultimate divorce, I traveled up the Fraser River Canyon to the small village of Lillooet, two hundred road miles north of Vancouver. My former C.O. from my Army days, (name deleted), lived in a mobile home and worked with (name deleted) on her Bridge River-Lillooet News. I joined them, and having spent a month living over The News Office with (name deleted), I learned I could rent a dandy suite overlooking the Fraser River Canyon. The sliding doors opened onto a wide sun deck. The P.G.E. rails were just beyond the fence at the end of the lot. When the 110 car freigts rumbled by I was face to face with the engineers. I used to try to list the many boxcars, the rolling stock of railroads from all over North America in those pre computer days. At nights no lights shone from the few homes scattered on the bench land below, on the other side of the tracks. The highway connecting Lillooet with the outside world was in the far side of the river. Came the darkness, the valley was pitch black except for the odd set of headlights of cars traveling into town. There was no road on the mountainside which loomed up on the town side of the canyon. One winter Friday night my friend (name deleted) had walked over for a visit. the folks in the adjoining suite had the TV on for the Dean Martin Show which aired at 9:00 p.m. (Name deleted) relaxed in an easy chair from which she could see out through the sliding doors. I sat opposite on the chesterfield, too far back to share her view. As we chatted, she suddenly, turned her head, and, staring out through the glass door, exclaimed in a sharp voice, "What's that ?" I jumped up quickly to share her excitment and immediately saw a huge red swirling ball with flaring red orange flaming edges coming towards us from above the west side mountain. Grabbing the glass door catch I shouted "let's get out onto the deck !" which we did. As we stood side by side, we watched the whirling fire ball hurdle towards us, so fast that we both ducked down, putting our hands on our heads as we truly expected to be hit as it crashed upon us. But, as we crouched and watched, the thing hovered "just above the mountainside" so to speak, spinning and flaring, to right, to left, to right again, for a few seconds. It hesitated on the final jerk to the right, then in erratic short jumps, still spinning and flaring, it began to recede, grow smaller, to nothing, back into the sky from whence it had come. We returned to the room, quite shaken up, and (name deleted) snapped, "Exactly what did we see ?" I put into words much as I have in this account, using my extended arm to describe the movement. "Exactly !" she snapped. Being Friday night with everything closed for the weekend, we had no way of finding out if anyone else had shared the sight. the News was being printed, not in Lillooet, but in Fort St. John at Ma'sson Dan's newspaper shop, so nothing was "of the moment" By the time the weekend was over and folks were back on the job, we felt rather foolish in speaking of our UFO encounter. Had we not rushed to the sun deck, causing us to be physically involved, had we just focused and seen it with our sight, we may well have pondered if we had seen it at all. I recall when I saw the movie "Strange Encounters" some years back I thought the UFO props were not nearly as exciting as what (name deleted) and I had shared on that Friday night in Lillooet, B.C. So here in 1993, have watched a TV program on UFO sightings I am moved to record the event while sound of mind with 20 - 20 vision, from my notes written in 1966. HBCC Report # 2 Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada August 20, 1997, 11:00 PM Shape: Triangle Direction: Flying object came from the North heading South. I took a garbage bag to the alley when coming back I happened to be looking upward and saw an object coming toward me. It was very low getting larger fast. It was about 500 - 800 ft a.g.l. moving from north to south at a very constant speed and heading. As it passed over me I could clearly see three cylinder shaped lights going into the craft with the light being very dull yellowish color. Also as it went over the stars, they disappeared behind it, giving me an outline of it's shape. This thing did not make a sound and it did not have any navigation lights. I estimate the size of the object being the same size as a four engine airliner. What really bugged me was even if the engines were shut down it was close enough that I should have heard the air rushing around it's frame. It went out of sight after about 10-15 seconds and the only thing I could do was verify the time it happened, 11:00 PM |
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| Add On: Left is a drawing of what this man witnessed. The lights were hard to make, but gives you an idea of what it looked like. The detail of the lights inside the craft were very high, perfectly round. But not completely visible until you were directly underneath the craft. I will never forget this thing, having a pilots license myself, I have seen a lot of aircraft and what they look like at night, but this is completely different. My Thanks To UFO*BC For allowing Me To Use The Article From Their Journal UFO*BC Can Be Found At: http://www.ufobc.ca |
| Interview With Brian Vike - HBCC UFO Research Northern Television Interview For The News CFTK T.V. May 27, 2001 Thanks To Reporter Jennifer Crosby UFO Magazine - HBCC UFO Research at: http://www.oocities.org/hbccufo/home.html is based in Houston, a small town in northern British Columbia, yet their information is anything but small. This organization offers a fine place to post your UFO sighting and investigates UFO events in Western Canada. HBCC also forwards "foreign" sightings and events (always with permission of the witness) to others in the UFO field that are better located to investigate these reports, HBCC offers a large database of sightings, other strange phenomenon, and updates on space exploration. Thank to Peter Robins / Editor, UFOcity.com and writer of WWWebWatch for the UFO Magazine where this article appeared. Issue - October/November 2001 - UFO Magazine at: http://www.ufomag.com/ UFO Magazine - HBCC UFO Reseach From Canada, our neighbors to the north comes Houston British Columbia Canada (HBCC) UFO Research at:http://www.oocities.org/hbccufo/home.html This fine site investigates and posts breaking UFO information from North America as well as worldwide. The real focus, however, is on Canadian sightings and incidents, and HBCC does a fine, professional job of it Their site also includes well-researched pages on cattle mutilations, crop circles, the UFO flap of 1952, relevant news stories and other areas of interest. Thank to Peter Robins / Editor, UFOcity.com and writer of WWWebWatch for the UFO Magazine where this article appeared. Issue - October/November 2001 - UFO Magazine at: http://www.ufomag.com/ Bulkley Valley Hotbed of Interstellar Activity Interior News Smithers, B.C. Wednesday, March 20, 2002 95th Year - Week 12 Community Reporter www.interior-news.com By Timothy Schafer The Interior News Cross Roads For The Galaxy A thick cloud cover blanketed the Bulkley Valley on the night of February 1, 2002. A day's shopping in Smithers behind them, three women drove down Highway 16 on that Friday, chatting casually about goings on in Houston, their hometown and the trip's destination. After they passed through Telkwa, around 8:45 p.m., a light in the sky ahead of the car slowed their conversation. Even though the woolly sky reflected back moonlight glancing off the snow, this light stood out oddly in the luminescent, northeastern night sky. And when it poked through the cloud cover and descended in their direction as they continued down the highway at 90 kilometers per hour. The woman driving slowed the pace of the car to 50 kph. What was this thing? They had to get a better look. But, when the intensity of the light increased as it neared the car, the image of some sort of craft also began to take shape, startling the driver, causing her to step harder on the gas and propel the car forward. A boomerang-shaped craft, with seven, bright, white lights and two orange lights at either end, appeared. It took a few seconds for the car to pass from under the craft but soon the silvery glow of a winter night sky in the Bulkley Valley closed in around the three women. That episode ignited one of the most active months of unidentified flying object sightings in the Bulkley Valley in some time. In fact, with 11 reported sightings from 19 witnesses, the area drew national and international attention from ufologists, said Brian Vike, a ufologist and UFO field investigator based in Houston. He has been besieged by calls and requests to provide supporting documentation and insight into this phenomena. George Filer, the top ufologist in the United States and publisher of the Filer's Files, a weekly newsletter for sightings, has had him as co-guest on National Public Radio's Jeff Rense Show - particularly in the last month since the Bulkley Valley became the crossroads of interstellar traffic. The February 1, 2002 sighting is on file with the Smithers RCMP but, although they aren't ruling out a craft of some sort, they feel it might be something less glamorous than a UFO. "Whether it was an aircraft or not hasn't been confirmed," said Cpl. Claudette Garcia. Each of the reported cases Vike has investigated is unrelated. No sightings have been recorded in March so far; in the same time last month Vike had four already. "So what happened in February? There was definitely a flap here," he said, using the ufologist term for a proliferance of objects being sighted. "We've had this big flap going on, it's just went through the roof. What is it they're seeing? " The three Houston women, all thirty something, married adults, were credible witnesses, Vike said. But he could not reveal their names due to his intent to retain the confidentiality of the witnesses. "With UFO's people have a funny way of looking down on (witnesses). A lot of people get made fun of " said Vike. "People start coming up with some alien idea". Credibility is something which Vike has struggled with since he dedicated himself to investigating UFO sightings 4 years ago. Working in a field which most rational people consider to be populated by dreamers, charlatans, and daft fellows wearing multi colored beanies with a propeller fixed on top, he quickly established a name for himself internationally for the thoroughness and detail of his investigations. And living in a province where people are considered the most likely in the nation to witness a UFO sighting ... according to a survey done by Winnipeg based ufologist, Chris Ruskowski, in February gave the retired Houston forest products worker plenty to do. "I don't just get a report, write it and post it to my website," Vike explained. "I investigate". "I do whatever I can do, make phone calls to authorities .... You've really got to try and track stuff down." In the month since the February first sighting, Vike has been narrowing the possibilities. Some explanations for the lights were: airport lights; helicopters; small, fixed wing planes; ski-doos on mountain sides; stars - all of which he ruled out for different reasons. "What I'm working on here, I can't come up for an explanation for it," he admitted. "I've talked to guys across Canada and they can't come up with anything. Right now it's unknown, but I've got to try and figure it out for myself or it will go down as unknown." Seven federal government and five military hits to his website have been recorded since the beginning of February. There was the odd hit to the website by government previously, Vike said, but so many its during a time of inordinate amount of sightings is peculiar. "So why are they all interested in it if they aren't really interested in UFO's to begin with, as they say?" Vike asked. Vike was certain there had to be other witnesses to the Telkwa sighting and yet, other than the three Houston women, no-one has come forward. A letter he wrote to the Houston Today uncovered unrelated sightings, but nothing further about February 1st. He hoped plain curiosity, the sort which transformed an amateur astronomer into a ufologist, would compel those people to call him. "I've always had this belief that we can't be the only ones in this vastness", he surmised. "There has to be life of some sort out there. If I can explain this, I will," he concluded. "If I can't .... I'm not going to sit here and pull the wool over anybody's eyes. I want to know too and that's the whole point of doing this." Bright Objects In Night Sky Omineca Express Serving Vanderhoof - Fort Fraser - Fraser Lake and area. Phone: 567-9258, Fax: 567-2070 www.ominecaexpress.com Wednesday, February 27, 2002 To the editor: I hope my letter finds you well. The reason I am writing today is to enquire if your newspaper have received any strange reports of bright objects in the night sky. I have been working on two separate cases, here, a sighting from Telkwa in which there were three witnesses to this event, and another here in Houston, B.C. where a couple had seen a very bright object over the Bulkley River. I was talking with another investigator and he also received a report of the same type of thing taking place near Burns lake, B.C. So far I have interviewed three witnesses for a sighting on Friday, February 1, 2002 and two other witnesses for a sighting which took place on Sunday, February 3, 2002. I now have information of another witness who came forward and now one other from the Burns lake area. The five folks I have interviewed are all married, with families and very creditable people. The dates when this all took place would have been from January 31, 2002 right up to February 3, 2002. Or you might have a report from someone around this time period. I was the investigator who came to Vanderhoof, B.C. when you last had your set of six Crop Circles. Anyone who has any information about these events can contact me at: Phone/Fax - 1-250-845-2189 or by emailing: hbccufo@telus.net Thank you so much for any help you could give to me. Brian Vike Independent UFO Field Investigator/Researcher. Houston, B.C. I would like to thank the Omineca Express for running this article in the newspaper. Highway 16 Reports May Be Linked The Terrace Standard Weekend Advertiser Volume No. 10 Circulation 15, 650 March 9, 2002 Highway 16 Reports May Be Linked A Houston, B.C. based investigator is wondering if people here have seen unusual, bright objects in the skies over Terrace. Brian Vike, an independent UFO Field researcher, says residents from Smithers to Prince George have reported a recent rash of UFO sightings. He's wondering if people in Terrace saw anything out of the ordinary during the month of February that would be part of a pattern he's noticed east of here along highway 16. Vike says a major sighting took place February 1, 2002 just three kilometers east of Telkwa, outside Smithers. Witnesses there reported seeing bright objects in the sky. Witnesses in Houston, Burns lake and Vanderhoof reported seeing something similar. To date, Vike has received reports stemming from about January 31 to February 3, 2002. Contact Vike at: Box 1091 Houston, B.C., VOJ-1ZO by phone or fax at 1-250-845-2189 or email at hbccufo@telus.net I would like to thank the Terrace Standard for this news article. The Lakes District News Serving Burns Lake and Area Wednesday, March 20, 2002 Volume 82 - No 12 They ran the same article as the Interior Newspaper above. The Houston Today Newspaper Wednesday, March 20, 2002 They ran the same article as the Interior Newspaper above. Smithers Interior Newspaper August 14, 2002 - Article on HBCC UFO Research and a follow up on the July 29, 2002 sighting. Houston Today Newspaper August 14, 2002 - Article on HBCC UFO Research and July 29, 2002 sighting. Vancouver Province Newspaper August 14, 2002 - Article on HBCC UFO Research and speaking about the July 29, 2002 sighting. Lakes District Newspaper - Burns Lake August 14, 2002 - Article on HBCC UFO Research and speaking about the July 29, 2002 sighting. |
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