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By Hal McKenzie
June 24, 2003
While driving with six co-workers in the White Mountains of Arizona on Nov. 5, 1975, logger Travis Walton recklessly left his truck to take a closer look at a glowing, disc-shaped object hovering above the tree line. His co-workers watched terrified as the object immobilized him with a blue beam of light.
The men drove off in a panic, returning minutes later only to find Walton gone. He reappeared on a country road five days later, disoriented and telling a story of alien abduction that ranks as a major classic of UFO lore. He told of being taken inside a craft that parked inside a giant "mother ship," encountering big-headed aliens and human-looking beings.
Walton's companions were first accused of murder, and then when he showed up, they all were widely accused of perpetrating a hoax. However, a total of 13 polygraph examinations were made of all those in connection with the case, 11 of which passed.
The book Fire In The Sky: The Walton Experience relates Walton's story, as well as the skepticism and official harassment that greeted it. A major motion picture was also released in 1993 entitled "Fire in The Sky" starring James Garner, D.B. Sweeney, and Robert Patrick, based loosely on the book.
Walton will be the keynote speaker at the June 2003 "Alternate Realities Conference", held June 27-29 in Elizabethton and Roan Mountain, Tenn. Still in the logging business in Arizona as a company supervisor, he occasionally travels to UFO conferences to tell his story.
The main event will be presented at the Roan Mountain Conference Center on Saturday, June 28, and is open to everyone, although seating is limited. The ARC 2003 website offers full details about conference events, registration and admission, travel arrangements, camping and other accommodations, along with links on other interesting attractions located at scenic Roan Mountain State Park.
Other conference speakers will delve into paranormal topics ranging from Bigfoot to the history and technology to UFOs. Among the topics will be the "Tennessee Bell Witch," one of the South's most famous hauntings. Speakers will also give eyewitness accounts of Bigfoot, who is said to be living today in remote mountain areas of Tennessee, and the mysterious orbs of light witnessed in the Appalachian mountains.
Among the speakers to be introduced by this year's Master of Ceremonies Michael W. Combs are: Michael McDonnough, with a talk on "Advanced Alien Technologies;" Adam Sorg on "orbs" and "spook lights;" Jeffrey Morgan Foss on his "Life-Long Contact Experiences with Extraterrestrials;" Constance Clear on "Seven Incredible True Stories of Alien Abduction;" and Earle Benezet on "UFOs ~ Past, Present, and Future."
Hal McKenzie, (mcke8344@cox.net), is a veteran journalist and a contributing editor of World Tribune.com and www.cosmictribune.com.
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