Unidentified flying frenzy

Days after Stephenville residents reported a mysterious object in the skies, the area has become a hot spot for UFO enthusiasts

By LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

STEPHENVILLE — All hype aside, space aliens have not invaded the streets of this rodeo town southwest of Fort Worth — though nearly everyone here is keeping at least a playful eye out for them.

But even if there's been no space invasion of Stephenville, the recent obsession with them has been out of this world in the town of 15,400 — and far beyond.

Ken Cherry, the Texas director of the Colorado-based Mutual UFO Network, or MUFON, which describes itself as devoted to research on the topic, says the multiple sightings of a strobelight-flashing object zipping through the night sky on Jan. 8 could turn Stephenville into a mini-Roswell.

"Dozens of people are coming forward, responsible people, saying they saw something," Cherry said. "We're talking shop owners, ranch owners, oil field workers, just about every demographic imaginable."

Forget being the Cowboy Capital of the World. Folks in town are calling Stephenville the UFO Capital of the World.

Angela Joiner, the only full-time reporter at the Stephenville Empire-Tribune, can hardly put out a paper. Ever since breaking the story last week, she's been swamped with calls and e-mails from around the world — from people who either want to tell her about their UFO sightings or from international media types covering the story.

"I'm not accustomed to this. I don't do this!" Joiner, who's been on the job 18 months, said with a laugh.

Perhaps the only person who gets less work done these days is the local constable, LeeRoy Gaitan. He's in demand as the only elected official who can corroborate what dozens of others saw: something spooky in the sky over Erath County that evening.

He was on foot approaching his home when in the distance he saw a red glow, not as big as a hot air balloon but big. It didn't appear to be attached to anything. He watched it awhile before it burned itself out. Then it reappeared.

"I knew this wasn't right," he said. So he went inside to summon his family. His wife gave him this "get real" look, Gaitan said, but his young son came running.

Father and son saw what looked like really bright white strobe lights, nine or 10 of them. They flashed as the minutes passed.

"All of a sudden, they shot off, they traveled northeast at a real high rate of speed," Gaitan said.

Though he doesn't believe it was a spaceship, he's had to answer calls from hundreds of people from around the country who do. His solution: "I've started screening my calls," he said.

Military officials have said they had no aircraft in the area at the time of the sightings.

And the military doesn't investigate UFO sightings. So that leaves Cherry's MUFON group. Four or five of its investigators will descend on the area today to begin interviewing witnesses.

It won't be a quick investigation, Cherry cautions. Interviews will be conducted one on one. And even after all the anecdotes have been gathered and sifted through — don't expect physical evidence — the researchers will hedge their bets.

"We could say we eliminated every other possibility. But we never say, 'This is alien technology' or 'This is a spacecraft,' " Cherry said.

For now, people around town are having a ball.

City Secretary Cindy Stafford wore a space alien mask to the City Council this week. It was fun, she said.

Dennis Balthaser, a UFO researcher and former investigator with the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, N.M., isn't ready to make any educated guesses about what might have crossed the sky in Texas.

But, if the lights were a mile long and half a mile across, as some have suggested, that would be the size of a "mothership," which is much bigger than a flying saucer, he said.

Balthaser, a retired engineer with the Texas Department of Transportation, takes his research seriously and hates when other people don't.

He probably wouldn't appreciate the T-shirts produced by the high school science club here that proclaim: "Erath County: The New Roswell" and depict a spaceship leaving Earth and towing a dairy cow.

By Friday, the club had sold 400 of them.