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From the High Desert book cover

From the High Desert

A Cultural History of Art Bell

Thumbnail for February 26, 1995: UFO Reporting Center - Peter Davenport

February 26, 1995: UFO Reporting Center - Peter Davenport

Feb 26, 1995
1h 47m
0:00 / 0:00
Peter Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center, returns to Art Bell with another wave of compelling UFO reports collected through his Seattle hotline, now averaging thousands of calls over just six months of operation.

Howe opens with an update from western Pennsylvania where witnesses observed triangular objects accompanied by confetti-like debris over Jeanette, while television stations were flooded with calls about mysterious light beams descending over a five-county area. A Reno woman describes watching a rectangle of colored lights silently transform into a horizontal white triangle in the mountains near Pyramid Lake. Davenport then details sightings from Michigan involving twelve stealth-fighter-shaped objects projecting columns of light to the ground, the McMinnville, Tennessee explosion that drew federal agents who pressured locals into silence, and a New Mexico witness whose disk sighting was reported directly through the FAA. He discusses military jet pursuit of UFOs, including the curious use of obsolete A-4 Skyhawks chosen for their resistance to electromagnetic interference.

Art Bell and Davenport make a persuasive case that the phenomenon is accelerating and that official silence grows more untenable with each credible report.

Key Moments

  1. Davenport's challenge to White House and Congress: On the eve of Presidents Day, Davenport calls out the White House and Congress directly, says the 50-year UFO lie has run its course, and offers to show any federal designee the mound of NUFORC tape and written reports.

  2. Nine deputies in Prince George County tracked a 200-yard ship: Davenport details November sightings where nine Prince George County, Virginia sheriff's deputies stood outside with binoculars watching a ship they estimated at 200 yards wide hovering in the night sky.

  3. Landisville, NJ police pursue dark ship at 90 mph: October 3, 1994 case: two Landisville, New Jersey police officers saw two stunningly bright lights, rolled down their window, the lights cut out, and a huge dark ship was hovering 200 yards away - they followed it at 80-90 mph along an interstate.

  4. Kalamazoo cluster sighting witnessed by ex-Army artillery officer: Thursday before broadcast, thousands over Kalamazoo and Paw Paw, Michigan saw a cluster of ships streak east-to-west between 11:12 and 11:15 PM; a former U.S. Army artillery officer sledding with 12-14 people called it 'not from our planet.'

  5. Davenport: I would not back off if the feds asked: Asked directly what he would do if federal officials told him these were classified U.S. experimental aircraft and a matter of national security, Davenport answers without hesitation that he would not back off.