March 20, 1966 — Dexter, MI
7:30 p.m. After his dogs start making a racket, Frank Mannor and his 26-year-old son Ronald see strange lights over a swampy area in Dexter Township, Michigan. They walk over to the area for a look, taking about 30 minutes, and see a pyramid-shaped object with a rounded top, corrugated surface, and blue, red, and white lights. Mannor’s son-in-law Bob Wagner, back at the house, sees the object light up and rise to 500 feet, then come down again making some noise. Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies David Fitzpatrick and Stanley McFadden arrive about 9:00 p.m. drive towards the swamp on Quigley Road. They see a brilliant light that dims and then reappears. By this time a crowd has gathered. One man reports that when two flashlights appear in the distance, the object seems to react by flying away at high speed. At another point the object passes directly over the Mannors with a whistling sound like a rifle bullet ricocheting. It remains in the swampy area for 30 minutes. [Eberhart]
Map:
Frank Mannor and Son at landing site:
Sources:
“40 Claim Seeing Flying Saucers,” Sacramento (Calif.) Bee, March 21, 1966, p. 1;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sacramento-bee-thesacramentobee19/191563312/
“Landing of ‘Saucer’ Reported,” Ann Arbor (Mich.) News, March 21, 1966, p. 17;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-ann-arbor-news-annarbornews19660/193764758/
“40 Describe Landing of Flying Saucer,” Cleveland (Ohio) Press, March 21, 1966, p. 1; [Not in digitized edition]
“Many in Michigan See Flying Saucer Landing,” Cleveland (Ohio) Press, March 21, 1966, p. B-7;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-clevelandpress1966/193763953/
“Washtenaw Sheriff Trails Flying Saucers,” Detroit Free Press, March 22, 1966, pp. 3A–4A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-washtenaw-sheriff-tra/121174777/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-detroitfreepress19/193765253/
“Air Force Experts Investigating Reported Sightings of UFO in Michigan,” Cleveland (Ohio) Press, March 23, 1966, p. B-13;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-clevelandpress1966/193764585/
“Expert to Probe ‘Saucers,’” Detroit Free Press, March 23, 1966, p. 3A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press/120897035/
“Saucer Sightings Soaring in State,” Detroit Free Press, March 24, 1966, p.3A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-saucer-sightings-soar/121174916/
“Air Force to Explain ‘Saucers’,” Detroit Free Press, March 25, 1966, p. 3A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-detroitfreepress19/193765105/
“Flying Saucers a Joke? Not in Michigan,” Cleveland (Ohio) Press, March 26, 1966, pp. 1-2;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-clevelandpress1966/193764351/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-clevelandpress1966/193764423/
“The Great Flying Saucer Boom,” Detroit Free Press, April 3, 1966, pp. 1A, 14A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-detroitfreepress19/191563722/
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-detroitfreepress19/191563800/
“‘This Thing Like a Ball of Fire’…Just Gas?” Detroit Free Press, April 3, 1966, p. 14A;
https://www.newspapers.com/article/detroit-free-press-april-1966-michigan-u/121633783/
“UFOs — Truth or Fiction?,” Miami (Fl.) Herald, April 28, 1966, p. 6B;
https://miamiherald.newspapers.com/article/the-miami-herald-miamiherald19660428/193763642/
Brad Sparks, Blue Book Unknowns File, Case 1653, p. 310;
“The Michigan Cases,” APRO Bulletin (March-April 1966): 1, 3-4;
“Swamp Gas Answer Disproved,” UFO Investigator 3, no. 7 (March/April 1966): 5;
Paul O’Neil, “A Well-Witnessed ‘Invasion’—by Something,” Life 60, n. 3 (April 1, 1966): 24–31; [p. 29 this case]
“Pi in the Sky,” Newsweek 67, no. 14 (April 4, 1966): 22,27;
Charles Bowen, “Michigan Furore,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 4–6;
J. Allen Hynek, “Statement On The Dexter and Hillsdale UFO Sightings,” Flying Saucer Review 12, no. 3 (May/June 1966): 7–8;
Lloyd Mallan, “Complete Directory of UFO, Part II.” Science and Mechanics 38, no. 1 (January 1967): 47, 68;
Richard Hall, The UFO Evidence, Volume 2, 2001, pp. 184–186;
Mark O’Connell, The Close Encounters Man: How One Man Made the World Believe in UFOs, 2017, pp. 175–177, 184–185;
Center for UFO Studies, [case documents];
[80page PDF with a 23page report, interviews, tons of newsclips]
Patrick Gross, “Hillsdale, Michigan, 1966: The Infamous ‘Swamp Gas’ Case”
The Michigan Sightings
Michigan Sightings & Radiation
CBS Reports: UFO: Friend, Foe, or Fantasy [extract], May 10, 1966;
The Great Michigan UFO Chase of 1966
Wendy Connors, “Cops and Saucers: Law Enforcement and UFO’s, 1957–1981 Guide,” November 20, 2013, audioclip 18;
“1966 UFO Sightings in Dexter, Michigan - A Mini-Documentary,” Michigan Online Youtube channel, February 17, 2022;
“Michigan UFO sightings witnesses and Gerald R. Ford’s reaction, 1966,” Eyes on Cinema YouTube channel, June 12, 2022;
NICAP, “The Michigan Sightings”;
Raymond Szymanski, Swamp Gas My Ass, The Author, 2021;
Doug Martin, “Eyewitnesses to 1966 Dexter UFO Sighting to Share Their Story for the First Time,” Dexter (Mich.) Sun Times News, August 12, 2024;