A 'U.F.O.' seen durring The Perseid Meteor Shower...Corolator

Back in 1975, I'd been out of the Navy for a while and it was my restless years. I was living in Weed, California, near Mt Shasta, in the northern most part of the state. Both towns were small and close nit so to speak. other than outdoor activities, there really wasn't much to do there. Most jobs were forest related in one way or another. Lumber Mills, Pulp Plants, and some trucking companies, and of course there were real lumber-jack jobs there as well. Working out cutting trees, was a rough job, that payed pretty well, but it had a high accident rate, as jobs go. It was a job type I wasn't at all interested in. I had a job at a service station doing minor mechanical jobs on cars.

Most of the hang outs where people gathered were the local bars. There were several, as it seemed to be both towns major form of entertainment. One night in July we were gathered with a bunch of friends, and someone mentioned the 'Perseids Meteor Shower' was getting close to being visible. I'd seen them before in the high desert, but never this far north where they were sapposed to be more visible and easier to see. The right viewing area needed to be away from any city lights, and as far north as possible and the higher up in elevation the better chance one would have for the best visibility. I started paying closer attention to the conversation once I realized that the Meteor Shower was a local event everyone went high up on the mountain to see.

The spot everyone drove to was The Ski-Bowl area at about 6500 feet elevation above the town of Mt. Shasta. The Ski-Bowl was a 4-stage rope tow you'd take to get high up on Mt Shasta so you could ski. You grabed ahold of a knoted rope attached to a longer line and it would pull you up the hill on your skis. It was a primitive version of a chair lift. But I didn't ski so I'd never even been to the area. It did sound like a great place to view the meteor shower from, so Mike, my room-mate and I planned to go up and check it out. Mike had been to one once before and commented to me, "It's a great party dude! Lots of people will be there. You'll see lots of meteorites up there!"

So a few nights later after work we went to Mt Shasta and ate dinner at a small diner, then took the windy road up to the ski-bowl. It was a long ride from town,and took about an hour to get up to the parking area. When we arrived there were a lot of people all ready there. We parked and walked up to a large bon-fire that was blazing large. Lots of people were standing arround, and we greeted the ones we knew. We got a cup of beer from one of the many kegs that had been toted up the mountain to the Meteor Party,as it was being called. I learned that this was a yearly event, so there weremany people in attendance there. Mike and I scoped out a good viewing place away from the fire where the view wasn't being hampered by the forest. We found a large rock and sat down looking nothward waiting for the first signs of the shower which was to start at about 10:30 accourding to informed sources. The shy was totally clear, and there were just an uncountable amount of stars visable in the cosmos. It was breath taking. I'd never seen so many stars in the sky before!

It wasn't long before the first streaks of falling meteors were seen. You could hear the ooohhhs and the aahhhhs all over the area. The meteors started becomming more and more as the time went by. There were literally hundreds of them going in every direction, all over the sky. After a bit we both got on the ground and layed back so we didn't have to keep craining our necks to watch the show in the sky. It was much easier laying back to watch than just trying to look up.

After some time we heard some people close to us talking about, what they were calling the 'Orange colored Full Moon'. It got my attention because I knew it wasn't the right time of the month for a full moon. But as Mike and I stood up, There it wasin the northern sky, looking towards the Oregon Boarder, and it was Orange or golden looking for sure.

It didn't take long to see that it was also getting larger. We all realized it was moving towards the south, in our direction, and soon everyone else realized what I allready knew. This was not The Full Moon! In a few more minutes it was closer and still getting larger. It was immense in size, and the closer it got to our vantage point the more it looked golden as apposed to orange in color. There wasn't any discerable markings on it or anything other than this giant golden globe, still moving slowly our way, and not making any noise at all.

We could hear people in every direction from where we were, all talking loudly about what were all seeing in the night sky. It was a U.F.O., and everyone knew it, but everyone was saying the same thing, "What is that?" "Oh my God do you see that?" and other similar statements of amaze ment and confusion. Suddenly it looked as if it had stopped and then it started getting a little smaller. But I realized that it had just started to move in a sideways motion from our viewpoint. As we all watched in amazement, it moved towards the backside of Mt Shasta from us untill it finially dissappeared from our view. It was gone, everyone was freaked out about what they'd all seen, now that they allowed themselves to realize what it had been. The sighting lasted a good 15-20 minutes and was witnessed by literally hundreds of onlookers who were there to see Meteorites. Well after a while we continued to see more meteorites but they just didn't measure up to the show we's all seen with the giant golden ball in the sky. Little by little people started going to their cars and leaving.

I don't remember ever seeing anything about the mass sighting in the local paper, however there were some chatter about it on a local a.m. radio station a few days later, or so I heard. The people who were there spoke of it for a long time that summer untill it seemed to almost become an local urban legend. After talking about it to a few people I soon learned learned that U'F.O.sightings were not unusual at all near or arround The Mountain. In fact the mountain was legendary so to speak in U.F.O. lore.

While I lived there it was the only sighting I ever witnessed, but I was told of many spectacular sightings by many local residents that lived in both towns. It seems Mt Shasta figures prominately in some other legends as well. Some there talk that the mountain is hollow and the remnants of the Atlantian Population reside within the mountain. I was told that durring the early 1900's many residents saw tall people who had extreamly long white or blonde hair, dressed in long colorfull robe type garb come into Mt Shasta and they bought things like flour and sugar, and paid for these things with gold nuggets, then disappeared back up the slopes of the mountain. Sometimes they were followed by townspeople but there destination was never seen, and they always seemed to loose their trackers.

I can't verify these stories but there are a lot of them on the internet I've seen over the years. The locals who were there the night of the mass sighting believe the U.F.O. was an Atlantian craft from somewhere deep in the ocean, where some of them still live. They believe that these transport come and go to Mt. Shasta. I can't say for sure myself I can only remember the townsfolks stories and what I've read online and in some books. What do all of you think?

I always believed in U.F.O.'s before this night but this was proof of what I'd believed in. I Still however can't explain what they are, or where they are from. But when you look up into the night sky and see all of the stars out there, which probably have planets orbiting them, it's hard to immagine we are alone in The Universe.

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