Questions linger over 1954 UFO sighting

Today, nearly everyone carries a cellphone with a camera. Those cameras can record proof of whatever people see, which might have sparked their interest. Without such proof, a single verbal description is lost unless more than one person can corroborate the event or sighting. Today’s column has been corroborated by many.

Now on with the stories: Let me take you back to the year 1954. Not counting the RCAF base in North Bay, there were only two airports in Northern Ontario; one in Porquis Junction and the other in Earlton. Highway 11B (now Highway 101) ended in Timmins. There were wide expanses of remote nothingness.

This was the era of the Cold War during which time the federal government established the Ground Observer Corps where reliable members of the public, including Ontario Hydro and other government employees were trained to watch for, correctly identify and report to the RCAF base in North Bay, a description and time of all planes flying overhead.

In 1954, there was a small colony at Ontario Hydro’s Wawaitin generating station, southwest of Timmins. The Hydro families there and those living at the top of the hill who worked for the Department of Lands and Forests often met socially. There was no TV in 1954. The evening of Sunday, Aug. 29 was such a night when Chief Forest Ranger George Sheridan with his wife Gloria, Don Ouimet, operator for Ontario Hydro and his wife Lois, met at the home of Ken and Shirley Kitchen. Ken was also an operator for Hydro.

At about 9:30, George ran in saying, “Come quick! Do you want to see something strange? It just might be a flying saucer!” He had been watching the phenomenon for three or four minutes already. Quickly, all three couples went outside with a pair of binoculars to view the strange, brilliant, reddish-orange ball of light that appeared to be about eight or 10 miles away. The object kept dipping up and down, while swooping over the trees.

Ouimet said, “It was going very slowly and that’s what amazed me. You always hear reports of anything like this travelling very fast. This was so slow!” The object, whatever it was, slowly disappeared to the southwest over Lake Kenogamissi after about 20 minutes. The incident was also seen by the Deputy Fire Ranger, Jack Russell. The Regional Director of the Ground Observer Corps, James Morton, was also notified, as was the RCAF in North Bay.

Just before dawn the next morning, a similar sighting was reported by Henry Durdie, a Royal Canadian Navy veteran, employed at the Military base in North Bay. He said, “The great glowing ball of light hovered over the RCAF base while shooting out tremendous sparks like knitting needles of lightning.” Durdie said he was frightened at first, then called Tony McLeod, Leo Blais, George Noble and Manley Bailey to watch with him.

Just four months later, on Dec. 26, Cobalt resident John R. Hunt, a reporter for the North Bay Nugget newspaper, received a telephone call from Willis St. Jean who was working the evening shift at the Agaunico (Agnico) Mine.

“John, for God’s sake get out here! There’s a flying saucer overhead spitting out light all over the place!” Hunt sped to the mine, located on the shore of Lake Temiskaming and found an excited St. Jean pointing up to the sky. “The thing came down low and scared the blazes out of me,” said St. Jean.

In his report to the Nugget the next day, Hunt said, “The light was emanating from a giant rotating disc of pure light. The light was not just spinning, but flying in circles. The cone of light suddenly reversed and the disc sent its blinding light straight up into the sky. It moved from the east to the west and stopped motionless, directly overhead. We watched the light come and go, dance in the sky, hover and dart as no airplane nor star nor meteor has ever behaved.”

The sighting was substantiated by St. Jean’s wife as well as William Montgomery of West Cobalt, and Hugh and Annette Montgomery, visiting from Kitchener. The light and antics were observed by the six people for over an hour.

Hunt’s newspaper report ended with this paragraph: “What it was that this reporter saw last night I do not know. I was stone cold sober and so were the others who witnessed the phenomena. As far as I am concerned, a flying saucer flew over the mine and I saw it.”

Although it’s been 66 years since their sighting, both Don and Lois Ouimet remember the incident vividly. To this day, they still wonder what that brilliant, reddish-orange ball of light was, that swooped up and down near the colony at Wawaitin.

I too wonder about those strange objects were which were flying over Northern Ontario in 1954.

That’s my view from Over the Hill.