Ufology Research

Top 10 Canadian Vacation Spots for UFO Buffs

If you’re looking for something a bit different for your vacation this summer―and someone in your family is really into UFOs―you should consider visiting places in Canada that some believe attract otherworldly tourists, too.

Bored with the usual touristy venues? Tired of packed, noisy beaches and stifling amusement parks? From places to hang out and watch for mysterious lights to horseback trail rides to where a UFO was seen to land, these are some of Canada's best must-see places to visit by anyone keen on aliens and UFOs.

Shag Harbour UFO Crash Site

Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia

http://www.ufocasebook.com/Shagharbor.html

http://www.novascotia.com/events/festivals-and-events/shag-harbour-ufo-festival/-1159

In October 1967, many witnesses, including RCMP, saw a bright object fall into the ocean off the coast of Nova Scotia. The case, often called “Canada’s Roswell,” is supported by actual government and military documents from the National Archives that detail the official investigation and efforts to recover whatever it might have been. Local residents even commemorate the incident with an annual UFO Festival. There’s even a sign along the highway near where what happened.

A new sign has recently been put up near the site:

Scugog Island Ghost Light

Near Port Perry, Ontario

http://www.scugogheritage.com/misc/ghostroad.htm

Whether a mysterious light is called a UFO or a ghost is a matter of perspective and the opinion of whomever is seeing it. Recurring mystery lights are often called spook lights or ghost lights. Most have background stories about unfortunate individuals’ tragic deaths (sometimes decapitations) that result in their ghosts haunting where accidents occurred. Witnesses say that the lights appear in the distance then somehow zoom towards them, only to vanish suddenly. This light northeast of Toronto has a long history, and even has been investigated by Toronto ghosthunters. (It’s actually on a peninsula, not an island.) With a classic tragic origin story, one writer noted: “the 'ghostlight' appears as one solid light with the naked eye as well as through optical devices such as telescopes, binoculars, etc. Occasionally it appears as if more than one light is merging together to result in a larger light that pulses.”

Moonbeam, Ontario

120 kilometres north of Timmins, along Highway 11, and about 20 kilometres east of Kapuskasing.

The town of Moonbeam got its name from stories by pioneers who saw flashing lights falling from the sky, which they called “moonbeams.” The town has embraced its spatial origin, even erecting a huge flying saucer along the highway as a tourist attraction. About 10 years ago, development of nearby hiking trails included signage with green-skinned aliens guiding the way.

http://www.canadacool.com/location/moonbeam-ontario/

Neebing Spooklight

40 kilometres south of Thunder Bay, Ontario, on Highway 61

http://www.pararesearchers.org/index.php?/20090428650/Ghosts-Hauntings/Neebing-Spooklights.html

Several locations near Thunder Bay have spook light stories. These are more like UFO sightings in the sense there are no tragic deaths or events associated with them, but are more simply lights that seem to appear and disappear while flitting about treetops. Some witnesses describe them as UFOs rather than ghosts.

Falcon Lake UFO Incident

Falcon Lake, Manitoba

http://www.ufoevidence.org/cases/case376.htm

http://falconbeachranch.com/horseback-rides/

In May 1967, Stefan Michalak was doing some amateur prospecting north of Falcon Lake in Whiteshell Provincial Park. He encountered a flying saucer which seemed to land on a rock outcropping near him. He walked up to it and was burned by its exhaust when it took off. The case was investigated by the RCMP, Canadian Forces and even the United States Air Force, which considered it “Unexplained.” Today, you can get a t-shirt commemorating the event in Falcon Lake, and the local riding stable offers guided “UFO Rides” to the site where it occurred.

Woodridge Spooklight

Woodridge, Manitoba

http://mytoba.ca/voices/the-ghost-lights-of-woodridge/

http://uforum.blogspot.ca/2012/10/a-halloween-ufo-case-woodridge-spook.html

This spooklight also has an origin story involving a decapitation. The light is said to be a lantern carried by a headless ghost looking for its missing head along the railroad tracks south of town.

The light has been investigated by researchers, even some from the University of Toronto.


The spooklight with probably the richest history is that of the Tabor Light in Saskatchewan. It is more of a true “ghost light,” as it appears usually near the Tabor Cemetery, near the village of Yarbo (Tabor is completely gone today.). There’s even a geocache that directs you there, if you can find it. In the 1930s, dozens of people attested to seeing a light hovering over the tombstones and adjacent field.

St. Paul UFO Landing Pad

St. Paul, Alberta

http://www.town.stpaul.ab.ca/UFO-Landing-Pad

“The World’s First UFO Landing Pad” was built in 1967 as a Canadian Centennial Project. In the 1990s, the saucer-shaped platform had fallen into disrepair (from apparent lack of use) and was restored, with a UFO museum added as well. A UFO conference was held there a few times, and there are plans for a 50^th anniversary celebration in 2017. Queen Elizabeth visited the pad in 1978, and Mother Theresa herself visited it in 1982.

Keats Island “Nest of UFOs”

Keats Island, BC

http://ufobc.com/History/1960/nestofufos_v2.htm

A cross between a recurring spooklight and a repetitive series of UFO sightings, Keats Island is northwest of Vancouver across the bay from Gibsons. In 1967, there were so many strange UFO sightings reported there, the island was considered a “UFO nest.”

Crash Go the UFOs… in Canada

When one hears the phrase “UFO Crash,” the incident most people think of is what is said to have happened near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947. However, despite some possibly associated UFO reports from June and July 1947, all that is known for sure about Roswell is that some physical material was found and recovered by US military officials in early July 1947.

Roswell is only one of hundreds of claimed UFO crashes that some UFO buffs insist are proof that aliens have been visiting Earth, but having misfortunate accidents when they arrive. In fact, the Center for the Study of Extraterrestrial Intelligence (CSETI) lists almost 300 cases suggestive of UFO crashes on Earth. (http://www.cseti.org/crashes/crash.htm)

Even more interesting is that Canada seems to be a place where UFOs have particular difficulty. (CSETI lists five UFO crash sites in Canada, although most have no basis in fact.)

Historically, there are more than a dozen well-witnessed and well-documented examples of odd or unexpected objects apparently descending from the sky and landing or “crashing” on Canadian soil. Some of these cases are supported by publicly-available documents from Canada’s National Archives, others through historical records and others as noted in the files of scientific institutions. This is not arm-waving speculation about aliens visiting Earth; these are actual anomalies involving odd objects falling to Earth, observed by witnesses. Most have simple, prosaic explanations, although some have been celebrated by hardcore believers in alien visitation as “the real thing.” At least one of these cases is being promoted by some UFO advocates as proof that the Canadian government is hiding the “truth” about aliens and UFOs from Canadians and that “UFO Found” is an admission of cover-up.

The following is an annotated list of these cases, with an added indication of: Explained; Probable Explanation; Insufficient Information for an Explanation; or Unexplained.

1792

Thicket Portage, Manitoba

The oldest account of an odd object over Manitoba took place in the fall of 1792. Explorers David Thompson and Andrew Davy were camped on the shore of Landing Lake, near what is now Thicket Portage. In Thompson’s diary, he recorded that one night he and his companion were surprised by the appearance of a brilliant “meteor of globular form... larger than the Moon.” This object seemed to move directly towards them, descending slightly, and “when within three hundred yards of us, it struck the River ice with a sound like a mass of jelly, was dashed in innumerable luminous pieces and instantly expired.” Thompson noted that the next morning, when they went to see the hole it should have made in the ice, they could not find any sign of the object’s apparent impact on the Earth.

https://archive.org/stream/davidthompsonsna00thom/davidthompsonsna00thom_djvu.txt

[page 118]

Probable Explanation: Fireball

March 15, 1960

A U-2 spy plane made a forced landing on Wapawekka Lake in northern Saskatchewan.

http://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/Saskatchewan/u2_drops_in.htm

Few people know that there was another U-2 “incident” other than the more famous one of Francis Gary Powers. It's a good thing that Flin Flon was more friendly than Russia. As far as we know, no one saw the U-2 make the emergency landing in Saskatchewan, which might have resulted in a UFO report. RCMP from Flin Flon, Manitoba, were called out to the site of the forced landing to assist the American pilot.

In 2014, the CIA released a 1998 report that claimed its U2 experimental flights were responsible for many UFO reports.

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/the-cia-and-the-u-2-program-1954-1974/u2.pdf

Newsweek noted at the time:

Through the program, the CIA secretly flew U-2 spy planes at altitudes of 60,000 feet above target countries, like the Soviet Union. At the time, most commercial flights flew between 10,000 and 20,000 feet, and military aircrafts flew below 40,000 feet. Most people thought man couldn’t reach such heights and assumed alien life was behind the mysterious objects in the sky… “Consequently, once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports,” the document reads.

Explained: Aircraft

June 22, 1960

An object was seen to fall into Clan Lake, Northwest Territories.

http://uforum.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html

On June 22, 1960, an airplane dropped a hunter off at Clan Lake. About 20 minutes after the plane left, the man reported hearing a loud noise similar to an airplane. As the noise grew louder, he looked to the sky, but saw nothing. Seconds later, however, an object fell from the sky and crashed into the water. When it hit the surface, the object began to rotate, causing a spray of water around it. There was no steam to indicate that the object was hot. According to the witness, the object was approximately 4 to 6 feet wide, with spokes coming out of it like arms. As it began to slow down, a rush of water met the campers on the shore. Finally, the object sank.

The RCMP officer who met the witness recalled in 2010 that he was a reliable and trustworthy individual, not prone to exaggeration and well-liked in the community. If it was a meteorite under the water of significant size, you'd think the scientists would want to recover it.

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ufo/002029-1001-e.html

Unexplained

October 4, 1967

A bright object was seen by several witnesses to fall into Shag Harbour, off the coast of Nova Scotia.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread736264/pg1#pid11980698

Sometimes called “Canada's Roswell,” this classic case is actually a bit better than Roswell because a number of official documents have been located suggesting something really happened, unlike Roswell. It began in the early evening of October 4, 1967. People all around Quebec and the Maritimes reported UFOs, including pilots of an Air Canada DC-8 who saw a large, brightly lit rectangular object estimated to be flying at around 12,000 feet, flying in a parallel flight path. 

Around 9:00pm ADT, the captain and crew of a fishing vessel near Sambro, Nova Scotia saw several red lights over the water and said their onship radar also detected the objects. The RCMP, communicating with the Captain via the Canadian Coast Guard, was curious enough about the event to request the Captain file a report when he returned to port.

            Chris Styles, (one of the principal investigators of the Shag Harbour incident), himself saw something strange in Halifax Harbour. It was a disc-shaped object, glowing orange, drifting up the harbour. After running closer to the object, Styles could see it was a roughly fifty-foot diameter sized orange ball, moving slowly over the water. No sound could be heard.

Then, around 11:30 pm, five witnesses observed an object descending at a moderate pace over Shag Harbour. With a swishing sound, the object fell out of the witness's sight, seemingly crashing into the harbour. Moving to the harbour to see what happened, the witnesses could see an object floating in the water, about 200 feet from the shore.

           

Thinking the object might be a crashed plane, the youths phoned the RCMP and the local detachment dispatched a car to the scene. The local police also contacted the Halifax station, the headquarters for the surrounding area, and in turn, Halifax contacted RCMP national headquarters in Ottawa. Ottawa then filed a UFO report with the Canadian Forces, who, suspecting a downed plane, contacted the Rescue Coordination Centre back in Halifax.

            Meanwhile in Shag Harbour, the local RCMP began to think of ways to reach the object, whatever it was. Three RCMP officers were at the scene, including one who had himself observed a bright object moving over the mainland. For several minutes the officers were able to see a strange yellow light off the shore, and through binoculars were able to see what appeared to be yellow foam around the light. The police roused some local fishermen from sleep and the Mounties secured some boats for a water rescue. Unfortunately, the object by this time seemed to have sunk beneath the surface of the ocean.

            Nevertheless, the boats traveled out to where the object was last seen. While the would-be rescuers didn't find the object or any occupants, they did the thick yellow foam floating on top of the surface where the object had apparently gone down. The foam was estimated to be around three inches thick, 80 feet wide and a half-mile in length. Bubbles could be seen continually coming to the surface and the smell of sulfur was present in the air. By 12:30am, the Canadian Coast Guard arrived on the scene and they helped in the search, but by 4:00am, the search was called off for the night.

            The search was restarted again the next morning, this time with the help of a dive team.  As many as seven scuba divers searched the depths of the harbour in hope of finding the object that fell from the sky.

            Even the military seemed puzzled as to what could have crashed into the water. In a memorandum dated October 6, 1967, it was indicated that: “The Rescue Coordination Centre conducted preliminary investigation and discounted the possibilities that the sighting was produced by an aircraft, flares, floats, or any other known objects.”

            The search continued through to Monday, when it was finally called off. Nothing was ever found, but rumors circulated that something, or at least pieces of something, were recovered and sent to a naval base in Dartmouth. One witness insisted he saw divers pulling shiny metal material out of the water.

Officially, nothing was recovered from the waters off the coast of Nova Scotia in the search for what crashed back in October of 1967.  The Condon Committee (a U.S. Air Force sponsored investigation that was carried out by the University of Colorado), examined the case (Case #34 in its report). After a brief review of events, the report concluded the case by indicating:  “No further investigation by the project was considered justifiable, particularly in view of the immediate and thorough search that had been carried out by the RCMP and the Maritime Command.” No explanation for the sightings was even attempted by the Committee.

Unexplained

October 17, 1968

Fragments of a "space vehicle" found near Wollaston Lake in Saskatchewan were transported to the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. One of the pages of RCMP documents about the incident is titled: “U.F.O. Found in Northern Saskatchewan.”

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread736264/pg1

There are dozens of pages of documents online about this mysterious chunk of space hardware, describing the investigation by the RCMP and NRC. This is the most-cited document:

http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e121/e003000440.jpg

Although this one is perhaps the most telling, noting the results of the analysis, that it is 99% pure titanium like from a space vehicle, and is “the largest piece from a satellite that has ever landed on Earth” (at that time).

http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e121/e003000408.jpg

http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e121/e003000447.jpg

Explained: Satellite

January 24, 1978

Cosmos 954 crashes into northern Canada, mostly near Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories but also, of course, Saskatchewan.

http://sciradioactive.com/Taylors_Nuke_Site/Operation_Morning_Light.html

This radioactive Russian spacecraft was seen to fragment and fall over a very wide area in the largely uninhabited Canadian north. Radioactive debris was painstakingly tracked, located and taken to the Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment in Pinawa, Manitoba, for examination. Aboriginal people throughout the area were given medical examinations and tested for radioactive contamination.

Explained: Satellite

April 2, 1978

Bell Island Boom, NF

https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4190

On April 2, 1978, a loud explosion on Bell Island caused physical damage to some houses and the electrical wiring in others in the surrounding area. Two cup-shaped holes about two feet deep and three feet wide marked a major impact on the ground. A number of TV sets in Lance Cove, the surrounding community, exploded at the time of the blast, which was initially thought to be caused by ball lightning. At the time, meteorologists said that atmospheric conditions at the time were not conducive to lightning. The boom was heard 55 kilometers away in Cape Broyle, although the impact occurred in the Bickfordville area, on the southwestern side of the island.

The incident was investigated by John Warren and Robert Freyman from Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, in New Mexico. It had been speculated that, due to their place of work, that they were investigating a secret weapons test and were military attachés. However, they had been studying data received from the Vela satellites, investigating a “superbolt” - an unusually large bolt of lightning, lasting an unusually long time: about a thousandth of a second.

Probable Explanation: Natural Phenomenon?

August 22, 1990

Ebenezer’s UFO, PEI

At 7:00 pm, Walter Benoit of Bellefond, New Brunswick, saw a “very bright object, 4 to 5 feet long,” and “clear in colour.” He reported it to the RCMP, who sent the report to the NRC. The NRC numbered the case N90/66 in its Non-Meteoritic Sightings File.

At 7:15 pm, Carmelle Morrissey was in Morristown, Nova Scotia, Canada, and happened to look up into the early evening sky. Morrissey saw a “very bright, circular object” moving in the sky for an estimated four to five minutes. The sighting was reported to CFB Greenwood, and the BOC (Base Commander) filed the report with the Canadian Department of National Defence (DND). In turn, DND sent a note about the sighting to the NRC, which filed it as case N90/61. Copies of the report were sent to an alphabet soup of official acronyms: RCCPJAC NDOC OTTAWA, RCWBOCA, ACOC WINNIPEG, RUWOKDB NORAD COC CHEYENNE MTN COMPLEX, DOFO, RCCBNVA FGCANCHQ NORTH BAY, SSO, NT, CCCEON, NRCOTT OTTAWA “METEOR CENTRE”

Shortly thereafter, three more objects were reported to the NRC, all involving UFOs with long tails and identified as meteors by the NRC as cases N90/62, N90/63, and N90/64.

Meanwhile, something odd was happening in Prince Edward Island.

According to N90/65, from 222350Z to 230115Z (7:50 pm to 9:15 pm), Shirley Yeo of Ebenezer, PEI, was “eyewitness to [a] glowing white object which landed in woods.” She and all her family watched the strange object, which they described as “like an ice cream cone.” Remarkably, once it “landed,” the object was reported as “still glowing at 0300Z,” two hours later. Helen Gallant, who lived with the Yeo family, said: “I saw it through the trees. It looked like a great big round ball of light through the trees.”

While the glow was still visible, witnesses watched as military helicopters and aircraft arrived and began circling the area. Although there is a civilian airport at Charlottetown, 12 km southeast of Ebenezer, and a military base at Summerside, 45 km southwest, witnesses were puzzled by the appearance of the aircraft because such activity seemed unnecessary if the UFO was really only a meteor.

Charlottetown RCMP confirmed that they had received more than a dozen calls about the Ebenezer object and had sent two constables to investigate. They noted that one officer “could see it in the distance, but then he just lost sight of it.” Meanwhile, Alexander Davis of Frenchvale, Cape Breton (Nova Scotia), “saw [a] red-hot sheet of metal land 300 yards from him in woods.” It was noted that “he swears he knows exactly where it can be found.” At the time the NRC report was filed, the RCMP was planning to question him the next morning.

NRC case N90/65 comments about the large number of reports that night, noting that the “phenomena [was] seen from Anticosti Island to Halifax, and from Newfoundland to Maine.” Furthermore, “all colours of flares [were] reported as well as fireballs, flaming aircraft and burning boats,” and reports were received over a period of 90 minutes. One note recorded that “RCMP detatchments in [the] Maritimes have reported location of debris.”

Spurred by the possibility that the object was in fact a meteor which may have fallen, a group of 30 amateur astronomers with the Charlottetown Astronomy Club searched the area the next morning, but found nothing of interest.

Clive Perry, president of the club, was doubtful the UFO had been a meteor. “I wouldn't think it would be a meteorite when it glowed so long,” he said. “It pretty well had to be space junk or parts of a satellite. That's about the only thing that could have come down unless you want to talk about little green men with buggy eyes.”

Perry spoke with the witnesses and found them to be honest and truthful. “They are very credible,” he noted. “It would take a pretty good mind to make up a story like that.”

Another astronomer, Paul Delaney of York University in Toronto, also offered his opinion to the media that because of the duration of the sighting, the UFO was probably not a meteor. He thought that the presence of the aircraft indicated the falling object was a satellite.

However, despite witnesses’ reports and the negative findings of the astronomers, NORAD and CFB Halifax insisted the UFOs were ascribable to meteors. A newspaper report noted: “Neither military agency would say if anything struck the ground.”

Unexplained

November 4, 1989

Corkery Road, in Carp, Ontario

Although diehard UFO buffs insist this case is real, most serious UFO researchers have figured out it was an elaborate hoax perpetrated on the UFO community. Basically, the claims involve stories of the crash of an alien spacecraft just west of Ottawa, and a military cover-up so thorough that there is not only no physical trace of it left, all of the residents in the area insist nothing occurred. All supposedly supportive evidence comes from a single video that purportedly shows a spacecraft moving vertically in the air but can be shown to have been a truck on the ground surrounded by flares while a video camera moved up and down. Alleged eyewitness testimony has never been substantiated.

http://www.cseti.org/crashes/071.htm

http://www.ufocasebook.com/carpcanada.html

Explained: Hoax

August 18, 1991

Carp, Ontario

CSETI claims that a second UFO crash occurred near Carp.

No details were given.

http://www.cseti.org/crashes/072.htm

Insufficient Information for an Explanation

1993 or 1996 (exact date unknown)

According to CSETI, “ET craft shot down in Canada. Not previously reported in the UFO press but vouched for by confidential CSETI sources.”

http://www.cseti.org/crashes/075.htm

Insufficient Information for an Explanation

June 14, 1994

St-Robert, Quebec

Meteorite Fall and Find

http://www.meteorlab.com/METEORLAB2001dev/robrtxt.htm

Just before sunset on June 14, 1994, in eastern Canada, grazing cows witnessed a shower of meteorites―the 12th recorded fall in Canada―and the beginning of an event that would set many precedents over the next two years. The pastoral village of St. Robert, Quebec, was instantly catapulted into the 20th Century world of meteoritics, research, and Cultural Property Laws.

Explained: Meteorite

000214 Medicine Hat, Alberta

A large chunk of ice fell from the sky, hitting a truck.

Source: UFO Roundup

http://ufoinfo.com/roundup/v05/rnd05_08.shtml

“According to the Medicine Hat News of February 15, 2000, the truck's owner was driving past the Ross Glen Elementary School when something slammed into his truck. Pulling over to the curb, the driver found that a large piece of ice had struck and penetrated the tough canvas truckbed cover. The ice chunk was described as about two feet long, tapered and narrow at one end and blunt at the other. The truck driver reportedly has the ice chunk and hopes to have it tested or analyzed.”

Insufficient Information for an Explanation

010419 Etzikom, Alberta

A fireball was seen falling to earth. Later, a “crater” was found in a field.

Source: Ufology Research

http://www.ufoupdateslist.com/2001/jun/m22-001.shtml

On April 1, 2001 at 10:30 pm, farm manager George Hofer and several children from the Rosedale Hutterite Brethern Colony near Etzikom, Alberta, saw something remarkable in the sky. They were startled to see a brilliant fireball falling straight down and appearing to impact the Earth only a few miles away. The incident was discussed briefly with others, then dismissed.

On April 16, 2001, Ken Masson, who farmed 13 miles south of Etzikom, was preparing his land for seeding when he discovered a circular, crater-like formation, which he was certain had not been there before. Soon, news spread throughout the community as local newspapers carried stories about the two events which seemed connected. the occurrence. Many people visited the “crater” and speculation flourished as to whether it was caused by aliens, a meteorite or something else entirely.

On April 30, 2001, a reporter from a local paper contacted Dr. Pano Karkanis of the Department of Geography at the University of Lethbridge, and requested him to examine the crater and offer some opinion on what may have caused it. Karnakis visited the site on May 1, 2001 and conducted interviews Masson, members of the Rosedale Hutterian Brethren Colony and other people from Etzikom the neighbouring town of Foremost. Later, he also interviewed Hofer, the first witness of the fireball.

Karkanis took photographs of the site, measured it carefully and took soil samples.  He found that the crater was a circle 15 cm lower than the surface of the field, with an inside circle diameter of 2.4 metres, surrounded by a mound of dirt 40 cm high, and an outside circle diameter of 3.6 metres. He also noted four curious indentations inside the crater, which some had speculated were caused by “landing gear” of a UFO. The ground inside the circle was cracked and sere, very different from the smooth powdery nature of rest of the area. Finally, he found some odd, reddish-brown particles of dirt on the mound surrounding the circle.

After completing his analysis, Karkanis published a report on the formation, in which he noted:

There was not any indication to suggest that the small circle is a formation caused by a landing of an extra-terrestrial vehicle. The four indentations in the middle of the circle... are not quite symmetrical which might indicate an object leg-marks, these were probably formed by rain-water accumulation on softer soil spots inside the circle.

Despite the physical appearance of the soil inside and outside the crater, Karkanis could not find any chemical or radioactive anomalies, nor any indication that the dirt was affected by intense heat.

He concluded that the crater was most likely caused by:

A meteoroid, fragment of a meteorite, a small rock or metal solid object which plunged and fell into the earth from outer-space with great force, at SW 18-4-8 W4, with very high speed (probably 150 - 650 km/hr depending on the material of the meteoroid and height from which it fell) and extreme kinetic energy. An incandescent body accompanied by a fiery luminous phenomenon, which is caused by the substantial resistance of the dense atmosphere to the meteoroid motion (the light usually recognized at 100 - 150 km of the meteoroid height), near the end of its path, was observed by Mr. Hofer, who is a reliable eye-witness. The meteoroid’s outer layer probably disintegrated a little, due to the high heat it was exposed to during its rapid flight through the atmosphere, scattering crusty thin and rusty fragments, as found around the crater...

This fallen meteoroid object was not visible and could not be found on the surface of the ground at the investigation site, probably due to the great force by which it crashed on to the ground and eventually sank to a depth of approximately a metre (3 ft 4 in) or more, into the soft soil of the field (loamy texture). Therefore the meteoroid kind, shape, age and composition could not be recognized and its origin could not be identified whether it is of a chondrite, achondrite, iron meteorite or stony-iron meteorite origin. It is a future challenge, to excavate the site and retrieve the meteoroid for further study of the material.

Once news of the Etzikom crater had reached ufologists, there was considerable speculation that this was a bona fide UFO case. What is most interesting it was investigated quite thoroughly by a number of scientists before the UFO community was even aware of it. Soil scientists, physicists and geologists from two different institutions examined the site, and an official report has been issued. I was called for my advice on the course of action early in the investigations by ufologists, and consulted with a number of people as to the types of tests that might be useful.

Gord Kijek, founder of the Alberta UFO Research Group and one of the principal investigators of the incident, examined the site in some detail and noted there was no explanation for the formation if it was not a meteor crater. He did not find any evidence that it was caused by a sinkhole, a lightning strike or a natural gas explosion.

However, if the Etzikom formation is a meteor crater, it is extremely unique. Most geology textbooks illustrate meteor impact craters such as Crater Lake in Oregon, the Ungava Peninsula in Quebec or the impressive Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, which is a major tourist attraction.

The Etzlikom crater, albeit small compared with Barringer, may be the first significantly sized meteor crater discovered in Canada in modern times. Even the fireball that generated a huge wave of sightings across Eastern North America several years ago only made a bucket sized crater in the soil. The Etzikom crater is about ten feet wide.

To further add to the puzzle, Dr. Alan Hildebrand of the University of Calgary, Canada's leading authority on impact craters, the scientist whose research received international attention when he concluded that dinosaurs died off after a major cataclysmic impact event, expressed his opinion to investigators that he did not think the Etzikom crater was made by a meteorite.

But if it’s not a meteor crater...

Unexplained

030416 Drumheller, Alberta

A bright, burning object fell into a yard; a smouldering small shiny object was found.

Source: MIAC

http://www.meteorobs.org/maillist/msg27523.html

A letter was sent to the Meteorite and Impact Advisory Committee of the Canadian Space Agency regarding a strange incident.

To whom it may concern,

I was asked by my parents to inquire as to what may have happened on the 16th of April 2003 in Drumheller, Alberta. What took place on that morning was indeed strange, in fact the strangest thing that they have ever witnessed in their married lives. At approximately 6: 45 am my mom saw the oddest thing happen.

My parents are early risers, they had gotten up at around 5:30 am that morning, and after their ritual of making and consuming several cups of coffee, they were ready for the day. My dad headed for his workshop in the backyard, to split some firewood for their wood stove. My mom was doing a few dishes and generally putting around in the kitchen. She had decided to put on a couple of eggs to boil and hollered out the back door and asked if my dad was going to join her for some breakfast. His reply was, not right at the moment. Mom had returned to the stove, when something caught her attention at the window in the kitchen. There was a fire right outside the window!! She immediately went to the back-door and asked dad if he was burning something in the backyard. He said, no.

When mom got back into the house and looked again outside through the window, she had to turn away as the light from this burning ember was so bright it hurt her eyes. She said it was like glancing at someone welding. She watched this thing burn and smoke away until it had dissipated into an object no bigger than a dime. My dad at this time had come from the garage with their big Golden Retriever and asked what the hell was going on. The dog apparently had heard or smelled something, because he was shaking and cowling like he had been terribly frightened.

My dad asked again what was going on; my mom had filled him in on what she had just witnessed. They both continued to look at this smoldering object in the side of their back yard, wondering where this thing had come from. After about 2 hours they both went outside to investigate further. Where this object had landed, was on a portion of the yard my dad was trying to rake up, but it still had a little ice and was extremely wet, so it made it impossible to rake up. Not now, this spot was burnt and all the leaves around it were charred and the soil was bone dry. The heat must have been horrific.  What they found was an object no bigger than a dime. It was smooth on one side and rather bumpy on the other. On the bumpy side, it shone like diamonds in the sun!! They scooped it up and put it into a glass jar and now have it on their kitchen table as a conversation piece. Indeed, what a conversation piece!

Insufficient Information for an Explanation

November 20, 2008

Buzzard Coulee, SK

A brilliant fireball was first spotted at around 17:30 MST (00:30 UTC) and was reported by people living in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and even North Dakota. It was five times as bright as a full moon. Over 400 people reported seeing it. There are several videos of the meteoroid on YouTube. The object split into multiple pieces before widespread impact. The meteoroid entered the atmosphere at approximately 14 kilometres per second and is estimated to have been about the size of a desk and have had a mass of approximately 10 tonnes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buzzard_Coulee_meteorite

Explained: Meteorite

June 12, 2010    10:30 am

New London, PEI

Two people saw a ball of fire fall from the sky and hit a hay field nearby. The hay was set on fire and the couple were able to put the fire out. Astronomers who were called in to investigate the “meteorite” said the observation and physical traces were “not consistent with natural meteoroids or space debris.”

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/prince-edward-island/story/2010/06/15/pei-metor-fire-expert-584.html

Insufficient Information for an Explanation

February 18, 2015

Hoax Story of UFO Crash at Jackhead First Nation, Manitoba

http://uforum.blogspot.ca/2015/02/hit-road-jack.html

This hoax story of a UFO crash and military cover-up began on social media, with tweets about something falling onto frozen Lake Winnipeg and the Canadian military immediately arriving to cordon off the area, threatening residents of nearby Jackhead First Nation and confiscating cameras. The rumour became stronger when photos were posted of Canadian Forces vehicles in the area, with some people claiming the military was there to contain the UFO crash site. In reality, the military were in the area for a long-planned winter training exercise. None of the claims involving UFOs could be substantiated.

Explained: Hoax

Summary

Rumors about an alleged crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico, may be tantalizing, but there are documented events in Canada offering more substance, more diverse reported characteristics, and more verified documentation of real events. Government documents available on these and other cases were never kept from the public but are in open files in archives and other repositories of information. Although few are known to the general public, these cases are known to serious researchers of such phenomena and have been presented in books, journals and at conferences.

            As Canadians begin their summer vacations, they may well be advised to keep an eye out for unusual objects descending from above.