Legends & Lore - Oddity Almanac

1952 Washington, D.C. UFO Incident

Washington, D.C.; Washington National Airport; Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland

Radar controllers, pilots, and military personnel reported unexplained targets and lights around Washington during two dramatic weekends in July 1952.

Alien Types & Beings

Alien Hybrids

Not place-specific

Stories of human-alien hybrids grew out of modern abduction narratives in which experiencers described reproductive procedures and encounters with supposedly mixed offspring.

Aliens

Allagash Abductions

Eagle Lake area, Allagash Wilderness Waterway, Maine

Four friends reported a strange light during a 1976 Maine canoe trip, but the famous abduction narrative emerged years later through hypnotic regression.

Aliens

Aurora, Texas UFO Legend

Aurora, Wise County, Texas

An 1897 newspaper story claimed a mysterious airship crashed into an Aurora windmill and left behind a dead pilot later linked to the town cemetery.

Aliens

Battle of Los Angeles

Los Angeles metropolitan area, California

In February 1942, nervous anti-aircraft crews fired more than a thousand rounds over Los Angeles at an apparent threat that was never identified as an enemy aircraft.

Ghosts & Spirits

Bell Witch

Tennessee's Talking Spirit

Robertson County, Tennessee

The entity that supposedly tormented Tennessee's Bell family could speak, sing, slap, argue about Scripture and hold a grudge. Two centuries later, the Bell Witch remains one of…

Aliens

Betty & Barney Hill Abduction

White Mountains and U.S. Route 3 near Lincoln, New Hampshire

Betty and Barney Hill's 1961 New Hampshire encounter became the model for modern alien-abduction stories, especially after hypnosis introduced memories of missing time and examinations.

Ape-Men & Hairy Humanoids

Bigfoot

The Hairy Giant of North America's Forests

Most strongly associated in modern popular culture with the Pacific Northwest and northern California; reported across North America

Bigfoot is North America's best-known cryptid, a large hair-covered humanoid shaped by footprints, eyewitness reports, a famous 1967 film, and much older regional traditions.

Lights & Environmental Mysteries

Brown Mountain Lights

The Lights Above the Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Mountains, North Carolina

Strange lights have been reported around North Carolina's Brown Mountain for more than a century. They even attracted an official investigation by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Aliens

Cash-Landrum Incident

Rural road near Huffman and Dayton, Texas, northeast of Houston

Three Texans reported a brilliant, heat-producing object and numerous helicopters in 1980, then pursued a federal lawsuit after developing serious health problems.

Alien Types & Beings

Flatwoods Monster

Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia

A fiery object in the West Virginia sky and a terrifying figure on a dark hillside created one of the strangest monster stories of the flying-saucer era.

Aliens

Flatwoods Monster Encounter

Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia

In 1952, a bright object over Flatwoods led a small group up a dark hillside, where they reported a towering figure, strange lights, and a choking odor.