Glenwood, Klickitat County, Washington, early to mid-1930s — a young man crossing a forested ridge watched a mile-long rectangular silverish craft block the sun, deploy three ball probes from its mirror-paneled underside, and experience a locomotion impedance effect during the pursuit. Multiple ranchers across the area were chased by the same lights for miles. Source: Paul Jefferies, Rense.com, June 27, 2001. Case status: Insufficient Data.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO | UAP | SIGHTING REPORT
1930: Mile Wide UFO Encountered in Washington
In the early to mid-1930s near Glenwood, Washington, a young man heading east to help with fieldwork crossed a second ridge and noticed that everything had gone silent — no wind, no birds, nothing. Then a shadow came over him and blocked the sun entirely. He looked up and saw a huge rectangular object with a smaller rectangle on the bottom that reflected the ground like a mirror. It was at least a mile long and half a mile wide. Three small balls of light came out of an opening beside the mirror and made a beeline straight for him. When he tried to run his legs moved but everything else felt like it was being pulled backward, like running on a sponge. The lights shot past his head, around a tree, and out of sight. The moment they left he could move again. He ran to the root cellar and did not come out. He never took that route again. He was not the only one — ranchers across the Glenwood area had been bailing off horses into ditches to escape the same craft for years. The archive holds this as one of the most physically detailed pre-war UAP cases in the Pacific Northwest record.
Date: Early to mid-1930s — designated 1930?; exact year not recorded
Sighting Time: Daytime — morning, en route to fieldwork
Day/Night: Day
Location: Glenwood, Klickitat County, Washington State, USA — second ridge on a cross-country route through trees toward the Kuhnhausen house
Urban or Rural: Rural — forested ridge and valley terrain, Klickitat County
No. of Entity(‘s): None observed
Entity Type: None
Entity Description: None
Hynek Classification: CE-II (Close Encounter II) — close observation of a large object directly overhead with documented physical effect on the witness; locomotion impedance during proximity of the probe balls. DD (Daylight Disc) is retained as secondary for the overall object category, though the object itself is more accurately described as rectangular, not disc-shaped.
Duration: Several minutes — full craft observation, probe deployment, pursuit, locomotion impedance, departure, recovery, and flight to the root cellar
No. of Object(s): 1 primary craft plus 3 probe balls
Description of the Object(s): Primary craft — huge rectangular object approximately one mile long and half a mile wide, sized by comparison to the surrounding mountain terrain and the extent of its shadow, which blocked the sun entirely. Silverish coloration. A smaller rectangle on the bottom surface reflected the ground like a mirror. The craft slowed as it approached the witness’s position. Probe objects — three small balls of light exited through a small opening beside the large mirror panel, moved at high speed directly toward the witness, demonstrated awareness of obstacles (shot past his head and around a tree), and departed upward out of sight. The locomotion impedance effect ceased immediately upon their departure.
Shape of Object(s): Rectangular — primary craft; ball/spherical — probe objects
Size of Object(s): Primary craft — approximately 1 mile long, half a mile wide; probe objects — small balls of light, exact size not recorded
Color of Object(s): Silverish — primary craft; light-emitting — probe objects
Distance to Object(s): Primary craft — directly overhead, blocking the sun entirely; probe objects — passed within feet of the witness’s head
Height & Speed: Primary craft — altitude sufficient to shadow the entire visible terrain, estimated several hundred feet at minimum given scale; slowed as it approached the witness position. Probe objects — ground level to tree height, shot at high speed, demonstrated directional control around obstacles.
Number of Witnesses: 10 to 12 — the grandfather as primary named witness; approximately 10 to 12 other community members across the Glenwood area who reported the same or similar craft; multiple ranchers reported being chased by the small balls of light across open country
Special Features/Characteristics: Total silence preceding the event — no wind, no birds, absolute quiet before the shadow appeared; shadow blocking the sun entirely, implying the craft’s footprint covered the witness’s position completely; ground-imaging mirror panel on the underside; locomotion impedance effect — legs moved but forward progress was dramatically reduced, described as running on a sponge; the effect ceased immediately and completely when the probe balls departed; community-level sustained activity — multiple ranchers across the Glenwood area were chased by balls of light for extended distances, in some cases for miles; horses consistently served as the escape method, with ranchers bailing into ditches
Case Status: Insufficient Data — account transmitted by grandson of primary witness; date uncertain within the decade; multiple community corroborations established; specific structural details and physical effect are internally consistent and analytically significant
Source: Paul Jefferies, Rense.com, June 27, 2001
Summary/Description: In the early to mid-1930s near Glenwood, Washington, a young man crossing a forested ridge observed a mile-long half-mile-wide rectangular silverish craft directly overhead that blocked the sun entirely. Three small balls of light emerged from an opening in the craft’s mirror-bottomed underside and pursued him. He experienced locomotion impedance — the sensation of running on a sponge while being pulled backward — which ceased the moment the probe balls departed. The primary witness ran to his root cellar and never took the route again. Multiple ranchers across the Glenwood area reported being chased by similar small balls of light for miles. Submitted by the witness’s grandson, Paul Jefferies, in 2001. Case status: Insufficient Data.
Related Cases: 193?: Southern West Virginia — Saw Mill Road Ball of White Light Tracking | 1927: Himalayan Mountains — Nicholas Roerich | 1926: Bert Acosta — Six Circular Objects Near Wichita | Washington Sightings Archive
Detailed Report
The Shadow That Blocked the Sun — Glenwood, Washington, Early to Mid-1930s
The account was submitted by Paul Jefferies in 2001 — the grandson of the primary witness. The grandfather’s exact words as recorded by Jefferies before his death:
“I was heading east to the Kuhnhausen house to help out in the fields. The route that I chose took me through some trees and over a couple of ridges and when I got to the second ridge, I suddenly noticed that it was quiet — I mean no wind, no birds, no nothing! That is when a shadow came over me blocking the sun out entirely! I looked up into the sky to see a huge rectangular object above. What struck me the most was the smaller rectangle on the bottom that would reflect the ground like a mirror. The object slowed down and three little balls of lights came out of a little opening beside the large mirror. They made a beeline straight for me! By this time, I was so scared that I had a hard time moving. I got myself turned around and started to run and I noticed that I couldn’t seem to move very fast — almost like I was running on a sponge; my feet would move but everything else felt like I was being pulled backward. At that time those little lights shot by my head and around a tree and up out of sight. Right, when they did that I could move again and that’s what I did! I did not stop until I was in the root cellar under my house. I never took that route again.”
Jefferies adds that his grandfather said the object had to be at least a mile long and a half-mile wide by its position to the mountains and by the shadow it cast. He located approximately ten to twelve other people who had seen the craft or knew someone who had. Most of the other accounts involved people being chased by the small balls of light — in some cases for miles. At one point nobody in the area wanted to leave their house. The consistent escape method among the ranchers: bail off the horse into a ditch. The horses knew before the riders did.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
The Shadow That Blocked the Sun — Glenwood Washington 1930s and the Probe-Deploying Mothership in the Pre-War Pacific Northwest Record
- The Mirror Panel as Functional Ground-Imaging System: The most analytically distinctive feature of the Glenwood craft is the smaller rectangle on the bottom that would reflect the ground like a mirror. A large reflective panel on the underside of a craft that slowed to a stop above a specific individual describes a ground-imaging or scanning system. The craft slowed. The mirror panel faced down. Three probe objects then emerged from beside the mirror and moved directly toward the witness. The behavioral sequence — approach, slow, activate mirror panel, deploy probes toward specific target — is operationally coherent as a scanning and deployment sequence.
- The Locomotion Impedance Effect — Documented Physical Signature: The sensation of running on a sponge with feet moving but body being pulled backward is a specific and unusual physical effect — directional force applied against the direction of travel, reducing effective forward velocity while the limbs continued functioning. This effect ceased immediately and completely when the probe balls departed, which is the most analytically significant timing detail. This is documented across multiple CE-II cases in the archive as an electromagnetic or gravity-adjacent effect produced by UAP probe proximity.
- Community-Level Sustained Activity — Beyond Single Witness: The Glenwood case describes a sustained regional phenomenon over years: multiple ranchers chased by small balls of light for miles, horses trained to flee, community-wide fear severe enough that people stopped leaving their homes. The consistent horse behavior — the animals fleeing before the riders saw anything — is the same pre-event animal response documented in the Fayette County 1893 Pennsylvania case, the Currockbilly Range 1912 Australian case, and the Prescott Ontario 1926 case.
- Object Classification — Rectangle Not Disc: The existing Hynek classification of DD (Daylight Disc) requires a disc or circular form. The Glenwood object was explicitly and precisely described as rectangular, with a smaller rectangle on the bottom. The archive corrects this to CE-II with DD retained as a secondary category. The rectangular form with a mirror underside panel, probe-ball deployment capability, and sun-blocking scale is one of the most specifically described mothership-class objects in the pre-war American record — seventeen years before the modern UFO era began.
The grandfather went to the root cellar and did not come out. He never took that route again. The ranchers kept their horses close and learned which ditches were deep enough. Nobody left their houses. In the early to mid-1930s in Klickitat County, Washington, something a mile long and half a mile wide was moving slowly over the ridges with a mirror on its belly and three lights to send ahead of it, and the people who lived there had no word for what they were running from and no place to report it to. The archive has the word. The archive holds the record.
