THINK ABOUTIT UFO|ENTITY ENCOUNTER REPORT

1964: Alien Encounter at Cisco Grove

On September 4, 1964, 28-year-old Donald Shrum, a welder at Aerojet General Corporation who worked on Polaris and Titan missile programs, went bow hunting with two friends near Cisco Grove in the Tahoe National Forest, Placer County, California. Separated from his companions as night fell, Shrum climbed a tree for safety and spent the next several hours fighting off what he described as two humanoid beings and two robot-like entities, repeatedly knocked unconscious by a white vapor sprayed from one creature’s mouth, before dawn finally brought his ordeal to an end. He was found the next morning barely hanging from the tree by his belt. J. Allen Hynek devoted several pages of his own 1977 book to the case.

Date: September 4, 1964 (Project Blue Book case; internal case number not specified in this entry’s source material)

Sighting Time: Approximately 10:00 p.m., continuing intermittently through the night until dawn

Day/Night: Night

Location: Cisco Grove, near Loch Leven Lakes, Tahoe National Forest, Placer County, California, roughly 60–80 miles northeast of Sacramento (this site’s legacy title references “Cisco County”; no such county exists in California, and the location is consistently documented as Cisco Grove, flagged here as a naming correction)

Urban or Rural: Rural

No. of Entity(s): 4 across the full encounter: 2 humanoid-type beings and 2 robot-like entities (the second robot arriving partway through the encounter)

Entity Type: 2 humanoid, 2 robot-like

Entity Description: Two entities appeared humanoid in form; two others appeared more mechanical or robot-like, with at least one emitting a white vapor from its mouth-like opening that repeatedly rendered the witness unconscious

Hynek Classification: CE-III — Close Encounter of the Third Kind. Close observation of animate beings associated with the object, extending in this case to sustained, hours-long physical interaction.

Duration: Approximately 12 hours, intermittently, from roughly 10:00 p.m. until dawn

No. of Object(s): 1 primary object directly observed by the witness at close range; later retellings drawing on extended research describe a larger cigar-shaped “mothership” from which a smaller craft was said to have been deployed, a detail not present in the original 1964/NICAP/Hynek-era sourcing and flagged here as a later addition

Description of the Object(s): A white light that moved erratically at low altitude, initially mistaken by the witness for a search helicopter, before landing approximately fifty yards from his position; no further structural description of the landed object survives in the sourcing reviewed for this entry

Shape of Object(s): Undocumented beyond the witness’s description of a white light; not a helicopter, per his own assessment upon closer observation

Size of Object(s): Undocumented

Color of Object(s): White light

Distance to Object(s): Approximately fifty yards from the witness’s tree at closest approach

Height & Speed: Initially observed moving in a zig-zag pattern at low altitude before descending to land

Number of Witnesses: 1 direct witness to the entity encounter (Donald Shrum); one of his hunting companions, also separated and lost that night, reportedly saw the UFO independently, partially corroborating the sighting though not the entity encounter itself

Special Features/Characteristics: Witness initially attempted to signal the object with flares, believing it to be a rescue helicopter; entities attempted repeatedly to shake him from the tree; white vapor emitted from a robot-like entity’s mouth rendered the witness unconscious on at least two occasions; witness fought back with lit matches and by firing arrows from his bow, one of which struck a robot-like entity and produced visible sparks, suggesting a metallic surface; a second robot-like entity joined partway through the encounter; a final, larger volume of smoke near dawn caused a more complete loss of consciousness; witness was found the next morning hanging from the tree, held only by his belt; this was reportedly treated as a high-priority investigation at the time, with some accounts describing Air Force personnel involvement

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Strange Effects From UFOs (NICAP, 1969), page 17; J. Allen Hynek, The Hynek UFO Report (1977), pages 210–212; additional context from later research including Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte, Aliens in the Forest: The Cisco Grove UFO Encounter

Summary/Description: On September 4, 1964, 28-year-old Donald Shrum and his friends were bow and arrow hunting at Cisco Grove, Placer County, California. Separated from the group as night fell, Shrum climbed a tree for safety and observed a zig-zagging white light he initially mistook for a helicopter. After the object landed nearby, two humanoid-type beings and two robot-like entities repeatedly attempted to force him from the tree over the course of roughly twelve hours, using a disabling white vapor and other tactics, while Shrum fought back with matches and arrows. He was found the next morning still in the tree, held up only by his belt. One of his companions independently reported seeing the UFO that same night, partially corroborating the sighting.

Related Cases: None documented

Full Report

Before very long, the avid hunter would have an encounter with the unknown; an encounter that would make this the most memorable hunting trip of his life.

During the afternoon of hunting, Shrum had become separated from the rest of the group, and with nightfall fast approaching, he decided to sleep the night away in a tree for safety. His attention was soon drawn, however, to the sight of a white light which zig-zagged through the trees at low altitude.

At first, he thought it was a helicopter, so Shrum jumped down from the safety of the tree, and began lighting flares to attract attention to himself. He thought that his friends had launched a rescue party to locate their missing companion. Finally the white light turned in his direction, coming to a stop some fifty yards from the tree. He soon discovered that the object was not a helicopter at all, but a strange-looking object, different from anything he had seen before. Now frightened, he climbed back up into the safety of the tree.

After a short period of time, he was shocked to see three beings approaching the tree. Two of them seemed to be a humanoid-type of being, while the third was more robot-like. Shock became utter panic now, as the three began to shake the tree in an attempt to dislodge him. He vividly recalls a white vapor being shot from the robot’s mouth, which rendered him unconscious.

When he came to, he was nauseous, but began throwing lighted matches toward the beings, which caused them to back away from the tree momentarily. Soon the assault continued. Finally, Shrum managed to load and shoot an arrow at the invaders, hitting the robot. The direct hit caused a spark to fly, indicating that the arrow had hit a metallic surface. He managed to shoot two more arrows at the beings, each time causing the group to scatter.

Soon, a second robot joined the group, and again Shrum was rendered unconscious by the strange, white vapor coming from the entity’s mouth.

When he awoke again, the two humanoid beings were now climbing the tree! He managed to thwart the attack by throwing different objects at them, and shaking the tree. This scenario continued off and on for most of the night.

As dawn approached, more beings arrived, and this time a large volume of smoke caused him to black out completely.

When he awoke, he was barely hanging from the tree by his belt. The aliens were finally gone. Shrum was soon rescued, and reunited with the other hunters. Corroborating at least part of his story, one of the other men who had also become lost, and seen the UFO. What exactly were these humanoid-like creatures that Shrum encountered that fearful night in California?

Unfortunately, Donald Shrum was the only witness to these other worldly beings.

RESEARCHER’S NOTES

Cisco Grove — 1964 and the Limits of Partial Corroboration

• Location corrected: Cisco Grove, not “Cisco County.” This site’s legacy title references “Cisco County,” which does not exist as a California county or place name. Every source reviewed for this entry, including the NICAP and Hynek-era material and later dedicated research, consistently identifies the location as Cisco Grove, an unincorporated area of Placer County near Loch Leven Lakes in the Tahoe National Forest. The field data above reflects the documented name.
• The corroboration is real but partial, and that distinction matters. A companion hunter, also lost that night, independently reported seeing the UFO. This corroborates the light/object sighting itself, but not the twelve-hour entity encounter, which rests entirely on Shrum’s own account. This is a meaningfully different evidentiary situation than a fully multi-witness case, and the distinction is worth holding onto rather than letting the partial corroboration imply more support than it provides.
• The “mothership” detail is a later addition, not part of the original record. Some more recent retellings, particularly Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte’s dedicated book-length research, describe a large cigar-shaped mothership roughly the size of a 14-story building from which a smaller scout craft was deployed. This detail does not appear in the original NICAP (1969) or Hynek (1977) treatments and is flagged here as a later elaboration rather than part of the earliest documented account.
• The witness’s professional background is a notable, if not conclusive, credibility factor. Shrum’s work as a welder on Polaris and Titan missile programs at Aerojet General Corporation gave him direct professional familiarity with metal fabrication, machinery, and government aerospace programs. This does not independently verify his account, but it is a relevant detail when weighing the plausibility of misidentification versus a fabricated story from a person with technical background in the specific area (metal structures) most directly implicated by the arrow-strike detail.
• Physical action under sustained duress is an unusual evidentiary feature. Most reported entity encounters describe a witness in a passive or paralyzed state. Shrum’s account instead describes sustained active resistance over many hours, including specific tactics (matches, arrows, shaking the tree) with specific described results (sparks off a metallic surface, entities backing away or scattering). This level of behavioral detail and consequence, whatever one makes of the underlying claim, distinguishes the account from more passive contact narratives elsewhere in the archive.
• Why the case remains Unexplained. The case was taken seriously enough at the time to be documented by both NICAP and, later, J. Allen Hynek personally in his own book, and reportedly drew a high-priority investigation. Combined with the partial independent corroboration of the object itself and the specific, consistent detail across the earliest sourcing, this case sits above the threshold this archive applies to Insufficient Data, while the single-witness nature of the entity encounter itself keeps it from being treated as more thoroughly established than it is.

A missile-program welder spent twelve hours fighting off two humanoid beings and two robot-like entities from the branches of a tree in the Tahoe National Forest, using matches and hunting arrows, and was found the next morning hanging from his belt. A companion, lost in the same woods that same night, saw the light too. J. Allen Hynek thought the case significant enough to give it several pages of his own book. More than sixty years later, it remains one of the stranger and more physically detailed entity encounters in the American UFO record, unresolved.

“The direct hit caused a spark to fly, indicating that the arrow had hit a metallic surface.”

— account of Donald Shrum’s September 4, 1964 Cisco Grove encounter