THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTING REPORT

1973: The Columbia, Missouri Physical Trace Event — A Glowing Disc, Broken Trees, and J. Allen Hynek on Site

Shortly after midnight on June 28, 1973, James Richards heard a loud thrashing in the trees outside his mobile home near Columbia, Missouri, then watched two tapered beams of silver-white light materialize fifty feet from his kitchen window — beams that abruptly vanished and were replaced by a blindingly bright, twelve-to-fifteen-foot glowing oval hovering just above the ground. Over the next thirty-five minutes, Richards watched the object move through trees with smooth, silent precision, approach his home twice (producing what he described as a paralyzing cold terror), and cause his phone line to go dead mid-call with an operator — all while leaving behind ground imprints too deep for a 300-pound man to replicate, a tree limb snapped seventeen feet above the ground, and a canopy of dead leaves that had been alive the night before. Ted Phillips and J. Allen Hynek himself arrived within weeks to document the scene.

Date: June 28, 1973

Sighting Time: 12:30 a.m. to 1:05 a.m. CST

Day/Night: Night

Location: Columbia, Missouri (½ mile SE of city — NE¼, SE¼, Sec. 17, R.12W, T.48N, Boone County)

Urban or Rural: Rural — mobile home at end of dead-end lane, approximately 1,000 feet north of State Road WW, surrounded by scattered trees

No. of Entity(‘s): None observed

Entity Type: Not Applicable

Entity Description: Not Applicable

Hynek Classification: CE-II (Close Encounter II) — Observation of a UFO with associated physical effects on the environment

Duration: Approximately 35 minutes

No. of Object(s): 1

Description of the Object(s): Extremely bright glowing oval or disc-shaped form, initially silver-white at close range; at distance revealed a silver-white center, blue band of light, and orange glow extending around the outer edge. Edges appeared fuzzy with no surface detail visible through the intense luminosity.

Shape of Object(s): Disc / oval

Size of Object(s): 12 to 15 feet in diameter

Color of Object(s): Silver-white center with blue band and orange outer glow (at distance); blinding silver-white at close proximity

Distance to Object(s): Approximately 50 feet (closest approach); approximately 200 feet (field hover position)

Height & Speed: Near ground level to just above treetops; slow, smooth, controlled movement; no apparent acceleration noise

Number of Witnesses: 3 (James G. Richards, age 41; Vanea Richards, age 16; Jamie Richards, age 3)

Special Features/Characteristics: Paired tapered light beams (4 feet wide at top, 2 feet at ground, 5 feet apart) preceded main observation; trees violently agitated as if by strong wind despite 5-knot ambient conditions; one tree subjected to “tugging” motion toward the ground; tree limb 0.4 feet in diameter snapped at 17 feet above ground and twisted; ground imprints 0.5 × 0.4 feet at 0.2–0.3 feet depth (a 300-pound reporter could only produce ½ inch with full heel pressure); leaves dying and brown over the object’s hover path within days; house lights dimmed twice during event; telephone line went dead mid-call; dogs lay silent and motionless throughout; witness experienced intense physiological fear response during second close approach

Case Status: Unexplained

Source: Ted and Ginger Phillips (field investigation, July 9, 14, and 28, 1973); J. Allen Hynek (on-site investigation, July 14, 1973); Columbia Regional Weather Bureau (Don Semaneik); Columbia Tribune (Bob Gassaway, reporter); FAA Flight Service Station, Columbia Regional Airport (Mrs. H.S.); telephone operators Mrs. A.P. and Mrs. L.M.

Summary/Description: A father and teenage daughter observed a brilliantly glowing disc-shaped object at approximately 50 feet from their mobile home near Columbia, Missouri over a 35-minute period. The object moved through scattered trees, approached the home twice, and hovered over an adjacent field before slowly shrinking and disappearing. Physical traces included deep ground imprints, a tree limb broken at 17 feet, dying foliage over the flight path, and electromagnetic effects including dimmed house lights and a dead telephone line. Investigated on-site within 11 days by Ted Phillips and within 16 days by J. Allen Hynek, who documented the physical evidence and confirmed the foliage damage.

Detailed Report

The event began when sixteen-year-old Vanea Richards went to the kitchen at the north end of the family’s mobile home to place a baby bottle in the refrigerator. The north window was open, and she heard a loud thrashing sound from the scattered trees approximately eighty feet away — loud enough to be heard over the record player in the living room. The sound appeared to move around a large tree. Frightened, she called to her father, James Richards, a 41-year-old Animal Care Technician at the University of Missouri. She then ran to the screened porch, locked the screen door and front door.

Richards reached the window and observed two beams of light approximately fifty feet away, positioned between a fence and the trees. The beams were tapered — roughly four feet wide at the top, narrowing to two feet at the ground, separated by about five feet — and silver-white in color. No form was visible above or behind the beams. The beams then rapidly faded, and a bright oval form appeared just above their original position.

Richards and Vanea estimated the glowing form at twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, hovering very near the ground. Richards described the brightness as far beyond any conventional light source at equivalent distance — he had to briefly turn his eyes away. The surrounding trees were illuminated as clearly as in daylight. No sound was audible except the continued thrashing in the trees and grass, and the trees were moving violently back and forth as though in a strong wind, despite the recorded wind speed of only five knots with no storms in the area. One specific tree displayed a different motion — a “tugging” as if something were pulling it toward the ground. A loud cracking sound followed, and the tugging ceased. The next morning, a large limb 0.4 feet in diameter was found broken at a point seventeen feet above the ground, twisted toward the earth.

Richards noted his security dogs lying motionless between the trailer and a nearby shed — animals that normally barked at any nighttime disturbance. The silence of the dogs throughout the event struck him as deeply abnormal.

After retrieving and loading his guns, Richards attempted to call for help. He dialed 113 for directory assistance and reached Mrs. A.P., who later confirmed that Richards was very excited and seemed frightened. He asked her to contact police, the FBI, or anyone who could help. During this call, the house lights dimmed twice. Mrs. A.P. then contacted operator Mrs. L.M. and provided the Richards phone number. Mrs. L.M. attempted to dial the number five times over approximately three minutes — there was no busy signal, no ring, nothing. The line appeared dead.

Richards, unable to receive the return call, tried calling out again and heard no sound on the line. Suddenly, Mrs. L.M. came through. Richards repeated his account. Mrs. L.M. then contacted the FAA Flight Service Station at Columbia Regional Airport, where Mrs. H.S. listened to Richards’s account and noted a previous sighting on June 24 at Jefferson City. She offered to contact police.

The object meanwhile had moved back toward the house for a second close approach. Richards described an overwhelming cold terror during this phase — a paralyzing physiological response that left him frozen, speechless, and convinced something lethal was about to happen. The object hovered near its original position at fifty feet, then moved away through the trees toward the field with smooth, silent motion. At the field’s edge it rose slightly, hovered at approximately 200 feet distance, and the color spectrum became visible: silver-white center, blue band, and orange outer glow. The object drifted ten degrees west, paused, returned to its original field position, then slowly shrank — not by flying away, but by appearing to collapse inward — until it vanished.

Police arrived at approximately 1:45 a.m. A young officer walked the area briefly and suggested the ground marks were made by rabbits. Richards, offended, told him to forget the whole thing.

Ted and Ginger Phillips conducted the first on-site investigation on July 9, 1973, followed by a second visit with J. Allen Hynek on July 14, and a third on July 28. Phillips documented ground imprints at the initial hover position: four impressions measuring 0.5 × 0.4 feet at depths of 0.2 to 0.3 feet. A reporter for the Columbia Tribune, Bob Gassaway, who visited the day after the sighting, attempted to replicate the depth with his full body weight of over 300 pounds pressed through his heel and could produce only half an inch — the imprints were three to four times deeper. Phillips took plaster casts and outlined the imprints with flour for photographic documentation.

The tree damage was confirmed: limb broken at 16.5 feet, twisted downward, with two smaller attached limbs broken off and signs of rubbing on an adjacent branch. Most significantly, the tree canopy above the object’s documented flight path showed rapid foliage death — leaves brown and dying within eleven days on trees twenty-five to thirty-five feet overhead. By Hynek’s July 14 visit, the leaves were completely dead and the limbs barren over the affected area, while surrounding foliage remained normal.

Researcher’s Notes

The Richards Encounter — Columbia, Missouri 1973 and the Gold Standard of Physical Trace Investigation

Classification Correction — NL to CE-II: The original page classifies this case as NL (Nocturnal Light). This is a significant underclassification. An NL designation applies to point or extended luminous sources observed at distance. Richards observed a structured, luminous object at fifty feet — well within the 500-foot CE threshold — and the event produced extensive physical traces including ground imprints, tree damage, and foliage death. This is unambiguously a CE-II: close encounter with associated physical effects. The NL classification has been corrected.
Investigative Chain — Phillips and Hynek on Scene: Few CE-II cases in the 1973 wave received this caliber of investigation this quickly. Ted Phillips — the preeminent physical trace researcher of the era and the compiler of the definitive trace catalog — arrived within eleven days. J. Allen Hynek — the world’s leading scientific UFO investigator and the architect of the classification system itself — was on-site within sixteen days. The physical evidence was documented with measurements, photographs, and plaster casts before degradation. This is not a secondhand report filtered through decades of retelling; it is a case documented by the best-equipped investigators of the period while the evidence was still fresh.
Electromagnetic Effects — Phone and Power Anomalies: The telephone line failure and house light dimming constitute classic electromagnetic interference effects documented in numerous CE-II cases. The phone failure is particularly well-documented because the operators on the other end — Mrs. A.P. and Mrs. L.M. — independently confirmed the line’s behavior. Mrs. L.M. made five separate dial attempts with no connection across approximately three minutes, and Richards simultaneously found the line dead from his end. This dual-perspective documentation of the EM effect is rare and strengthens the case considerably.
Physical Evidence — Weight and Thermal Analysis: The ground imprints demand serious attention. At 0.5 × 0.4 feet and 0.2–0.3 feet deep in soil where 300 pounds of concentrated heel pressure produced only half an inch, the implied pressure per imprint far exceeds anything a human or animal could produce at that footprint scale. The foliage death pattern — brown and dying within eleven days, completely dead by sixteen days, confined to the documented flight path — is consistent with localized heating or radiation exposure at twenty-five to thirty-five feet above ground. No radiation was detected at ground level, but the canopy damage suggests energy deposition at altitude rather than at the surface.

The Columbia case is a CE-II benchmark: three witnesses, five categories of physical evidence (ground imprints, tree breakage, foliage death, EM interference, animal behavior), and on-site documentation by the two most qualified investigators in the field. It remains Unexplained.

James Richards called the police that night, and a young officer told him the imprints were made by rabbits. Ted Phillips arrived eleven days later and proved a 300-pound man couldn’t replicate them. J. Allen Hynek arrived five days after that and confirmed the dead canopy. The case sits in the archive with its plaster casts, its foliage photographs, and its five channels of physical evidence intact — waiting, as it has since 1973, for anyone to explain what parked itself fifty feet from a mobile home in Boone County and left marks in the earth that rabbits could not have made.

Media

Source

Witnesses: James G. Richards, age 41 Animal Care Technician, University of Missouri

Vanea Richards, age 16 – daughter

Jamie Richards, age 3 – son

WEATHER CONDITIONS:

Provided by Don Semaneik, Columbia Regional Weather Bureau:

Sky-clear, visibility 20 miles+, Temperature 66 degrees, Wind Speed 5 knots at 290 degrees.

ASTRONOMICAL CONDITIONS:

Moon – phase 7.4% rising at 0236. Single bright star in portion of sky – Capella – below horizon, rising at 0106.

ON SITE INVESTIGATION:

July 9, 1973 – Ted & Ginger Phillips

July 14, 1973 – Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Ted & Ginger Phillips

July 28, 1973 – Ted & Ginger Phillips

LOCATION OF OBSERVATION:

1/2 mile SE of Columbia-NE1/4, SE 1/4, sec. 17, R. 12W, T.48N, Boone County, Missouri

SETTING: The witnesses live in a mobile home located outside the city limits of Columbia. The home is located at the end of a dead end lane about 1,000 feet N of State Road WW.

The home is surrounded by scattered trees with the exception of the front yard, to the E. A house is located across the lane to the E and is occupied by an elderly lady who was asleep at the time of the observation.

OTHERS CONTACTED REGARDING THIS EVENT:

Mrs. A.P., Directory Assistance Operator, Columbia

Mrs. L.M., Operator, Columbia

Mrs. H.S., Federal Aviation Administration, Columbia

The following information was gathered during three visits at the home of the James Richard’s family.

Portions of the report are taken directly from the taped interviews.

THE OBSERVATION: The event began as Vanea went into the kitchen ( located at N end of the mobile home ) to place a baby bottle in the refrigerator, which is located by the N window and that window was open at the time. Vanea heard a rather loud ( it could be heard over the record player in the living room ) thrashing sound in the direction of scattered trees some 80 feet N of the window. At this point she could see nothing in the dark, wooded area. As she listened at the window the sound seemed to be moving around a large tree .

As the sound persisted she became rather frightened and called to her father to come to the window. Mr. Richard’s and Jamie were sitting in the living room. Richards stated that as it was late, he was tired and was slow going to the window. Vanea ran to the screened porch at the front of the home and locked the outside screen door and the front door.

By this time Richards had reached the window and was looking from the left side of the window toward the N-NE. Vanea took up a position on the right side of the window and was looking toward the trees . As he watched, Mr. Richards noted two beams of light which were located at a point between a fence and the trees.

The light beams would have been about 50 feet from the window. The beams were tapered, wide at the top, about four feet wide, tapering to about two feet at the ground. They were some five feet apart at the top. The beams were bright and silver-white in color. He could not see any form above or behind the beams.

Suddenly, the beams disappeared, faded out rapidly, and a bright oval form was seen just above the original position of the beams.

Richards and Vanea estimated the glowing form to be twelve to fifteen feet in diameter and very near the ground. The object was described as extremely bright ( Richards had to turn his eyes away briefly ) and silver-white in color.

The edges were fuzzy and no surface details were visible. The glow did not fade or brighten during the observation. The trees around the form, to the left and right, were quite visible in the glow. The area was “lit up bright as day.” No sound could be heard other than the thrashing noise in the trees and grass.

No other forms were seen. They noted that the trees were moving back and forth as though blown by a strong wind. ( wind speed was 5 knots-no storms in area ) Tree A showed a different motion… it was described by Vanea as a “tugging” motion. It seemed that something was pulling that one tree toward the ground.

Shortly after the form was visible the thrashing noise ceased. The tugging motion on tree A was still evident. Mr. Richards and Vanea heard a loud cracking sound and the tugging motion stopped. It was his tree which was damaged…the following morning a large limb was found broken at a point 17 feet above the ground.

The area was very quiet now: Richards moved to the various windows around the trailer. It was at this time that he noticed his dogs lying very still between the trailer and a shed nearby to the W. He told me the dogs were normally barking during the night at the various night animals in the area.

It seemed very strange to him that his dogs were not barking at all this noise and bright lights.(the dogs are large security animals and not easily frightened) Richards then went to the bedroom at the S end of the trailer to get his guns.

He brought the guns to the kitchen, removed several shells from a cabinet, loaded the guns and placed them on a deep freeze by the N window. He joined Vanea at the window once again and noted that the object was still there in the same position. The light from the glowing form illuminated trees as far away as 100 feet.

At this close position(about 50 feet) it was silver-white or aluminum in color, no other colors were visible. Mr. Richards said, It was real, real bright at the center, dull white at the edges, way beyond a normal light(such as an automobile headlight at the same distance) in brightness. Of the brightness vanea said, It was bright, but it didn’t hurt my eyes.

After the form had remained in this same position for several minutes Richards decided to call for help. The object suddenly began to move away toward the N, passing below tree limbs through an open area some 20 feet wide. It moved parallel to the ground until it reached the edge of a field and then raised slightly and hovered some 200 feet away from the house.

At this point it was not as bright and they could see it was silver-white at the center with a blue band of light and an orange glow extending around the outer edge. It was still low enough to be below a line of trees at the N edge of the field. When it was at this far point, Richards said,

The color, it was something to behold, I’m telling you, it was, really. The object moved about 10 degrees to the W, stopped briefly and moved back to its original position over the field. The motion was smooth and slow.

While the object was some distance away Richards dialed 113 for directory assistance. Mrs. A.P. took the call and later told me that Richards was very excited and seemed to be frightened as he described the event. He told her that he needed help and asked her to contact the police, the FBI, or anyone who could help him.

After about one minute she told him she would contact an operator and have her call him back. As he talked with Mrs. P., the house lights dimmed twice.

He hung up and returned to the window. While Richards and Vanea were watching the object, Mrs. P. contacted Mrs. L.M. and gave her the phone number. Mrs. M. immediately dialed the number, there was no busy signal, no ring-nothing-in her opinion, the Richards line was dead.

She tried dialing the number five times, pausing after the third try to contact Mrs.P. to be sure she had the right number. She did. After the fifth try(she stated it would have taken perhaps three minutes to dial five times, waiting briefly after each dial and contacting Mr. P. she did not get through.

During this time Richards was quite concerned as no one had called back, so he picked up the receiver to call out again. Over his end of the line he could hear no sound, no busy signal. He tried again and again, suddenly, as he recalls, Mrs. M. was on the line saying – Richards? and he answered-Jefferson City?

Richards then told Mrs. M. what had been happening and that he was frightened for his children.

Mrs. M. thought ( she could not be sure ) that she contacted the Richards home at about 0045. To her best recollection, he repeated his story over and over, pausing to ask Vane if it was still there and what it was doing.

Both operators felt that Richards was sober and telling the truth. After what seemed to be several minutes(she couldn’t be sure of the time line) Mrs. M. contacted the Flight Service Station ( FAA ) at the Columbia Regional Airport. Mrs. H.S. was on duty at the time, Mrs. S. stated that Richards sounded sincere and sober. He seemed to be frightened as he described the event.

After several minutes Mrs. S. told Richards that there had been another sighting on June 24th at Jefferson City. She then told him that she would contact the police for him and they hung up.

The object was again moving toward the home and Richards became very frightened. Richards stated, It came back and we had it, I’ll tell you. we didn’t know what to do, we both got kinda scared.

I said, what’s gonna happen? Something’s gonna happen here. This cold feeling came over me, I got speechless at this time. I just had this cold feeling when it came back that second time. I was just sure, like you almost feel that you were gonna get killed or something. Like death was at you, this was it. I didn’t know what to do, I just froze.

I just knew this was it and no one would come, no policemen. I was scared to go out the door, I wouldn’t have gone outside, no way.

The object moved through the trees to a point near in the trees near its original position 50 feet away from the window. It remained there for an undetermined period of time. It suddenly moved away, through the trees toward the field. It move with a smooth, slow motion, no sound. Richards noted that the trees did not move during the second close approach and there was no thrashing sound.

As the object reached a point at the near edge of the field it raised slightly until it reached a point over the field some 200 feet away. it hovered and no motion could be seen.

It was still below the tree line to the N. The orange and blue bands could be seen again, it was silver-white at the center. The glow seemed to shrink, even though it was getting smaller the orange and blue bands were visible until it just disappeared by growing smaller and smaller.

It does not appear likely it was growing smaller because it was moving away into the distance as no motion could be seen and it would have hit the trees to the N had it flown away. After the glow had faded out the object was not seen again.

At about 0145 the police arrived, one young officer walked to the area with Richards and looked around briefly. He told Richards that there were some tracks but they looked like they were made by rabbits. Richards told him to forget the whole thing and he returned to the trailer, followed by the officer.

He told the officer if he thought they were rabbit tracks he should forget the whole thing. It is very possible the officer didn’t see the deep imprints. They did not see the broken limb at that time. Richards called the Flight Service Station after the object had disappeared and Mrs. S. stated that he seemed relieved that he could talk with someone about the event.

THE SITE: July 9, 1973… my wife and I interviewed the witnesses and investigated the area on our way to Chicago. Allen Hynek had invited us for a visit and to meet jazz drummer Buddy Rich ( I being a drummer and had mentioned to Allen that Buddy was my favorite on the planet ) Buddy had a sighting and had contacted Allen a week earlier and was playing in Chicago for a week.

I spent most of the time obtaining measurements and taking photographs of the site. The imprints and damage to trees is located in an area of scattered trees N of the trailer. A fence is located 25 feet from the window and the first imprint was found some 50.5 feet beyond the fence.

This seemed to be a series of imprints rather than just one. The imprints at this point number 4, they were 0.5 feet by 0.4 feet with a depth of 0.2 to 0.3 feet. This first set of imprints are 9.5 feet from a large broken tree limb. This limb is 0.4 feet in diameter and was still attached to the tree trunk.

It appeared to have been twisted and pulled toward the ground. The limb was broken at a point 16.5 feet above the ground. two smaller limbs, each 0.1 feet in diameter, located on the larger limb, were broken off.

A small limb 17.0 feet above the ground and extending from the tree trunk at the point of the break, shows signs of being rubbed. All the breaks are fresh. Leaves in the area above the path taken by the object to and from the field, but especially over the point where it had hovered are dying.

There are signs of heating three limbs on tree B had leaves that are brown, these are 25 to 35 feet above the ground. To the North of the first imprints ( along the objects reported path ) we found a complex series of imprints.

It is difficult to determine a pattern as the object moved through this area four times, coming in an going out. Bob Gassaway, a reporter for the Columbia Tribune, visited the area the day after the sighting. He told me that he tried to make a heel mark by one of the imprints and although he weighs over 300 pounds, he could force his heel to a depth of only 1/2 inch.

As the imprints are generally 0.5 by 0.4 feet with a depth of 0.3 feet, we must assume a weight on each imprint much above 300 pounds ( rabbits? ). There were no marks in the field and no radiation could be detected. Plaster casts were taken and the imprints outlined with flour for photographs.

When we arrived in Chicago I processed the film at the Northwestern University darkroom. We described the event with the photographs and Buddy and Allen both planned to go back with us, Allen made it but Buddy couldn’t get around a schedule. Buddy and I discussed cases many times after this.

On July 14th we returned with J. Allen. The leaves were all quite dead & the limbs were barren over the area.