Let there be more light
The Hills have just viewed the Cannon Mountain Observation Tower beacon at its closest vantage point on their long drive home. It's hovering right outside Betty's window as they round the base of the mountain at approximately 1:20AM, although we've been told by writers Fuller and Marden that it's 11:10PM.
They continue south...
As the car moved by the darkened silhouette of the Old Man of the Mountain, the object appeared again, gliding silently, leisurely, parallel to the car to the west of them, on the Vermont side of the car. It was more wooded here, more difficult to keep the object in sight as it glided behind the trees. But it was there, moving with them. -Fuller
The reason it appears to be following alongside them is because its distance from the car has remained the same for a while:
They continue south...
As the car moved by the darkened silhouette of the Old Man of the Mountain, the object appeared again, gliding silently, leisurely, parallel to the car to the west of them, on the Vermont side of the car. It was more wooded here, more difficult to keep the object in sight as it glided behind the trees. But it was there, moving with them. -Fuller
The reason it appears to be following alongside them is because its distance from the car has remained the same for a while:
The Hills' route going around Cannon Mountain.
Near The Flume [4 miles later], a tourist attraction, they stopped again [seventh stop], almost got a sharp, clear look at it, but again the trees intervened. -Fuller
As they continue south, the beacon swings around behind them, following the curves of the road such as this S-bend.
As they continue south, the beacon swings around behind them, following the curves of the road such as this S-bend.
Continuing south on Route 3, past the Flume (seventh stop).
Alan’s psychedelic breakfast
The Hills are about to have their Close Encounter! Are you as excited as I am?
A curve to the left in the road now shifted the object to the right of the car, but the distance remained the same. -Fuller
This is my favorite line in Fuller's book because it tells the reader that a bendy road makes a stationary object appear to move. Not that Fuller, Betty, or Barney (or those who came after them) took the lesson to heart.
Anyway, last chance to bail out of this thing...
Just beyond The Flume they passed a small motel... A man was standing in the doorway of one of the cottages, and Betty thought how easy it would be to end the whole situation right now by simply pulling into the motel. -Fuller
But despite Betty's "overwhelming" curiosity about the object, she doesn't want to ask this early-rising local (we'll call him Alan) about it. Alan might tell her it's the goddamned beacon on Cannon Mountain, ma'am, which would make her feel rather foolish.
A curve to the left in the road now shifted the object to the right of the car, but the distance remained the same. -Fuller
This is my favorite line in Fuller's book because it tells the reader that a bendy road makes a stationary object appear to move. Not that Fuller, Betty, or Barney (or those who came after them) took the lesson to heart.
Anyway, last chance to bail out of this thing...
Just beyond The Flume they passed a small motel... A man was standing in the doorway of one of the cottages, and Betty thought how easy it would be to end the whole situation right now by simply pulling into the motel. -Fuller
But despite Betty's "overwhelming" curiosity about the object, she doesn't want to ask this early-rising local (we'll call him Alan) about it. Alan might tell her it's the goddamned beacon on Cannon Mountain, ma'am, which would make her feel rather foolish.
Dramatic theme
I want to track down exactly where Betty and Barney made their eighth stop and witnessed such a stunning sight it led to their story becoming America's second-favorite (after Travis Walton) UFO abduction story in history.
Cue the dramatic music! They're about to see this thing up close, complete with the little Nazi alien and the little red-headed Irish alien at the window who are visiting Earth in order to learn how to prepare squash.
There are plenty of clues to pinpoint the location:
they pulled into the parking area at The Flume... they continued driving south past Indian Head and into a more open area... At this point he was 2.3 miles north of North Woodstock (from speedometer and topographic map measurements by the writer). -Webb
Just beyond The Flume... he saw two imitation commercial wigwams on the site of a closed-down enterprise known as Natureland. -Fuller [Marden says the wigwams signaled Indian Head, by which she may mean Indian Head Resort though she never mentions the resort. The rock formation Indian Head itself is on the other side of the road directly opposite the Flume, a mile north of the resort.]
the Hill's [sic] close encounter... was a mile south of the Indian Head Resort. -Kathleen Marden, personal correspondence, July 16th, 2021 [I include this because her book says a mile south of Indian Head, which is wrong.]
Indian Head is a rock formation to the west of Route 3, about 5 miles south of the Flume. The Betty and Barney Hill historical marker (dated 2011) and Indian Head Resort are another mile south. The encounter site is yet another mile south, past Natureland (now Whale's Tale), a total of 8.3 miles from the base of Cannon Mountain, which takes 15 minutes. They also made that seventh stop, so it's now 1:40AM.
Incidentally, under hypnosis Barney says he's again driving at 5 mph past at this stage of the journey, until he comes to a stop and gets out with his binoculars.
Let's rev up our Google drone! Here we're driving due south, passing the historical marker on the left near the resort, and approaching Natureland ahead on the right:
Cue the dramatic music! They're about to see this thing up close, complete with the little Nazi alien and the little red-headed Irish alien at the window who are visiting Earth in order to learn how to prepare squash.
There are plenty of clues to pinpoint the location:
they pulled into the parking area at The Flume... they continued driving south past Indian Head and into a more open area... At this point he was 2.3 miles north of North Woodstock (from speedometer and topographic map measurements by the writer). -Webb
Just beyond The Flume... he saw two imitation commercial wigwams on the site of a closed-down enterprise known as Natureland. -Fuller [Marden says the wigwams signaled Indian Head, by which she may mean Indian Head Resort though she never mentions the resort. The rock formation Indian Head itself is on the other side of the road directly opposite the Flume, a mile north of the resort.]
the Hill's [sic] close encounter... was a mile south of the Indian Head Resort. -Kathleen Marden, personal correspondence, July 16th, 2021 [I include this because her book says a mile south of Indian Head, which is wrong.]
Indian Head is a rock formation to the west of Route 3, about 5 miles south of the Flume. The Betty and Barney Hill historical marker (dated 2011) and Indian Head Resort are another mile south. The encounter site is yet another mile south, past Natureland (now Whale's Tale), a total of 8.3 miles from the base of Cannon Mountain, which takes 15 minutes. They also made that seventh stop, so it's now 1:40AM.
Incidentally, under hypnosis Barney says he's again driving at 5 mph past at this stage of the journey, until he comes to a stop and gets out with his binoculars.
Let's rev up our Google drone! Here we're driving due south, passing the historical marker on the left near the resort, and approaching Natureland ahead on the right:
As we pass Natureland, we reach the one-mile mark south of Indian Head Resort. The Hills stopped somewhere here...
Hopping in the Google car to magnify the experience...
The next photo shows the exact spot where Barney stopped the car (in the middle of the road). I matched this shot up with Webb's reenactment photos (1964), using landmarks such as the upcoming curve to the right and the house with the steep roof, which was there in 1961.
Barney first looks to the W/SW (more on that later) then walks to a "field" to look east. The Longhorn restaurant was not built until 1965; this entire area was more like a wide grass verge in 1961 - hardly a "field" but we'll let that slide. Marden's book has a photo of the "field" on page 106.
The next photo shows the exact spot where Barney stopped the car (in the middle of the road). I matched this shot up with Webb's reenactment photos (1964), using landmarks such as the upcoming curve to the right and the house with the steep roof, which was there in 1961.
Barney first looks to the W/SW (more on that later) then walks to a "field" to look east. The Longhorn restaurant was not built until 1965; this entire area was more like a wide grass verge in 1961 - hardly a "field" but we'll let that slide. Marden's book has a photo of the "field" on page 106.
NOTE: I have examined Webb's original color photos of the reenactment (featuring Barney Hill). I have not asked for, or received, permission to use them so will not be posting them at this time. If anyone is able to help me get permission, please email me at the address on the Home page.
This map shows the location in context - click to enlarge - and a close-up of where Barney got out of the car. The motel was also not built yet.
The Hills' close encounter, 1.2 miles south of Indian Head Resort.
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Where Barney got out of the car to observe the craft up close, adjacent to a field on the west where the Rodeway Inn now stands.
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If you're wondering what this road looked like at the time, wonder no more:
Route 3, Lincoln NH, 1955 from New Hampshire Then and Now
The great gig in the sky
In today's mythological version of the story, when Barney gets out of the car he observes the UFO swinging in an arc across the road. If the UFO is really a beacon or planet, one would not expect it to move once the car has stopped moving. This is therefore the most difficult-to-explain behavior of the entire encounter thus far.
But is it what the witness accounts actually describe? Let’s look at the accounts in chronological order.
The Hills described to Henderson various movements of the object, but his report does not specify whether a final "swoop" occurred while the car was moving or stationary. That's a rather important detail that fell by the wayside, since we know a stationary light can swing all over the place when you're in a moving vehicle on a dark twisty road.
Betty's letter to Keyhoe comes next:
As it approached our car, we stopped again. As it hovered in the air in front of us... By this time my husband was standing in the road, watching closely... As it glided closer... -Betty to Keyhoe
So it's approaching, hovering, and gliding closer, but it's not swinging around in an arc.
Next is Webb's interview. He manages to include two dramatic movements of the UFO, while the car is still moving, and then after Barney gets out of the car:
Mr. Hill slowed down the car. The UFO came down over a clearing on the right, pulled around in front of the car, and stopped in mid-air to the right of the highway... -Webb
Webb has added the phrase "came down", which creates an entirely different image to what the Hills ever described.
Then Barney gets out but the object moves only when Barney is moving (while trying to keep the thing in his binoculars' field of vision):
[He] stepped out on the highway for a better look, bracing his arms on the roof of the car as he peered through the binoculars. When he stepped away from the car, the UFO at that moment moved silently across the highway, passing an estimated 100 feet in front of the car and coming to a stop over the field to the left of the highway. -Webb
Jump forward to the Hills’ hypnosis sessions in 1964. During his first session, Barney makes no mention of the object moving before he stops or when he gets out and walks across the road looking at it through binoculars.
When he returns to the car and tells Betty to look out the window for it, he does not describe seeing it in the act of moving. He implies it had moved, and now it's simply no longer there: "...the object was still around us, I could feel it around. I saw it when we passed by the object. When I got into the car, it had swung around but it was out there, I knew it was out there. It's out there but I don't know where." [Fuller, p. 96]
Note the tense - had swung - meaning it had already happened. He doesn't describe it happening, and now he can't even see it anymore. Logically he concludes it must have moved.
In Barney’s second session, where he describes getting out of the car and stepping away to avoid the vibrating engine jiggling his binoculars, he implies the object moved in that moment, but his description is oddly muddled and seems focused more on which way the object is facing: "The object shifted, in an arc. And I thought, 'How remarkable, it was a perfect arc.' But it continued to have a forward look, facing me, as if it swung and did not move from a position, but just swung from a position with the front facing me." [Fuller, p. 116] No mention of it swinging across the road or any details of how dramatic the arc was.
Now let's see how Betty describes this stunning sight under hypnosis. Earlier, through binoculars, she’s seen a double row of windows and red lights at the sides of the object (this describes the structure under the beacon, but whatever). But with the naked eye, it's nothing but a nondescript "band of light" [Fuller, p. 148].
As they pass the Flume and approach Indian Head, she recalls: "all of a sudden, the object shot ahead of us and swung around in front of the car. Well, I was watching it when it did this. And it was on my side of the windshield [her right], directly in front of me." [Fuller, p. 148]
Note that this happens while they are still moving!
What could cause a stationary object to shoot ahead of the car? At this point in the journey, the beacon has been on their right and is about to go out of sight behind them. Meanwhile, Jupiter is setting just ahead of them on the right. Could Betty have lost sight of the light behind them, then looked around and seen a light ahead, and assumed the object had shot forward? If she described this to Barney, who saw nothing because he was driving, could he have incorporated this "arc" into his recollection?
In his narration, Fuller first describes the object swinging before the car has stopped – to the right because the road swerves left. Then he describes the object as having already swung:
Barney got out, the motor still running, and leaned his arm on the door of the car. By now the object had swung toward them and hovered silently in the air... [Fuller p. 15]
Here Fuller skips over whether or not anyone saw the object in motion. Like Barney, his use of the past perfect tense and passive voice means the object has finished moving and... well, nobody saw it move.
For good measure, Fuller then adds a third swing of the UFO, presumably based on whatever Barney told him during the writing of the book in 1965-66 (Barney is not quoted directly) - this doesn’t match the hypnosis account:
As he [moved away from the car], the huge object - as wide in diameter as the distance between three telephone poles along the road, Barney later described it - swung in a silent arc directly across the road not more than a hundred feet from him. [Fuller, p. 15]
At no point during the early accounts or under hypnosis do the Hills describe the object swinging three times. That aside, here we have Barney either walking while trying to look through binoculars, or walking and then re-locking on to the object (or another object) with binoculars. Either way, it's easy to see how he might get the impression the object is moving, or has moved from where he previously saw it.
But is it what the witness accounts actually describe? Let’s look at the accounts in chronological order.
The Hills described to Henderson various movements of the object, but his report does not specify whether a final "swoop" occurred while the car was moving or stationary. That's a rather important detail that fell by the wayside, since we know a stationary light can swing all over the place when you're in a moving vehicle on a dark twisty road.
Betty's letter to Keyhoe comes next:
As it approached our car, we stopped again. As it hovered in the air in front of us... By this time my husband was standing in the road, watching closely... As it glided closer... -Betty to Keyhoe
So it's approaching, hovering, and gliding closer, but it's not swinging around in an arc.
Next is Webb's interview. He manages to include two dramatic movements of the UFO, while the car is still moving, and then after Barney gets out of the car:
Mr. Hill slowed down the car. The UFO came down over a clearing on the right, pulled around in front of the car, and stopped in mid-air to the right of the highway... -Webb
Webb has added the phrase "came down", which creates an entirely different image to what the Hills ever described.
Then Barney gets out but the object moves only when Barney is moving (while trying to keep the thing in his binoculars' field of vision):
[He] stepped out on the highway for a better look, bracing his arms on the roof of the car as he peered through the binoculars. When he stepped away from the car, the UFO at that moment moved silently across the highway, passing an estimated 100 feet in front of the car and coming to a stop over the field to the left of the highway. -Webb
Jump forward to the Hills’ hypnosis sessions in 1964. During his first session, Barney makes no mention of the object moving before he stops or when he gets out and walks across the road looking at it through binoculars.
When he returns to the car and tells Betty to look out the window for it, he does not describe seeing it in the act of moving. He implies it had moved, and now it's simply no longer there: "...the object was still around us, I could feel it around. I saw it when we passed by the object. When I got into the car, it had swung around but it was out there, I knew it was out there. It's out there but I don't know where." [Fuller, p. 96]
Note the tense - had swung - meaning it had already happened. He doesn't describe it happening, and now he can't even see it anymore. Logically he concludes it must have moved.
In Barney’s second session, where he describes getting out of the car and stepping away to avoid the vibrating engine jiggling his binoculars, he implies the object moved in that moment, but his description is oddly muddled and seems focused more on which way the object is facing: "The object shifted, in an arc. And I thought, 'How remarkable, it was a perfect arc.' But it continued to have a forward look, facing me, as if it swung and did not move from a position, but just swung from a position with the front facing me." [Fuller, p. 116] No mention of it swinging across the road or any details of how dramatic the arc was.
Now let's see how Betty describes this stunning sight under hypnosis. Earlier, through binoculars, she’s seen a double row of windows and red lights at the sides of the object (this describes the structure under the beacon, but whatever). But with the naked eye, it's nothing but a nondescript "band of light" [Fuller, p. 148].
As they pass the Flume and approach Indian Head, she recalls: "all of a sudden, the object shot ahead of us and swung around in front of the car. Well, I was watching it when it did this. And it was on my side of the windshield [her right], directly in front of me." [Fuller, p. 148]
Note that this happens while they are still moving!
What could cause a stationary object to shoot ahead of the car? At this point in the journey, the beacon has been on their right and is about to go out of sight behind them. Meanwhile, Jupiter is setting just ahead of them on the right. Could Betty have lost sight of the light behind them, then looked around and seen a light ahead, and assumed the object had shot forward? If she described this to Barney, who saw nothing because he was driving, could he have incorporated this "arc" into his recollection?
In his narration, Fuller first describes the object swinging before the car has stopped – to the right because the road swerves left. Then he describes the object as having already swung:
Barney got out, the motor still running, and leaned his arm on the door of the car. By now the object had swung toward them and hovered silently in the air... [Fuller p. 15]
Here Fuller skips over whether or not anyone saw the object in motion. Like Barney, his use of the past perfect tense and passive voice means the object has finished moving and... well, nobody saw it move.
For good measure, Fuller then adds a third swing of the UFO, presumably based on whatever Barney told him during the writing of the book in 1965-66 (Barney is not quoted directly) - this doesn’t match the hypnosis account:
As he [moved away from the car], the huge object - as wide in diameter as the distance between three telephone poles along the road, Barney later described it - swung in a silent arc directly across the road not more than a hundred feet from him. [Fuller, p. 15]
At no point during the early accounts or under hypnosis do the Hills describe the object swinging three times. That aside, here we have Barney either walking while trying to look through binoculars, or walking and then re-locking on to the object (or another object) with binoculars. Either way, it's easy to see how he might get the impression the object is moving, or has moved from where he previously saw it.
So how freakin’ big was this thing?
Before Fuller’s 1966 book, nowhere does Barney describe the object being so enormous or so close. Needless to say, nor does Betty from her position in the car - she seems to have completely lost sight of it after Barney gets out.
Barney consistently says he doesn't know the size or distance of the object. “Barney later described it” in the above excerpt is Fuller’s way of saying Barney gave these descriptions during the writing of the book in 1965-66 – I suspect while they were back at the location, which magnified the experience in his mind.
Also note that this description contradicts the Hills' very first report to Maj. Henderson (Pease Air Force Base) via two phone calls in the days following the encounter:
The object [at its closest] was "hundreds of feet above the automobile" and "about the size of a dinner plate held at arms length." -Major Henderson's report (via Webb) as told by the Hills in Sep 1961
Witnesses are notoriously bad at estimating the size of something at arm's length. Try it yourself. Take a guess right now at how big the full moon is at arm's length. A basketball? A golf ball? A dime? Make a guess, then go out at night and "pinch" the moon between your thumb and finger. You might be surprised.
More in the next section about the object's structural appearance, location, and proximity.
Before Fuller’s 1966 book, nowhere does Barney describe the object being so enormous or so close. Needless to say, nor does Betty from her position in the car - she seems to have completely lost sight of it after Barney gets out.
Barney consistently says he doesn't know the size or distance of the object. “Barney later described it” in the above excerpt is Fuller’s way of saying Barney gave these descriptions during the writing of the book in 1965-66 – I suspect while they were back at the location, which magnified the experience in his mind.
Also note that this description contradicts the Hills' very first report to Maj. Henderson (Pease Air Force Base) via two phone calls in the days following the encounter:
The object [at its closest] was "hundreds of feet above the automobile" and "about the size of a dinner plate held at arms length." -Major Henderson's report (via Webb) as told by the Hills in Sep 1961
Witnesses are notoriously bad at estimating the size of something at arm's length. Try it yourself. Take a guess right now at how big the full moon is at arm's length. A basketball? A golf ball? A dime? Make a guess, then go out at night and "pinch" the moon between your thumb and finger. You might be surprised.
More in the next section about the object's structural appearance, location, and proximity.
So... this entire encounter was not nearly as a dramatic as you might imagine, if your imagination is dreaming up anything like the image below.
Yet, forty-five years later, the account has morphed to this:
Barney rapidly brought the car to a halt in the middle of the road and grabbed his binoculars for a closer look, opening the car door for a less encumbered view. Quickly, in an arcing movement, it shifted from its location directly ahead and rested above the treetops in an adjacent field. -Marden
Yet, forty-five years later, the account has morphed to this:
Barney rapidly brought the car to a halt in the middle of the road and grabbed his binoculars for a closer look, opening the car door for a less encumbered view. Quickly, in an arcing movement, it shifted from its location directly ahead and rested above the treetops in an adjacent field. -Marden
Artist's impression of the Hills' close encounter, bearing no resemblance to any description of the scene they claimed to have witnessed.
Astronomy domine
What are the Hills actually seeing during this close encounter, after the object (according to Betty) "shot ahead" of the car? The beacon is behind them to the north, and they're facing south, so it's not the beacon.
Webb's reenactment photos (with Barney) show Barney looking through binoculars first to the right of the car, the southwest, where the object appears to be hovering over a clearing "no more than a few hundred feet away" and "80 to 100 feet" above the ground [Webb]; or "not more than a short city block away, not more than two treetops high" [Fuller].
Here's Barney's view looking southwest (the motel is new and this was just a grass field in 1961):
Webb's reenactment photos (with Barney) show Barney looking through binoculars first to the right of the car, the southwest, where the object appears to be hovering over a clearing "no more than a few hundred feet away" and "80 to 100 feet" above the ground [Webb]; or "not more than a short city block away, not more than two treetops high" [Fuller].
Here's Barney's view looking southwest (the motel is new and this was just a grass field in 1961):
(The arrow is to show that this is indeed the correct spot, when matched up to Webb's reenactment photos.)
See the trees behind that building? See how the mountain behind them is almost twice as tall as a tree? If something - say, a celestial body - was in the sky just above the mountain, sinking down to the horizon, it would look "not more than two treetops high".
That is exactly where, and when, Jupiter was setting that night (1:43AM in the southwest).
Jupiter is not, of course, the size of a dinner plate, but when a bleary-eyed sleep deprived human is viewing it through unfocused binoculars it, it could certainly appear that way.
See the trees behind that building? See how the mountain behind them is almost twice as tall as a tree? If something - say, a celestial body - was in the sky just above the mountain, sinking down to the horizon, it would look "not more than two treetops high".
That is exactly where, and when, Jupiter was setting that night (1:43AM in the southwest).
Jupiter is not, of course, the size of a dinner plate, but when a bleary-eyed sleep deprived human is viewing it through unfocused binoculars it, it could certainly appear that way.
> Go to PART 5: A saucerful of secrets, in which the flying saucer is boring
(c) Charlie Wiser 2021
