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- Travis and his family had an interest in UFOs before this incident.
- The most likely motivation for the hoax was the National Enquirer's prize money for the best UFO story of the year.
"He always wanted to communicate with these people"
At different times, Travis or his brother have claimed no interest in UFOs before Nov 5, 1975, and an active interest. The latter puts his experience in a different light.
The best evidence that Travis had an interest in UFOs comes from people who don't realize they're giving the game away. While he was still missing, on Nov 8 a family friend called NUFORC (a UFO research group in Seattle) to report the sighting. He said that Travis "always made the statement around the country to everyone that knows him that he’d like to have some way of making communication with them [aliens]. And they were talking about this kind of a thing, ironically at the time, and they saw this light about 20 foot hovering from the ground..."
On Nov 9 when NUFORC called Travis's step-brother Ralph Anderson, he repeated the story of the UFO sighting and added: “We’d spotted flying objects before and he’d made up his mind that if he ever saw one he was gonna try and communicate with one.” [NUFORC recordings, 1975, 053.mp3]
The best evidence that Travis had an interest in UFOs comes from people who don't realize they're giving the game away. While he was still missing, on Nov 8 a family friend called NUFORC (a UFO research group in Seattle) to report the sighting. He said that Travis "always made the statement around the country to everyone that knows him that he’d like to have some way of making communication with them [aliens]. And they were talking about this kind of a thing, ironically at the time, and they saw this light about 20 foot hovering from the ground..."
On Nov 9 when NUFORC called Travis's step-brother Ralph Anderson, he repeated the story of the UFO sighting and added: “We’d spotted flying objects before and he’d made up his mind that if he ever saw one he was gonna try and communicate with one.” [NUFORC recordings, 1975, 053.mp3]
A slice of pie
Why did Travis, Mike, and Duane cook up this hoax? There are several possibilities.
Mike did get out of his forestry contract (on which he was lagging behind) but that outcome couldn't have been predicted.
The other guys would apparently make fun of Travis when he talked about UFOs. Maybe it was nothing more than a prank, to make them eat humble pie. Coincidentally (or not), two weeks earlier, NBC aired The UFO Incident (the Betty and Barney Hill story) on October 20, 1975. Another dark night in the forest, another glowing flying saucer, another abduction with missing time, another encounter with short aliens with spooky eyes and curiously 20th-century medical equipment...
And Mike has admitted "we" watched at least part of it:
"That night we were watching half of it. Somebody told us about it. I stopped watching halfway through. At the time I didn’t believe in UFOs. Everybody was watching it. I turned the TV off, nobody complained." - Mike Rogers, UFO Classified with Erica Lukes, July 16th, 2021.
Perhaps Travis was inspired by the Hills case, but the most likely motivation seems to be the National Enquirer's prize money for the best UFO story of the year:
"My paper had offered tens of thousands of dollars to anybody who could positively prove that aliens had visited our planet" - Jeff Wells, The Age, Jan 6th, 1979.
In the end, Travis received a disappointingly paltry slice of that particular pie - only $5000 (today worth $25,000). He kept half and split the rest with the others. (In personal communication in 2021, Steve Pierce, who had left town by then, says he received no money.)
Mike did get out of his forestry contract (on which he was lagging behind) but that outcome couldn't have been predicted.
The other guys would apparently make fun of Travis when he talked about UFOs. Maybe it was nothing more than a prank, to make them eat humble pie. Coincidentally (or not), two weeks earlier, NBC aired The UFO Incident (the Betty and Barney Hill story) on October 20, 1975. Another dark night in the forest, another glowing flying saucer, another abduction with missing time, another encounter with short aliens with spooky eyes and curiously 20th-century medical equipment...
And Mike has admitted "we" watched at least part of it:
"That night we were watching half of it. Somebody told us about it. I stopped watching halfway through. At the time I didn’t believe in UFOs. Everybody was watching it. I turned the TV off, nobody complained." - Mike Rogers, UFO Classified with Erica Lukes, July 16th, 2021.
Perhaps Travis was inspired by the Hills case, but the most likely motivation seems to be the National Enquirer's prize money for the best UFO story of the year:
"My paper had offered tens of thousands of dollars to anybody who could positively prove that aliens had visited our planet" - Jeff Wells, The Age, Jan 6th, 1979.
In the end, Travis received a disappointingly paltry slice of that particular pie - only $5000 (today worth $25,000). He kept half and split the rest with the others. (In personal communication in 2021, Steve Pierce, who had left town by then, says he received no money.)
Travis and the crew with their checks from the National Enquirer.
Read on...
But surely there's some physical evidence that a UFO went to Arizona leaking radiation?
(c) Charlie Wiser 2021
