Nothing was ordinary about what Wes Pitchford saw hovering over Edmond 36 years ago. He and his wife, Wilma, were sipping iced tea while sitting on top of their little watch tower on top of their former home located near Interstate 35 and Highway 66. They were not watching for unidentified flying objects — simply enjoying the warm August night as their five children were tucked in bed.

The 68-year-old pawn shop owner said he can’t be certain what he saw above his home in 1965, but the object appeared to be “a flying saucer.” “It wasn’t scary — you know — but astonishing to see (a UFO) that close out here,” Wes Pitchford said.

He and three other witnesses of the UFO were quoted Aug. 3, 1965 on the front page of The Sun for haven seen the flying object. “Several city policemen reported seeing mysterious objects in the skies Sunday night and early Monday morning,” the story stated.

The object was brightly lighted and frequently changed color, reported now-retired Edmond police officer Joel Cobb. He described the UFO as briefly being above his north central Edmond neighborhood before it hovering again for a few minutes over Gracelawn Cemetery.

The article reported that Jack Cook and his daughter spotted a “brightly lighted” UFO diving downward. Cook was traveling west of Luther when he spotted the object. Cook has since retired from owning an Edmond hardware business. Neither he or Cobb could be reached for comment about the UFO sighting.

Pitchford recalls the UFO having several illuminated portholes. “It did hover between our house and (Highway) 66. It hovered out there — it stopped,” he said while glancing over an Aug. 3, 1965 Edmond Sun news article about the UFO sightings.

“It (states) here that it ‘whooshed on by, going west by southwest,’ which is about right.” He doesn’t recall telling The Edmond Sun the UFO was 28 to 30 feet in diameter, as stated in the article. But it was “a good size,” he recalls. “It was kind of round with a hump on top and then porthole windows around that,” he said.

Since then, Pitchford has not spotted another one in town. He said a lot of people scoffed at the reported UFO sightings and talk of the incident became has since become a nearly forgotten topic. “I think a lot of them think you’re kooks,” he said while referring with a laugh to other people’s reactions of disbelief to UFO’s.

The Edmond UFO sighting is explored in the newly published book, “More Mysterious Oklahoma” by author David A. Farris. Tinker Air Force Base reported four UFOs on radar at an altitude of 22,000 feet, according to Farris, who lives near the outskirts of southwest Edmond. They were also tracked the previous evening by Tinker as well as a Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth, Texas, he said.

After the sightings were the lead stories in many state newspapers, the U.S. Department of Defense concluded the UFOs were the result of scintillating stars, Farris said.

His book is not conclusive but anecdotal in content. It is intended for readers to come to their own conclusions about UFO sightings. But certainly there are cases of flying objects which remain unidentified, he said.

• Story originally published by:
The Edmund Sun / OK | James Coburn - Oct 31.01