Page 57 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

The Travis Walton Abduction Case 57

The Travis Walton

Abduction Case: Fact,

Fiction Or Psychosis?

You be the Judge & Jury

Few abduction reports have generated so much
controversy as an incident that began on
Wednesday, November 5, 1975, in a remote area
of east-central Arizona. More than four decades
later the dispute still rages. To all but a very few
combatants the stakes seem high. If Travis
Walton and other participants are telling the
truth, so it is assumed, UFOs exist; UFO
abductions are physical, not imaginary, events;
and UFOs are piloted by alien, presumably
extraterrestrial beings. No wonder, then, that the
Walton case has become one of the debunker’s
particular obsession. By now, after years of
wildly conflicting claims and charges, a mass of
confusion surrounds the episode. Thus the silent. Forty yards away, the light bled over the his body. He heard a cracking or popping sound,
sorting of the reasonable conclusion from the road, but a dense stand of trees still obscured its and then he heard, saw, and felt no more.
unreasonable inference, much less the source. Then they passed a small clearing to Walton did not know what had hit him.
certifiably true from the undeniably false, is no
their right, and the source was now clearly in Those looking on, however, saw a blue greenish
simple task. It is not, however, entirely view. It was a luminous, disc-shaped structure, beam strike him. He rose a foot into the air, his
impossible. This account draws on many hovering 15 to 20 feet above a slash pile and arms and legs outstretched, and shot stiffly back
sources, including the several books that have casting a milky yellow glow through all of the some 10 feet, all the while caught in the glow of
been written on the case. clearing. Approximately 100 feet from them 20 the light. His right shoulder hit the earth, and his
feet wide and eight feet high, it was divided by body sprawled limply over the ground.
THE DISAPPEARANCE dark silver vertical lines, longer than they were Rogers and his crew were beside
Travis Walton, 22, worked on a wood- wide, into panel-like geometrical forms on its themselves with fear at this point, and amid
cutting crew in the Apache-Sitgreaves National surface. A thin band with an outer protruding much shouting and cursing they fled the scene,
Forest, set in a high mountainous area 15 miles ring encircled the middle. Someone blurted out, leaving their fallen comrade behind. Rogers was
south of Herbert. The crew’s foreman, Mike unnecessarily at this point, “That’s a UFO!” driving dangerously fast though he could barely
Rogers, had contracted with the U.S. Forest Rogers was bringing the truck to a stop when see the road; he was certain that the object was
Service to thin out 1277 acres of scrub brush at Walton jumped out and walked briskly toward coming up behind him. A quarter of a mile later,
Turkey Springs. In practice that meant that brush the UFO. Later he would explain his action thus: he swerved to avoid hitting a pine tree. The truck
six inches or less in diameter was to be cleared “I was suddenly seized with the urgency to see slid sideways and stopped, stuck crossway's in a
with chainsaws. While half the crew wielded the the craft at close range. I was afraid the thing bulldozed pile of hard dirt.
saws, the other members dumped the debris into would fly away and I would miss the chance of As one of his passengers screamed at
slash piles behind them. Besides Walton and a lifetime to satisfy my curiosity about it.” When him to get going, Rogers looked around and saw
Rogers, the crew consisted of Ken Peterson, his coworkers, whose reaction to the UFO’s that the UFO was gone. The sky was quiet and
John Goulette, Steve Pierce, Allen Dalis, and presence ranged from intrigued to petrified, saw empty of anything but stars. No one spoke for
Dwayne Smith. All were young men, ranging what he was doing, they shouted at him to get some moments. Then everyone began to talk at
from 17 (Pierce) to 28 (Rogers). All of them back. Walton paused for a moment, turned to once, not necessarily coherently. Peterson and
lived in Snowflake, a small Mormon town 33 glance over at the truck, and reflected briefly on Rogers argued that they should go back to
miles east of Herber. the wisdom of his course before deciding to rescue Walton. At first the others rejected the
Rogers had been doing contract work for proceed. idea, but over the next few minutes, as the
the Forest Service for nine years. The Turkey In short order he was standing on the discussion continued outside the truck and
Springs contract was the most lucrative one he perimeter of the dim halo of light the object was nerves calmed, they changed their minds. As
had landed so far, but he was late in fulfilling it. casting on the ground. He was only six feet away they piled back into the truck, Rogers thought he
He had already had secured on extension, and he from being directly underneath the object. saw a flash of white light in the woods,
and his crew were working hard and long to Mesmerized by the “unbelievably smooth, something like s streak ascending into the air.
catch up. Thus the men laboured until after unblemished surface of the curving hull, “he at No one else saw it, but then none had been
sunset. When they quit for the day at 6 P.M., first did not realize that the UFO was beginning looking in that direction at that moment. Rogers
darkness had begun to fall. to emit sounds. The men in the truck were believed he had witnessed the departure of the
Ten minutes later the exhausted workers hearing low beeps. Then Walton heard them, UFO.
piled into their battered pickup to begin the too, only they were mixed somehow with a Rogers drove around in the gathering
return trip to Snowflake. Rogers, Walton, and distant rumbling, an industrial sound darkness in search of the spot where they had
Peterson, the three non-smokers, sat in the front reminiscent of a “multitude of turbine generators seen the UFO. There were a number of clearings
seat, the others - already puffing away - in the starting up.” The UFO started to wobble slowly, and any number of slash piles in the vicinity, and
back. As Roger drove, Walton sat by the right one side tipped toward him. Then it wobbled one looked pretty much like another, so it was
window, bouncing up and down as the vehicle, faster, and the sounds grew louder. not easy. Rogers drove into the site. His
its shock absorbers long worn out, negotiated By now thoroughly shaken, he ducked headlights revealed nothing except the slash pile
what passed for a road. It had gone no more than behind a log which was jutting from the slash their companion had been standing beside. He
200 yards before something unusual came into pile. He had to get away. He rose to his feet, and shined a flashlight through the clearing. Then he
view. just as he was turning away from the UFO and stepped out of the cab, and his crew reluctantly
Either Walton or Dalis (accounts vary) toward the truck, he felt a “numbing shock...like followed him. The panic they had suffered had
saw it first. It was a glow shining through the a high voltage electrocution.” It hit particularly made them feel almost physically ill.
trees on the right, about a hundred yards ahead in his head and chest, but he could feel it all over
of them. As the truck drove up a hill, the men fell (Continued on Page 58)