On a cold November evening in 1975, a 22-year-old logger from Snowflake, Arizona, disappeared without a trace in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. According to his work colleagues, they saw him approach a glowing object in the woods just before he vanished.
What followed was a complete media frenzy as the news of a potential UFO sighting spread across the nation.
Although the case of Travis Walton is one of the rare alien abductions that involved multiple eyewitnesses, not everyone believes in his story, with some claiming it was just an elaborate hoax. So, what is the actual truth behind this event?
Background
Travis Walton was born on February 10th, 1953, in Snowflake, Arizona. He grew up in a large family and enjoyed spending time outdoors.
When he was 18, Walton was arrested alongside his friend Carl Rodgers for breaking into Wester Molding Company and stealing their blank checks. Both pleaded guilty and were sentenced to two years of probation.
In his early twenties, Walton became a member of a forestry crew supervised by Michael Rodgers, the older brother of Walton’s friend Carl. In 1974, Rodgers signed a federal contract to clear out smaller trees in the Turkey Springs area of the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest.
The contract stated that the job needed to be completed by August 1975, but Rodgers was granted an extension until November of the same year. However, he struggled to keep his seven-person crew on the job site throughout the day.
By October, it was obvious they wouldn’t be able to clear out the entire 1,277 acres by the deadline. As a result, Rodgers faced a penalty of $2,500 to the Forestry Service and would be banned from applying for future contracts with them.
The alien incident
Around 6:00 PM on November 5th, 1975, the logging crew was driving home from the Turkey Springs area when they noticed a bright light coming through the forest alongside the road.
The men realized that the source of light was a disc-shaped object that was hovering in a clearing. Walton wanted to check it out, but the others urged him to stay inside the truck.
Walton couldn’t be deterred, so he exited the truck and ran closer to the object. Suddenly, a beam of light was directed at Walton from the hovering object.
The men inside the truck panicked and drove away quickly, leaving Walton alone in the clearing. The truck returned only 15 minutes later, but both Walton and the strange object were gone.
After searching for him in the surrounding woods, the logging crew drove to Heber, from where they contacted the Navajo County Sheriff’s Department.
Officer L.C. Ellison answered the phone at 7:45 PM. He was joined by Sheriff Marlin Gillespie and Deputy Kenneth Coplan, and the three of them met with the loggers.
After learning that Walton was missing, the police wanted to search the area where he was last seen.
Rodgers and two crew members agreed to go to Turkey Springs with them, while the rest of the logging crew returned home. The group looked for the missing man until midnight, when the Sheriff paused the search.
Walton’s mother was informed that her son was missing by Deputy Coplan, who noted she was oddly calm after hearing of his possible abduction. As a matter of fact, the entire Walton family didn’t appear shocked at all.
The search
In the morning, a search party arrived in Turkey Springs, hoping that daylight might provide more clues about what happened to Travis Walton. The authorities were skeptical of the alien abduction story and were sure the crew harmed Walton in some way.
But there was no sign of him or any evidence of foul play either. By November 8th, the Sheriff expanded the search area and called in helicopters and tracking dogs.
The newspapers reported on the potential UFO abduction that same day, which brought additional attention to the case.
A UFO research group from Phoenix interviewed Mike Rodgers and Duane Walton, Travis’ older brother. Rodgers mentioned the Forestry contract deadline and explained they would miss it because of the abduction.
Still convinced that the logging crew had something to do with Walton’s disappearance, all six men were invited to take polygraph tests at the Arizona Department of Public Safety on November 11th.
The polygraph examiner later confirmed five men had been truthful when asked if they had harmed their friend, while the results were inconclusive for one of them.
The return of Walton
Just after midnight on November 12th, the phone at Walton’s sister’s house rang. Her husband, Grant Neff, picked up the receiver and thought it was a wrong number because the person on the other end of the line was incoherent.
Once he realized he was talking to Walton, who was asking for a ride home from Heber, Arizona, Neff jumped into his car, picked up Walton’s brother, and the two were on their way.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Gillespie was contacted by the phone operator, who informed him that a man named Travis Walton had made a call from Heber. It was a collect call, so he was required to state his name, which immediately rang a bell for her.
When Neff and Walton’s brother arrived at Heber, they found the missing man, who was distressed, gaunt, and very dehydrated. He was lying on the floor of the phone booth in a fetal position and told them he had been abducted by aliens.
Even though he needed medical help, Walton’s brother chose to contact a member of the UFO research group from Phoenix, who recommended they see Lester Steward.
Steward was a hypnotherapist, and he refused to treat Walton at that moment because the man needed a doctor. Walton was then taken to Phoenix, Arizona, where he was examined by a general physician who noted Walton had no major injuries to his body.
However, he did have two puncture marks on his right elbow, which resembled needle wounds. There were no signs of exposure, and the doctor confirmed Walton wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or anything else.
Soon, people around town began talking about Walton’s return, and the press started calling the family home, hoping to reach him.
At this point, Walton’s brother called the Sheriff and told him what had happened the previous night. Sheriff Gillespie interviewed Walton at his home, who requested that his statements not be recorded.
The investigation
As a part of the investigation, Sheriff Gillespie asked Walton to undergo a psychiatric assessment and a polygraph test. The former confirmed Walton wasn’t experiencing psychosis, but became visibly shaken when trying to recall what had happened to him in the days while he was missing.
While Walton was convinced he had been abducted by aliens, he still lacked a lot of details about the incident. He was scheduled to take a polygraph exam on November 14th, but that morning, he decided not to show up.
The National Enquirer, the tabloid that covered the story from the very beginning, hired a freelance polygraph examiner to speak to Walton. The examiner concluded that Walton was lying about the abduction and accused him of holding his breath during the polygraph examination.
Hypnotic regression
Walton decided to undergo a treatment called hypnotic regression, and it helped him fill out the gaps. He recalled waking up in a dark room surrounded by three short humanoid beings with large eyes.
Not fully comprehending what was happening, Walton felt a wave of fear and severe chest pain, similar to a panic attack.
The humanoid beings left the room without saying anything, and Walton remained lying on a metallic table. Shortly after, a couple of human-like beings entered the room, but Walton sensed there was something off about them. They were tall, with blonde hair, and had expressionless faces.
Walton was taken into another room where one of the beings placed a mask over his face, leading him to lose consciousness. The next thing he could remember was walking up on the side of the road.
Dividing the UFO community
Even though eyewitnesses were present at the site of Walton’s alleged abduction, and the men had passed the polygraph, there were still plenty of skeptics in the UFO research community who were certain the whole story was fabricated by Walton for fame and money.
Additionally, there was a missed deadline set by the Forestry Service, so his whole logging crew had something to gain from it.
Soon, the public learned that Rodgers and Walton enjoyed reading about alien encounters and consuming any type of content related to this topic.
On October 20th, 1975, just weeks before Walton’s alleged abduction, he and Rodgers watched The UFO Incident, a made-for-TV movie about a man who begins to remember an alien abduction after a hypnosis session.
The plot is quite similar to Walton’s story, which raised a lot of eyebrows.
There was, of course, the issue with the Forestry Service, and that led skeptics to believe Rodgers was the one who helped Walton disappear, hiding him somewhere for days.
Years after the alleged alien abduction, Steve Pierce, a member of the crew who witnessed the incident, shared his suspicions that the whole event had been a prank.
A couple of details stood out to him. Pierce recalled that Walton spent the whole day sleeping in the truck because he was allegedly tired and feeling sick.
Meanwhile, Mike Rodgers, the manager, wasn’t at the site for a couple of hours, and no one knew where he had gone.
But the strangest thing was that Rodgers insisted the crew remain at the site until dark, even though they typically ended the workday at 4:00 PM. This led Pierce to suspect the abduction was a complete hoax orchestrated by Walton and Rodgers.
The aftermath
In 1978, Travis Walton published The Walton Experience, a book detailing his abduction and the media frenzy that followed after his return. This book was the inspiration for the 1993 movie Fire in the Sky, starring Robert Patrick and D.B. Sweeney.
However, Walton wasn’t happy with the Hollywood adaptation of his book and publicly expressed his disappointment.
Walton is a frequent guest at UFO conferences, and he appeared on shows such as Coast to Coast AM, as well as Ancient Aliens and Joe Rogan Experience.
Sources
https://www.discoveryplus.com/gb/show/alien-abduction-travis-walton-discovery-uk
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