UFOs in The Berkshires
For centuries humans have looked into the abyss of the night sky and wondered what is out there. Are we alone, or could there be something else gazing right back? And if there is, what could its intentions be? Well, it appears as if the answer might be a lot closer than you think. The Berkshires are often synonymous with an idyllic, Norman Rockwell type of lifestyle. But on September 1, 1969, something very curious happened there and it was experienced by a considerable number of people. People who didn’t even know each other, who didn’t all get together and corroborate stories, and who had no reason to make up a story for attention. What happened that night still can’t quite be explained.
It was a blistering hot Labor Day in The Berkshires, uncharacteristically hot for the first day of September when the Reed family was driving from a horse show at Ski Butternut in Great Barrington. Hungry from a long day, they stopped for dinner at The Village Green in downtown Sheffield, a diner that the mother, Nancy, owned at the time, before heading home. Because it was so late, they decided to take a shortcut by crossing the covered bridge that spans 93 feet across the Housatonic River. At the time, the Sheffield Bridge was the oldest covered bridge in Massachusetts, dating back to 1837. (It was later rebuilt after being destroyed in a fire set by teenagers in 1994.) The kids, Thom and Matthew, were in the backseat. At one point, their grandmother turned around to talk to the kids and was the first to notice a strange light permeating the bridge. They continued on and when they came out the other side they witnessed three floating objects. One was a large sphere of light, hovering and glowing that rose and appeared to fire intense beams of light downward, was located on the left side of the bridge. Another spherical object, this one orange, was on the opposite side. The third was a large metal disc-shaped object (that you can find on display at the Roswell Museum). The family was transfixed by what was happening before their eyes. Nancy stopped the car. At that point, there was some sort of pressure change or magnetic field disturbance and blinding light flooded into the car. The typical noises of a summer evening in The Berkshires, peepers and crickets, were replaced with a deafening silence.
The next thing The Reed family remembers is coming to. Curiously, the grandmother was now in the driver’s seat and their mother was now in the passenger seat. Especially strange because their grandmother never drove. What happened during that lost time, they aren’t entirely sure. Although, they do retain some odd memories of the occurrence.
Photo courtesy of Thom Reed.
Thom Reed has been the most vocal of the family about the encounter. Eventually, the family sold the diner and moved away from Sheffield. Since then, Thom Reed has gone on to have a successful career as a director and producer. Through his contacts in the film and tv industry, he has brought many productions through the area shining a light on the town of Sheffield and what happened that night.
But, the Reed family weren’t the only ones to experience something extraordinary that night. Tom Jay from local WSBS Radio received so many calls coming in from all over The Berkshires reporting something bizarre, that he actually called the police department. Unfortunately, no record of the events can be found in any local papers. At the time, they probably assumed the reports were some kind of hoax or joke. Notwithstanding, many people did report seeing spherical objects taking off and landing in the many fields of Sheffield to the owner of a local shop who also happened to be the chief of police there.
Tom Warner in 1969. Photo courtesy of Tom Warner.
Tom Warner, a local artist, and author, also had an extraordinary experience on that same September evening. He was at his neighbor’s house in Great Barrington coloring (something he often did) when suddenly he heard a voice telepathically communicating with him –as if someone was speaking directly to him inside of his own head. The voice told him that he needed to go home, that they were close. Alarmed, Tom thought it may have been a voice from God and bolted out of the house and began rushing home. As he was darting through the field that separated the houses all of the noises came to a sudden halt. He continued to run, although, he didn’t realize it at the time, he was in a beam of light and felt as if he was moving, but wasn’t really going anywhere. It was as if he was running in place. Then, his hands jerked behind his body and all of the air felt as if it had been sucked out of him. Then, Jane Shaw and her grandmother watched from their nearby home to witness Tom suddenly disappear into the beam of light coming from the UFO. The next thing he knew, he was inside some sort of spherical craft. As he looked around he saw other children, lights, a table, and what he described as some sort of alien being.
Tom was in a semi-conscious fog, so he only has pieces of memory about what happened after that. He does remember seeing a small girl crouched down to his right. It turned out to be Melanie Kirchdorfer, who he did not know at the time. (She had her own experience that night as well but has no memory of encountering Tom.) He also knows that he was gone for around seven minutes when he was returned through a beam of light and placed on the ground laid out like a baby. The beam of light continued to shine on top of him and he heard his brother yelling out to him to run, but despite his best efforts, he couldn’t move a muscle. The beam was somehow holding him down, immobilized, and only able to scream. Then, Tom heard the voice in his head again. This time, it told him that it would be done in a minute. True to its word, a minute later the beam vanished and Tom was able to roll onto his side and get up. When he stood up, he was able to clearly see a UFO. He watched as it ascended to clear the trees and took off toward the west without a sound.
Being an artist, eventually, Tom created a painting of what happened that night, that displays the moment the beam came on him and he was witnessed to have disappeared as a ten-year-old boy. Over the years, Tom kept painting and creating art and went on to win the James Weldon Johnson Literary Foundation Legacy Award in recognition of stellar contributions to literature and the arts. He was also named one of the Greatest American Painters by the American Gallery. Tom will begin selling prints of his depiction of what happened that night very soon. He’s also coming out with an autobiography titled Beyond the Stars detailing his life before, during, and after his experience that night. I, for one, can’t wait to read it.
Tom Warner’s painting. Photo courtesy of Tom Warner.
September of 1969 isn’t the only time UFOs have been sighted in The Berkshires, but it is the largest collection of shared experiences of a single incident. The Berkshires has an extensively documented history of UFO sightings. In fact, both Thom Reed and Tom Warner have had multiple experiences with the phenomenon.
While I am an absolute believer in the paranormal, I also hold a healthy amount of skepticism. To me, in general, UFO sightings do not necessarily entail aliens are involved. After all, UFO just means “unidentified flying object” and if you’re bad enough at identifying flying objects, anything can be one. In fact, the planet Venus is the most commonly mistaken object in the night sky for a UFO. Although this can certainly explain away a large majority of sightings, it doesn’t explain them all, and it definitely doesn’t account for what happened that September night. Some people argue that UFOs are simply the military testing out different technologies and I’m sure that’s true some of the time–but not always. Not long ago, even the Navy admitted that there are things flying around in our skies that cannot be explained. Most recently, the Pentagon has confirmed the existence of an “Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon Task Force” to monitor ongoing encounters with strange aerial objects to determine if they could be a threat. If there was nothing out there, why would such a task force exist? Last September, I met a former CIA agent that is heavily involved in the recent disclosure efforts. He looked me dead in the eye and told me, “It’s all real.”
Times have certainly changed since 1969. People have become more open-minded about things and an interest in the paranormal has become more accepted. TV networks are even loaded with paranormal shows. This has allowed many of the people who may have been too afraid of ridicule to share their experiences in the past to be more open to sharing their stories.
In February of 2015, after reviewing coetaneous chronicles, news reports, witness statements (including those of Thom Reed and Tom Warner), and polygraph results the Great Barrington Historical Society & Museum formally inducted the story, making this the first UFO case to receive an official historical acknowledgment. Of the nine members of the historical society board, three were strongly opposed but it did pass with consensus. They described the events of September 1, 1969, as significant and true. At a later date, the reports of Melanie Kirchdolpher, Jane Green, and Jane Shaw were added to the Historical Society’s records of that night. Later that same year, a Governor’s Citation was issued by Charlie Baker’s office making history by recognizing the Thom Reed’s case as factually true. There has been some misinformation spread about this, but the real story is that originally, the citation was issued with an error as it did not have the date of the incident on it. So, in November the citation was amended and reissued.
At the Sheffield Bridge today, you will find a special, first-of-its-kind UFO Park with signs commemorating the incident and identifying it as the place of a historical occurrence. There has been an outpouring of support for the park by both some locals and high profile sponsors such as Unsolved Mysteries, History Channel’s Ancient Aliens, and the International UFO museum. The park is a serene and heartfelt place that offers much-needed validation for the witnesses of this event and others that have experienced something otherworldly. If you visit, take a look around. You never know what you might see.
Very special thanks to both Thom Reed and Tom Warner for verifying the facts and chatting with me to make this story possible. Also, thanks to Bob from the Great Barrington Historical Society for his help.
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