By Steve Hammons
The March 13, 1997, “Phoenix lights” UFO incident took place in close proximity to several other UFO cases around the edge of the Colorado Plateau, a huge land mass, roughly circular, that spans the “Four Corners” states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico.
The large, boomerang-shaped object reported over Phoenix that evening had allegedly been spotted earlier in Henderson, Nevada, a suburban city of Las Vegas, then in Kingman and Prescott, Arizona, heading southeast.
That southeasterly path also skirts the perimeter of the Colorado Plateau and the abutting mountainous “transition zone” which divide Arizona diagonally into the Sonoran Desert in the south and southwest, and the Colorado Plateau in the north and northeast.
In addition to Arizona, in New Mexico, Colorado and Utah – around the perimeter of the Colorado Plateau – there have been reports of UFO incidents over the years dating back to the 1940s.
Could there be any connections or related reasons why these incidents allegedly occurred, and are reportedly occurring, around the edge of the Colorado Plateau?
ROCKIN’ ‘ROUND THE CLOCK
Using the Phoenix lights case as a starting point and proceeding counterclockwise, Henderson, Kingman and Prescott are on the western and southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, approximately the 9 o-clock to 8 o’clock position of the rough circle of the plateau.
Kingman may have been the site of a 1953 UFO crash incident, possibly involving three or more objects, that was handled in a discreet manner by U.S. government national security officials.
Phoenix is on the southern side of the Colorado Plateau, at approximately the 7 o’clock position, just south of the mountainous transition zone between the plateau and the Sonoran Desert.
Sedona, where UFOs and other odd phenomena have been reported, is also in the same 7 o'clock position, a 90-minute drive due north of Phoenix. At about 4,300 feet elevation, Sedona is considered within the transition zone and on the southern edge of the actual Colorado Plateau. Flagstaff, about 30 miles north, is on the plateau at 7,000 feet elevation, and the vast forests of pondersa pines there welcome visitors.
A bit southeast of Flagstaff is the area of the 1975 UFO case involving a forestry crew and its foreman named Travis Walton. This incident was made into the Hollywood movie “Fire in the Sky.” It reportedly took place in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests on the Mogollon Rim, a notable geographic feature that forms a distinct edge of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona, also roughly in the 7 o'clock location.
At approximately the 5 o’clock spot on the rim of the plateau is Socorro County, New Mexico, the site of the well-known 1964 UFO incident involving City of Socorro public safety peace officer Lonnie Zamora. Astronomer and Ohio State University professor J. Allen Hynek, PhD, a scientific investigator with the U.S. Air Force’s Project Blue Book, flew to New Mexico to investigate this case in person.
In about the 3 o’clock location of the plateau are the towns of Aztec and Farmington, New Mexico, and, to the east, southwestern Colorado’s San Luis Valley.
According to some researchers, a UFO crash-landed near Aztec in 1948. Federal government and U.S. Army personnel reportedly responded to the scene via nearby Durango, Colorado, just north of the state line. The object was reportedly recovered and removed.
In 1950, a signficant number of citizens of nearby Farmington allegedly observed dozens or hundreds of UFOs above their town over a three-day period. This case is known as the “Farmington armada” incident and was well-documented in newspaper reports at the time.
The 37th parallel runs directly through this region and some researchers speculate that it is a "paranormal highway" for unusual occurrances.
The Continental Divide of North America also runs north-south through this region, and to Alaska and South America. Water on the east side of the divide flows toward the Atlantic Ocean, and to the Pacific from the west side of the divide.
Colorado’s San Luis Valley to the east, abutting the New Mexico state line, is known as a hot spot for UFOs and other anomalous situations.
Continuing counterclockwise around the Colorado Plateau at approximately the 12 o’clock or 11 o'clock position is Utah’s Uinta (also spelled Uintah) region. This area is a known location of multiple UFO sightings and a diverse array of anomalous incidents.
Going further counterclockwise along the northwestern flank of the Colorado Plateau, abutting the I-15 freeway, continues around the plateau to the 9 o'clock Henderson-Las Vegas area via nearby St. George, Utah, close to the Nevada and Arizona state lines. (St. George looks a lot like Sedona, with red earth, and scenic red cliffs and mountains, and is also on the 37th parallel.)
PHOENIX CASE UNIQUE
As we know, UFOs have reportedly been sighted and encountered around the world, in all types of locations, time frames and circumstances. Yet, if there are possible clues, patterns or guideposts that might emerge, we might be wise to take note.
The March 1997 Phoenix lights incident is somewhat distinct because it occurred over a major city in the mid-evening hours. Hundreds or thousands of people in the area were looking skyward to view the much-anticipated Hale-Bopp comet on a pleasant and clear Sonoran Desert spring evening.
A huge V-shaped or boomerang-shaped object with several unusually-large lights underneath reportedly cruised slowly, silently and at a relatively low altitude right over the middle of the metro Phoenix "Valley of the Sun." It allegedly travelled diagonally from northwest to southeast, along the southern perimeter of the Colorado Plateau and abutting transition zone mountains north of Phoenix.
Hundreds, or thousands or tens of thousands of people may have witnessed the object. Many reportedly called 911, local TV stations and Luke Air Force Base on Phoenix’s west side. Luke AFB might have scrambled F-15 fighter jets in response, though this is apparently in dispute.
A few hours later in a seemingly separate incident, conventional illumination flares on parachutes were dropped by Air Force or Air National Guard planes south of Luke AFB at the nearby Barry M. Goldwater Range used for Air Force training. These flares would have been to the southwest of metro Phoenix.
According to a later Air Force statement, a unit of the Maryland Air National Guard deployed the flares while completing training at the Goldwater Range that night before returning to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson.
(In 2011, UK Royal Air Force Apache helicopter pilot Capt. Harry Wales, Prince Harry, trained on the Goldwater Range at the Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Field.)
In the days after the Phoenix lights sightings, then-Governor Fife Symington seemingly made fun of the incident at a well-known press conference when one of his aides dressed up in an extraterrestrial alien costume.
But in 2007, Symington, a former Air Force officer and pilot, came forward and said publicly that on the evening of March 13, 1997, he heard the chatter about people seeing something above Phoenix, and he went outside to check it out. Symington stated he also observed the huge craft with large lights that he does not believe was a U.S. military or civilian aircraft.
In 2017, actor and pilot Kurt Russell revealed that as he was flying into Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International Airport March 13, 1997, he spotted six unusual, large lights and notified air traffic control at the Sky Harbor control tower. Russell has stated he thinks he might be the civilian pilot who was identified as having initially reported the object/lights on his approach to the airport.
And in 2020, to mark the 23rd anniversary of the incident, the annual March showing of the documentary film “The Phoenix Lights” is scheduled for Sunday, March 15, at the Harkins Shea 14 Cinema, Scottsdale, Arizona.
Looking at the Phoenix lights case in the context of UFO sightings around the world, do the Phoenix incident and other Colorado Plateau-related cases provide any clues about the broader and deeper UFO mysteries?
(Related articles “Storytelling affects human biology, beliefs, behavior” and “Reagan’s 1987 UN speech on ‘alien threat’ resonates now” are posted on the CultureReady blog, Defense Language and National Security Education Office, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, U.S. Department of Defense.)
