Is there anybody out there?

Are we alone? It’s a question as old as humanity. To many, it remains unanswered. Others – based on experiences they claim to have had.

When we asked UFO Field Researcher Dale Bacon if he knew of any credible Nebraska UFO sightings, he aptly replied, “Hmmm . . . credible UFO sightings. Is that an oxymoron?” Point taken, Dale, but to the hundreds, maybe thousands of Nebraskans who claim to have witnessed strange, unidentifiable “things” in the Nebraska sky, they believe . . . that they saw something.

Bacon knows that. He has investigated a handful of more recent encounters, many of which are “credible,” he said. Others, though, may have simply been misidentification.

The national UFO reporting center in Seattle has 279 reports listed for Nebraska, including 16 in 2008 and 15 in 2009, but rumors of strange aerial phenomenon in the Cornhusker sky is nothing new.

A passage in Mari Sandoz’s Love Song to the Plains reads, “Back in the hard times of 1857-58 there were stories of a flying serpent that hovered over a Miss­ouri River steamboat slowing for a landing. It was like a great undulating serpent, in and out of the lowering clouds, breathing fire; it seemed, with lighted streaks around the sides.”

Sandoz also recounts a folk song attributed to 1860s railroad workers:

Strange newspaper reports were the norm at the time and became more inventive by the day. The same could be said of the quick-witted remarks of readers. Sandoz tells of one man’s politically motivated explanation of the phenomenon. “Finally a Grand Islander claimed he took a ride in the airship, which was not supernatural at all but was built up in the sandhills and run by the wind collected from following (William Jennings) Bryan in the great campaign.”

In 1884, the sky belonged to the clouds, birds and stars. So, when a metallic object crashed to Earth near Benkelman on June 6 of that year, it would have been a shock to the cowboys who witnessed it. The Nebraska State Journal reported that ranchman John W. Ellis and several of his hands were rounding up cattle when they heard a roaring sound overhead. They looked up just before “a blazing meteor of immense size” struck the ground and slid into a draw.

Investigating, the horsemen saw metallic fragments – cogs and gears strewn about, each one glowing and surrounded by a radius of charred grass. The 60-foot long, 12-foot radius cylindrical object scoured the ground, leaving molten sand in an area 20-by-80 feet. One of the cowboys, Alf Williamson, peered over the draw’s rim. He was blinded in seconds; his hair singed and face blistered. By evening, many visitors came to view the object, but its light, said by many to be as bright as the sun, remained too intense to bear.

With the fragments still glowing two days later, a brief but heavy rainstorm filled the draw with a violent torrent of water. As the rain subsided, several witnesses, including an Omaha Bee reporter, observed that the craft, which some called an aerolite, had dissolved “like a spoonful of salt in water.” A greenish jelly-like substance covered the ground and dissipated into nothing before their eyes, a sweet smell filled the air. The next day a newspaper headline read: “The Magical Meteor, It Dissolves Like a Drop of Dew Before the Morning Sun.”

the benkelman ufo story was forgotten for decades until an old newspaper account surfaced in the 1970s. Researchers visited Benkelman and found that local residents were unaware of the event. It wasn’t until scientist Robert Golka visited Nebraska that a serious investigation into the Benkelman event began.

Golka has investigated the crash since 2006, then in the summer of 2009 he visited McCook’s Museum of the High Plains. While sifting through exhibits he noticed a large green rock sitting unremarkably on the floor. Upon closer inspection he realized that it was a form of glass created by very high temperatures. Encased within the 25 pound chunk are several white inclusions with shapes similar to the letter X; others resemble fluffy kernels of popcorn. The glass was donated to the McCook museum when the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum closed, but nobody at the museum seems to know where it originated. Veldron Hall, a museum volunteer said, “It looks like something that came through the atmosphere.”

Based on newspaper accounts of the green jelly, the sweet smell and the object’s intense heat, Golka surmises the glass could be a crash artifact and that the object, which he said could have been a probe released from a mother ship, may have been made of beryllium. The rare chemical element known for its light weight and resistance to heat is used in our own aerospace industry, so isn’t it possible that an alien race would use it as well?

Golka found a similar piece of glass for sale in a nearby shop and knows local residents with fragments. Families have had the pieces for years; handed down through generations, but in each case the story of their origin is lost. Did crash site witnesses collect them as souvenirs?

Analysis at Corning’s Glassware Laboratory could reveal many things about the glass, including its age. Golka has offered to contribute toward the cost of testing but museum officials have not yet accepted his offer.

“Something about this story sounds real to me,” Golka said. For now, he continues searching for the impact site in southwestern Nebraska.

Mysterious airships were reported nationwide in 1897. The invasion eventually reached Hastings on January 25 when a craft was reported traveling at great speeds and illuminating large areas with an immense spotlight. On February 5, a large conical craft more than 30-foot long was reported near Invale. It was said to have had wings and several smaller lights. Voices were heard coming from the device.

Once again, the Omaha Bee, being on the forefront of the paranormal, faithfully reported the sightings based on an alleged report from witnesses of the highest caliber: citizens returning home from church. It’s a well known fact that newspapers of the day often fabricated stories in order to entertain. Readers were left to decide for themselves. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Bee was always right on top of these strange incidents.

In 1957, Kenesaw native Reinhold Schmidt was driving his Buick along the Platte River near Kearney when its engine stalled. He saw a 100-foot long silvery craft and was briefly paralyzed by a light beam before encountering two human-looking aliens. As in the movies, they spoke English, but with German accents. The cordial Germanic aliens, claiming to be from Saturn took Schmidt onboard and asked him about the U.S. satellite program. What a coincidence that Schmidt spoke German, understanding when one alien announced “Wir sind fertig” (We are finished). After half an hour on the ship, Schmidt said, he was released and was told by the aliens, “We will see you again.”

He felt it his civic duty to report the incident. When a sheriff’s deputy accompanied him to the sandy riverbank, imprints of the vessel’s landing gear were apparent, as was a sweet-smelling greenish oil. It was later reported that a nearly empty container of the same oil was found in Schmidt’s car, indicating an elaborate hoax. Schmidt claimed he was being framed as part of a cover-up; others said he craved the public eye.

On November 3 of the same year, a young Scotia boy reported seeing an oblong craft with an antenna. It made a humming noise, came in low, circled and then flew away. He said he felt numb as he watched it.

In 1965, a 10-year-old girl playing outside her parents’ home on Grand Island’s Grace Street had a horrifying experience. The woman asked to remain anonymous, but said, “This thing hovered over me and my friends, blinding us with a bright light. It made no noise. I was so scared; we hid in the trees until it left. I’m not sure what it was.” Despite our best efforts, we couldn’t convince her to be named for this story; she’s afraid of what people would think.

A tale emerged from Ashland in 1967 that is regarded as one of the most solid reports in all of ufology. Police Sgt. Herbert Schirmer was on patrol near Ashland when he saw flashing lights. He assumed a truck was broken down and turned his cruiser toward the lights, but when he approached he discovered that it wasn’t a truck but a shiny football-shaped craft hovering above a field. Red lights came from the craft’s portholes – its underbelly glowed orange. The UFO moved behind a hill. The next thing Schirmer knew, he was outside of his cruiser, on the hill, and unsure of how he got there.

An entry in his logbook reads: “Saw a flying saucer at the junctions of highways 6 and 63. Believe it or not!”

Schirmer passed a polygraph test, and why wouldn’t he? The Navy veteran and police officer was highly credible. Following the incident, a red welt formed on his neck and headaches plagued him. Schirmer took part in an U.S. Air Force-backed UFO study. When it was discovered that 20 minutes was missing in his story, he agreed to be hypnotized.

Under hypnosis, Schirmer said that he had been paralyzed and taken aboard the silvery craft. He met several gray-skinned creatures with small slits for mouths and narrow, slanted eyes. Schirmer recalled that the leader communicated in broken English via voice and telepathy. They said they were from Venus and promised to visit him again and show him the universe.

Following his encounter, Schirmer became the Ashland police chief, but not for long. Rumors and ridicule abounded. He soon quit his job and moved out of state. Out of fear of losing his current job, Schirmer has said that he will not speak of his encounter again until after he retires. We’re not sure if he’s toured the universe as of yet.

In February 1982, a husband and wife saw something they had always hoped to see. Following a gathering at their lake-side home west of Omaha, the group left in several cars for another engagement with the homeowners last to leave after locking up. The woman, who asked to remain anonymous, heard a swirling noise and snow crunching under their tires as they attempted to leave the driveway. She looked over her shoulder and saw something that looked “like a big hat.”

She told us on the phone one evening: “Inside of the dome there were a lot of colors coming from windows which were just high enough that I couldn’t see into them. It was about 50 feet above our house and much larger. It emitted a red beam on the center of our home as if it was ‘taking some kind of reading.’ ”

Even though she had always hoped to see a UFO, she said, “I didn’t want to go for a ride . . . I didn’t want any exams.” She prayed while her husband began slowly driving away. As they turned the corner the object went “chup” and disappeared. They caught up to some of the other cars, pulled them over and recounted their sighting. During the rest of the evening their friends laughed. “Nobody believed us,” she said. Based on that reaction, they decided not to tell anyone but said, “We were happy to know they exist.”

Sometime later they did report their experience to the Nebraska Chapter of MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network, a civilian UFO research organization). Dr. Jack Kasher, Director of MUFON Nebraska kindly put me in touch with the witness in the aforementioned encounter and shared with me some interesting statistics. He cites a recent Harris poll when he says “the majority of people in the United States believe there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.”

“Thirty-four percent of Americans believe UFOs are real and that we have been visited by extraterrestrials and 72 percent believe that the government is withholding information about UFOs,” he said.

He added that the “reality of UFOs” should not pose a problem to religions. “Father Gabriel Funes, the Jesuit priest in charge of the Vatican observatory stated last year that intelligent life could very well exist somewhere in the universe, and they would be God’s children, too,” Kasher said.

In November 2008, a Brady man called 911 to report strange lights. A pair of deputies responded. The sheriff told us he would forward our request for information to the deputies, but they never responded. Published reports indicate that the men watched the blue and white lights, which performed maneuvers too agile to be conventional aircraft, for at least 15 minutes near Lake Jeffrey. Sheriff Kramer said the deputies tried to get video footage with their in-car video, “but it did not turn out.” No UFOs have been reported from the area since.

Credible Nebraska UFO sightings? Is it an oxymoron? For eons man has attempted to reach the stars. Why wouldn’t other civilizations do the same?

Under the cloak of night, when the Earth slowly twists to an obsidian black, the sky no longer belongs to just the clouds and silver-haired bats. A mysterious object emerges, its envious eyes drawing their plans, while only the restless catch a glimpse.

Or at least those awakened by their barking dogs. That’s why Heather Rowe, a Lincoln resident, stirred one night after midnight.

“I went outside to see what all the commotion was and saw what looked like a tiny spaceship spinning above my backyard,” Rowe said. “I knew it was a flying saucer or drone.”

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, have been spotted around Nebraska for years – but sightings increased from 2019 to 2020, when people in Western Nebraska and Colorado reported seeing fleets flying in formation.

Drones have no human pilot, crew or passengers on board, and can range in size from something as small as a quarter to 80 feet by 18 feet. (That largest one, the Ravn X, also weighs 28 tons.) Drones have been available for commercial use since 2006, but many Nebraskans remain suspicious of them.

Some believe the drones are being used for a military search and recovery operation consisting of objects hidden during the day and drones pursuing those items in the dark of night. Others have speculated something more sinister is underway. Something that could be watching or lurking, with an aerial advantage.

“I’ve seen all the sci-fi films, read all the books,” said Pat McDevin, a Beatrice resident who has spotted several drones over his property in the last few years. “It has to be something bigger than just a farmer playing around with a drone in his field.”

That unknown is what keeps residents a little more alert and a little more in tune with what is going on above them. There’s no official count of how many drones have been spotted in Nebraska, but for McDevin and his property, he keeps an eye out. Just in case.