Travis Walton

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We were headed home. Worked thirty miles from home, so it's a bit of a drive. We loaded up all our equipment in the back of the truck.

There.

Everybody's tired, so there was various conversations going on in the truck. Two here or too there like that. As we were jouncing along this little logging trail, I could see a glow through the trees up ahead. The whole clearing there had this really strange glow to it, sort of a feel. I don't know, maybe there was some kind of electrical charge in the air, so I'm just had a really weird vibe to it. It made things you see at work all day look really strange in

Welcome to high strange. I traveled to Snowflake, Arizona, to meet with a man named Travis Walton. In nineteen seventy five, he was working with a logging crew deep in the woods outside of town when they encountered a flying saucer. There were seven witnesses in the truck who all claimed

On the night of November.

Fifth, nineteen seventy five, as Travis and his crew were driving home, they noticed a bright light in the sky that lit up all the surrounding trees, and as they reached a clearing, the source of this light came into focus.

Boom, there it was. It was just unmistakable. It was clearly a metallic disk. Nothing between us and it. Some indistinct glow suddenly becomes this craft hovering there. I yelled might stop the truck, and as soon as he stopped, I threw open the door, thinking this thing would just take off. It's just a real common thing. You get a glimpse of a wolf or a mountain lion or something, and you try to call the attention of the crew.

Most lying head.

I was just hoping it would take off before I got any closer. It was a pale, golden color, metallic. It's kind of like when you look at a television screen. It's a source of light, but at the same time, the light from the window is reflecting off the screen. I could see the surrounding trees reflected off the surface at the same time it was glowing. Guys were yelling at me to get back in the truck and swearing at me, let's get the hell out of here. I

On November fifth, nineteen seventy five, Travis Walton had an experience that would change the.

Course of his life forever.

His six coworkers claimed to have seen Travis struck by a bluish green beam of light and sent him flying twenty feet in the air. Terrified out of their minds, the men panicked and sped into town for help. At the time, the six men were convinced that Travis was killed by that strange beam of light, and on their way into town, pulled off the road to gather their thoughts, quickly deciding they needed to go back, but when they

The encounter took place in the Sitgreaves National Forest in eastern Arizona, on the edge of the Mogoyan Rim.

They just knocked him backwards through the air, like as if some sort of an explosion had gone off in front of him.

It was that dramatic.

After seeing travistruck, the other crew members did not want to investigate anything. They left the area.

Mike Rogers and the other five witnesses returned only to find Travis missing. After they told their astounding story to the police, they came under suspicion of murder and attend search for Travis Walton proceeded for three days, dogs and helicopters. They were unable to find him or any signs of where he was.

Travis was missing for five days as people searched the woods for him.

Meanwhile, according to Travis, his nightmare was really just beginning.

But next thing I knew, I was waking up.

What'd you see around you when you woke up?

It was just a light above me, and the ceiling was so close. I figured that maybe I was in the hospital. The light wasn't all that bright, but it hurt my eyes to look at it. Everything else was really dark, and this light was above me like that. I was in a lot of pain. I felt like something was seriously wrong. I felt mortally wounded. I finally did look around. Everything was blurry. I couldn't focus real good. I could see what I thought were doctors standing over me.

This story sounds absolutely unbelievable, trust me, I know. But while Travis Walton was missing for five days, the police also found this unbelievable. The six men who witnessed Travis being struck by the beam from the craft were being investigated for murder. Five days feels like a very long time to keep up a hoax when you're starting to face potential murder charges.

Out of the five days Travis was.

Unaccounted for, he remembers only one hour total and nothing else.

This was a very emotional thing for Travis's family and emotional for us. Travis was my best friend and our whole lives have been disrupted by this. We wondered if we would ever see him again.

Arrangements were made for PSI Gilson, a highly qualified polygraph examiner to conduct the polygraphs on the six witnesses to Travis Walton's UNO encounter. Did the utmost care in administering these light detected tests was exercise. Because the men were under suspicion of murder.

Convinced that these men had murdered Travis, the sheriff ordered Arizona State Police polygraph examiner Psyke Gilson to conduct light detector tests on the crew members.

Once the tests got underway, he started changing his mind very quickly. After he had test at about three of the six, he seemed to be acting differently. By the time he had tested all of us, he seemed to be able. I talked to him after the test and he indicated to me, but apparently.

He was wrong.

Unofficially, he said that he believed that we had told the truth because five of us passed the test. He wrote in his report that we had told the truth. That apparently there had been a UFO.

Five out of the six men passed their polygraphs and the last was found to be inconclusive. While the Sheriff's department tried to make sense of their outlanders story and debated pressing charges, all of a sudden, Travis magically reappeared around twenty miles away from the original site.

When I woke up, I felt the cold, hard payment under me. There was a light above. I just looked to see where the light was coming from. Then I could see this shiny surface, this craft, and it went off just as I looked, shot up into the sky. Uh. I could see the lights of the town down below. Ran down there was a building with some lights on, and pounded on the door, screaming like a maniac. Nobody came. Nobody came, So I ran farther into town. I ran

On November eleventh, Travis called his brother in law from this phone booth.

When did you first learn that you had been missing it all?

When my brother picked me up and put me in the truck, and he literally picked me up. He was talking about how traumatic it was for my mother, and uh, he could tell that I thought this was the same night, This conscious interval in there was not that long. It certainly wasn't five days. I didn't know who that five days had gone by. And he said, try, I must fill your face and I had a five day growth of beard. That was the stunner. I was just so completely in a state of terror that I I couldn't

In the five days he was missing, Travis remembers only two hours and those, he says, were aboard the spacecraft.

Where was he the rest of the time?

When was it that you were maybe first reported missing?

Immediately they went straight to the sheriff and told him what well. They said, one of her crew is missing. He might be dead, and the sheriff's ears purke of oh yeah. The night that they reported it, they did go back to the site. All three of the lawmen went out there with the crew, and the next day this massive man hunt.

And attend search for Travis Walton proceeded. For three days, dogs and helicopters. They were unable to find him or any signs of where he was.

The crew had been through five days of attacks of being accused of murdering me. They figured this was just a cover up for a murder, including my brother. He definitely thought that they'd killed me and got very aggressive with them trying to get him to fess up. They figured this was just a cover up. They were going to find the body and these guys were gonna hang

The six witnesses to Travis Walton's UFO encounter have made several statements in the years following, all collectively maintaining their stories. I found some quotes from each of them. Alan Dallas said, we couldn't believe what was happening. Horror was unreal. Kenneth Peterson. I saw a bluish light come from the machine and Travis went flying like he've been touched by a live wire. Steve Pierce that ray was the brightest thing I've ever seen in my whole life.

Dwayne Smith.

The UFO was smooth and giving off a yellowish orange light. Mike Rogers in nineteen seventy five said, I've been working these woods for over ten years, and this is the damnedest thing that's ever happened to me.

Then again in nineteen ninety five.

I've been working these woods for over thirty years, and this is still the damnedest thing that's ever happened to me and John Goulette. I know what I saw, and it wasn't anything from this earth. Let's take a step back here and just look at what we know. Travis has not changed his story in nearly fifty years, which,

Sorry, we're just kidding. He's right here.

I definitely wouldn't demand for truth serum or a polygraph test. Travis also lost over ten pounds during the five days he was missing. Objectively, I feel like there's probably three potential explanations for all this. A. Travis and the six other men are lying, and they've kept this gag going now for nearly half a century. But for the story to be entirely made up, Travis had to have been hiding for five days somewhere, intentionally starving himself and not shaving.

He spent five days on the UFO.

For all intent and purposes, he spent five days on there. He did come in contact with some beings or human like, but they weren't human obviously.

Duane, you know your own brother probably better than anybody else.

Do you believe the story?

I've never seen him play a practical joke and as adult lie.

What do you say to those who just say, oh, you're friendshit?

Well, you know, to each his own. People have all kinds of theories and beliefs anything in today's world, all kinds of contending points of view and theories and stuff. Everything, It all comes down to facts and reasoning. Are your facts true and complete, and is your reasoning valid. Failure to prove is not disproof. I've gotten very abstract in how people should evaluate claims. You see it back and forth with these political debates. If you have something, lay it out there, invite examination.

It makes complete sense to me how any rational person would hesitate to believe Travis Walton's story, And personally, I'll tell you I myself was very skeptical throughout the whole process up until he finally sat down to tell me a story. I don't consider myself an expert in human deception by any means, but I have dealt with a lot of liars in my time as a podcaster, murder suspects, drug dealers, actual murderers, you name it. And there was

I don't know mother Travis Walton selling the truth or not. As I stand here totally open minded. The Travis Walton cases I understand that had a fair amount of polygraph involvement before I was asked who become involved.

This is Cleve Baxter, an interrogation expert for the CIA.

Before Travis Walton reappeared.

After the alleged production, the Arizona Department of Public Safety got quite concerned that there may have been foul play and that these six individuals on that tree cutting team may have committed to crime and were trying to hide the crime, perhaps by reporting the UFO abduction. The six were tested by cy Gilson of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Five of them passed. One of them is inconclusive merely.

Because of the person's general nervous tension, not because there was any failure. In other words, we have three determinations in polygraph testing and our opinion they're being truthful.

In our opinion they're being deceptive or what we don't know.

There was certain forensic that went on at the site. There was there with a Geiger counter. They found evidence of elevated radiation. Seven witnesses all passing police light detector tests, and every theory to try to explain it away has failed.

Do you want people to believe you?

I think it's important for people to understand that this is real. You don't want to believe it, fine, have it your way.

Do you realize how unbelievable it could sound to somebody.

Oh yeah, I understand, you know, from the outside, especially somebody who doesn't know about the physical evidence. I understand how it can sound to people who don't want to believe it. Then I have to look very far to find a reason not to. You ever had a political argument in the recent years, you can see how people can be impervious to facts. How do you know what's true? How do you evaluate claims? What's a fair examination of the evidence. I really think the entire society would benefit

Here's Leslie Kane again.

What makes a case credible is when there's a lot of data. Definitely, multiple witnesses is a basic criteria. I think the abduction cases are less credible because there just isn't enough evidence to prove those stories. I mean, they obviously meant a lot to the people, but let's just put those aside because I don't work on those cases anyway. If the fact is that we're not alone, it's a scientific fact, like knowing that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Right,

I agree with Leslie here.

If the government, or any entity for that matter, knows something profound, like the existence of extraterrestrial beings, everyone should have the right to know. But society has had a long track record of struggling to accept new information. Many great minds throughout history have been labeled a heretic for

People didn't like that very much.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison and eventually ordered to be burned at the stake by the Pope.

Everything he said was true.

This is the ultimate human story, isn't it?

Are we alone?

Here's Brian bender again, a.

Mystery that has been dogging us basically since the beginning of recorded human history. John Winthrop, who was governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the sixteen hundreds, there's several entries in his diary of this mass hysteria off Boston when these fishermen came back. If you read it today, sounds a whole lot like the pig packs.

On March first, sixteen thirty nine, John Winthrop wrote in his diary about a very unusual event what he described as a quote sober and discreet man witnessed strange glowing objects in the sky darting back and.

Forth over the village of Charlestown.

He describes them as swift as an arrow, and that many other credible people saw the same lights at the same place. Among other notable accounts of UFOs and American history. Our own US presidents have made numerous comments over the years, including Jimmy Carter.

We saw of bright light up here in the distant western skies, and it got closer and closer, and when it was just above the treetops, hit changed color. And then they stayed there for a while, and then it disappeared into the distance. And I still don't know what it was.

Here's Barack Obama.

There's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are. We can't explain how they moved their trajectory.

And Ronald Reagan, we often forget how much unites all the members of humanity. Perhaps we need some outside universal threat to make us recognize this common bound. I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an aai in threat from outside this.

World, just like the Roswell incident in nineteen forty seven. UFOs and aliens are also famously synonymous with a top secret military base in the desert of Nevada, best known as Area fifty one. For decades, there have been countless rumors of alien bodies and spacecraft being hidden and tested there, stuff that was stretched the limits of pretty much anyone's imagination. And regardless of all the conspiracy chatter, what remains true is its existence.

Area fifty ones like part of this mythology, it's just become the sort of mecca for people. For a while, they wouldn't even acknowledge there was.

Such a place.

We know it exists, but it's extremely secretive.

The highly classified US Air Force facility was created in nineteen fifty five, and it wasn't until twenty thirteen the CIA acknowledged it was actually there, located deep in the desert of Nova, surrounded by mountains, with signs all around the base warning that deadly force will be used on trespassers. It's clear that whatever they do in there, they don't want us knowing about it.

If you're building a secret airplane at Area fifty one and you don't want the Russians to know, or the Chinese or anybody else, you're potentially benefiting from this sort of craze of UFO sidings all over the place, and maybe it's even in your interest to kind of spread that a little more. Then people start looking over there, and they don't look over here where you don't want.

Them to look.

Maybe one of those UFO sidings was actually a test flight of a secret airplane there building.

If I'm going to continue down this UFO rabbit hole, which I've clearly committed to doing at this point, then I want to get as close as possible to Area fifty one and see for myself what all the fuss is about.

Located in the middle of nowhere, Area fifty one has been at the center of some of this country's most closely guarded secrets, but only now has the government officially acknowledged the existence of Area fifty one in Nevada.

The two point nine million acre live fire training range, the largest in the United States, located at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Legions of UFO enthusiasts have long suspected Area fifty one is where the US hides captured aliens.

Any attempt to illegally access military installations or military training areas is dangerous.

My crew and I flew into Las Vegas and drove over one hundred miles to the desert town of Rachel, Nevada, population forty eight snooping around a top secret military base is not usually advisable, so before we left, I arranged to meet a local guide to help navigate the area. We met at a UFO themed motel in town called Little Aleyen, and we all piled into his four wheel drive truck.

The first gate we're going here, This one is the main gate. Where we're going is an entrance, but it's about forty minutes from the base. This is an active base. One people think it isn't it is.

The gates to the base are dozens of miles outside town, down bumpy dirt roads with no signage or landmarks whatsoever. You definitely don't want to get stuck out here. There's no cell service for miles.

Look how many cameras That one rotates and watches us. That one sometimes will follow you, and then you have three cameras on that pullback. There you have a camera to the right. I don't know of any government installation of any kind in the country that goes to the level of secrecy.

This one does.

A white truck with heavily tinted windows was parked up on the hill, cameras and listening devices visible, and seemingly all directions. I started to feel an overwhelming rush of excitement, the kind you get as a kid on Christmas morning, and then the rational part of my brain kicked in, asking.

Should we be doing this?

I mean, I'd love to see some aliens, but seriously, I don't want to get shot.

This is.

My curiosity was peaked, that feeling of playing with fire. What would happen if I hopped that gate? Just how exactly would it all play out?

If you cross, they will detain you. I hold you in federal prisons six months to a year.

Serious said, I probably shouldn't cross that stop side.

Do not go through that gate. I'm not going with you. If you do.

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High Strange is an eight part series released weekly for free every Thursday, but if you'd like to binge the whole series right now, you can subscribe to Tenderfoot plus on Apple Podcasts to.

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Follow the show on TikTok and Instagram at high Strange, and you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Payne Lindsay. If you have your own UFO story, email us at tips at high strange dot com. High Strange is a production by Tenderfoot TV in association with Cadence thirteen, created, hosted and edited by myself Payne Lindsey. Executive producers are myself and Donald Albright. Editing by Mike Rooney, Cooper Skinner and myself. Original score by Makeup Invanity, sound design, mixing

Our cover art is by Polygon.

This episode features the song space Cadet by metro Booman featuring Gunna, written by Wesley tire Glass, Sergio Kitchens, Leland Tyler, Wayne Alan Ritter and Jack Queis Webster, performed by metro Booman featuring Gunna courtesy of Republic Records under license from

Thanks for listening.