by UFO History Buff & Author, Charles Lear
The 1970s saw a shift in what sorts of UFO reports newspapers would print and what UFO researchers would consider worthy of investigation. John Keel wrote an article headlined “Never Mind the Saucer! Did You See the Guys Who Were Driving?” that was published in the February 1967 issue of True magazine. According to Brent Raynes on page 4 of his article, The Keelian Perspective, Keel recalled a visit to the office of the editor at True after the article came out: “He said he had something to show me. And he waved his hand towards the corner of his office and there were about six mail bags. He said, ‘This mail is for you, Keel.’” Raynes describes there being “thousands of letters, many from people claiming UFO abduction and contact experiences, including ‘memory lapses for long periods of time.’” As Keel, and then others, such as APRO founders Jim and Coral Lorenzen, became more and more open to cases involving UFO occupants, the report by Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker that they had been taken aboard a craft in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and examined by strange creatures, hit the papers in 1973. It was taken seriously, and after that, many more UFO and creature cases would be reported, investigated, and make headlines throughout that decade.
In the January 19, 1975, St. Paul, Minnesota, Sunday Pioneer Press, there is an article (page 1 of the pdf) by Dewey Berscheld headlined, “Driver Yields to Visiting UFO.” According to Berscheld, 69-year-old Frederic dairy farmer William Bosak was driving home one night after a co-op meeting. He was driving slowly due to patches of fog, and about a mile from his farm, he came upon what he was convinced was, in Berscheld’s words, “a ship from outer space – occupied by an extraterrestrial being.” Bosak is said to have mulled over the encounter for more than a month and to have decided that past week to talk about it. He is quoted as saying, “I don’t know if I should even be talking about it now. I know if I tell anyone, I’m going to get a lot of ribbing. I even hate to tell you.” “But,” he explains, “I’ve decided to talk now so that anybody else who sees something like what I saw will maybe know what to do and maybe even try to communicate with it.”
According to Berscheld, Bosak said he was driving just after 10:30 p.m. going east on West County Road, and that when he was about six miles east of Frederic, his headlights reflected off of something in the west bound lane. He said he slowed down as he approached what he described as an object that “had a curved front of glass.” He said he could see a figure inside “with its arms raised above its head.”
Bosak describes the creature this way: “The figure had a square face with hair sticking straight out from the sides of its head. Its ears were long and narrow and stuck straight out. Its arms were brown and furry, and there was hair or fur on the top part of its body.” He said he couldn’t tell if it was furry or “wearing a tight fur suit” and that it seemed to be “a little taller than a tall man.” He added that its eyes were protruding and that it seemed to be afraid, though “it wasn’t nearly half as scared as I was.”
Bosak said that when he passed, “The inside of the car got dark, like a shadow was being cast, and I could hear a kind of soft whooshing sound, like a branch brushing against the side of the car.”
According to Berscheld, when Bosak got home, he looked out towards the area of the encounter, but his view was blocked by fog. Bosak said he was “so goldarned scared” that for a few days afterwards, he was afraid to go out at night and was “pretty shook up for a couple of weeks.” He said, “I wish I had somebody with me in the car. When you see something like that and you’re all by yourself, you don’t know what to do. What would anyone else do in a situation like that?”
Bosak said he went back the next day and didn’t find any marks where the object had been and that he regretted driving away the night before. He said, “I should have stopped to show that I was friendly. I wish I could meet up with it again.” He added that he didn’t immediately tell anyone about his encounter, not even his wife, as he assumed no one would believe him, but offered to take a lie detector test to prove he wasn’t making things up.
Bosak’s story is also covered in the January-February APRO Bulletin in a front-page article headlined “Occupant Case in Wisconsin.” It is reported that he was interviewed by APRO Field Investigator Everett E. Lightner, and said that the Pioneer Press article was “basically accurate” except that the ears of creature in the drawing featured in that article were placed higher on its head.
In the APRO article, the object is described as being eight to ten feet tall and “standing still.” The part that was said to be transparent is described as tapering to a point at the top like a bullet. It is said that it “was not lighted, but reflected light from the headlights of Mr. Bosak’s car.”
There are additional details about the creature as well. Its ears are said to have stuck out about three inches and to have been shaped like a calf’s, and its clothing is described as a skin-tight tannish-brown outfit “like a diver’s suit.” The upper part of the body is described as having hair or fur, and the lower part is said to have been obscured by fog.
According to the article, Bosak kept his story to himself, “not even telling his wife and son,” for almost a month. The article ends with the report that Lightner “found Bosak to be sincere and a man with a good reputation in his community.”