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. Read more
Many people who have more than a passing interest in the UFO subject might be aware that the scene in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, where several UFOs go speeding by the main character’s stalled car, followed by police cars in hot pursuit, was based on a real case. This was the 1966 
In the January 28, 1974, Jacksonville Journal out of Florida, there is an 
The first two years of the 1970s seems to have been a slow period for UFO reports in the U.S. if the 1970 and 1971 UFO Chronology hosted on the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena website is any indication, with the 
In 1981, there was a highly strange report out of Ohio that involved UFOs, Bigfoot-type creatures, and “black forms,” all of which reportedly besieged a family in Ohio during the months of June and July. Reports of Bigfoot-type creatures and UFOs being seen in the same area at or near the same time are not all that unusual, particularly in the area around Chestnut Ridge in next-door Pennsylvania, focused on by researcher Stan Gordon. However, questions remain about the Ohio case, and unfortunately, the main investigator passed away in 2022. Also, the main witness has never been identified, so following up on the story is difficult.
On the morning of April 17, 1966, two sheriff deputies, Dale Spaur and Wilbur “Barney” Neff, chased a UFO from Portage County, Ohio, for 86 miles all the way into Pennsylvania. They chased the object at speeds ranging from 80 mph to 105 mph. According to them, there were times when the object actually stopped and waited for them to catch up to it. Other law enforcement officers witnessed the object after being alerted by radio communications between the deputies and their dispatcher. According to Project Blue Book Director Hector Quintanilla, the officers chased the planet Venus. Spaur stuck to the story that they had chased a physical object as others went silent, and he ended up losing his job and his family. A case that is remarkably similar is reported to have occurred in June of that year, and the officer who reported it also seems to have suffered for speaking out, but to a lesser extent than Spaur.