Incident at Devil's Den: A True Story

I'm a 64-year-old retired lawyer and former Assistant Attorney General with an unusual story to tell. Every word of it is true. It happened in a state park known as Devil's Den. For fear of losing my job and damaging my reputation in the legal community, I never spoke about the incident. If it hadn't happened to me, I'd be skeptical too. In 1977, I was an active duty NCO in the USAF. A friend and I planned a two-night camping trip to explore the wilderness. Hoping to photograph eagles we sought a remote area on high ground. We drove deep into the forest until we came to a high plateau. It was the perfect location. We had forest to our back and a large open meadow in front of us. The view was amazing. We made camp and settled in for an evening around the campfire. Late in the evening I noticed the forest sounds of crickets and tree frogs we'd heard just an hour earlier had all stopped. The silence unnerved me but my friend Toby assured me our laughter and chatter had quieted them and they'd soon return. I still felt unsettled. Looking to the west Toby asked, Where those lights there before? I turned to look. There on the horizon sat a perfect triangle of three very bright stars. We studied them for a few minutes and were speculating what they might be...when they suddenly moved. They rotated once as if on an axis and began a slow ascent into the night sky. The three points of light remained equidistant to one another, gaining altitude and speed. The lights on each point of the triangle grew brighter too, as the triangle expanded. The area inside the triangle was solid black, much darker than the surrounding night sky. As it moved past stars they would blink out for a moment and then blink back on once it had passed. I recall the uneasiness I felt a half-hour earlier was gone. I asked my friend, Hey, Tobe...are you afraid? He didn't reply. This triangle was soon over our heads. I recall thinking that Toby had been wrong; the night sounds never returned.... Read more