3 Of The Most Bizarre UFO Sightings In The Bay Area

There are always tons of reported UFO sightings throughout the country but from the late '40s to the late '60s, the Air Force was particularly slammed with reports.

According to Mercury News, the Air Force recorded 12,618 UFO sightings and spent significant resources investigating every claim.

Many of those reported sightings took place right here in the Bay Area, and the accounts of some of them sound like something out of the X-Files.

Here are three of the most bizarre UFO sightings from the Bay Area:

Hunter Encounters 'Strange Beings' In Placer County

Sept. 5, 1964 - While hunting deer with friends, a 27-year-old Orangevale man was near Emigrant Gap, a wooded area in the Sierra Nevada on the route to Lake Tahoe. He got lost during the hunt and decided to sleep in a tree by fastening his belt to a branch. While in the tree, the man noticed a glowing light near a ridge and a vehicle appeared to land on the ridge. He then describes hearing someone approaching in nearby shrubbery and that's when he saw them.

“They were garbed in a silver-like suit but visually had the complete absence of a neck. These strange (individuals) has unusual facial features especially in the region of the eyes that protruded extensively,” the Air Force investigator wrote while interviewing the man.

The man tried to fire arrows at the beings but they emitted a vapor that caused him to blackout. When he awoke, it was morning and he found his fellow hunters.

Ultimately investigators attributed his encounter to "psychological causes" and an "overactive imagination."

Flying Ice Cream Cone Spotted In San Jose

Feb. 7, 1950 - Residents and military officials from Berkeley to Alameda to San Jose all witnessed what they described as a "flying ice cream cone" drift across the sky.

An attorney sent the Air Force a drawing showing what looked to be like a comet but "The whole area of the triangle appeared a solid mass of fire."

Separately, two Piedmont nurses wrote to authorities about the same object, describing themselves as "non-drinking" WWI nurses.

However, a San Jose man wrote to the Air Force saying he saw a single-engine airplane with a reddish vapor trail behind and the agency concluded the plane caused the "UFO" sightings.

'Strange Object' Prompts Letter To President JFK In San Mateo

Nov. 13, 1961 - San Mateo resident Alice Reynolds described seeing two stationary white balls, one with a tail, in November. She complained that she tried to contact the Civil Defense Control Center in Belmont to no avail, so she called the police. She eventually ended up sending a letter to the president that was then forwarded to the Air Force who mailed Reynolds a UFO questionnaire.

“Dear Mr. President, I know you are a busy man but I am a citizen of this good old U.S.A.,” she wrote. “Just by accident, I went out to feed the birds some bread. We do this twice a day … I looked up into the sky and saw this strange object — I watched it for some time.”

Investigators eventually stopped their probe concluding it was likely a weather balloon or mirage.