MARSHALL COUNTY, MINN. (KFGO) – Tuesday, August 27 is the 40th anniversary of a UFO encounter on a rural road in northwestern Minnesota that remains a mystery. The case was regarded as one of the best publicized UFO events of the 1970s.
Marshall County Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson was on night patrol on a highway near Stephen when his squad car was struck by an object described as an orb, a mysterious, bright light that left him unconscious for 39 minutes. He was injured and his squad car had strange damage.
In an interview afterward, Johnson said the incident was classified as a close encounter of the second kind because of the physical evidence left behind rather than just an ordinary sighting.
The case drew national and international attention. It was investigated by law enforcement, scientists and many others including Ford Motor Company. It sent an engineer to examine the shattered windshield of the 1977 LTD. Johnson said after looking at patterns of the cracks, the expert could not come up with an explanation and that the cracks were of unknown origin.
Johnson in that interview 40 years ago, and in later interviews, has had no theory of what it was and that it “remained baffling.”
Johnson now retired, lives in Wisconsin and has been unavailable.
His squad car, with the damage intact, is on permanent display at the museum in Warren.
