The Tappen Visitation

In the summer of 2006, the tiny town of Tappen, North Dakota briefly became the center of the UFO community when the Briese family experienced some unexplained events.

In April 2006, 16 year-old Evan Briese reported a triangle-shaped UFO on the family farm. According to a story published in the Fargo Forum on Oct. 27, 2006 [reporter Dave Olson], Evan and his dog buster were tending to the cows during calving season when they saw an intermittent glow. Upon investigation, Evan discovered a triangle-shaped craft hovering over a watering hole, seemingly investigating the pond with a bright beam of light. Buster took off toward the craft barking at which point the UFO lifted off the ground and flew away into the night at such speed it created a sonic boom. Evan's sister Myra also heard the boom. Later in July, Briese also reported seeing a bluish light in the sky.

The most intriguing sighting on the Briese farm took place in Sept. of 2006.

In the early morning hours of September 12th, Evan Briese got out of bed to get a drink. Looking outside, he saw something moving in the pen that held his sister's pregnant hog. Thinking an animal was attempting to harm the hog, Briese grabbed his .22-caliber rifle and went outside.

According to the article in the Forum:

There, he encountered two creatures standing 8 to 9 feet tall that were doing something to one of the hogs. The boy fired his rifle at one creature and was pretty sure he hit it, judging by the unearthly scream it emitted. Another creature then grabbed the boy and threw him to the ground, causing him to black out. When Evan Briese awoke, he found that Ruthy, a 450-pound sow that had been ready to give birth, was gone. The boy ran to the home of his older sister, Trista, a short distance from the house he shares with his parents. Trista Briese made a frantic phone call to her parents and it wasn’t long before they, and later the Kidder County sheriff, were on the scene. Evan Briese, whose shirt was in tatters, told his story.

The sheriff came to no conclusions about what happened to the hog.

According the story, Evan was later hypnotized and remembered more. He revealed five entities had been in the corral, and that two of them had been dragging a dead hog when he unexpectedly surprised them.

The credibility of the Tappen UFO story is indeterminate. Reports that come from teens tend to be viewed with skepticism, however Evan Briese was not known as a teller of tall tales. Other corroborating sightings have gone along with the Brise family's tales, but there have also been confirmed meteor sightings which coincide with some of the events. Truly unexplained.

A UFO in the Magic City

On October 24th, 1968, a UFO was reported in the vicinity of Minot Air Force Base in northwestern North Dakota. It is one of the most well-documented unexplained UFO sightings. The sighting is unique in that the object was seen by witnesses on the ground and in the air, many of whom were military personnel trained in the art of observation and surveillance.

The 1968 Minot UFO sighting has also been the subject of numerous investigations and TV shows, including the US Air Force' Project Blue Book and the special report by the late Peter Jennings entitled "UFOs: Seeing is Believing".

In the sixties, North Dakota was on the front line of the Cold War standoff between the United States and the former Soviet Union. The state was home to two of the nation's largest Air Force bases, numerous early warning radar stations, and hundreds of Minuteman missile silos.

About 2:30 am, Airman First Class Mike O'Connor was dispatched to check on a perimeter alarm which had been triggered at a missile silo several miles from his station. As he drove his navy blue Air Force pickup down the empty North Dakota highway, O'Connor noticed a bright light in a field. O'Connor has said he first believed it to be a bright yard or house light from a nearby farm.

Upon realizing that the light was not a house or yard light, O'Connor reported the sighting. The object lifted off the ground and paralleled the truck until it arrived at the silo. O'Connor reported the object "just hovered there". Staff Sergeant Bill Smith also reported the object.

The Minot control tower then asked an already airborne B-52 bomber to do a flyby and take a look. When co-pilot Captain Brad Runyon asked what they were looking for, the tower responded "You'll know it if you find it."

At 3:35, the controller asked, "And JAG 31 on your way out to the WT fix request you look out toward your one o'clock position for the next fifteen miles and see if you see any orange glows out there?

Jag 31: "Roger, roger glows 31."

Control Tower: "Someone is seeing UFOs again."

Jag 31: "Roger I see a........ (Transmission lost)

3:52 am, Control Tower: "Three one, the UFO is being picked up by weather's radar also. Should be at your one o'clock position three miles now"

The pilot said, "We have nothing on our airborne radar and I'm in some pretty thick haze now and unable to see out that way."

For several minutes thereafter, the B-52 experienced communication problems and was out of radio communication with the tower.

Captain Patrick McCaslin was the B-52's navigator that night. He painted the object on radar and got a return from a large object, about three miles off the plane's right wing. It appeared to be flying in formation with the bomber. McCaslin has said he witnessed the object "backing off" the bomber, allowing the B-52 to "turn inside of it".

The object disappeared from radar and the bomber turned back in an attempt to re-acquire it. Co-pilot Runyon soon saw it, apparently hovering just above the ground. The bomber circled the object. Captain Runyon reported the object was 200 feet wide and hundreds of feet long. He described it as being a metallic cylinder attached to a large crescent moon shaped section. In the Peter Jennings special report "UFOs: Seeing is Believing", Captain Runyon said after several minutes of observation he was fairly sure he was looking at "an alien spaceship". Something not manmade.

The B-52 was eventually able to re-establish communication with the tower.

4:02, Jag 31: "Our UFO was off to our left side when we started penetration."

Tower: "Roger, understand you did see something on your left side?"

Jag 31: "We had a radar return at about a mile and a quarter, at nine o'clock position for about the time we left 200 to 14..."

Tower: "Affirmative. I was wondering how far out did you see that UFO?"

Jag 31: "He was about one and a half miles off our left wing at 35 miles when we started in and stayed with us 'til about 10."

Tower: "I wonder if that could have been your radio troubles?"

Jag 31: "I don't know.... But that's exactly when they started."

4:13 am, Tower: "Jag 31 are you observing any more UFOs?"

Jag 31: "Negative on radar. We can't see anything visually."

Tower: "JAG 31, request you have someone report to base ops after you land."

It has been reported that while the B-52 was circling the object as it hovered just above the ground, an alarm was triggered at a nearby missile silo. Both the outer and inner perimeter alarms were triggered, and the security officer who investigated found the outer gate open, and the inner combination lock had been tampered with. Although this incident has been related on numerous UFO websites and in books on the subject, I have been unable to confirm it's veracity.

The circumstances of this sighting, which would eventually become Project Blue Book case #12548, are fairly unique and contribute to the credibility of the sighting. The object was seen both on the ground and in the air. The object was seen by witnesses (sixteen in addition to the B-52 crew) who were on the ground and in the air. Most of the witnesses were not in contact with each other at the time of the sighting. The witnesses were scattered about the area, and viewed the object from different directions. Some were north of the object, and saw it to the south. Others saw it to their north. The B-52 circled the object and observed it from all angles. The object was picked up by multiple radars.

All of these factors would seem to indicate the witnesses were seeing an actual object, and not experiencing an optical illusion which is more common in cases where an object is observed by witnesses in the same location. Project Blue Book attempted to conclude the airmen simply saw the star "Vega" and mistook it for a UFO. Clearly that cannot be the case since a B-52 bomber isn't capable of circling Vega and viewing it from the other side.