Travis Walton incident
The Travis Walton incident was an alleged alien abduction of American forestry worker Travis Walton on November 5, 1975, in the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forests near Heber, Arizona. It is widely regarded as a hoax, even by believers of UFOs and alien abductions.
Walton was employed by future brother-in-law Mike Rogers on a federal contract. On October 20, Rogers acknowledged in writing that the job had fallen seriously behind schedule and might not be completed by the deadline. That night, Walton and Rogers watched The UFO Incident, a movie about the alleged abduction of Barney and Betty Hill. After the broadcast, Walton reportedly discussed the possibility of being taken aboard a flying saucer.
On November 5, the crew reported Walton missing. They recalled driving back after sunset when Rogers stopped the truck and Walton walked into the forest towards an overhead light. Walton was illuminated by a beam of light, and Rogers drove away with the others. Police organized search parties that were called off at the insistence of Travis's mother. After five days and six hours, Walton called his sister from a phone booth in Heber. Walton sold his story to tabloid the National Enquirer, which published the account and awarded the crew a $5,000 prize. In 1978, he wrote The Walton Experience, which was adapted into the 1993 film Fire in the Sky.
Science writers Philip J. Klass and Michael Shermer highlight a potential motive for the hoax was to provide an "act of God" that would allow the crew to avoid a steep financial penalty from the Forestry Service for failing to complete their contract by the deadline. In 2021, Mike Rogers made a social media post renouncing his status as a witness to Walton's "supposed abduction". After 2021 interviews with Rogers, researchers proposed that a nearby fire lookout tower and its spotlight were used to create the illusion of a flying saucer shining a beam of light on Walton.
Background
In the Spring of 1972, the National Enquirer tabloid began advertising a $50,000 prize for proof of extraterrestrial visitors. By 1975, the prize had been raised to $100,000.Travis Walton and the Turkey Springs forestry job
Travis Walton was born around 1953 to Mary Walton. On May 5, 1971, Travis Walton and associate Carl Rogers pleaded guilty to breaking into the offices of the Western Molding Company, stealing company checks, forging and then cashing them. The pair were placed on probation for two years, after which they were allowed to plead not guilty and "cleanse their records".In 1975, Travis, aged 22, was a member of a seven-person forestry crew led by Carl's older brother Michael H. Rogers, aged 28. The year prior, Rogers had won a bid for a federal contract to thin out small trees from an area known as Turkey Springs in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest when he underbid two other contractors. The Turkey Springs job called for the thinning of 1,277 acres by August 1975. Rogers requested, and was granted, an extension until November 10. On October 16, a Forestry Service inspector visited the site and concluded the job could not possibly be completed by the deadline. Failure to complete the job could lead to a $2,500 penalty and a disqualification from bidding on future Forestry Service contracts.
On October 20, Rogers wrote to his Forestry Service contracting officer: "I cannot honestly say whether or not we will finish on time. However, we are working every day with as much manpower as I can hire. I will not stop work until the job is finished or until I am asked to stop. I have had considerable trouble keeping a full crew on the job. The area is very thick and the guys have poor morale because of this.... We will keep working and trying hard."
Barney Hill and NBC's ''The UFO Incident''
On October 20, 1975, the same night that Rogers wrote to the Forestry Service, the NBC network aired a prime-time special: The UFO Incident, a made-for-TV movie about an alleged alien abduction. The film starred James Earl Jones as Barney Hill, who had undergone a hypnosis session with a psychiatrist in 1964, after which he reported recollections of an alien abduction. Recovered-memory therapy is not based on scientific evidence, and recovered memories are indistinguishable from false memories.The film aired two weeks before the Travis Walton UFO incident, prompting suggestions that the film inspired Rogers and Walton to concoct their own alleged abduction story. Psychologists and skeptics argued that "after viewing this movie, any person with a little imagination could now become an instant celebrity" by claiming an abduction, concluding that "one of those instant celebrities was Travis Walton."
According to researcher Philip J. Klass, shortly before his disappearance, Travis told his mother not to worry if he were ever abducted by aliens because he would return safe and sound.
Incident
On November 5, 1975, crew chief Michael H. Rogers reported Travis Walton missing to the Navajo County Sheriff. Six members of the crew claimed they were driving down a forest road when they saw a lit object above the ground near the roadway. They reported that Walton got out of the truck and ran towards the object, which shone a light on him. They said they drove away in fear, only to return 15 minutes later to find both Walton and the light missing. At 7:45 PM, a member of the logging crew called officer L. C. Ellison. Ellison, Sheriff Marlin Gillespie, and Deputy Kenneth Coplan drove to Heber to meet with the loggers. Rogers and two crew members agreed to return to Turkey Springs with the three officers, while the three other crew members refused to return and instead drove home in Rogers's vehicle. The five men searched Turkey Springs until shortly after midnight, when Sheriff Gillespie paused the search until the morning.Around 1:30 AM, Navajo County Deputy Sheriff Kenneth Coplan and Rogers visited Walton's mother. According to Coplan, when he informed her of the disappearance, she said, "Well, that's the way these things happen." Coplan said he was shocked by how calmly she took the news and her general lack of surprise. Walton, his older brother Duane, and his mother were described by the sheriff as "longtime students of UFOs". Because Travis Walton's mother lived in a ranch house without telephone service, Rogers drove her into town so she could call Travis's brother Duane and their sister while Coplan followed. Around 3:00 AM, Walton's mother called her daughter, waking her; Deputy Coplan was again shocked at how well Travis's family took the news.
Missing person investigation
The following day, November 7, a search party of nearly 50 people scoured the Turkey Springs area, but failed to find Travis or any signs of an altercation. Law enforcement were surprised when, after a few hours, Travis's mother told them "I don't think there is any use of looking any further. He's not around here. I don't think he's on this earth." Sheriff Gillespie then dismissed the volunteers. However the following morning, November 8, Rogers and Duane Walton complained in person about the discontinued search. As a result, Sheriff Gillespie assembled another search party which included a helicopter.Regional papers covered the story on November 8, and that day, a member of a Phoenix-based UFO interest group recorded a 65-minute interview with crew chief Mike Rogers and Travis's older brother Duane Walton. At no point during the interview did either express any fear or concern for Travis; rather, they expressed confidence that Travis would be returned. During the interview, Rogers discussed the Forestry contract, saying "This contract we have is seriously behind schedule. In fact, Monday the time is up. We haven't done any work on it since Wednesday because of this thing, and therefore it won't be done. I hope they take that into account." Forestry contracts included an Act of God clause that excused contractors who were delinquent due to unforeseeable circumstances.
During the interview, Duane revealed that he, Travis, and their mother were UFO buffs who had previously discussed that if they ever saw a UFO, they would "immediately get directly under the object" because the "opportunity" to go aboard a UFO would be "too great to pass up". Duane repeatedly insisted that Travis was "not even missing. He knows where he's at and I know where he's at".
On November 9, law enforcement continued the search for Travis, until late afternoon when Walton's mother again requested the search be halted.
By November 10, stories of Walton's disappearance were being published throughout the US, UK, and Canada. On November 11, the press reported that Travis's mother felt any further searching for Travis would be useless. Also on November 11, Rogers and the five other members of the forestry crew were interrogated by Arizona Dept. of Public Safety polygraph examiner C. E. Gilson to determine if the men had murdered Travis Walton. All denied having harmed Travis—Gilson opined that five out of the six men were being truthful and described results for the sixth man, Allen Dalis, as "inconclusive".
Walton returns
On November 11, press reported that Walton had been found. Walton had placed a collect call to his sister's home from a payphone in Heber, Arizona Walton reached her husband, Grant Neff, who then drove to pick up Duane and proceeded to Heber to pick up Travis; Neff later reported he initially thought the caller was intoxicated. As part of the collect call procedure, Travis told the operator his name; she recognized his name as that of the missing man and alerted Sheriff Gillespie, who dispatched a Deputy to the family ranch house.Deputy Glen Flake arrived at 2:00 AM, where he witnessed Duane Walton transferring fuel from one car to another after having forgotten to purchase gas before local stations closed. Flake did not reveal that they knew Travis had returned home, and Duane did not tell the deputy that Travis had been found.
Seeking medical attention for Travis, Duane reached out to a UFO researcher he'd met days prior; the researcher referred them to "Dr." Lester Steward, a hypnotherapist. Duane took Travis to meet with Steward, but his first words were that Travis needed a medical examination with lab tests and was not ready for hypnotic regression. Steward noted that Travis seemed "very confused" and reminiscent of drug addicts he'd treated. Steward also noted that Travis had a small lesion on the inside crease of his right elbow, consistent with intravenous drug use. After meeting with Steward, the Waltons returned to Duane's home where UFO researchers arranged a house call by two medical doctors who were also amateur UFO investigators. When they arrived at 3:00 PM, Duane forbade them to use their camera or tape recorder, nor would he allow them to ask Travis questions about his experience. The doctors noted the presence of the apparent puncture mark and estimated it to be 24 to 48 hours old.
That day, stories of Travis's return had begun to spread, and press began calling Duane's home in an attempt to reach Travis. Duane finally informed law enforcement of Travis's return, calling Sheriff Gillespie who insisted on seeing Travis immediately. The sheriff drove the four hours into Glendale and arrived at 11:00 PM. Duane and Travis demanded that Sheriff Gillespie not record the interview.
After a local UFO group facilitated the connection, Duane and Travis moved into a suite at the Sheraton Inn in Scottsdale; the costs were covered by The National Enquirer in exchange for exclusive access to Walton and his story. On November 14, Travis skipped a polygraph interview with police, but that night, in the presence of Enquirer reporters, a doctor associated with a UFO group had a two-hour conversation with a hypnotized Travis about the incident. The following day, November 15, Travis was interviewed by Jack McCarthy a free-lance polygraph examiner arranged by a UFO group and the Enquirer. McCarthy concluded that Travis was engaged in a "gross deception" and had even been intentionally holding his breath in an attempt to "beat the machine".
On November 22, Travis appeared on Phoenix television station KOOL where he was interviewed about the incident. Travis claimed that he had lost consciousness when struck by a beam of light, and that he awoke in a hospital-like room, being observed by three short, bald creatures. He says that he fought with them until a human wearing a helmet led Walton to another room, where he blacked out as three other humans put a clear plastic mask over his face. Walton has said that he remembers nothing else until he found himself walking along a highway five days later, with the flying saucer departing above him.