From: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates.nul>
Date: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:14:10 -0500
Archived: Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:14:10 -0500
Subject:  The East Coast Roswell - Part II




Source: Seacoast Online - Exter, New Hampshire, USA

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20081226-LIFE-812260325

December 26, 2008


Exeter - The East Coast Roswell - Part II

Some believe there has been a continually utilized UFO window in
the Exeter quadrant since the town's founding with a renewed
interest and resurgence of "visitors" to the area.

By Dean Merchant
features.nul

Editor's note: This is part two of a story on UFOs in Exeter.
Part one, "Exeter =97 The East Coast Roswell," ran Friday, Dec. 19
and can be found online at www.seacoastonline.com.

The Exeter quadrangle (NW/4 Exeter 15') has long been a
geographic location of extraordinary interest to researching
ufologists and those who take UFO safaris about its hinterlands.
But early colonial documentation reveals that Exeter's first
English arrivals, the Rev. John Wheelwright and his band of
antinomians, came with pre-existing notions of UFOs.

Stratham's Pete Wiggin is a man born to his mission. The
passionate historian's DNA follows a direct line from Captain
Thomas Wiggin, first settler at Sandy Point, and New Hampshire's
first governor.

Wiggin scours early colonial wills and land deeds to carefully
reconstruct and chronicle historical events of Exeter and its
environs. He has discovered rare and important snippets in
obscure tomes that constantly enrich the Squamscott River
communities' heritage.

While researching Gov. John Winthrop's journal, Wiggin learned
that on Sept. 7, 1639, his (Wiggin's) Puritan ancestor, Captain
Tom, was chastised by authorities for helping the Rev.
Wheelwright (the two had arrived together in 1630 on Winthrop's
fleet) and his followers establish themselves at Exeter. The
troop had been booted out of Mass Bay by their less-liberal-
minded kin. These new arrivals at the head of the river had no
precognition of Exeter's future fame in ufology, but as Wiggin
discovered, they arrived with an awareness of UFO occurrences,
possible alien abductions and strange happenings.

Wiggin read in Winthrop's journal, "In this year (1639) one
James Everell, a sober, discreet man, and two others, saw a
great light in the night at Muddy River. When it stood still, it
flamed up, and was about three yards square; when it ran it was
contracted into the figure of a swine: it ran as swift as an
arrow towards Charlton, and so up and down about two or three
hours. They were come down in their lighter about a mile, and,
when it was over, they found themselves carried quite back
against the tide to the place they came from. Diverse other
credible persons saw the same light, after, about the same
place."

The antinomians' tenure was brief; most soon departed for Wells,
Maine. Over time the community grew into a stronghold for rebels
and served as the revolutionary capital of New Hampshire. In the
late 1700s, John Phillips begifted the town with an academy and
today Exonians hold a vast portion of undeveloped land in the
quadrant, running to the Great Meadows, the site of "The
incident at Exeter."

Silent Craft

Rita Podalsky resides just outside Kensington center, in the
middle of the Exeter quadrant and also in close proximity to
Great Meadows. It was in the heavily wooded area near her home
that the preschool teacher had a close encounter with
Unidentified Flying Objects 31 years ago.

Podalsky reflected, "My daughter was seven at the time. The
family was watching TV in the bedroom and the drapes were open
to the big picture window." Podalsky and her husband noticed
lights coming through the trees. The couple ran through the
house and out the front door to the yard. "It looked like a big
car with two bright headlights coming low and over the tops of
the trees," said Podalsky. In actuality, the beams were from
dual crafts, which Podalsky said were "slow and silent." They
passed just over the rooftop and disappeared over the Kensington
Church.

Podalsky's husband served in "Nam," she said, and he suggested
that the Air Force had developed such silent craft, and that
they must be helicopters from Pease Air Force Base. But Podalsky
never accepted that explanation because of the closeness and
complete silence. "They made no noise at all," she emphasized.

Kathy Marden, co-author of "Captured," related that a woman in
South Hampton, which borders Kensington, reported a very low-
flying craft, that landed in a field behind her house. According
to Marden, the incident was reported in the newspaper and
afterwards an Air Force officer arrived at the woman's home. He
told her she had not seen a UFO, but a helicopter. The woman
asked him, "Have you ever seen a silent helicopter?"

UFO Occupants

Marden also told of an incident that crossed her radar screen
involving a youth group from Newton (which borders South
Hampton). The teens saw a UFO in a field, said Marden, and
watched "little beings" in the field, seemingly collecting soil
samples.

According to a source in Exeter, a group of blueberry pickers
also observed a little being in the Epping Woods, across from
the Star Speedway. The source, an Exeter engineer descended from
an illustrious founding family (who stressed "for God's sake,
don't use my name"), said the incident occurred before the
highway was put in, when it was all woods.

"Blueberry pickers had gone into the woods and saw one of these
creatures, about 3 feet tall, with alien features." The engineer
said it was General Store-cracker barrel talk at the time, and a
hot-button topic.

The engineer also told of the experiences of an Exeter High
Street pillar of society, who around 1978, on more than one
occasion, saw a round UFO hovering outside an upper story
window. The woman, who lived a short distance from the PEA
walking trails (and curiously close to the domed, PEA Grainger
Astrological Observatory), could see the occupants inside the
UFO, said the engineer. She became concerned after seeing the
craft a number of times, but was ridiculed when she shared her
experience. She vowed she would never speak of it again.

With his molecules almost at a boil, the engineer bubbled out,
"Do you know what she said they looked like?" After a pause, he
sighed, "She said they did not really look that much different
from us."

UFO Safaris

Nighttime UFO safaris have been particularly popular in the
Exeter area quadrant, especially during UFO flaps.

Robert E. Cahill, in his book "New England's Visitors from Outer
Space," told of such a safari that he and two pals took with the
late Betty Hill in Kingston (her parents and sister had homes in
Kingston). The group first went to a railroad junction and
adjacent power lines where Hill said saucers frequently stopped.

Hill then took them to a "secret airfield" which was a turned
over farm field, secluded by "high trees and bushes." After six
hours and a few beers, the men ended their unproductive vigil.

Les Cooper, a retired social studies teacher, perennially
popular with his students, and a dedicated collector of Exeter
ephemia, resides in a family homestead tucked behind Exeter
Hospital. The scholarly gentleman said his mother and
stepfather, who enjoyed taking UFO safaris about the Exeter
quadrant, were on more than one occasion successful in their
quest. Cooper said that many people saw UFOs at the time. He
added that at the height of the UFO fervor, a woman from Hampton
took people on guided tours in search of UFOs.

The precedent for nighttime UFO safaris had been set by the
"Incident at Exeter," when for weeks dozens of cars took nightly
excursions to the notorious field. The owner of the land was
forced to block off his property with wire and post "Keep Out"
signs against the curiosity seekers, who littered the roadside
with beer cans and cigarettes.

It may be an advantageous time for UFO enthusiasts who hope for
a sighting. Just two weeks ago, a young woman was on her way to
work at 3:30 a.m. to put on the coffee for sleepy commuters. She
drove an extra loop to allow time to listen to her favorite
music. She was startled out of her solitude when a UFO passed
above her at the junction of Ash Swamp Road and Route 88. The
early morning store opener requested anonymity to avoid
potential teasing from her jocular morning patrons.

The bio-region of UFO interest encompasses lonely roads that
wind through and past such places as Shaws Hill, Giles Hill, Hog
Hill Swamp, Bugsmouth Hill, Wild Pasture Lane, Trundle Bed Lane
and Stumpfield Road.

The heart of the region is bisected by Drinkwater Road. On the
side opposite Great Meadows ("Incident") is another large swamp
of marsh and mire known as The Cove. Two electrical power lines
penetrate the interior of each swamp. The Cove is bounded to the
east by Route 88, a vicinity of many UFO sightings.

Are these isolated power lines used by UFOs to draw off energy?
According to the aforementioned engineer, a craft was seen by a
number of people, hovering above high tension lines in the Pine
Road area of Brentwood in the 1960s. Projecting from the UFO, he
said, was a silver tube line that ran right down to the
electrical lines.

Why A Renewed UFO Interest In Exeter?

It might be concluded that there has been a continually utilized
UFO window in the Exeter quadrant since the town's founding.
There are factors that may be leading to the renewed interest
and resurgence of "visitors" to the area.

A revived Portsmouth Naval Shipyard with a new generation of
nuclear submarines, and a second reactor at Seabrook Station
looming in John McCain's planned nuclear renaissance, combined
with a world in turmoil, follows an historic pattern of such
events that seem to magnetize the interest and concern of UFO
occupants.

Are they once again being drawn to Exeter?


[Thanks to Greg Boone for the lead]



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