The 1961 Joe Simonton Encounter

Joe Simonton heard a whining sound and saw an object, 10m in diameter, 4m high, with exhaust pipes around the periphery, land near his house. A door was opened and a man appeared.

About 1.50 m tall, he wore a black, turtle-neck pullover with a white turtleneck belt, and black trousers with a vertical white band along the side. Two figures were visible inside the object. Simonton filled a jug with water, returned it to the man, who gave him three ordinary pancakes, and the craft took off.

Wisconsin's strangest close encounter of the third kind must surely be the incident during which Joe Simonton was given three pancakes by "Italian-looking" aliens.

Despite the unlikely manner in which the story unfolded, the episode survived a rigorous assessment by the U.S. Air Force and is carried in their files as "unexplained."

In 1961, Joe Simonton was a plumber; auctioneer and Santa Claus - annually, for the Eagle River Chamber of Commerce. He reported his age as 55 or 60, depending on the interviewer: At 11 a.m., April 18, Simonton was having a late breakfast when he heard a sound like that of a jet being throttled back, something like the sound of "knobby tires on wet pavement." He went into the yard and saw a flying saucer drop out of the sky and hover over his farm.