I'm Lauren Norton, and this is one strange thing, the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained.

Strangers, we've always been quite partial to Michigan.

Now, do we say that about a lot of states?

Yes, but we cover the whole country, so you'll have to forgive us for developing a broad and varied fondness for these 50 states. And the mitten state is certainly no exception. From Dogman to its

haunted places like the Whitney Mansion, Michigan is simply teeming with stories. Today, though,

we're taking to the skies, and perhaps much farther,

to cover a spate of UFO sightings that were reported back in 1966. We've covered enough

flying saucers for you to know that the 1960s were prime alien territory. Project Blue Book,

the Air Force's investigation into UFOs in

alien life, ran from the early 50s straight into 1969. In that time frame, popular media

was absolutely obsessed with spaceships and little green men. And, per the Independent, there was a spike in UFO reportings in the 1960s,

though the Pentagon explained that a way as caused by, quote, U.S. military testing spy planes

and space technology. We'll leave the veracity of that explanation up to you, but there was

certainly something happening in Michigan in the spring

of 1966. Though the series is most famously known as the Ann Arbor UFO sightings, reports

apparently came in from all over Washington County, of which Ann Arbor is the seat. So let's

get to it, shall we? Most of the coverage comes from

an absolute slew of articles that ran in the Ann Arbor News, though other outlets across the nation,

they picked up the coverage too, and that's likely because UFO reports eventually flooded

in from across the Midwest and up through New

England.

Now, these Michigan sightings primarily took place in March of 1966, and though the most

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