Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” is the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on amazon.com, while supplies last.
Be sure and check out the fourth addition to this series, The Vast Venus Conspiracy, which has recently become available on amazon.com. Book five in the series, Lady Columba Venus Revelations, will premiere at the Siskiyou Masonic Lodge in Mt. Shasta, California, at the “Meet the Venusians” conference, 26-29 August 2021 See Rob Potter’s website, www.thepromiserevealeduat.com, for further information on the conference or to purchase tickets.
“Honey, I think you missed the Desert Center turn-off.”
Please check out the Mt Shasta Summer Conference Aug. 26th-27th by clicking this link here
Hugh Marlowe as Dr. Russell A. Marvin and Joan Taylor as his wife Carol Marvin get buzzed by a flying saucer on a desolate Southern California desert highway in Columbia Pictures’ 1956 sci-fi classic, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. To see the exciting trailer, click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o4fdX8gUMY.
On Being a Contactee
As a contactee with our friendly neighborhood Venusians, I follow in the footsteps with many of the pioneering lights in the UFO community. There is much that I have learned from such illuminated ones as Orfeo Angelucci, Albert Coe, Gabriel Green, Dana Howard, Gloria Lee, Howard Menger, Omnec Onec and many others. But probably the most well-known of all the contactees, and the mentor to them all, and myself, was none other than the amateur astronomer from Valley Center, California, George Adamski (1891-1965). While Adamski was not the first contactee to arrive on the scene in the previous century, he was certainly the most well-known due to the popularity of his three bestselling books about the planet Venus as the point of origin for the flying saucers which cruise our skies: Flying Saucers Have Landed, co-authored by Desmond Leslie (New York, New York: British Book Centre, 1953); Inside the Space Ships (New York, New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1955) and Flying Saucers Farewell (New York, New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1961).
Desert Center Gains Notoriety
It took the landing of a spaceship from Venus to put the small town of Desert Center, California, on the map. As with the rest of the United States in 1952, there were sightings galore of the flying saucers since 1947, and maybe a little before that; but as far as most people were concerned, none of these objects had ever landed with any of its occupants getting out of the craft and meeting a regular human being of Earth.
Then, at 12:30 midday on 20 November 1952, a then 61-year-old amateur astronomer and metaphysical instructor, George Adamski, was visiting from Valley Center, California, with four friends packed in his car, where they encountered a landed flying saucer on the desert floor north of Blythe and Desert Center, California. Adamski understood from the barrage of Southern California newspaper clippings he had read throughout 1952 about a massive flying saucer flap taking place in this area that he and his group’s best chance of actually getting close to a landed saucer would come about by being situated right at the spot they now found themselves. Adamski expressed a feeling that extraterrestrials had guided him to this very location, albeit such a remote one.
Adamski was the only one in the group to approach the landed saucer, availing himself of the opportunity of speaking with its pilot, who self-identified telepathically with Adamski as a Venusian named Orthon. According to Adamski, the extraterrestrial looked human, having straight blonde hair and being about 5’4” in height. The Venusian was clad in a light tan jumpsuit and took on an androgynous appearance, having a slender figure and delicate fingers, as well as a lack of any discernible facial hair.
Adamski’s four companions signed sworn affidavits that this meeting actually took place. One of them was a prominent archaeologist from Prescott, Arizona, Dr. George Hunt Williamson, who made plaster of Paris impressions of Orthon’s footprints. The true story of what happened to those plaster casts, and the result of their analysis by a Livermore Labs atomic scientist, are found in my most recent book, The Vast Venus Conspiracy (Terra Alta, West Virginia: Headline Books, 2020).
Source of Adamski saucer model below: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/308144799477661848/.
“Out-of-This-World Saucer”
Adamski himself took a series of photographs of the Venusian “scout ship” with two of his special cameras he brought along on this excursion, a Hagler-Dresden Graflex and a Brownie, just in case they ran into a real flying saucer. Pev Marley, the cameraman for Cecil B. DeMille’s movie classic, Greatest Show on Earth (Paramount Pictures, Hollywood, California, 1952), took the time to examine all of Adamski’s photographs taken of the scout ship on 20 November 1952, during a special closed-door meeting of the Air Force Reserve Officers held at an officer’s club in Los Angeles, California, on 1 June 1953. Of the photographs, Marley informed the assembled officers that, “If the pictures were faked, they were the cleverest I have ever seen.” The minutes of the Air Force Reserve Officers also records that, “The Air Force has agreed, unofficially, that these saucers come from out of this world.”
Saucer Sightings over the Colorado Desert
The Southern California towns of Blythe and Desert Center are located in the Colorado Desert, an area covering the eastern side of Riverside County. Blythe is about 4 miles west of the Arizona-California state line. Back in 1955, what is now Interstate 10 was known as U.S. Route 60-70; and if one were to continue due west along that route for a distance of 48 miles, they would find themselves in the small community of Desert Center, where Adamski and his contingent encountered the landed Venusian scout ship and its pilot Orthon.
In 1955, Blythe had a population of approximately 4,100. Being the hub of the agriculturally-rich Palo Verde Valley, from the air Blythe appears as a vast green-and-white checkerboard of alfalfa and cotton, hugging the Colorado River in the southeast corner of California. The town is encircled by 30 square miles of windswept dune and rugged mountain country, an extension of the Colorado Desert, the 17th largest desert area on Earth. The village of Blythe began one hundred years ago, in 1920, after a consortium of Arizona farmers spent $40 million in diverting the unpredictable waters of the Colorado River, thereby transforming the barren wasteland on the California side into a second “Valley of the Nile.” Blythe’s Main Street in 1955 consisted of a conglomeration of tourist courts, used-car lots and mercantile establishments. However, there were quiet and shady side streets that stretched out toward the lush, green farms and open cattle range to the west.
Investigative journalist Paul C. Benard, who wrote an article about the growing popularity of Blythe and Desert Center as UFO hot spots, “Who Believes in Flying Saucers?” in the July 1955 issue of Bluebook magazine (New York City, New York), provided a rundown on unusual UFO sightings by residents of these two desert communities that took place prior to Adamski’s contact with the Venusian. The journalist began by visiting science classes at Blythe High School, where he conducted a survey among the students, soliciting their opinions about flying saucers. What he discovered was that since 1951 to 1955, 123 of the students had actually testified to seeing the flying saucers over Blythe. And among the student body at large, there was a near-unanimous opinion that the flying saucers were real, physical objects that came from outer space.
Truck Buzzed by Flying Saucer
Frank Hines was a mechanic at the Desert Center Garage when, on the night of 14 June 1952, he claims that he was buzzed by a flying saucer as he was driving a tow truck along Highway 60-70. Apparently, he was spotted by the occupants of a flying saucer, who directed their ship at him, swooping down from the sky and hovering over his truck for the space of about two miles, before the saucer just flew off.
Civil Air Patrol Spotters Befuddled
In mid-July 1952, Tom Jewel, a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) spotter stationed at Blythe, reported four flying saucer sightings throughout a ten-day period. In every instance, there was a flying saucer that rose up in a straight line from behind a nearby mountain range. The object would then turn in a sharp, right-angle and fly across the sky at an estimated speed of 900 miles per hour. Then it would just disappear over Arizona skies off in the eastern horizon.
Within the same ten-day period, another CAP spotter, Frank Draper, also out of Blythe, reported three similar flying saucer sightings.
On the Trail of the Flying Saucers
Our intrepid reporter Paul C. Benard was hot on the trail of the flying saucers. For three weeks in the spring of 1955, he spoke with people from “all walks of life” in the “Flying Saucer Country” of the Colorado Desert and particularly in its two prominent towns of Blythe and Desert Center. He wanted to know everything that the townies of Blythe and Desert Center could recollect and tell him about George Adamski, the interest of the Air Force in their sightings of fireballs and flying saucers, and anything else the residents might have to say about Nordic-looking Venusians wearing tan jumpsuits or arrayed in metallic gear and poking around in the desert.
“I talked to scrawny cowboys in skin-tight Levis and wealthy ranchers in overgrown Stetsons,” said Benard, adding that, “I talked to Mexican and African-American farmhands, desert rats and high school kids.” As to his time in Blythe, the larger of the two towns, the journalist noted that, “I talked to the mayor, the chief of police, the newspaper editor and the manager of the radio station. I talked to the high school principal, the superintendant of schools and the Chamber of Commerce.” But most importantly, Benard emphasized that, “Everyone talked right back.”
Stay Tuned
To discover more of the fascinating flying saucer secrets of the legendary California towns of Blythe and Desert Center, intimately tied to the historical encounter of George Adamski with the Venusian Orthon, don’t miss Part II of this article on this same website. –Cosmic Ray
Desert Center, California: Epicenter of Flying Saucer Reports, Part II
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, II, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray”
Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” is the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on amazon.com, while supplies last.
Be sure and check out the fourth addition to this series, The Vast Venus Conspiracy, which has recently become available on amazon.com. Book five in the series, Lady Columba Venus Revelations, will premiere at the Siskiyou Masonic Lodge in Mt. Shasta, California, at the “Meet the Venusians” conference, 26-30 August 2020. See Rob Potter’s website, thepromiserevealed.com, for further information on the conference or to purchase tickets.
Flying saucer photographed over Southern California desert area. Photo source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/21/what-is-behind-the-decline-in-ufo-sightings.
In Part II of this series, we examine just how the residents of Blythe and Desert Center, California, felt about the massive presence of the flying saucers over their fair communities. Back in 1955, New York’s Bluebook magazine investigative reporter, Paul C. Benard, was the first on the scene to solicit the opinions of the denizens of Southern California’s Colorado Desert with respect to the elusive objects in their midst that had so attracted the world’s attention to their area. Frankly, even in 2020, both Blythe and Desert Center continue to serve as huge draws for the burgeoning UFO tourism industry.
KYOR Radio and the Flying Saucer Connection
Reporter Benard was looking to speak with someone “in the know” about flying saucer sightings in eastern Riverside County, and who better than John M. Wages, the manager of Blythe’s then sole radio station, KYOR. Benard had written to Wages and told him that he would be coming out to the Colorado Desert for the purpose of finding out about flying saucer sightings in the area and asking the radio station manager if he could provide him with a few leads and perhaps introduce him around the community. Benard’s first stop would be meeting with other employees of KYOR Radio.
When Benard first arrived in Blythe, he went directly to the radio station. He was greeted by Wages, who pumped his hand, inquiring, “How are you? It’s nice to see you. But what in hell have you got me into?” The station manager further added that, “I got your letter; and I thought I would give you a hand. I put an item on the air last night, saying that if anyone had definite ideas about the saucers, they could contact you here at the station. Well, they sure as hell contacted!”
It turns out that Paul Lyman, one of KYOR’s announcers, was alone in the radio station when the pitch went out over the air; and for the next two hours, KYOR’s telephone lines were jammed. “I knew people were interested,” said Lyman, “but I didn’t know they were that interested.”
Bernard wondered what Lyman thought about flying saucers, and asked him as much. “Well,” the announcer hedged, “I don’t really know. But when everybody, including the government, gets so worked up about something, it can’t be nothing!”
The Bluebook magazine reporter also spoke with KYOR’s continuity chief, Robin Hill, who was more definite about the flying saucers. “Don’t ask me what they are,” he asserted, “but one thing is certain: they sure as hell are.”
Even Mrs. Wages opined on the flying saucer craze sweeping the desert communities. “No matter where you go,” she said, “the talk always comes around to saucers.” She explained that even local service clubs were inviting UFO “authorities” to come and speak at their luncheons; and a local minister devoted his Sunday sermon to the whys and wherefores of the saucers’ arrival. The wife of the radio station manager also noted that the science classes at Blythe High School devoted much of their time to studying UFOs and the possibility of intelligent life existing on other planets. There was a group of teachers and students that met every two weeks to study recent sightings and flying saucer reports from throughout the area.
John M. Wages affirmed what his wife stated about the enthusiasm for UFO research being generated at the local high school. He pointed out to Benard that, “George Wixom, the science teacher, has even organized a citizens’ committee; and they have scheduled a meeting at the high school auditorium to hear a tape recording by an aircraft worker who he says he’s made several contacts with saucers.” Wages added that, “If you want to study reactions, stick around for that meeting; and if your schedule is not too full, Mrs. Wages wants to take you out to Desert Center to see where Adamski says he met the man from Venus.”
The radio station manager’s wife wanted to take the reporter to the exact spot in the desert where Adamski met the Venusian cosmonaut Orthon. Picture source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/329888741426129064/.
Benard spent an entire day with John M. Wages at the radio station, even staying with him as he put KYOR’s broadcast operations to bed for the night. Wages introduced the reporter to literally all of the station personnel, the last one being a part-time station employee, Bill Tucker. This gentleman’s full-time, day job was working as a Civil Aeronautics Administration engineer, so if anyone would be knowledgeable about the maneuvering and operational characteristics of the flying saucers, this would be the “Johnny on the Spot,” so to speak.
No sooner did Benard tell Tucker why he was in Blythe, that the aeronautics engineer was ready with an amazing flying saucer story:
“A buddy of mine up in Elko, Nevada, spotted three UFOs cruising along beside his plane; and he took photos. I helped him develop them. We figured the saucers were 30 to 50 feet in diameter and flying about 100 feet from his plane.” Tucker related that he and his friend notified the Air Force Intelligence in San Francisco, California, and an officer flew out to Elko the very next day. The Air Force investigative officer looked at the UFO photos and said they were nothing. “But before he left,” noted Tucker, “he confiscated the prints and negatives and suggested that we forget the whole thing.” The aeronautics engineer smiled wryly and commented, “Tell me, really, how does a guy forget nothing?”
Model of flying saucers from The Invaders television program (1967-1968).
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi_sABa21QM.
Looking for a shortcut that you never found…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOLGrXOtuwQ
Don’t forget to return to this website for Part III of “Desert Center, California: Epicenter of Flying Saucer Reports,” where we pile into the car with Dr. Raymond Keller, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” correspondent Paul C. Benard, Mrs. Wages and her ten-year-old son, Johnny, Jr., who take us directly to the spot where Adamski met Orthon, a Venusian flying saucer pilot, just off a remote road 10.2 miles from Desert Center.
Desert Center, California: Epicenter of Flying Saucer Reports, Part III
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, II, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray”
Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” is the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on amazon.com, while supplies last.
In 1955 a special meeting was called in the sunbaked desert community of Blythe, Riverside County, California, to discuss the 1952 George Adamski contact case as well as an intense flap of flying saucer sightings and close encounters of every kind that ensued ever since. Photo Source: https://www.wired.com/story/how-ufo-sightings-became-an-american-obsession/.
Stepping Out on Hallowed Ground
On the day following the Bluebook magazine correspondent’s series of interviews conducted with the personnel of Blythe, California, KYOR Radio, Paul C. Benard continued where he left off, driving out to the station manager John M. Wages’ home to pick up Mrs. Wages and their 10-year-old son, Johnny, Jr., who were scheduled to direct the reporter to the exact spot where the now famous contactee, George Adamski, claimed to have photographed a Venusian scoutship and communicated with its pilot, telepathically at first and then vocally.
No sooner had Benard pulled into Wages’ driveway, than he was greeted by John, Sr., who introduced him to his wife and son before heading off to work in his own car. The mother and son then situated themselves comfortably in the back of Benard’s car while Mrs. Wages gave directions from the back seat as to the route that the journalist should take to get to the small and sunbaked settlement of Desert Center, some 48 miles to the west of Blythe off U.S. Route 60-70.
While Benard was driving the long stretch, Mrs. Wages talked incessantly about George Adamski and speculated on how life might be on Venus, the Moon and Mars. She even brought a copy of the book that Adamski co-wrote with the British nobleman Sir Desmond Leslie along with her, just in case they needed to reference anything once they arrived at the site. She was proud to have a copy that Adamski personally autographed for her. John, Jr., rolled down the window on his side of the car and put his head down on his mother’s lap. “Just wake me up when we get there,” he declared. Apparently, he had been to the site on a few occasions.
When Benard pulled off Route 60-70 and into Desert Center, there wasn’t that much to see: a small diner, a service station and a handful of houses. “So, this is the flying saucer mecca of the world” mused Benard.
“Actually, Paul, we have a little way more to go. The landing site is somewhere in the vicinity of the mile marker at 10.2 miles from this state road that we are now on. It cuts across the Colorado desert to the northeast, leading out to Parker Dam,” explained Mrs. Wages.
There was nobody else on this desolate road. Benard was glad that he took the time to fill up his car, as well as check the battery and oil, as soon as they exited the U.S. route. Mrs. Wages, with ample foresight, packed and brought along a picnic lunch of fried chicken, potato salad and soda pop.
No sooner than Benard and party arrived at the marker, than another car was seen parked alongside the road. At least they knew that they weren’t alone anymore and somebody else was out there checking out the situation. Little Johnny poked his head out the window and scanned the horizon. “Look!” he shouted. “There’s a Venusian over there!” Johnny brought a pair of binoculars along with him, just in case any extraterrestrials or flying saucer occupants were to show up. He focused the field glasses on the small being slipping and sliding down the lava-strewn slopes about a quarter of a mile away. “Aw, shucks!” declared Johnny, Jr. “It’s only another kid.”
“So, who drove the car?” wondered Benard. “Can I see your binoculars, Johnny?” asked the reporter.
“Sure, Mr. Benard. No problem,” said Johnny, Jr., handing them over.
“Hmmm, there are two women out there. They look to be elderly, maybe in their late 60s or 70s.” They were making their way down a treacherous hillside. Benard and Mrs. Wages walked over to talk to them. One was the frolicking boy’s grandmother and the other was her lady friend. They drove all the way from Portland, Oregon, a whopping 1,345-mile trip, just to see this place where a Venusian had allegedly come to Earth in a flying saucer.
The expanded party then reconnoitered the area for about an hour until they came across a spot that matched the descriptions provided by Adamski in his book. It was a vast clearing, surrounded by wind-worn sandhills, just as Adamski clearly stated in his epic Flying Saucers Have Landed. There was also an abundance of other evidence that we had found the right spot. Hundreds of other “saucer researchers” had come to this God-forsaken locale during the past year or so and set up camp, wistfully hoping that Orthon and the Venusian scout ship would return. The clearing was littered with tin cans and the charred remains of campfires. There were even old mattresses with protruding bed springs and crude, wooden tables. The camp sites had clearly been abandoned, however; and Benard pondered what new saucer landing zone they might have flocked to. After all, there were plenty of new contactees emerging on the saucer circuit, with lots of them right there in California. He heard rumors about a Venusian flying saucer base being located right under Mt. Shasta, in the north of the state.
Varied Local Opinions
Later that afternoon, Benard, Mrs. Wages and son were back in Blythe. After the correspondent dropped them back at their home, Benard spoke once again with the Blythe High School science teacher, George Wixom, at his residence. “What do you think of this Adamski fellow, George? You’re of a scientific mindset. Is he legit?”
“Well, Paul, human belief is a strange thing. No matter how strongly you believe something that hasn’t actually been proved, there is always a tiny, recurring doubt in the back of your head. Normally, I would dismiss Adamski’s claims out of hand, since Venus is probably too hot to support any life as we know it. However, he does have lots of witnesses who have signed affidavits attesting to the reality of his encounter, and the mysterious being Orthon apparently said he was from Venus.”
Wixom then informed Benard that his arrival in Blythe was fortuitous, for there was to be a citizen’s meeting later that night, where a San Diego newspaperman, F. E. Rogers, was to play a tape- recorded message about Venusians coming to Earth in their flying saucers. Wixom was slotted to emcee the event. “Do you know Rogers and have you heard this tape?” asked Benard.
“No, I haven’t,” declared Wixom. Then he smiled and added, “But I think you have to keep an open mind when you are trying to get at the truth.”
Benard realized that he had arrived in this desert area at a most opportune time. News of Rogers’ forthcoming presentation had spread far and wide. Grady Setzler, the editor of the Palo Verde Times, had also arrived in Blythe to cover this story. Benard and Wixom met up with the editor in a local café, the Blythe Coffee Shop, prior to the big meeting. Setzler seems to be keeping an open mind about flying saucers and Venusians, too. “Mine is only a layman’s point of view,” he related to Benard and the science teacher, “but I don’t rule out the saucers. Only an ignorant person would do that.”
Others were hanging around in the local restaurant waiting for the arrival of Rogers and the start of the momentous meeting:
Blythe mayor A. J. Alexander, on the other hand, refused to commit himself one way or another. Like the typical politician, all he had to say was, “Anything is possible; but that is all I will say.”
A local minister opined that, “Church-going folks are sometimes afraid to admit that the saucers may be a reality;” but he had to question, “Does God have so little ability that he couldn’t have created other worlds and humans to populate them?”
Even Lois Kumer, a waitress at the café, shared a hunch she had that the flying saucers come from another world. “But I’d sure like to know,” she told Benard, “because my husband Jerry, a radio-installations man, has seen those saucers time-and-time again. He told me that their speed and method of flight defy anything on this planet.”
Hitting a Snag- “Cancel Culture” 1950’s Style
People from everywhere were showing up at the café, crowding all the tables, standing room only. They were all waiting for the green light to move over to the high school auditorium for Rogers’ flying saucer presentation. Suddenly the boys from KYOR Radio burst into the Blythe Coffee Shop with some bad news. Permission to use the high school for the saucer meeting had been revoked by the school board.
Benard managed to catch up with the Superintendent of Schools, Murrell M. Miller, who proclaimed, “The board cannot afford to go out on a limb. We can’t have it appear that we are sponsoring this meeting and officially endorsing Rogers and his tape recording.”
At that moment, a local rancher, Clyde Cowan, offered the use of his home for the meeting, partially solving the committee’s problem. The last-minute change, plus the fact that the new meeting venue was seven miles outside of Blythe, might cut down the attendance substantially. Surprisingly, when the Bluebook magazine correspondent actually reached the ranch house, there were more than 70 people crammed into the sprawling living room.
The local science teacher served as the emcee and announced that the meeting would be delayed for about twenty minutes, allowing sufficient time for any stragglers to arrive. By the time the meeting was convened, there were more than eighty in attendance and even more were expected.
Don’t forget to return to this website for Part IV of “Desert Center, California: Epicenter of Flying Saucer Reports,” where we attend the controversial flying saucer meeting in search of the truth about the Venusian visitations to Earth, and Southern California particularly.
Desert Center, California: Epicenter of Flying Saucer Reports, Part IV
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, II, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray”
Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” is the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on amazon.com, while supplies last.
Back in 1955, San Diego’s Talk of the Times news magazine editor, F. E. Rogers, introduced this amazing photograph of a space alien to those assembled on Clyde Cowan’s Blythe, California, ranch for a special meeting on the subject of flying saucers. The editor maintained that this photo depicted “one of the little people found in a crashed spaceship near Mexico City.” The men on both sides of the aliens are allegedly members of the Mexican government’s Federal Ministerial Police.
Mr. Rogers in the Neighborhood Flying Saucer Meeting
After the short delay to allow for the stragglers to arrive at the ranch house meeting on flying saucers, it was the local Blythe High School science teacher, George Wixom, who called the meeting to order and introduced that night’s speaker, the editor of the San Diego, California, news magazine, Talk of the Times, F. E. Rogers.
Before this gentleman started his lecture, however, he distributed a four-page photo offset program, announcing that he, Rogers, would be presenting a tape-recorded interview with a Southern California aircraft plant worker, Orfeo Matthew Angelucci, concerning his 35-minute flight in a flying saucer taken right there in the Golden State. One of the inside pages displayed the opening photograph of this article depicting a tiny man in a shiny, skin-tight silvery suit. Of the strange clothing worn by this entity, Rogers wrote that, “He was dressed in a mixture of metals wound tightly around his body to help withstand the Earth’s atmospheric pressure. We, of course, do not have any such material on this planet.” According to Rogers’ pamphlet, this being was supposedly an alien whom Mexican federal police authorities had saved from a flying saucer crash that took place on the outskirts of Mexico City just a few months previously, in the Spring of 1955.
Rogers, a white-haired older gentleman, fiddled with the dials on his tape- recording device. He then adjusted his green eyeshade and cleared his throat. “You people out here should be very interested in flying saucers,” he began speaking in a thin, quavering voice, continuing, “Of course, the saucer people have shown great interest in your part of the country….”
The owner of the Blythe Music Shop, Leonard Ullom, was skeptical from the git-go. “Just a moment,” he interrupted; “What about this picture of the spaceman? Where did you get it?”
The San Diego editor replied that, “Someone in the know sent it to me.”
“Who?” the inquiring Ullom demanded.
“I am a newspaperman, sir,” Rogers retorted; “so you understand that I have to protect my sources.”
Local resident Robin Hill, however, wanted to know more about the space suit. “Just how do you know, sir, that we do not have any metal like it?”
“I’m sorry that I am not authorized to answer that question, sir. If I were to do so, I might inadvertently supply a clue as to the classified source.”
“Understood,” noted Hill.
Astounding Lecture
Many other locals started to raise their hands with yet more questions. The science teacher came to the rescue, however, declaring that, “Perhaps Mr. Rogers should get on with the recording. There will be a question period later on.”
Rogers affirmed that the tape all were about to hear was “backed up by the facts.” He pointed out that while Adamski’s story was well written, it wasn’t scientifically documented, like Angelucci’s was. Orfeo Matthew Angelucci was a Lockheed Aviation worker from Los Angeles, and at least had some idea of the technical aspects of certain contemporary aircraft. He had a weighted opinion about the power and maneuvering characteristics of these flying saucers, that largely remained enigmatic to the public at large.
Rogers then flicked the on switch of his tape recorder; and for the next hour the people of Southern California’s Saucer Country enjoyed the opportunity of listening to Angelucci’s expert testimony concerning flying saucers and his ideas of where they come from.
The tape reel began to run:
“On May 23, 1952,” declared Angelucci in his recorded testimony, “a hazy, burgundy-colored glow led me through heavy Los Angeles traffic to a desolate spot outside the city where the glow was suddenly transformed into a green disc, only two-and-a-half feet in diameter.”
The aircraft worker believed that the small disc was remote controlled, some kind of probe. “I got a message from the disc,” he stated, adding that, “They (the intelligences behind the flying saucers) somehow informed me through this disc, by mental telepathy, that they would return to me on an urgent matter.”
Orfeo M. Angelucci (1912-1993) was a frequent presenter at the Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Conventions held at Landers Field, California, about 17 miles northeast of Yucca Valley, from the mid-50s to the late 70s. Angelucci claims to have contacted ethereal beings from the Confederation of Planets that took on the appearance of normal humans when operating on Earth.
Orfeo Rides in a Flying Saucer
As the tape recorder continued to play, the assembled Californians heard Orfeo Angelucci’s astounding account of his 35-minute ride aboard a flying saucer on 27 May 1952, just four days after his initial encounter with the drone. The aircraft mechanic said that the space people looked just like us, in most outwardly visible aspects. They related to him how scientists in the Soviet Union were in the process of developing a more lethal type of atomic bomb; and that when they achieved this objective, they would launch a first strike against the United States.
He further declared that the Venusians and beings from other member worlds in the Confederation of Planets were even then working behind the scenes in both the Iron Curtain and the United States to put a stop to this perilous trend, thereby averting World War III. According to this contactee, the extraterrestrials were also urging Americans to support the efforts of concerned scientists to stop the proliferation of atomic weapons and yet more powerful rockets to deliver these devices and to write their elected representatives in Washington, D.C., clearly expressing their concerns on these critical matters. They also gave Angelucci numerous revelatory verses from the Old Testament book of Isaiah to back up their words of warning.
Myriad of Questions, Few Answers
After the presentation, the emcee opened the floor for questions and almost every hand went up. Here were some of the questions asked of Rogers:
“Who has heard this tape before?”
“Has the Air Force shown any interest in this tape?”
“Have recognized scientific authorities listened to this tape?”
Such questions continued to bombard Rogers’ ears for the next two hours. For most of the questions, all the presenter could say is that he was “not at liberty to answer them at this time.” Also, since Orfeo Angelucci could not be present at the meeting due to personal engagements, and speak for himself, Rogers hesitated to put words in his mouth. The San Diego editor concluded the Q and A session with some harsh words. “I didn’t come out here from San Diego to be tricked!” he shouted. These are the facts. You can take them or leave them.”
These remarks did not go over to well at the crowded ranch house. One gentleman in the assembly identified himself as Robert Dwyer. He was a soft-spoken, horn-rimmed college type, and began to address Rogers in a steady voice. “You’re insulting our intelligence, sir. Most of us out here have a hunch that the saucers are real. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have come here tonight. But statements about saucers, like statements about everything else, have to be backed by some kind of proof.
“We’re not trying to trick you; and we are not saying that Angelucci’s a crackpot. But we do not take anyone’s word, including from government representatives, unless it is backed up by facts or, at least, by common sense.”
In my second book in the Venus Rising series, the Final Countdown: Rockets to Venus (Terra Alta, WV: Headline Books, 2017), I publish all of the FBI files pertaining to the surveillance of George Adamski and some of the flying saucer club meetings where he appeared as the guest speaker. At some of the smaller gatherings, it was estimated that there were probably more FBI agents in attendance than actual individuals with a sole interest in the subject of flying saucers. Mr. Dwyer’s overall professional bearing, snappy dress and eloquent words not common to most of the desert saucer observers in attendance that evening, give me an unsettling feeling that he may have been a government plant. Interestingly enough, at the recent Meet the Venusians conference up at the Masonic Lodge in Mt. Shasta, California, 26-30 August 2020, numerous attendees reported seeing FBI surveillance vans parked in the back of some local motels.
There was an enthusiastic round of applause and the meeting broke up noisily. Bluebook magazine correspondent Paul C. Benard went back to his motel to get some rest before departing Blythe the next morning. Of his experiences in the Colorado desert areas of Southern California, the journalist noted that, “I took two things along: a notebook bulging with names and dates, personal opinions and hastily-scribbled impressions, and a renewed respect for the down-to-Earth reasoning of the average American.”
Desert Center, California: Epicenter of Flying Saucer Reports, Part V
By Dr. Raymond A. Keller, II, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray”
Raymond A. Keller, PhD, a.k.a. “Cosmic Ray,” is the author of the international awards-winning Venus Rising Series, published by Headline Books and available on amazon.com, while supplies last.
Let’s Get Acquainted with Japanese Friends of Venus
From Keller Venus Files comes this painting of a beautiful woman from Venus known to project a kind, lyrical voice telepathically to some of the members of the Party of Wisdom flying saucer study group of Japan’s Get Acquainted Program (GAP), headquartered in Tokyo. The painting graced the cover of the Summer 1988 issue of UFO Contactee, the quarterly GAP Japanese language edition.
Get Acquainted Program of Japan
Hachiro Kubota, director of the Gap Acquainted Program of Japan, a group studying the works of the late George Adamski (1891-1965) and other contactees from around the world, has led many excursions from Japan to the outskirts of the small town of Desert Center, California, located just off Interstate 10 in the center stretches of the Colorado Desert in Riverside County. On his first visit to Desert Center on 21 January 1989, Kubota led his party of Japanese UFO tourists to the exact spot of Adamski’s first contact with a Venusian saucer pilot on 20 November 1952, that was also attested to by six witnesses, among them the famed anthropologist Dr. George Hunt Williamson (1926-1986). Since that time, Kubota has led semi-annual tours to the remote desert site. But on 31 December 1996, the director of this prominent Japanese flying saucer group, embarked on his most remarkable of all pilgrimages to Desert Center.
Within the Get Acquainted Program central chapter in Tokyo, a study group was formed for the benefit of the more stalwart, younger members. Called the Reimei-kai, or “Party of Wisdom,” the director of the national program presided over the weekly meetings of this group, that consisted of twelve members. They were all quite excited when they were invited by Kubota to accompany him on his next trip to California. They had worked part-time after school for an entire year, saving their money for the excursion. Onboard the plane from Tokyo to Los Angeles on 31 December 1996, Kubota and the young people watched the in-flight movie of Independence Day (Twentieth Century Fox, 1996), thoroughly enjoying it. Kubota had pointed out that according to the teachings of George Adamski, there are both good and bad aliens. In fact, there had even been wars fought in outer space, with the some of the devastation still evident on the surface of the Moon and some of the planets visible through telescopes or space probes. Kubota assured the youth that if hostile aliens were to attack the Earth, he felt confident that the Venusians and other friendly extraterrestrials would come to help us repel the invaders.
Having arrived at the Los Angeles International Airport, the group boarded a chartered bus and head headed south toward Palm Springs, California. Kubota noted that, “The night view of that famous resort city was fantastic. Holiday decorations were still up; and countless small lights were shining and twinkling everywhere. We stayed at a motel called Travelodge of Palm Springs, with a number of separate buildings dotted across vast grounds. There we were joined by Daniel Ross. He had driven 800 kilometers from the city of Concord, in Northern California, to be part of our tour.” Ross, a former nuclear power technician on active duty in the United States Navy from 1970-1974, served onboard the submarine USS Pintado (SSN-672), for the last three years of his enlistment. Being well-versed in the subjects of nuclear physics, reactor plant technology, chemistry, radiation principles and fluid mechanics, he wrote a definitive book in defense of George Adamski and other contactees titled UFOs and the Complete Evidence from Space: The Truth About Venus, Mars and the Moon (Walnut Creek, California: Pintado Publishing, 1987). In the late 1980s through the 1990s, Ross was a frequent speaker on the international UFO lecture circuit, particularly with worldwide chapters of the Get Acquainted Program.
From the Files of the Get Acquainted Program of Japan: One of several photographs of a UFO flying over Palm Springs in Southern California, the object was snapped as it appeared suddenly at a low altitude a little after 9 a.m. on 1 January 1997. This particular photograph was taken by Futoshi Nishikawa from the terrace of the Palm Springs Travelodge using a Pentax Z-50p with an 80-200mm zoom lens. It was also observed simultaneously by Party of Wisdom UFO study group members Kato, Tsuda, Kitami, Obara, Shiro, Aida, Fukui, Takahashi and Mishima.
First Sighting
During the first morning in California, the group was to rendezvous on the terrace at nine. As the chaperone of the group, Kubota felt that he should be the first to arrive, so he went down a little early. To his surprise, most of the tour members were already there. The youth were very excited and animated as they informed Kubota about a UFO they had just observed in the sky over the open area in front of the motel. It was a saucer-shaped object hovering at a very low altitude and some in the group were even able to snap photos of it. Everyone in the party took the appearance of this UFO as a good sign that they were all off to a wonderful start. One student blurted out, “The space people are encouraging us,” and everyone heartily agreed. Now being duly inspired by this first appearance of a flying saucer, the visiting Japanese students were henceforth expecting to see many more extraterrestrial spaceships during the duration of their trip.
On the way to the exact site of Adamski’s contact location about ten miles northeast of town, the group went to lunch at a local truck stop restaurant in downtown Desert Center, which wasn’t much to speak of. Kubota noted that in his many years of conducting tours to Desert Center, “It seems to be deteriorating rapidly these days.” Having driven through the town on several occasions myself, I would have to say that of late it has become something of a ghost town. But as this was the same dining establishment where Adamski and his six friends stopped before their legendary encounter with the Venusian pilot self-identified as “Orthon,” a little more than 44 years ago, Kubota and his party felt it obligatory to stop there. While it was cloudy during that morning, when the group left their motel in Palm Springs, by the time they arrived at Desert Center, the skies were clear and everyone was basking in the beautiful sunshine. In fact, the conditions were perfect for photography.
Commenting on this unique excursion, Kubota remarked, “The first thing I did after getting off the bus was to take a lot of pictures of the open desert land from the highway with a medium-format camera. From the ‘desert,’ most people imagine an ocean of beautiful, fine sand, like the Sahara Desert in Africa. But this desert is not that kind. Part of the great Mojave Desert covering a large portion of the American Southwest, it is barren land with a hard surface, scattered low shrubs, and stones everywhere. The temperature in summer reaches more than 40 degrees Celsius. But we were there in winter; and it was a very comfortable 14 degrees (Celsius). We began walking together toward the contact spot. The distance to the spot from the Parker Highway, where we got off the bus, is 600 meters.” Kubota knew this because he had measured it precisely with a measuring tape a few years back, while conducting a previous tour.
Party of Wisdom tour members at the alleged spot that George Adamski first encountered a Venusian cosmonaut at Desert Center, California, on 20 November 1952. In the back row at far left is Hachiro Kubota, the tour group leader, and to the far right is American nuclear energy and outer space expert, Daniel Ross of Walnut Creek, California. Photo from April 1997 issue of UFO Contactee, the GAP newsletter English language monthly edition.
Second Sighting
When Kubota first discovered the original contact spot on 21 January 1989, he was accompanied by Daniel Ross and his wife, who had brought with them duplicates of the photographs that identified the location in Dr. George Hunt Williamson’s classic UFO book, Other Tongues– Other Flesh (Amherst, Wisconsin: Amherst Press, 1953). Frankly, Kubota admitted that it was truly a miracle that he was able to find the location. The area is vast, and for anyone to find a specific point by chance is most improbable. Because of this, the director of the UFO group acknowledged that, “I strongly believe that I was guided somehow by a UFO high in the sky above.” Insofar as Dr. Williamson, one of the six witnesses to Adamski’s original encounter with the Venusian, was the one who made the famous plaster casts of the footprints of Orthon from the imprints left by the soles of that flying saucer occupant’s shoes in the desert soil, there were photographs of him making these casts that appeared in the above-cited book. Kubota used the mountain ridges in the background of these photographs to find the site of Adamski’s extraterrestrial contact. Incidentally, Akinori Endo, a gentleman who serves as both a staff member and scientific consultant at the Get Acquainted Program headquarters in Tokyo, has studied the figures depicted in the photographs of the plaster casts and believes that they provide some clues to the principles of electromagnetic propulsion pertaining to the Venusian scout ships. Back in Japan, Endo has presented his findings in numerous public forums.
As the tour group finally reached the contact location, the members lined up for Kubota to snap a souvenir picture. At the moment that he was about to take the photograph, however, a strange feeling came over him. Kubota turned his head to the west, looking high up in the sky. “Wow!” the director exclaimed. “There it was! Suddenly, I could see the shining saucer and I shouted, ‘Look at that!’” Everyone turned at once, focusing their eyes on the UFO; and a collective cry of joy arose among all. Taking the souvenir photograph was instantly forgotten as many with cameras in the group began to photograph the flying saucer. “This is the greatest souvenir,” one of the members gleefully exclaimed. There was definitely a magic about that place of Adamski’s initial contact experience; and after the saucer fly-by, no one was in a hurry to leave the area. For almost four hours, everyone just hung around, watching the skies and waiting for another UFO to show up. Once again, no one was disappointed. Far away on the eastern horizon, many reported seeing what looked like a white, cigar-shaped object. Kubota, who was watching the bags and other items the members had left at the bus, also saw what he thought was a slender, cylindrical object away off in the eastern sky. It was most likely the mothership for the other smaller saucers the group had been looking at and photographing. Kubota and his Party of Wisdom UFO study group packed up and left the site in the late afternoon. Tomorrow they were headed to the slopes of the near-mythic Mount Palomar.
Mecca for Ufologists
On 2 January 1997, Kubota led the entirety of the Party of Wisdom group up the slopes of Mount Palomar, the literal Mecca for ufologists the world over insofar as the late George Adamski lived there and worked part-time as a cook in the Palomar Gardens café for tourists visiting the observatory. The café was owned by Adamski’s secretary Alice K. Wells. In between munching on hamburgers, French fries and sipping coffee or Coca-Colas, the tourists would listen to the contactee tell of his encounters with extraterrestrials, both on the physical plane and psychically, and sell them postcards of the various types of spaceships that he had photographed from the back steps of his home. As it was the day after New Year’s, there were no other tourists in the area. Even the famous astronomical observatory was closed that day. It was lonely up there.
The members of the Japanese UFO tour group strolled the grounds of the observatory; and then at noon Kubota took them over to the Oak Knoll Campground, where the Palomar Gardens café was once located, and they ate their pre-packed lunches on mist-soaked picnic tables under a pavilion. Group leader Kubota pointed out some rock work that was done on the grounds by Adamski back in the late 1940s, and everyone was giddy with excitement. The place where Wells’ restaurant once stood was covered with cement. Kubota thought it would probably stay that way into the foreseeable future; unless more of the general public started looking into Adamski and his claims, finding him and his stories to be credible. Ross, the nuclear power and outer space specialist tagging along with the group, pointed out that new information about intelligent life on the Moon, Mars and Venus is always leaking out, albeit slowly, and that one day, he was sure, Adamski would appropriately be recognized as the visionary UFO prophet that he was.
Kubota remarked, “I heard that a noble Native American Indian lady who was once one of Adamski’s students bought this land to make it into a memorial park, a reminder of him.”
On the following day, everyone was back at the Palm Springs motel, where Kubota and Ross supervised the third and final question and answer session with the Reimei-kai members. Junichi Kato, the chief secretary at the Get Acquainted Program headquarters in Japan, was assisting Kubota with making arrangements throughout the California trip. In the concluding question and answer session, Kato asked Kubota, “What did the UFOs we saw on this trip, and the space people who were probably on those ships, want to tell us?”
Group leader Kubota replied, “Space people help not only those who believe in what George Adamski told us. They pay their respects equally to everyone, even those who don’t believe in Adamski’s experience, because they know every human being is a child of the Creator of the Universe. They are helping all Earthlings as a group to improve ourselves and become a true member of this solar system. Thus, in essence, they are not helping individuals on Earth, but the society called Earth.”