JAMES GILLILAND / MT. ADAMS INVESTIGATION
THE YAKIMA UFO ENIGMA
BY SPAR GIEDEMAN
The Yakima Indian Reservation located about an hour east of Seattle, Washington, has a long history of UFO sightings and strange phenomenon reported As a UFO investigator. I have always been fascinated by the legends and stories of the reservation So I planned and made the effort to get up there and find out what I could and see If l could wind up with some convincing evidence. Here are the results of my two-week Yakima research expedition October/November of1999 was to find this out later on the hard way! (The chilling cold was down to 320.some nights) never a dull moment in UFO research!
UFO'S? Bigfoot? Strange dancing lights, and daylight disks reported? Just what has been going on up there in this paranormal playground? I just had to get up there and see if I could unravel some of the mystery of Yakima and hopefully find some pieces to this gigantic puzzle. I only had a two-week budget to work with, but I had the benefit of a 8 MM quality video camera with a powerful Lens on it. My first step in this quest was to go directly to the Yakima Indian Agency located in the city of Toppenish on the reservation. I hoped I would be granted a permit to enter the remote areas, which were closed, to the public.
You see the best vantage point to view UFO activity is located on the SE side of the reservation on top of a small mountain, known as Satus Peak. Satus Peak has a small self-contained airport style tower, which is known as Satus Peak Fire Lookout. The government and Bureau of Fire Management run the fire lookout. They have a lookout person who communicates via radio to the main station in Toppenish whenever a fire is spotted The reservation can get really hot and dry in the summer months. I found out through my research beforehand that the fire spotters up at Satus have been seeing a lot more than fires for over 30 years now and this was well documented through newspaper articles, log book entries, etc.
I had to try to get permission to get up to Satus lookout because there is such an incredible view from the lookout tower up there (visibility on a clear day was for miles). and the tower on the peak was at a 4000 ft altitude. I was anxious as I walked into the Indian Agency to look for someone in charge to help me to apply for my permit as I knew that if I did not obtain this necessary document, my four day drive from Las Vegas where I was residing at the time would have been practically for nothing. I was shuffled around a merry go round of personnel at the agency until I finally wound up in the office of Mr. Ross Sockshiegk Mr. Sockshiegk is the vice president of the agency and pretty much made all the final decisions in these matters. EIe asked me to tell him why I needed to spend two weeks camping out on the top of Satus peak in an area that was closed to the public. I'm sure he must have thought I was a little nuts, but I explained to him that I was a UFO researcher and that I was putting together a video documentary on UFO'S for public awareness and that Satus peak was the best vantage point on the reservation for sky watching.
To my surprise and amazement he then proceeded to tell me about his incredible sightings over the years on the reservation when he was on police duty. Mr. Sockshiegk made it clear to me that it usually can take up to a year or more of background checking and paperwork to qualify for a permit to enter closed areas, non Indians are not allowed on certain parts of the reservation, but for some strange reason he said he would make an exception in my case and grant me the necessary permit. Mr. Sockshiegk told me that he felt I was an honest person with good intentions (I showed him photos etc. to prove to him that I was a legitimate researcher) he wanted
people to know that the Indians are not all crazy up there and that the public needs more interest and information on what's been going on with UFO'S at the reservation for over 50 years now by the written record.
Journey up the Mountain
As I made my way out of Toppenish and the small towns scattered around Yakima in my self-contained RV converted van. I breathed a sigh of relief at obtaining the necessary permit, I found it really strange that I had gotten it so easily, almost in two hours time! I had a funny feeling that someone in the higher ups was helping and guiding me along, the way with this. As I approached the guard station at the foot of Satus peak, which appeared to be lived in and operated by various personnel, a huge Indian came walking out and asked me what was my business going up the peak and for my permit. I told him that I was going to look for UFO'S and he let out a
loud laugh. This made me a little tense, but he then said he's seen a lot of weird stuff over the years stationed there but whom I really needed to speak with was John Swan the chief coordinator of the guardhouse because he's had a lot of experiences. I told him I would look for John on my way down the mountain. I then proceeded to drive the long rough road to the top of Satus Peak, which was about an hour's journey.
Satus Peak Fire Lookout
Louise Kutz was the current fire lookout at Satus and greeted me with a warm welcome. I couldn’t believe the view from the top of Satus it was majestic and breathtaking! This was really getting exciting! (I thought to myself.) Louise invited me up to the tower and began to engage me in conversation, as I knew she had been up here by herself for over two weeks with no human contact except via radio. I asked her about any UFO sightings she might have had over the years up here and she told me that she has had several sightings of unexplained phenomenon. Louise told me that if I really wanted to talk to the lady who has seen it all up here at Satus,
she would arrange for me to talk to her sister (now retired) whom was named Dorothea Sturm nicknamed "Dot" by her coworkers. Dorothea Sturm had been the fire lookout lady for over 30 years up at Satus and had logged over 100 UFO sightings. Many newspaper articles had been written about her and several video documentaries had been made. Louise told me told me she would be up here at Satus for about another week and then they were going to shut the tower down for the winter. Personnel only man Satus lookout 6 months out of the year due to the extreme weather conditions at that altitude. Louise said that sometimes the wind gusts could get up to 80 mph and that I
should really be careful, as it was not the best time of year to be up there. I
Eyewitness Testimony
I asked Louise to tell me in detail about some of her UFO sightings and she then described to me how on several occasions over the years she had seen orange yellowish balls of light southwest of the lookout tower towards Mt. Adams. She said that the strangest thing about the orange balls of light (which seem to be the most commonly reported UFO’S at Yakima) was that when she would call one of the other lookout towers on the radio (mainly Signal pk. near Mt. Adams) to tell them about what she was seeing the orange balls of light would just blink out, almost as if they knew she was making the call. Louise also told me about one moonlit night around
11:00 pm she observed a very strange lentincular shaped cloud from the tower with a reflection of reddish light underneath it. Louise said that it appeared on the north side of Mt. Adams and it looked to be the size of a football field in diameter. She also stated to me that what amazed her most was that the cloud did not move or break apart with the wind, it retained
its shape and she couldn’t figure out where the reddish light illuminating the bottom of the cloud was coming from. The week up at Satus Peak came and went and still no UFO sightings. I knew this was a waiting game and I had acquired a lot of patience over the years in this field. Louise’s
last two week shift had ended at the lookout and as she packed her belongings for her trip home, she gave me directions to her sisters house. I thanked her for her time and the interview. As I waved good-bye to Louise the members of the fire management team paneled up the tower for the 6 month winter period. I cooked my dinner on my portable propane stove and made coffee as I watched the beautiful sunset over the south side of Mt. Adams it was spectacular and serene. I was wondering how many more nights I could last in the intense winds and freezing cold up at Satus. This weather was really testing my patience, eight days and nights up here and nothing. I decided I’d give it
two more days and hope for anything. On the last night I yelled out to the UFO’S hoping they would hear me “hey this is your last chance to he in my documentary so please show up because 1 cant take the weather any more!Eyewitness video
I think the UFO’S must have heard me because around 8.00pm that night a huge orange glowing ball of light appeared over a mountainous ridge several miles away known as Ahtanum Ridge. In my excitement I quickly got the videotape rolling and tried to keep the camera steady in the fierce wind. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! ?‘Hey finally showed up! My adrenaline was pumping! I knew there was no access roads up to that ridge where the UFO was hovering and the top of the ridge appeared to be around 5000 ft. in height. No man made object could have been glowing that bright, be that huge and
floating j ust above the pine trees as I got a closer look through my binoculars. I could make out an almost oval shape outlined inside the brilliantreddish orange, glowing light it was giving off.
This thing was glowing really bright! Based on the height of the pine trees I knew that this object had to be at least the size of an airliner or larger! Then all of a sudden after a few minutes of video recording, it got intensely brighter and appeared to be flaring up like a welding are and then just like someone had hit a switch, it was out, it just vanished into thin air! I finally had some unexplained evidence to work with and analyze. What an incredible coincidence a
UFO shows up the last night I’m there. ! Check back for a link on the still frame to an MPEG clip of this video.
More Eyewitness Testimony
I stopped at the Guard station on the way down the peak next morning and was surprised to run into John J. Swan, as I wasn't sure if he would be there when I came down. I’m glad he was because I did not want to miss him and the opportunity to ask questions. John was a very friendly guy and agreed to an interview with no problem. He then began to tell me about several of the strange sightings and sounds he's had as chief of the guard gate station." I remember one night in particular " he said, "back in 1982 there were about six
police vehicles all stuck together in the mud on a nearby hill, off a road near Satus Mountain called The Lane Road. John said they all had a good view of the road going down the mountain and were waiting for help from other officers and the game commission. He remembers how they could easily spot the approaching police cars from a distance on the road as they turned on their blue flashing lights. But John says everyone ended up stuck 'game commission 'and all in the mud, and was in this predicament until 4am in the morning. Then all of a sudden they noticed what appeared to be headlights coming up the Lane road (as he calls it) but they didn't
know whom it was because they did not flash their police lights. All of a sudden the lights whipped around another direction one following the other, gained considerable altitude much higher than the road and zoomed up and right over a hill silhouetted by moonlight." They went swoosh up and over that hill " "definitely not cars" John says," I have never seen anything like it"! John also described rumblings he felt and heard every now and then at the guard station, which would rattle windows and knock things off of shelves. I asked John what could possibly be causing these strange rumblings which shook the ground like a small earthquake, and he
told me" I have no idea, maybe it was Mt. Adams ". I couldn't help but think of the underground alien base theory as we concluded our interview.
Yakima Police Sergeant Ken Hoptowit
Ken Hoptowit has been on the Yakima police force for over 20 years; I met Ken while I was sky watching up on Satus. He was routinely patrolling the area and was wondering what I was doing up there in the middle of the night with the wind and the cold. I showed him my permit and told him about looking for UFO'S, and then to my surprise he proceeded to tell me about his incredible sightings over the years in the area. It seems like everyone
I ran into on the reservation had story’s to tell me. Ken was a very friendly and nice guy; I liked his personality and felt an immediate friendship from him considering I was a white man on his land! I asked him if I could interview him on another day more in depth as I felt his testimony would be very valuable considering he was a police sergeant and not easily discredited. He gladly agreed and invited me to his house when I left Satus Mountain. Here is a partial transcript of my interview with him on October 15. In addition to the transcript I also have a video clip in mpg format
S.G. Ken I understand you've had some duty up there in the area where a lot of the UFO activity and sightings has occurred, the edge up there on the NW side of Mount Adams? You were on active duty up there at the time in that area and had some incredible sightings. Can you tell me about that one UFO you would see regularly that would come up over that ridge and would zip back and forth and then stop and slowly go down again?
K.H. Yes that was back in 1988 on the north end of the reservation up by Ahtanum ridge, the far west end. This was brought to my attention by a fellow officer who had seen it first from Jennys Butte lookout and that night we got to the area and he pointed out the direction where he saw it and we then proceeded to wait awhile and see if it would come up. After about half an hour we saw three lights come up over the ridge and change different colors. Then we saw this object move across in a horizontal position in what must
have been like five miles within a quarter of a second, just zap! That fast. It changed colors again (the lights on the object) then it zipped back to where it came up and dropped back down again. Ken says he watched this object on a nightly basis for a whole summer as he patrolled that particular area of the reservation.
S.G. Ken, when it did the zig zagging you said it would travel like a five-mile stretch in a quarter of a second? Is that what you said?
K.H. Yes
S.G. And it would stop on a dime?
K.H. Yes
S.G. And what color were the lights on the object?
K.H. Yellowish green, and a whitish light.
S.G. From what you can remember it would always come up in the same area and do the same maneuvers?
K.H. Yes the same location, same maneuvers. It would go to the right then zip to the left and then center itself where it came up, and then slowly go down.
S.G. If you were to estimate the size of this object from where you were stationed, would it be the same size as a jetliner or smaller?
K.H. I was at a distance of about 10 miles from the object when I was watching it, and I would guess judging by its size compared to
over flights of jet planes over my house (the flight path into Seattle) it would have to be bigger than a jetliner in my opinion.
S.G. This was like no aircraft you've ever seen in 20 years on the force?
K.H. There is no aircraft that I know of that could move like that thing did. It just moved to far to fast and come to a dead stop like that. Just stopping at that speed the G's would be astronomical.
S.G. Right those G's would probably kill a human pilot. We spoke some more about his other experiences over the years on the reservation and he continued to tell me about other strange things he has witnessed.
Fire Lookout Veteran Dorothea Sturm (ret.)
I was happy and excited to finally meet the lady who had practically seen it all on the reservation. Dorothea Sturm was very nice and her and her sister Louise invited me to dinner along with a good friend they introduced me to named David Akers. We discussed UFO'S among other things, and I asked Dorothea if there was a possibility of doing a video interview with her the following day. Mrs. Sturm was a little hesitant about the idea as she told me about interviews she had done in the past, and that her story had been twisted around by a few individuals and they attempted to discredit her in the media. I assured her that I would let
her tell it like it is and told her that her experiences and testimony were extremely valuable to UFO research and I promised her I would conduct the
Interview in a respectful fashion. I told Dot that this would also be another chance for her to set the record straight on what she had witnessed working at Satus peak for so many years and she finally agreed to do the interview. I considered myself fortunate to have this opportunity with someone who had personally seen so much unexplained phenomenon on the reservation over such a long period of time.
The following is a partial transcript of my video interview with her at her home in Yakima city
S.G. Dorothea, can you tell me about that particular sighting you had of that string of lights that went from
One butte to another when you were on fire duty up there at Status many years ago?
D.S. Yes this was about the late 70's or early 80's, I can’t recall the year exactly but it was like the windows on a train, the lights on this object. They kind of moved along like
a train and were flying in between the buttes from one to another.
S.G What color were these lights?
D.S. They were whitish-yellow.
S.G. They looked like little windows to you, through your binoculars?
D.S Yes like little windows on a train.
S.G. They were a different color than the rest of the object?
D.S. Yes they were much lighter.
S.G. So this object with the row of lights on it was cigar shaped and went from one butte
to another butte called MacKay’s butte and disappeared?
D.S. Yes it should have come out the other side of MacKay’s butte but it didn't, it just went behind it and never came out the other side, and I kept waiting for it to come out but it never did. On another occasion Dot says she saw a bullet shaped object reddish in color go
in between the buttes and disappear behind Deer butte and never came out the other side either.
Dorothea has seen the orange balls of light on several occasions and she also told me about the time during the day many years ago she heard a strange humming sound while she was on watch in the lookout. This sound grew stronger and stronger but she could not see where it was coming from. She finally noticed an aluminum colored disk reflecting sunlight and hovering in one place at a distance from the tower with her binoculars. Then she says in an instant it disappeared from view and she could hear the humming very loud above the tower and felt intense vibrations of energy. Dot says she wanted to go outside and look up, as she was sure it was above the
tower but some unseen force held her back and she couldn't move. Then the humming sound and energy vibrations just stopped and she could move again. Mrs. Sturm says she doesn't care what skeptical people might think about her UFO sightings and doesn't know exactly what is behind this entire phenomenon she has witnessed. I asked her if she thought it could be extraterrestrial and she said she's convinced that some of what she has witnessed is definitely not manmade and there is a higher intelligence at work, possibly extraterrestrial she says, I just don't know for sure.
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Examining the Earthlight Theory
Looking for a "natural phenomenon" rational explanation for UFO activity at Yakima has long been put forward in theory and experimented with by several scientists, engineers and geologists. For example, David Akers an engineer from Seattle, Washington has been researching the nocturnal light and UFO phenomenon at Yakima since the 1970’s. I spoke at length with Mr. Akers about his research over the years at Yakima and about some of his conclusions while we were having dinner. Although we disagreed on several issues regarding the source of these unknowns we did find some common ground to tread on and established a friendship. Mr. Akers
believes very strongly that the orange balls of light and other unexplained light phenomenon observed at Yakima has to do with natural earth energy being generated by the earth and releasing itself into the atmosphere, specifically around areas with heavy fault lines. There are similar areas around the world witch are termed "windows" by Earthlight researchers with these fault line areas where UFO activity or "Earthlight activity" is very strong. Hessdalen Valley of Norway is a good example. I will not discount the Earthlight theory entirely because one must be open to all possibilities not just one when researching the unknown. There certainly exists evidence to
suggest that there could indeed be some natural form of energy that releases itself in the form of balls of light or some kind of gases, however this in my opinion does not mean that all of the UFO activity at Yakima can be explained away as earthlights
Some Obvious Conclusions Made
One thing is for sure the earthlight theory cannot possibly explain away all of the unknown aerial activity reported at Yakima, for example; numerous reported daylight sightings of disks and unknown craft, where there is much evidence to support this in the form of pictures, videos etc. Mr. Akers agrees on this point although he made it clear to me that he's sticking to earthlight research and staying out of the flying saucer-UFO arena. Also many of these unexplained orange balls of light observed by witnesses, (mainly the fire
-lookouts) appear to dance around, zigzag, perform right angle turns, do U-turns and appear to have extreme intelligence, not typical in my opinion of a natural phenomenon. Consider the following statement made by Dorothea Sturm from my interview with her. D.S. I always felt that they (the orange balls of light) knew we were talking about them and that's why whenever; here was a wave of activity going on, it would suddenly stop as soon as David Akers would call me or Bill Vogel (another UFO researcher) and tell me they were on their way to set up their equipment specifically David Akers, who has a large assortment of magnetometers and camera equipment. It
would just completely die out before they even got out there to set up there gear!
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The Gilliland Ranch
I need to mention also here my visit and investigation of the Gilliland Ranch, which is on the perimeter of the Yakima reservation right on the southwest side of Mt. Adams. James Gilliland runs the Sattva sanctuary (which is a spiritual retreat center) and invited me to be his guest for as long as I liked as I did my investigation there. James assured me that I wouldn’t leave empty handed and what I planned to be a week stay ended up being a total of six weeks due to the volume of unexplained phenomenon going on at the ranch.
James told me that the UFO'S that routinely make low flyovers above the ranch are piloted by Pieledians and Andromedans (spiritually and technically advanced human appearing aliens) and are coming from a nearby base. UFO sightings and spiritual manifestations have been occurring at the ranch for many years now and this has been real documented b~ a large amount of photo, video and eyewitness testimony. After everything I was a witness to at the ranch there's no doubt in my mind that he is a contactee, very much like Billy Meier in Switzerland.
The gift we both received on the final days of my visit were in the form of two spectacular photographs I obtained which have unearthly characteristics. This occurred on one night --here James was pointing in different directions where he felt the Pleiadian ships coming in from Mt. Adams direction. I finally got the idea that perhaps I should start shooting photos with my Fuji 35 mm flash camera (which I quickly grabbed) and sure enough two remarkable photos turned out upon later processing.
In one of the photos James is standing in the center facing the camera and there is a white spiritual energy mist surrounding him which he describes with certainty as pre contact energy, this statement seems to be valid as in the next photograph there appears a genuine flying saucer which appears above James's head in the left hand corner of the picture. I can state for sure being the photographer that we did not see this unearthly craft with our eyes.
Upon closer examination of the disk one discovers some incredible quality's such as; the semi-transparent edges of this silver metallic looking craft, which could indicate an inter dimensional shift of matter and we can also clearly note the reflected moonlight on the top of the disk and the blue corona energy field surrounding the craft (ruling out some model we threw in the air)(see photo illustration.) Based on all of the above mentioned factors involved in my investigation at Yakima there is definitely a lot more going on at the reservation than glowing balls of light coming out of the earth via natural means. The Yakima UFO enigma is still along way from being completely solved but hopefully through my efforts I have added some more pieces to this huge and complex mind boggling puzzle.
Spar Giedeman is a UFO researcher who has been actively studyig the phenomenon for over 20 years. He has done extensive traveling to UFO hotspots in the United States and other countries investigating cases and doing on-site research. You can reach him at his e-mail site at Contactlight@USA.net through Psi APPLICATIONS
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