Small W. Pa. town cashes in on mystery of 1965 crash, UFO buffs

Small W. Pa. town cashes in on mystery of 1965 crash, UFO buffs

MOUNT PLEASANT, Pa. (AP) -

Forty-two years ago something bright, shiny and acorn-shaped flew out of the sky and landed in a wooded area in Westmoreland County.

The feds said it was a meteor. Some theorized it was a Russian spacecraft. Many believe it was a UFO.

In the end it doesn't matter. The mystery is bringing in the dollars and the Kecksburg fire department has big shopping plans.

Kecksburg is a small town of about 200 people that sits about 43 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

The fire department is selling $25 hoodies, $12 Christmas ornaments, hats, T-shirts, beer mugs and anything else that can have a glowing acorn flying through the sky emblazoned on it.

Ronnie Struble oversees the sales, which hit $10,000 in 2007. He also coordinates the visitors, sometimes busloads of them, who want to be a part of the mystery.

Struble says the extra cash will be used to buy a new fire truck.

Business has been so brisk, the department is planning to open a second store at the station and a UFO restaurant.

http://www.whptv.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=0e703427-874f-4356-8435-1551cffe8315

So what did happen in Kecksburg that night?

The Kecksburg UFO incident of Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, USA occurred on December 9, 1965. A large, brilliant fireball was seen by thousands in at least six states and Ontario, Canada. It streaked over the Detroit, Michigan/Windsor, Ontario area, dropped reported metal debris over Michigan and northern Ohio, and caused sonic booms in western Pennsylvania. It was generally assumed and reported by the press to be a meteor.

However, eyewitnesses in the small village of Kecksburg, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, claimed something crashed in the woods. A boy said he saw the object land; his mother saw a wisp of blue smoke arising from the woods and alerted authorities. Others from Kecksburg, including local volunteer fire department members, reported finding an object in the shape of an acorn and about as large as a Volkswagen Beetle. Writing resembling Egyptian hieroglyphics was also said to be in a band around the base of the object. Witnesses further reported that intense military presence, most notably Army, secured the area, ordered civilians out, and then removed the object on a flatbed truck. At the time, however, the military claimed they searched the woods and found "absolutely nothing."

The nearby Greensburg Tribune-Review had a reporter at the scene; the headline in the newspaper the next day was "Unidentified Flying Object Falls near Kecksburg — Army Ropes off Area."

The official explanation of the widely-seen fireball was a mid-sized meteor, however, speculation as to what the Kecksburg object had been (if there was one — reports vary) also range from it being an alien craft to the remains of an unmanned Soviet Venera 4 atmospheric probe, also known as Kosmos-96, originally destined for Venus. (However, this was recently ruled out by NASA's chief in charge of tracking orbital debris.)

Similarities have been drawn between Kecksburg and the Roswell UFO incident, and as such, is known as "Pennsylvania's Roswell".