Clearwater Lake -- An Alien Getaway

This 1950's brochure for Clearwater Lake in Piedmont, Missouri brought back some memories of family trips in the '70's.

My dad had a friend who owned some property in Des Arc, Missouri which is about a half-hour drive from Piedmont and Clearwater Lake.  We would go down to the property a couple times each summer and spend time walking through the woods, fishing in the pond and shooting BB guns. We we would also always take one day for boating on and swimming in Clearwater Lake.  Sounds like a dream vacation for a 7-year-old boy, right? Wrong.

One thing you need to know is that Piedmont, Missouri and Clearwater Lake in particular were the subject of numerous stories involving UFO sightings in the early 1970's.  Not only were UFOs seen in the skies, they were seen under the waters of Clearwater Lake.  I recall my mother had clipped a newspaper article from the local Piedmont paper about a women who said she was grabbed by the leg while wading in Clearwater.  One other thing you need to know is, I was a pretty big chicken when I was a kid:  "You want me to go swimming in there? Forget it!"  To make matters worse, at night, my father and his friend would stare up at the sky with binoculars and suddenly exclaim, "There's one!"

My dad trying to convince me to come in.  Uh-uh, Dad.

Between the fear of alien abduction and freakin' MoMo the monster, I don't think I ever slept down there.

You know you're living in a small town when the phone numbers are 3 digits.

By the way, I'd pay to see a throwdown match between Reddy Kilowatt and Speed-E-Heet.

The Pine Hill Drive In just closed after the 2015 season due to maintenance and vandalism.

In 1973, local Southeast Missouri State University physics professor and self-proclaimed skeptic Harley Rutledge began the first scientific field study of UFO phenomena by organizing a group of observers to witness, record and document the activity around Piedmont.  His studies were eventually published in his book Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of Ufo Phenomena. 

So how about you? Have you ever seen something in the skies or under the water you couldn't explain?  If so, don't tell me about it.  I'm still a big chicken.