Barney and Betty Hill were socially aware and politically active citizens. Barney, thirty-nine, was the legal redress chairman of the Portsmouth NAACP, a member of the state advisory board of the United States Civil Rights Commission, and on the board of the Rockingham County Poverty Program. He also served three years in the army during World War II, and had received several awards for his community work. Betty, forty-one, was a state social worker known for her work with the poor; she also assisted the NAACP and was the United Nations envoy for her Unitarian-Universalist Church.
On the night of September 19, 1961, the Hills were driving home with their dog, Delsey, from a vacation. At 10:05 P.M., they left a diner in Colebrook, New Hampshire, and drove south along U.S. Route 3. Barney predicted they would get home by around 2:30 A.M., or 3 A.M. “at the latest.”
Shortly after leaving Colebrook, they were puzzled by an object with an “unpredictable movement.” Barney, a strict rationalist who was indifferent to UFOs, first thought it was a satellite, then a star. Betty discounted both explanations as ridiculous, especially after the object erratically changed its course. Then it must be a commercial plane, said Barney. Betty was unpersuaded. Through binoculars, she saw the object’s silhouette against the moon. She later said it “appeared to be flashing thin pencils of different colored lights, rotating around an object which at that time appeared cigar-shaped.”
Barney continued to maintain the object had to be a plane, even after it changed its speed several times. He did admit, however, that it seemed to be tracking them and “playing games.” They drove on to Cannon Mountain at about five miles per hour while Delsey whined and cowered. The object then descended to a few hundred feet. As it did so, it became clear to them that it was huge—a “structured craft of enormous dimension.” Betty noticed a double row of windows. Both were terrified.
Barney stopped the car in the middle of the highway and got out, motor still running. The object had swung toward them and hovered “not more than two treetops away.” It was tilted and looked like a large, glowing pancake. It then swung in a silent arc directly across the road. Barney walked across a field toward the craft, possibly to within a hundred feet of it. Betty screamed after him, but he did not hear her. Now he, too, saw a double row of windows, and at least six figures inside. They seemed to be wearing uniforms and stared directly at him. Barney recalled thinking that one of them appeared to be the leader, but his memory became blurred at this point. He remembered running back to the car, screaming and hysterical. Back in the car and driving again, the two heard a strange electronic beeping sound, which seemed to vibrate the car. They felt an odd tingling sensation, and a drowsiness overcame them.
After some time had passed, the beeping sound repeated itself, their consciousness returned, the car was moving, and Barney was still driving. They were now near Ashland, thirty-five miles south of where the first beeping sound had occurred. Finally, at 5 A.M., they arrived home, “a little later than expected,” Barney noted.
Immediately and inexplicably, Barney felt an urge to examine his abdomen and became aware of an unexplained soreness on the back of his neck. Nor could he explain why the tops of his shoes were so badly scuffed. He later commented, “I didn’t know why at the time, but I felt unclean.” The sighting still baffled him, but he continued to contend it was a known aircraft, in spite of its total silence and other unconventional features.
Although both agreed to tell no one about their encounter, Betty called her sister, Janet, who had seen a UFO in 1957. Janet repeated the story to a physicist neighbor, who suggested that an ordinary compass might show evidence of radiation. Janet passed that on to Betty, who took a compass to her car. Barney opposed dwelling on the event, but he and Betty noticed a dozen or more shiny circles scattered on the surface of their trunk, all perfectly circular and the size of a silver dollar. The circles were highly magnetic.
