The witness in this case, who wishes that his name not be used (though I have been able to find it by searching the files carefully), said that he, with two friends, headed into the mountains in the Cisco Grove area of California to do some hunting with bow and arrow. They set up their camp, and then, late in the evening, split up. The witness lost his way, and realizing that he would not be able to find the camp that night, decided that he would have to remain where he was overnight.
Like many hunters who have found themselves alone in the wilderness at night, he decided that he would sleep in a tree. It raised him off the ground where the animals of the night scurried. Sitting in the tree, he noticed a white light in the distance. Believing it to be a searchlight from a helicopter, possibly flown by rescuers, the witness climbed from his perch, and started three fires on the large rocks near him. He hoped to draw attention of whoever was piloting the aircraft and apparently he was successful. The light turned and began flying toward him. Only after it neared did he realize there was no sound from it. That was when he began to get scared, according to the story he told later.
The light hovered between two trees, some fifty or sixty yards away. He could see three glowing, rectangular panels, set on the vertical in a stepping down pattern. The lights seemed to circle around until they were no more than fifty feet away. There was a flash from the middle panel, and something came out of it. It fell down the hill, landing on a bush. The witness believed that whatever had fallen was now on the ground, down the hill a short distance from him.
There was a scrambling around, a crashing, that came from the bushes, and a humanoid figure emerged from the darkness. It wore a light-colored, silver, or whitish uniform with bellows at the elbows and knees. The eyes were large and dark and looked like welder's goggles. It seemed to be doing something on the ground, and before long was joined by a second, similar appearing creature. The two entities worked their way toward the tree and were soon standing at the base, looking up at the witness.
While the first object, or rather the lights, continued to hover, the thrashing noise began in another part of the forest. Along the ridge he could see big glowing spots that reminded him of two flashlights hooked together. Finally he could see it was another being of some kind because those lights were bright enough for him to see the face. He described it as square and metallic with a hinged mouth that hung open. This alien was about five feet tall, just slightly taller than the humanoids that the witness had seen earlier at the base of his tree.
The metallic being, a robot of some kind, joined the two humanoids at the base of the tree and stood staring up at him. Eventually the robot walked over to one of the fires, swept an arm through it and then walked back to the humanoids. It put its hand to its mouth and a white vapor came out, drifting upward, toward the witness. He gasped for breath, and then lost consciousness, falling across his bow, which kept him in the tree.
When he regained consciousness, he believed just minutes later, he was sick to his stomach. Convinced that the beings wanted to capture him, he decided he was going to fight. First he lit a book of matches and tossed it down. When the entities backed up, he set his hat on fire and threw it down. This forced them back farther, but when the fires began to die, the beings came forward again.
Now he started lighting everything he could and throwing it down, hoping to set the ground cover on fire. He eventually burned everything in his pockets and the camouflage clothes he wore until he was left in a T-shirt, jeans, and his shoes. But the fires only kept the beings away from him for a few minutes.
With nothing left to do, the witness resorted his bow. He pulled it back as far as he could and let an arrow fly at the metallic creature. The tip hit with a flash like an arc of electricity. The witness fired all three of the arrows he had with him. Each time he hit the robot, it was pushed back, with a flash of bluish light.
But he had quickly run out of arrows. He climbed higher in the tree, and tied himself to the trunk with his belt. The robot let loose with another cloud of vapor and the witness passed out again. When he came to, the two humanoids were trying to climb the tree. When one of them began to make any progress, the witness would shake the tree as violently as he could. They would scramble down, apparently unaware of what had happened.
This pattern went on for a period of time. The robotic creature would emit a mist, the witness would lose consciousness and then awaken to find the humanoids trying to climb to him. He'd then shake the tree, and they'd get down.
Finally he began breaking branches from the tree to throw at them. He tossed the change in his pocket, his canteen, and anything else he could find, trying to distract them. The pattern kept up thought the night with the witness once howling like the coyotes, hoping the creatures would think there was more of him around.
A second robot had joined the group during the night, and just before dawn, stood face to face with the other robot. "Arc flashes" passed between them, lighting up the area. A fog was generated by the "conversation," which rose slowly. The witness blacked out again and when he awakened, he was hanging by his belt and all the creatures, both metallic and humanoid had disappeared.
With the creatures gone, and no sign of the lights that seemed to have brought them, the witness climbed down from the tree. He recovered the things he'd thrown in the night and found the arrows he'd shot at the robot. Only the coins from his pockets were missing. (Though I confess I don't know what kind of hunter travels into the bush with coins in his pocket.)
One of the witness' friends eventually wrote, to NICAP investigator Paul Cerny who did the best work on this case, that, "I was the one that found [the witness] as he was heading towards camp. The night have been very cold, and all he had on at the time… was a thin cotton tee shirt and his pants. He was weak and exhausted… I helped him to camp, fixed some soup for him and put him to sleep. He kept on saying that he would have been all right if they had left him alone. I didn't know what he meant so we let him sleep. He slept for about six hours. When he awoke, we asked him how he felt. He said fine. Then he said, 'Turn on the radio… there may be something on the news about the spaceship I saw.' The news did say something about a light in the sky. I also saw the light as I was working my way thru the canyon to camp. (I got lost too that night.) We asked him what had happened to his clothes and then he told us his experiences… "
There were a number of investigations of the case by both official organizations and private groups. APRO researchers were among the first to interview the witness. According to Coral Lorenzen, writing in Flying Saucer Occupants, "We learned about this particular incident quite by chance through rumors in the Sacramento area, and notified Dr. James Harder, one of APRO's advisors."
The first account of the witness' tale appeared in the July/August 1966 issue of The APRO Bulletin. The witness received a copy of that report and noted many inaccuracies in it.
The day after the events, the witness' mother-in-law phoned Victor W. Killick, an astronomer, and told him the extraordinary tale. The story didn't seem all that interesting to Killick, but he asked for additional details. At that point the witness was put on the phone and outlined what had happened. Killick decided that the story was interesting enough that he wanted to meet the man and arranged an interview for September 8.
Impressed with the story, and the sincerity of the witness, Killick wrote to Mather Air Force Base, telling officers there, "As far as my contact with them goes, these people all appear to be in good health and rational. The family believes the man's story. They told me that when he got home he was 'as pale as a sheet,' and badly shaken up. I did a little probing to try to find an ulterior motive without success."