The New Hampshire town with a better UFO legend than Roswell (and way better fall foliage)

Exeter’s UFO local legend

The night of September 3, 1965 changed Exeter, New Hampshire forever.

Norman Muscarello, just 18 years old, was walking home when five red lights in a strange pattern lit up the sky. The silent craft was huge—about 90 feet wide.

Soon after, two cops with military backgrounds allegedly saw it too.

The object hovered, moved in ways no plane could, and made animals go wild with fear. Even more shocking, the Air Force later admitted they couldn’t explain the incident.

The case became so famous that Exeter now hosts an annual UFO Festival where you can walk the same roads where one of America’s most popular UFO legends took place.

A Teenager Spotted Something Strange in the Night Sky

Norman Muscarello walked alone on Route 150 near Exeter, New Hampshire at 2:00 a.m. on September 3, 1965.

The 18-year-old was hitchhiking home when he saw five bright red lights hanging over a farmhouse about 100 feet away.

The lights flashed in a pattern: one, two, three, four, five, then back down. The object looked about 80-90 feet across and moved without making any noise.

It floated toward him like a leaf in the wind. Norman felt panic and jumped into a ditch.

Scared and Shaking, He Rushed to the Police Station

After the object moved away, Norman jumped up and waved his arms at a passing car. The driver stopped and took him to the Exeter Police Department.

He rushed through the doors around 2:30 a.m., looking pale and shaky. Officer Reginald “Scratch” Toland saw right away that something had badly scared the teen.

Norman told Toland about his run-in with what he kept calling “the Thing.” Officer Eugene Bertrand, who had spent nine years in the Air Force, got the call to check out the teen’s wild story.

Other Drivers Reported Weird Lights That Same Night

The police had already gotten strange calls that evening.

Around 12:30 a.m., a woman driving on Route 101 called about a large object with red lights that followed her car from Epping.

Officer Bertrand went to look but only saw a bright star. At 3:00 a.m., a man working at the Hampton tollbooth called about a similar red-lighted object flying overhead.

He hung up without giving his name. These reports showed Norman wasn’t the only one who saw something odd in the sky that night.

The Police Officer Took the Teen Back to the Field

Officer Bertrand drove Norman back to the spot on Route 150 around 2:30 a.m.

The field looked normal at first, with nothing out of place in the quiet farmland. Bertrand started to think the teenager had made up the story or seen something simple like car headlights.

He was about to call it a night when both men spotted something that made them freeze. The object came back, showing up suddenly over the tree line.

The Massive Object Lit Up the Entire Field Red

The craft hung over the field, showing five bright red lights that pulsed in order. Both men watched in shock as the lights grew so bright they turned the whole area red.

Nearby houses glowed crimson from the strong light. The huge object, which Bertrand later called “the size of a barn,” made no sound at all.

No jet engines, no helicopter blades, not even the sound of air moving. Animals reacted strongly. Horses kicked wildly in their stalls and dogs all over the area started barking.

A Second Officer Showed Up and Saw It Too

Bertrand grabbed his radio with shaking hands and called for backup as the object moved oddly above them.

Officer David Hunt arrived minutes later and looked up to see the same craft with its flashing red lights. All three men stood together watching the object for several minutes.

The craft moved slowly toward Hampton, making sharp turns that seemed impossible for any normal aircraft.

Then it shot away at high speed and vanished.

Military Officials Came to Interview the Witnesses

The Exeter Police Chief quickly called Pease Air Force Base about the sighting. Major David Griffin and Lieutenant Alan Brandt drove out to talk with all three witnesses.

The Air Force officers asked them to keep quiet about what they saw. This request came too late, though.

A reporter from the Manchester Union-Leader had already talked to the police officers about their experience, making any attempt at secrecy pointless.

The Air Force Tried to Explain It Away

Major Griffin sent a detailed report to Project Blue Book, the Air Force’s program for checking UFO sightings.

He wrote that he found the witnesses “stable, reliable persons” and was “unable to find a likely cause” for what they saw.

The Air Force first said they had seen planes from “Operation Big Blast,” a military exercise that night. Officers Bertrand and Hunt quickly rejected this explanation.

The exercise had ended a full hour before their sighting, and what they saw looked nothing like normal aircraft.

Two Cops Refused to Accept Bogus Explanations

Bertrand and Hunt got tired of the Pentagon’s dismissive attitude. In late 1965, they sent angry letters to Project Blue Book challenging the official story.

They stated they had “checked and rechecked” that the object was not any kind of normal aircraft. The officers pointed out the weather was clear with no wind, ruling out weather balloons or temperature changes.

They complained about facing “lots of ridicule” after the Pentagon released its weak explanations to the public.

The Government Finally Admitted They Had No Answers

Lieutenant Colonel John Spaulding from the Secretary of the Air Force’s office sent a response in January 1966.

His letter said something surprising: “We have been unable to identify the object you saw on September 3, 1965.”

This was a rare case where Project Blue Book officially called a UFO sighting “unidentified” instead of forcing it into some normal explanation.

UFO researcher Raymond Fowler thought the case was so important he read it into the Congressional Record during April 1966 hearings.

The Small Town Became Famous for Its UFO Encounter

John G. Fuller wrote a book called “Incident at Exeter” in 1966 that became a New York Times bestseller.

Norman Muscarello stuck to his story until his death in 2003, always insisting what he saw that night was real and unexplainable.

The town of Exeter embraced its UFO history and started an annual Exeter UFO Festival in 2010, which continues to draw curious visitors to the small New Hampshire town where three credible witnesses saw something truly strange.

Visiting Exeter, New Hampshire

Visit Exeter during Labor Day weekend for the annual UFO Festival celebrating the famous 1965 incident.

You can buy weekend access to Town Hall speaker series for $40 at 9 Front Street downtown. The festival brings UFO researchers and expert presentations about this credible sighting.

Take $5 trolley tours to the original Kensington UFO site where Norman Muscarello saw the craft. Watch free historic videos about the encounter on Town Hall’s second floor.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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