Strange Lights Over Talcott

On December 3, 1958 the Beckley Post-Herald ran the following story about two men seeing strange lights over the Talcott area of Summers County. My grandma grew up between Hinton and Talcott, so I’m happy to have found this interesting lil’ piece of UFO-Lore from an area she probably knew pretty well. In fact, I think I remember my mom telling me that we were loosely related to some Sims/Simms in that area…so this story might be from a distant cousin! I also think its interesting, and adds a bit of validity to the story, that one of the witnesses was a Navy aircraft radioman. Surely, if HE couldn’t identify the lights as a conventional craft, no one could. Anyway, here’s what was said:

MEN REPORT SEEING TWO STRANGE LIGHTS

TALCOTT, Dec. 2 (RNS)–Robert P. Sims of near here reported seeing two unusual lights at about 6 pm today.

The lights, he said, were directly south of his farm located on top of Gwinn’s Mountain approximately two miles southeast of Talcott.

Basil Willey of Hinton was with Sims at the time and also reported seeing strange lights. Sims said the lights were bright white similar to white carbon arc. They were about 50 to 100 feet apart with one behind the other at an estimated altitude of about 3,000 feet.

Sims said the lights went from the extreme right to the extreme left in about two seconds with no sound whatsoever. 

The men described the lights as being about the size of a plate.

Sims, a former Navy aircraft radioman, said he had studied recognition of aircraft while it was being flashed on a screen at a speed of .01 of a second. He said he knew it wasn’t conventional aircraft, and was unable to explain what it was.