The 1967 Close Encounters Of Carroll Watts

During the spring and summer of 1967 in the small town of Wellington in Texas, a series of bizarre close encounters, all of which would occur within six months of each other, would take place with farmer, Carroll Watts seemingly at the center of them. Furthermore, Watts’ wife, Rosemary, could also corroborate at least parts of several of the sightings, if only from afar.

The incidents are another that divide opinion in the UFO community and remain controversial still today. Were the apparent contact events the result of manipulative plotting on the part of Watts in the hopes of financial return? There is little evidence of that. So, then, does that mean the events are undoubtedly real and genuine? While we can’t dismiss the run of incidents, there are many reasons to doubt at least parts of them.

With all this in mind, then, it is indeed interesting that the accounts of Carroll Watts still holds the interest of UFO researchers in the modern era. What is it about it that maintains such fascination? Was there really an effort made to have Watts discredited by unnamed armed men? And if so, what was the concern of these mysterious individuals?

An Unemotional Voice, Neither Masculine Nor Feminine!

On the evening of 31^st March 1967, at around 9:30 pm, farmer, Carroll Watts, left his father’s farmhouse in order to drive the short distance to his own property on their family farm. As he made his way home, though, he could see lights near one of the abandoned farm buildings.

Immediately suspecting trespassers, he drove his vehicle as close as he dared without alerting whoever the uninvited guests were and stepped outside in order to continue on foot. As he did, though, he could see a “gray bullet-shaped object” hovering slightly above the ground. He would later estimate it to be around 100 feet long and 10 feet wide.

Cautiously, he approached the object further, walking around the sides of it. As he did, he could make out a faint outline of a “hatch” or doorway in the craft’s exterior. Rather brazenly, he knocked on this part of the object and awaited a response. Perhaps surprisingly, a response came. The outline opened and a U-shaped door lowered to the ground. As it did a “whirring motor” sound hit Watts’ ears.

Then, Watts would hear another sound:

A voice began speaking to me. It was an unemotional voice neither masculine nor feminine. It asked me if I would be willing to submit to a rigorous physical examination! ^[1]

When he asked why he should take a physical examination, the mechanical voice replied that if he should pass “he could make a flight” with them. They would then point to a machine stating that if he would “stand before it” the examination would begin.

“We Can Come And Go As We Please And No One Can Stop Us!”

This is perhaps an interesting detail and once reminiscent of the Albert Burtoo case, which admittedly took place across the pond in the United Kingdom in the spring of 1983. However, it would involve a machine that would perform such an examination in order to test if Burtoo was fit for the occupants’ “purposes”. It would, incidentally, end with Burtoo failing the examination and being escorted off the otherworldly craft he had been led to by strange creatures while he indulged in a spot of night-fishing one evening.

Watts, however, unlike Burtoo, would politely decline such a physical. To this, the voice replied that “several people” had passed the test. And taken flights as a result. There also appeared to be a display of arrogance and indignance that such an opportunity was declined. According to Watts, the voice would state that they were “stationed all over the world”. And what’s more, they “could come and go as they pleased (and) no one could stop them”.

Undeterred, although increasingly unnerved, Watts declined once more and returned immediately to the (relative) safety of his car. He started the engine and as he pulled away, the headlights shined upon the craft. He could see it rise into the air, the hatch how closed. It then made its way into the night sky. All the while, no sound whatsoever came from the bullet-shaped object.

The incident would then take a strange turn which, depending on your perspective, either hurts or increases Watts’ credibility.

The April Abduction Incident

Watts would make a report of the incident to Altus Air Force Base who would send out two air force personnel to visit with him. It would turn out that Watts had witnessed and reported a UFO several weeks earlier on the 21^st March. In the book Alien Base, author, and leading UFO researcher, Timothy Good would publish a (then) unpublished report that Watts, along with his wife, Rosemary, had written about the incident.

The encounter began at around 11 am when Watts witnessed what looked a “jet without wings” moving through the sky. The more looked the more he could see the object’s distinctly cylinder shape. Much like, incidentally, the craft in the account above. As fascinated as he was with the object, when it was out of sight, he put the incident out of his mind.

However, at a little after 3 pm while he was measuring cotton land the object returned. This time, it was barely 200 feet from the ground and moving around 50 miles per hour. As the object passed by his location, he could see “an opening in the front that looked to be a window”. He also recalled an “oblong window” along the side of the craft. Furthermore, he would once more describe the object as being around 100 feet long and ten feet wide.

Within seconds, the object had vanished out of sight. As it passed him, it remained completely silent. Even more intriguing, there were no “vapor trails” or any other signs of an engine or propulsion.

On Board The Cylinder Craft!

Furthermore, as well as the previously examined 31^st March incident, he would encounter them again on several other occasions. One of the most dramatic took place on 11^th April 1967. This time, though, he would also interact more directly with the occupants. He would describe them as humanoid around 4 to 5 feet tall, with “wrap-around eyes” and mouths that didn’t move when they spoke.

This time, he would go onboard the craft and, upon invitation, sat into a chair that appeared to mold to his body, giving it a “sinking” feeling. The chair then transported him to another, large room, possibly a larger, altogether different craft. Here, he was stripped of his clothes and examined by the strange humanoid creatures.

Several groups of small wires were inserted around various parts of his body as the examination proceeded. Upon completion, the humanoids gathered around a screen that he assumed displayed the results or analysis.

As they did so, he reached to a nearby table and took a strange cube-like device from it. Without thinking, but wanting something as proof of his account, he placed the object into his pocket.  Almost immediately one of the occupants appeared at his side and relieved him of the cube. A second later, he blacked out.

A Chilling Alien Survey About The Future Of Humans In Space!

When he awoke, he was back inside the chair and in the smaller room where he had initially entered the ship. It was at this point when Watts asked why they had performed such an examination on him. Their reply was as short as it was blunt:

We are conducting a survey!

When asked to elaborate, they would state that they would “make maps of the complete planet” when finished. Their purpose, Watts managed to pry from them, was a concern of human beings becoming a space-traveling species. And more specifically, their (our!) warlike tendencies. This, they said, is where “they would step in”.

This is most certainly an interesting assertion. Not least when we consider the wealth of conspiracy theories that would follow the Moon landings. Specifically, those that humans were “warned away from the Moon” by an extraterrestrial race who already had a presence there.

Little more of significance was mentioned, besides perhaps that the alien itself was around 162 years old. While trivial to our examination of this incident here, it is an interesting notion that the life span of these apparent spacefaring entities is much longer than ours. Is this a consequence of their space-traveling ways? Or might it be their natural lifespan that makes such potentially long journeys through the cosmos more suitable for them? Perhaps their age is purely coincidental to the whole scenario?

For Watts, however, the next thing he knew, he was sitting in his vehicle on the road. The engine now worked.

Further Sightings And Photographic Evidence?

On 21^st May 1967, for example, the Watts’ would look out of their window to see the now familiar cylindrical craft from their home around half a mile away. They would maintain watch for around 90 minutes in total. Every now and then the craft would “dart sideways” before returning to the same spot. Watts would recall how it was bright enough “you could see the outline of the ship” from where they stood.

He would have several more encounters in June of the same year. On 7^th June at a little after 11 am while repairing a fence on his land, he would notice the cigar-shaped craft in the skies approaching his location. He would drop his tools and run to retrieve his Polaroid camera from his car. With the object at an altitude of around 300 feet, he would snap several pictures. You can see one of those photographs below.

Four days later on the afternoon of the 11^th June, another incident would unfold. On this occasion, however, the object would land and one of the occupants would exit the craft. Watts would even manage to take a photograph – or what he claimed to be a photograph – of the occupant with his Polaroid. And while the picture itself is particularly blurred (as seen in the book Alien Base), it does appear to show a strange, hairless being.

Intriguing Twists, Turns, And More Twists!

Needless to say, there are many who view Watts’ claims with suspicion.  And when we examine some of his other claims, it is easy, at least on the surface to see why. For example, the most glaring, at least in retrospect, was the claim that the aliens came from “the planet we call Mars”.

Most would say, given the amount of study we have since done on the red planet, that while it might have hosted life, maybe even something akin to human life at one point long ago, it is certainly devoid of life now. Or is it?

Make no mistake, even the most ardent and enthusiastic UFO and alien researcher has a difficult time treating the idea of Martians or “aliens from Mars” seriously. And, for the most part, it is hard to disagree with them.

However, and just for the sake of argument, it isn’t completely beyond the realm of possibility that an alien race might survive deep in the “lava tubes” underground the surface, as unlikely as that might be.

It also isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that such an alien race might have adapted to the conditions on our cosmic neighbor. Or perhaps, the aliens, or their ancestors, once did come from Mars, but now reside elsewhere? The Moon, perhaps, or, if we subscribe to the theories, the Inner Earth?

If It’s A Hoax, It’s A Clever Hoax!

While perhaps stopping short of fully endorsing his version of events, J Allen Hynek would claim:

If this is a hoax, it is a very, very clever one. In fact, it would be such a clever hoax that it would be almost as interesting as what this farmer claims has happened to him! ^[2]

Indeed, Watts would eventually take a lie detector test about the claims he made. However, he would state that upon arriving he was placed under “armed guard” and told he “must fail”. He would clarify after the event:

They told me if I passed the polygraph test, I would never make it home. So I failed it. I tried my best to fail it!

Do these claims of intimidation and of forcibly and purposely failing lie detector tests make the account more credible? Or are the claims of Carroll Watts best with a large pinch of salt? Indeed, they still intrigue a great many people, that is certain.

Check out the short video below. It looks at some of the best UFO sightings from recent history.