The Wanaque Reservoir sightings

On 11 January 1966 police and residents around the Wanaque Reservoir in New Jersey reported a glowing object that hovered and circled for over an hour.

At about 6:20 to 6:30 pm on 11 January 1966, police radios in northern New Jersey carried calls about a glowing light above the reservoir. Wanaque Patrolman Joseph Cisco, in his cruiser, heard a dispatcher relay a call about a glow that might be a fire. Then he heard that callers from Butler, Totowa, Paterson, Ringwood and Oakland were claiming a flying saucer hung above the Wanaque.

The NICAP case file, a record kept by a UFO research group, says police and citizens reported a brilliant light, then an egg-shaped object that glowed. It hung low, flew circles above the reservoir and sometimes changed height abruptly. The sightings lasted over an hour. The case is also described in the New York Journal-American of 12 January 1966.

Another account tells it from the police side. Dykman, a patrolman, told fellow reservoir officers, who saw it circle across the dam and then stay put for several minutes. It then dipped low and its reflection showed on the ice. It says that by the following day officers had found a round melted hole in the ice. NICAP's file omits that detail. No cause was established. Later sightings at Wanaque in October 1966 are a separate episode.