When one thinks of the modern day extraterrestrial, the image that is most associated with one is that of a gray alien a la Whitley Strieber's book cover for communion. as it turns out, gray aliens are not the only species of alleged extraterrestrials that have visited the earth and reportedly encountered by humans from time to time. this is the story of a farmer who had a bizarre encounter of his own with seemingly otherworldly beings that decided to make a landing on his remote Missouri farm. Welcome to the story of the Tuscumbia Space Penguins...
It was valentines day, 1967 in the rural Midwest town of Tuscumbia, MO. in the early winter morning, Claude Edwards, a then 64-year-old farmer was getting ready to attend to his daily farmer duties. as Edwards dressed for the bitter cold weather, he had no idea what would be awaiting him on his remote piece of land. Edwards was said to be a simple, salt-of-the-earth, no-nonsense man. a fitting description of many farmers I would think. Edwards then ventured out from his home to head towards his barn. as he approached his barn, he noticed his cattle in his eastern field were all together, facing the same direction, seemingly looking at something.
It was then that Edwards was in for the shock of his life as his eyes followed the line of sight to what his cattle were looking at. in this moment he observed what appeared to be a massive mushroom shaped object in the meadow next to his barn. it was grayish-green in color and held up by what looked to be a circular tube. Edwards maintained eye contact on the object and headed towards his barn to put down a feed bucket he was carrying and then locked up the barn. as Edwards turned back to face the craft he reported seeing a group of small looking creatures underneath this mushroom shaped craft.
Edwards estimated the craft and these beings scurrying around were about 70 feet from his position. The only thing separating him from this scene were two fences and his cattle. presumably not impressed that his cows were spooked and his property was clearly being trespassed on drove him to head towards this ship and its occupants. he climbed the first fence gate without issue, but as he reached the second, the beings under the craft appeared to become agitated. from this distance, Edwards believed them to be around 3 feet tall and also looked to be grayish-green like their ship. He also made note that they appeared to have large wide-set black eyes, or were potentially wearing goggles, and their arms were moving so swiftly that he had trouble discerning if they had hands. Edwards also couldn't quite make out how they were moving about as any view of their lower extremities were obscured. In addition they had dark protrusion on their faces where a nose and mouth should be which some have speculated could have been a type of breathing apparatus.
Edwards was awe struck by what he was witnessing. clearly these were no ordinary trespassers and were certainly not human by any means. the beings moved about frantically, flailing their arms. Later on, Edwards likened these alien creatures to be something like green penguins from outer space. Edwards then decided to picked up a pair of the biggest rocks he could find nearby with the intention of damaging the UFO to prevent it from taking off. despite is will to protect his farm something strange happened. when he approached within 15 feet of the craft he was suddenly stopped by some invisible force. Edwards claimed he couldn't see or feel this so called "force-field" - he was just stopped dead in his tracks. he is quoted as saying:
“I thought I was going right up to it. I got up there and there it was. I just walked up against a wall.”
Being so close to the craft at this point let him observe it in great detail. he noted an estimated 18-foot diameter of the curved top of the craft and an 8-foot apex. its hull was like a metallic shiny silk and was also smooth and seamless, like if we 3D printed something with 21st century technology, but presumably far more advanced. the bewildered farmer went on and described this ship as having evenly spaced oval "holes" that were roughly 1-foot wide and 1-foot apart. These "holes" did not appear to function as windows though, but instead seemed to be some sort of lighting array as a rainbow of colors visibly oscillated from them. Edwards said of these ovals:
“The object just looked like a big shell, grayish-green looking outfit. And underneath there were oblong holes where the lights were coming out. They were so bright you couldn't see when you got up there… as if a color wheel was turning inside the thing.”
When he had enough, the farmer backed off from the craft by 10-feet and then threw one of the rocks he was still clutching in his hand. sure enough the rock hit whatever force-field stopped him, bounced off of it silently and landed on the ground. Edwards then hurled the second rock, which of course was a futile attempt. at this juncture, the beings scuttling around beneath the craft hurried to the backside of the tube that was descended from it. presumably the entry-point to the craft was around the back side of it so the occupants could get in and leave. suddenly the craft tilted at him. then again. on the third time it lifted from the ground and began levitating into the sky without any discernible propulsion system known to man in 1967. the mushroom shaped UFO then soared upward at tremendous speed, it then leveled off and headed towards the direction of St. Elizabeth to the northeast of Tuscumbia.
Sidebar: say what you will about Bob Lazar's story, but this aspect of a force field reminds me of his description of the sports model ufo reactor. lazar stated that when the reactor of that craft was activated it gave off some sort of force-field or barrier that couldn't be penetrated. he described putting a hand up to it and not being able to push through this invisible field.
Like so many other witnesses to UFOs, Edwards stood very little to gain from his story except the ridicule that would follow. Claude Edwards was a simple farmer leading a simple life who happened to have a once in a lifetime chance to witness something out of this world. something i feel that adds more credence to this harrowing tale was the fact that when Edwards initially reported his story to ufo investigator, ted Phillips, he refused to divulge the story until Phillips agreed to keep Edwards identity anonymous until his death. Phillips had arrived to interview Edwards not too long after the sighting, so fortunately there was time to collect evidence. Phillips photographed where the craft had landed and its effects on the meadow, including the spot where the tube that the aliens used to entered the craft. Phillips made note that the spot was extremely dehydrated in comparison with the surrounding soil.
In the end this seems to be one more the more compelling UFO & ALIEN encounters I've read and it seems to lean on the side of being credible based on this farmers hesitancy to report it and wishing to remain anonymous. if true, i'm sure after this encounter, Claude Edwards never viewed life the same way again and would look out to his meadows with wonder and apprehension as to what happened that fateful day in 1967.
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