Were they Aliens in 1880, when some rural school children saw the Little People?
The Cameron State Forest is located in Steuben Country and is about 15 miles to the southeast of Hornell, NY. The Cameron region was, and still is, the home to many farms and a lot of rattlesnakes. Even in present day, to get there is a drive up and down a lot of hilly terrain.
In the 1880s Cameron was as rural as you could get in upstate New York. There was no such thing as a school bus in those days. So going to school was the proverbial long five mile walk through the country side to a one room school house.
Elizabeth and her sister Eva and some of other children from local farming families made the long trek to their one room school house by walking the long, hilly, and twisting dirt roads on week days.
One day, as the school children were about to cross a familiar bridge over a local stream they stopped upon seeing something very strange. On the other side of the bridge and down on the creek bed the kids observed some strange tiny little people.
Elizabeth and Eva both later told her family that these beings were small, skinny, and oddly colored. They tell us that all the children were frightened by the sight of these little people, even the boys. These strangers didn’t look like anyone or anything thing they’d ever see. Their parents had cautioned them to wary of strangers so when the little people gestured for the children to cross the bridge, they all turned and ran for home.
Elizabeth and Eva later grew up to become a school teachers themselves and their account comes to us from a family oral history passed to their younger brother, who told it to his children who later told it to their children and grandchildren. I thank the family for sharing this story with us.
Let’s look at some sightings from around areas near Cameron, NY:
25 October 2009: at about 7 a.m. just prior to sunrise, husband and wife and two kids from Bath, NY were driving West on Interstate 86. Suddenly they observed bright light traveling southwest at about 3-5 thousand feet, moving very fast and flying at a 45 degree angle towards the ground. They say it was too fast for a plane and too slow for a shooting star. The object abruptly changed its course, traveled parallel to the ground then shot away at great speed.
10 July 2011: at about 9:30 p.m. a Canisteo, NY resident observed a bright yellow-red light flying just above the tree line for about a minute before ascending and disappearing.
13 July 2011: at about 9:30 p.m. a Addison, NY resident witnessed what she initially thought was a bright star in the sky. Suddenly the bright object began moving, within moments it was clear the object was accelerating skyward. The resident and her sister watched it until it vanished.
23 January 2012: at about 8 p.m. a Bath, NY couple, along with other adult family members were driving on Interstate 390 and observed bright lighted objects. The lights blinked in odd irregular patterns and frequently changed blinking pattern and formation. This event went on for about 15 minutes then the lights vanished.
Let’s look at some recent sightings from around New York State:
26 April 2014: at about midnight a motorist in Middletown was driving on Interstate 84 headed east when he observed an object was hovering in the sky. He reports that there were beams of white light shining straight up into the clouds. Suddenly the object went up into the cloud and disappeared.
27 April 2014: at about 8 a.m. a Bellmore, NY resident was out walking his dog and observed an octahedron shape; “as big as a house.” It appeared to have something smaller circling it! It was moving north to south, was about 250-300 feet in elevation. Then the object turned south southwest and began climbing rapidly toward open water.
29 April 2014: at about 5 a.m. a Lysander, NY resident reported observing a bright ball of orange light that hovered while normal air traffic flew past it.
1 May 2014: at about 9:30 p.m. a resident of Newark, NY and his college age son witnessed an Oval shaped blue/white light streak across the sky, then abruptly it hovered for a few minutes. Then the object rose up skyward at great speed and was gone in a matter of seconds.
If you have a UFO sighting to report, you can use either one of the two national database services: www.NUFORC.ORG or www.MUFON.COM Both services respect confidentiality.
Cheryl Costa would love to hear the when, where and what. Email it to [email protected]. The names of witnesses will be omitted to protect their privacy.