I was returning from Missoula one Friday evening, driving along a secondary highway toward Dillon, MT. As I was coming around a corner near Mill Point (approx. 24 miles from Dillon) I slowed down as there was a flatbed pickup stalled in the right lane of the highway. As I went around the vehicle, the door was open and I recognized the name "Selkirk Hereford Ranch" stenciled on the door. There was no one in the vehicle. Just as I got around the vehicle, something caught my eye to the left at about 45 degrees. There was a large fireball/flash/sparks descending over the ridge and apparently coming to rest behind the Mill Point. I was so frightened, instead of looking back behind the landform as I drove past, I accelerated and never stopped to look back. At that time, if you saw an event like that and lived in a small town, you kept it to yourself. I DID share the event with one person, a trusted employee of my dad's. Where this could get interesting is, by Monday, there had been numerous reports to the sheriff's office of similar sightings. The local radio station, KDBM, suprisingly broadcast news regarding these sightings. One extraordinary report indicated a woman was persued by a firey object thate hovered over her car and scorched the hood. I'm a professional archaeologist with considerable credibility and am known for being pretty open minded. I have been watching the History Channel and there seems to be many documented, proven UFO events being brought forward with greater intensity/evidence than ever before. That is why I am now coming forward with this.