Kentucky lake experience 11-24-10 one summer in the year 1958 to maybe 1959 my brother jim and i were headed on a camping, fishing trip on kentucky lake. my age would have been around 14 to 15 years at the time. we packed our 16' aluminum fishing boat with two motors (10hp & 71/2 hp johnsons), all the gas tanks (i think we had 3 tanks) we had and a cooler with bacon and egg, sandwich makings/hot dogs and drinks. we planned on traveling by boat to areas of the lake that were new to us. we were going to explore new areas, look for fossils and indian fire pits, and fish. our fishing boat was relatively slow by today's standards and at the late afternoon of the first day we had gone up the tn river and reached a very small bay upstream and north of the leatherwood creek areas of the lake and fished there. we thought about spending the night there but the shore was too narrow to provide a good camping area. we moved on to leatherwood creek which is a big bay. we fished a bit in leatherwood creek bay and decided to make camp early since we were not familiar with the area. we made camp in the bay on the south side of leatherwood creek. there was a steep cliff behind us and we used the back drop of the cliff as a fire backstop. we made dinner early, gathered firewood, spread out our sleeping bags and decided to go to bed early and shortly after sunset since our flashlights were not that good in those days. in the 50-60's the entire shore of the lake was wild and not inhabited with any fishing camps or cabins. the only two docks where we could get gas were antioch and buchanan and they were very little docks with one gas pump. in fact, in those days we rarely saw another fishing boat on the lake and we took our baths in the lake. so, going to bed early was the only option for us. we got in our sleeping bags but shortly after, for some reason, we decided to take the boat out and try night fishing. we built the fire up quite big so we could see it from the lake to ensure we could get back to camp. we fished a short time and decided to get back to shore because a fog was coming in and we were afraid we might not get back to our camp if the fog obscured our view of the camp fire. when we got back to camp, i was glad we built up the fire as it was burned down quite low. after getting back to shore and pulling the boat up on the bank, we saw a floating round light across the bay and floating along the tree line at the top of the hill. it was floating along the north side of leatherwood creek and moving from the east in a westward direction. it was a color like the sun, and about the size of a pea or my little finger nail from our distance perspective. it was moving at a speed i would guess to be about 10 miles per hour and hovering just above tree tops and there was no sound at all. it floated along the ridge for probably several hundred yards and then went over the hill and out of sight only to reappear a couple hundred yards farther away to our left. finally it floated out of sight. we went to bed and slept well. the funny thing was that while the 60's were the age of the very popular and plentiful flying saucer and alien invasion movies, we should have been quite afraid of what we saw, but we were not. as example, on another time we returned to the cabin late in the evening from a movie in town. on the gravel county road near the cabin, we saw a huge glowing mound in the woods. to our imaginations, it appeared to be a crashed ufo but on a closer look it was the embers left from a brush pile fire. i remember at first not knowing what it was and being afraid that it was a crashed ufo or something like the meteors from the war of the worlds movie. so, why in this case we had fear of what we saw but in the orb of leatherwood creek, we were not? what accounts for the difference? that weekend our father came to the cabin from memphis where he worked. we told him our story and told him we thought it was a 'will-o'-the-wisp' (see wikipedia below). he said that it probably was and that he saw one as a young boy. dad said it was a ball of light that floated in through his bedroom window, floated down the hall and went out through the screen of the screen door. he went on to tell us that in the memphis news papers there had been a story that a big ufo had been seen over nashville that same week. if you were to draw a straight line along that ridge on leatherwood creek and extend it south east, it would run near nashville area. so, it is possible that we saw the same thing. it certainly was not any flying vehicle we know. if it were a helicopter with a spot light on it, it would not have appeared as a ball of light unless the spot light was pointing directly at us the entire length of its movements and we would have heard the rotors. so, we can rule out a chopper. if it was a 'manned' vehicle, because of our big fire the close proximity to us, the occupants would have seen our fire and likely us. this summer i went to leatherwood creek and found the cove where we camped. looking across the bay i covered an object about the size of a pea from that distance. it is the restaurant there in the marina. the size of the restaurant is probably 100' in length, so the yellow/white sphere we saw must have been about 100' in diameter and likely more as it was higher up the hill than the marina. most all reports of 'will-o'-the-wisp' are of small orbs of light the largest the size of a man's head. this light was much larger than that, so it is unlikely it was a will-0-the-wisp. what it was, i don't know we'll just say an unexplained large, slow moving ball of light out in the boonies and seen in the late 50's. updated 7/21/19 since writing the above about 10 years ago and reflecting on this event over that time, i seem to have other memories and comments. 1. i have a fuzzy memory of that huge orb of yellow/orange light coming over the hill behind us and we interacted with some creatures that were creepy, like big bugs. i can't exactly say it is a memory but a 'thought' that continues to haunt me or like a bad dream that one would keep remembering. it's not a vivid memory but one that haunts me and i can't seem to shake it. squirrel hunting experience as a kid august 1956 or maybe 1957, i went squirrel hunting at our cabin on kentucky lake near paris, tn and had a strange happening that my father remembered over forty years later when i asked him of his recollection. our family had one .22 single shot winchester rifle that my brother and i used to hunt with so we had to take very good care of it. i left the cabin at probably around 3:00 pm and went over two ridges that overlooked kentucky lake. the area was completely wild at the time with our nearest neighbor about five miles away. i was west of what is today gibson rd on the crest of a hill. i set my rifle up against the tree i was seated against and closed my eyes to help me be still since to squirrel hunt you had to sit very still so they wouldn't see you. after about 10-15 minutes of being still with eyes shut, i opened them to see if any squirrels were around. there weren't but the tree directly in front of me had a big hole in the trunk and out of the hole were two baby racoons looking straight at me what i clearly remember as very large black intense eyes. i didn't want to frighten or shoot them so i closed my eyes to not alarm them and let them get away but instead went to sleep. i awoke around sunset in a great stupor. my mental state was that i wasn't 100% sure how to get back to the cabin (i had a great sense of direction in the woods and still do to this day and i've never been lost) i remember stumbling back to the cabin, face scratched from the bushes i failed to avoid and walked in the front door. my dad met me at the door and asked where i was and that they had worried about me and then asked 'where is your rifle?' tennessee boys in the 50's always knew where their rifles were but i remember telling dad, 'i don't know, i must have left it in the woods'. he sent me back to get it and i remember stumbling through the woods in a daze, like i had been drugged. it was the state of mind like you have after a colonoscopy procedure (i've had two). luckily, i found my rifle leaning up against the same tree where i left it but i remember looking to see if the baby raccoons were still there but the hole in the tree was gone wasn't there and so were the baby raccoons. i got my rifle and stumbled back to the cabin, ate dinner and went directly to bed. felt fine the next morning. i'm 74 years now and in my entire life that is the only time i've experienced a stupor like that except as the result of a surgical procedure. roughly forty years later, my dad and i were reminiscing about our early years at our kentucky lake cabin and i asked him if he remembered that event. remarkably, he said, he sure did and that he had never seen anything like that with any one before the deep stupor i was in when i got back to the cabin and without my rifle (which was very dear to me at that age). i'm wondering if i had an interaction with what they call the greys and if this has any connection to the first account? being retired now and having time to think, i've had time to renew my recollections and starting with the first one that i refer to as the kentucky lake experience. also, since writing that nearly ten years ago, i've talked to two dear friends who saw what they described as a ufo. one is a successful retired land developer in naples, fl who saw as a teenager what he described as a silver saucer shaped craft come up out of the ocean, hover and zip out of sight. the other is a man who built a huge injection molding company in dyersburg, tn, a credible witness. he saw one while night fishing, hovering over an electrical transfer unit at the end of a lake. said it was an orb that pulsed and shined a light down on the power station. was about 100-200 yards away, made no sound and when he turned on his trolling motor to get closer, it disappeared. since you'll hopefully know i not a wacko-nut, here is the link to my business book on amazon. https://www.Amazon.Com/nuts-bolts-sales-management-organization/dp/1934572764/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top john r. treace