A version of this conversation aired during Morning Edition on WVIA Radio.
It was a dark night 50 years ago when the people of Carbondale had an out-of-this-world experience.
A bright light was reported to have whirled through the sky, hovered, then landed in a pond of wastewater left over from the coal mines. Since that night, theories and memories of the "Carbondalien" have persisted.
Last weekend, Carbondale celebrated its extraterrestrial past, and WVIA's Kat Bolus was there for the close encounter.
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SARAH: So let's start with the lore of the "Carbondalien." How much has this story kind of become embedded in Carbondale as a city?
KAT: Carbondale has definitely embraced what may or may not have happened on November 9, 1974. Their fire trucks all have like, little aliens in the windows. If you go into their fire headquarters, there's, like a sigil, and it has an alien in the middle of it. So the city's definitely leaned into it, to quote Mayor Michelle Bannon, as something 'quirky and fun' that they have that most other places in the country definitely don't. But 50 years ago, three teenage boys reported seeing this bright light zoom over Salem Mountain and then land in a silt pond behind Russell Park. And so that was on Saturday night. Then, the authorities at the time, they called NORAD, they called the military, they called like everyone they possibly could to figure out what was glowing, what was illuminating this silt pond. So then it kind of turned into, like a fiasco. And I say that like, not negatively. Dr S. Robert Powell is president of the Carbondale Historical Society, and he said by some estimates, 10,000 people had showed up in Carbondale just from Saturday to Monday to see, like, what the heck was happening in this silt pond. So it turns out, on Monday, a diver pulls a railroad lantern out of the pond. It was still dimly lit, and the case was officially closed, but not really. People have all different theories about what actually happened, whether it was actually a UFO and it was a government cover-up, whether it was a satellite that fell and it was a government cover up. But a lot of people think that the lantern was just a diversion to kind of disperse those 10,000 people away from Carbondale.
SARAH: They want to believe, as it were.
KAT: They want to believe, yes.
SARAH: So, you were at the Carbondalien Festival this past weekend. This was to mark the 50th anniversary of this incident. So how was it, and do you think it'll come back?
KAT: Yes. So, it was crazy. There were so many people in Carbondale. It was really cool. And so many people just kind of leaning into, you know, the UFO and alien lore. Like, so much lime green... Adams Cable, which is a cable company based in Carbondale, they were giving out these, like alien eyes, and people had them all over their heads walking around. There were people with like, alien earrings, and there was paranormal speakers at the Hotel Anthracite throughout the day. So it kind of just brought, like, this really interesting and eclectic group of people to Carbondale. There was all cool shops, and then up at Russell Park, the Lackawanna Historical Society put together the Russell Park Experience. You were able to go up and interview all these re-enactors and kind of come up with your own idea of what happened that day. And that experience was sold out, I think by noon. The mayor was thrilled. Nicole Curtis who helped organize the festival, she was thrilled and yes, they will definitely be doing it again.
SARAH: Now, as someone who was born and raised in Scranton...what do you remember being told about the Carbondalien or did this kind of not travel as quickly?
KAT: I was told nothing about the Carbondalien. I worked at the Scranton Times for 10 years, and at one point I had covered Carbondale, and on the 40th anniversary, they put together like a little festival. And so that was the first time I heard about it. But like my parents don't remember it. One of the things that was really exciting about this story is that George Graham restored old tape from 1974 that WVIA reporters went up to Carbondale the Monday after the, you know, supposed UFO landed, and they got all this amazing tape. George restored it, which was awesome. And you were...kind of able to hear, like, actually, at the scene when they pulled the lantern out of the pond. It was really cool. But they interviewed people, and there's this, they interviewed this woman, and they're like, where are you from? I'm from Scranton. Have you ever been to Carbondale before? And she said no. I think there's definitely a Carbondale-Scranton disconnect. But yeah, my mom doesn't remember it at all.
SARAH: You said you became fascinated with this when you reported on the 40th anniversary. What were some of the new things, or the coolest things that you got to learn this time around when you were digging into it for this 50th anniversary?
KAT: So three UFO specialists showed up in Carbondale the weekend of November 9, 1974, and one of them was a guy named Matthew Graber. The organization that he worked for still exists. So I reached out to them, and they sent me all of the paperwork that they had from the incident, that this Matt Graber had compiled from the incident. There's a photo of them in.. old newspaper articles, there's a photo of him on the scene. And that was just kind of really interesting to see, like, this guy who is UFO specialist, just kind of his thought process into, you know, what happened. And then the other thing that was really exciting is, there was a police photographer at the time. His name's Jerome Gillott, and he had really never talked about the alien before. He decided on the 50th anniversary that he was going to bring out all his old photos and he was going to talk about what happened. And that was really, that was really cool to get to sit down (with him), and he was a really lovely guy. The photos were really cool, and they were taken on an old 35 millimeter camera. He had to develop them in a dark room. This time around ... I very much felt like I was transported back to November 9, 1974, in a way that I hadn't 10 years ago.
SARAH: I understand that there might be more to come about the Carbondalien.
KAT: There is more to come from WVIA on the Carbondalien. So Al Monelli, one of our filmmakers here, is working on a short documentary about the UFO that may or may not have landed in Carbondale. Him and I did a lot of interviews together. He got a lot of really great footage. He went up to the Carbondalien festival and talked to some people who, you know, remember seeing this big bright light, so he is working on that now. So there is more to come from WVIA and the Carbondale Alien and the Carbondale UFO, so stay tuned for that.
SARAH: Kat, thank you so much.
KAT: Thank you.
