Encounter Atlas
On the evening of October 11, 1973, Charles Hickson and his younger companion Calvin Parker were fishing from a pier on the west bank of the Pascagoula River in Mississippi. They said they heard a whirring sound, saw flashing blue lights and then an oval object about 30 to 40 feet across. According to Hickson, three creatures with pincer-like hands came out, took hold of them and floated them aboard, where Hickson said he was examined. Parker, he said, fainted and was unconscious for most of it. The men said they were then returned to the riverbank.
Around 11 p.m. the pair went to the Jackson County sheriff's office. Captain Glenn Ryder said he first suspected a prank, so officers left the two alone in a room with a hidden tape recorder; their private conversation matched what they had said, and Ryder came to believe they were sincere. The next day they were checked for radiation at Keesler Air Force Base and released. Astronomer J. Allen Hynek and ufologist James Harder interviewed them under hypnosis and told the press they believed the men had experienced something real. A local polygraph examiner later said Hickson believed what he described.
Skeptic Philip J. Klass pointed to inconsistencies in Hickson's account and his refusal of a polygraph by a more experienced examiner, and concluded it was a hoax. Joe Nickell suggested Hickson may have had a vivid waking dream and that Parker, who said he had blacked out, went along with it. Hickson later claimed further contacts with the beings, which critics saw as embellishment.
Both men stood by their account for life. Hickson died in 2011; Parker published his own book in 2018 and died in 2023. In 2019 the local historical society unveiled a historical marker near the site, and Pascagoula now holds an annual festival marking the anniversary.