The trip had all the makings of a boring car ride—until the couple saw mysterious lights approaching from the sky.
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It was a temperate summer evening on September 19, 1961, when husband-and-wife duo Barney and Betty Hill embarked on their drive home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after a brief stay in Montreal, Canada. Their nighttime journey southward on Route 3 took them through the expansive White Mountains, a subrange of the Appalachians and the most rugged mountain chain in New England. Still, the skies were clear of rain, and it wasn’t excessively windy or foggy. It had all the makings of a boring car ride.
That is, until the couple saw mysterious lights approaching from the sky.
It was around 10 p.m. when Barney and Betty followed the lights into the mountains, and through a pair of binoculars claimed they could see humanoid creatures walking upright on two feet from behind the windows of a large spaceship. Then, they saw the strange cigar-shaped craft land in a nearby field.
After that, everything went black.
The Hills found themselves near Portsmouth by 5 a.m., but the trip should have taken no longer than a few hours, meaning the couple should have been home by 2 a.m. at the latest. They had no recollection of what transpired in between, they would later tell investigators. Complicating matters, when the couple came to, Betty’s dress was torn and stained; Barney’s shoes were scuffed up and one of his binocular straps was damaged.
About a year later, Barney and Betty sought out hypnosis therapy and were able to recall details of that terrifying night. The two believed they had been victims of an alien abduction, probed and examined aboard the spacecraft before their release.
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