Edwin Fuhr Encounter

On Sept. 1 1974, the skies were grey and threatening, but Edwin Fuhr was on his swather in a field of rapeseed (now called canola).

Moving up a small incline, he glanced up to make sure he would skirt a grassy, dried out slough just ahead when he spied something made of metal in the grass. His first thought was that someone was playing a joke on him or had dumped junk in the old slough.

As the swather moved up the incline, the slough came into full view. The metallic “something” was one of five machines rotating rapidly and hovering just above the grass.

Fuhr, startled, stopped his swather, climbed down and took a few steps toward the hovering machines. Then, overcome with fear, he stopped and began slowly to ease back to his idling swather.