Walk of the UnDead 98520

2024- Your Walk of the Undead Royalty 

Information provided by the King- Jerry Salstrom

King- Jerry Salstrom: I have been an educator in Aberdeen for over 55 years beginning on March 3, 1969 at Miller Junior High as a math teacher for 16 years, then assistant principal for 4+ years, and principal from 1989 to 1999. After retiring I taught education classes at Grays Harbor College for 2 years. I also substituted for teachers and principals, coordinated the after school program at Miller and for the past 12 years I was the math specialist in the GEAR UP program at Miller and Aberdeen High School for the graduating classes of 2017and 2023. This past year I was also the math specialist for the class of 2024 and the GEAR UP Regional Coordinator at Grays Harbor College for students from GEAR UP program schools in both Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties. Patty and I were also the founders and owners of Purified Water To Go in Aberdeen from 1997 through 2008.  I was the lead organizer of Miller Junior High’s Centennial celebration last January 28 for which I received the Goldberg Award from the school board. I am also a Friends of the Aberdeen Museum volunteer, a member of the Harbor Strong coalition, a member of the Aberdeen Pioneers Association, and continuing to work with students at Miller, AHS, and GHC. My son Jeff is a lieutenant with the Hoquiam Police Department and my daughter Jennifer is a counselor at Harrison Prep Academy in the Clover Park School District.

Queen- Kiley O’Keefe is currently a freshman at Aberdeen High School and was one the students who helped put together the Miller Centennial program and participated in the Founders Day parade last summer. She also plays baritone sax in the school bands. She was just seated Tuesday night as a board member of the Friends of the Aberdeen Museum and we believe, that at 15, she is the youngest board member in the history of the museum. Her parents are Cassie and Phil Bosarge. –To Be Continued!

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UFO Sighting: The 1979 Elk River UFO Crash 

(Stephanie Morton | The Vidette) A story about the Westport UFO sighting was front page news in The Daily World in November 1979. (Click to link to that story)

Sightings of unexplained flying objects (UFOs) are not common on the Harbor but there have been a few — one notable incident occurring in November of 1979.

Something crashed in the hills near the Elk River outside of Westport and many people witnessed it, said James Clarkson, a UFO expert with the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) and a former Grays Harbor resident. Clarkson spoke to a group at the Elma Timberland Library in November.

Clarkson said what was most fascinating about the Westport UFO was that it followed the same pattern of many other UFO sightings: many witnesses observed the object and made efforts to report what they had seen and then there was military presence in the area afterwards. Logging roads were blocked and access to the crash site was denied. The military public information officers said it was a helicopter and that no, they weren’t guarding anything at Elk River.

Clarkson investigated the incident years after, and wrote a book on the subject, “The Westport UFO Crash Retrieval Event.” Clarkson has written other books on UFOs and has worked as an investigator for MUFON for many years. He said his job is to evaluate UFO sightings and as a former City of Aberdeen policeman, he evaluates facts. Clarkson does not do supposition or speculation.

“That’s a bridge too far,” Clarkson said. “I evaluate what is evidence and what is not.”

“Of ten UFO reports, eight or nine are natural or manmade or there is insufficient information to make a determination. And, there are hoaxes,” Clarkson said. Often, the International Space Station is responsible for what people believe are UFO sightings.

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UFO Sightings: Grays Harbor

KXRO News 2018 (Click to link to that story)

In the latest updates from the National UFO Reporting Center, they added hundreds of unidentified flying object sightings across the nation since the start of 2019.

The center says their goal is “Dedicated to the Collection and Dissemination of Objective UFO Data” and says;

“Obvious hoaxes have been omitted, however most reports have been posted exactly as received in the author’s own words.”

There were 157 reports made in Washington for 2018, a decrease from 199 in 2017.

Washington ranks as 3rd in the total number of sightings by state with 5853 total reports, behind only California (1) and Florida (2).

In their full list of reports, KXRO found over 80 reports have been made within Grays Harbor and Pacific County since 1980.

The most recent report was on October 10 when someone was with their fiancée at Friend’s Landing and saw a “yellowish orange light” that was moving around,before flying toward them.

Other reports include a person who was visited by “at least five alien men in 1985” as they were staying at a rented summer cabin in Copalis Beach as well as a report from 2012 that had “UFO Fireballs” seen in Hoquiam that were allegedly also seen by Hoquiam Police Department officers.

The center says that they receive a “high volume” of prank calls into their hotline, “typically dozens per day” and they say that they suspect that they encounter the same problem for written reports and they attempt to detect and eliminate any prank reports.  

They caution anyone visiting the website to be on the alert for reports that may not seem entirely authentic, including reports from people who do not leave contact information, although they say there are many reports that “ deserve a reader’s attention” so these anonymous reports are “not necessarily unreliable”.

The National UFO Reporting Center is located in Eastern Washington inside a decommissioned U. S. Air Force missile base between Davenport and Harrington in Lincoln County.

For a complete list of Washington UFO reports, visit http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/ndxlWA.html

To report a UFO, you can file your encounter online or you can call the Center Hotline at 206-722-3000 if the sighting occurred within the last week.