By Violet Wisdom
Piedmont, Missouri-
The state UFO capital of Missouri now has an official UFO themed park. Piedmont and Wayne County received the UFO capital title in April of 2024 as part of the 50th anniversary of the Piedmont region UFO flap. According to KFVS12, Missouri State Representative Chris Dinkins who sponsored the UFO capital title joined Piedmont residents for a recent ribbon cutting at the park.
The city’s new park is complete with an interpretive panel describing the 1973 events, a flying saucer, and of course, a little green alien. Organizers of the park hope local businesses will embrace the theme as it has brought an increase in tourism.
Missouri MUFON Assistant State Director Margie Kay stated that “The S.E. Missouri area including Piedmont, is a known UFO hotspot with sightings continuing through today.” According to Kay, there were over 500 sightings in the area in 1973.
Margie Kay and Debbie Zieglemeyer, MO MUFON State Director, wrote the "50th Anniversary of the SE Missouri Ozarks UFO Flap," which describes the sighting reports in detail. The book is available at Amazon.com.
Forward by Lee Speigel. In 1973, the town of Piedmont, Clearwater Lake, and Wayne County, Missouri experienced one of the biggest UFO Flaps in history. Over 500 sighting reports were filed with the police department and local media, attracting the attention of national media including Walter Cronkite, along with UFO investigators Dr. J. Allen Hynek, Ted Phillips, Walter Andrus, and others. Dr. Harley Rutledge conducted a years-long investigation of the site, culminating in his work "Project Identification." Authors and investigators Debbie Ziegelmeyer, State Director for Missouri MUFON, and Margie Kay, Assistant State Director for Missouri MUFON cover what started in 1973 and continues to this day. They share past and current sightings and experiences which include sightings of UFOs, extraterrestrials, balls of light, unexplained animal mutilations, and bigfoot sightings. Why this area is such a hot spot for Unidentified Aerial phenomena is the big question that Debbie and Margie are working to figure out.
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