W-File: ce_1919.html

Type: Close Encounter
Date: 1919
Location: Barron

Source: The UFO Encyclopedia, Volume 2, by Jerome Clark, page 89. 1992 Omnigraphics Inc.
The UFO Encyclopedia cites: Evans, Alex [pseudonym of Jerome Clark]. "Encounters with Little Men." Fate 31, 11 (November 1978): 83-86.

One hot summer night in 1919 Harry Anderson, 13, was riding with two friends and their father when their car ran out of oil and stopped east of Barron, Wisconsin. Presently a farmer who had been out fishing walked by. He offered to give the stranded travelers some oil from his farm two miles away. Young Anderson accompanied him, and the pair walked to the house. After securing the oil, Anderson started back along the one-track road. Soon afterwards the bright moonlight revealed 20 little men walking in single file toward the youth but paying no attention to him. Their heads were bald, and the figures were dressed in leather "knee pants" held up by suspenders over their shoulders. Shirtless and white-skinned, they were "mumbling" but apparently not to each other. Anderson, terrified, continued on his way, not once looking back.

Source: UFO Roundup Volume 4 Number 20, September 8, 1999, Editor: Joseph Trainor

1919: TROLLS GO ON MANEUVERS

On a late summer's night in 1919, thirteen- year-old Harry Anderson, his family and some friends went for a drive in the family's new Ford Model T automobile.

At about 10 p.m., as they were headed back to Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the car's engine began running a little rough. Papa Anderson eased it to a halt on the southbound lane of Highway 25.

"We're running low on oil," he said, handing the oil can to his son. "Head on up the road, Harry, and see if you can get some old farmer to lend you some."

And so, with the empty oil can swinging from his hand, Harry hiked down the darkened road. A roadside sign told him he was just outside Barron, Wis., about five miles west of Rice Lake. Seeing the roof of a farmhouse on the horizon, he took a shortcut across a cornfield.

The farmer filled Harry's oil can for him, and, "as he was walking back, he saw twenty little men walking towards him in single file. They had bald heads and white skins, and wore leather 'knee-pants' held up by braces over their shoulders. (Lederhosen in Germany-- J.T.)"

Startled, Harry ducked behind a red maple tree, staying out of sight as the dwarfish platoon marched by. His ears caught fragments of their conversation, mostly mutterings and a quirky little song.

"We won't stop fighting
Till the end of the war
In Nineteen-Hundred
and Ninety-Four.
Sound off--one, two
Sound off--three, four
Detail, one, two, three, four
One--two...three--four!

The column marched on into the forest, leaving Harry, in his own words, "heart pumping and terrified." (See Fate magazine for November 1978, "Encounters with Little Men," page 85.)

(UFO Roundup Editor Joseph Trainor's Comment: An end to war in 1994? What a bunch of optimists!)