In October 1974, with another harsh Wyoming winter on the way and with food prices rising higher than most Americans could afford, 41-year-old, Carl Higdon prepared to venture out into the woodlands and wilderness in an attempt to hunt down a large chunk of his family’s meat supply for the following few months. He had done so several times before, but with ample space still in the freezer (which had to feed himself, his wife, and four children) he ventured out again. On this particular hunting mission, however, things would take a bizarre and other-worldly turn.

Higdon’s account is one of the most fascinating on record, and one that offers some physical evidence of, at the very least, a strange incident occurring. Furthermore, it is another case that offers details that are found in seemingly unconnected encounters, both across distance and time. Indeed, if there is any truth at all in the account of Carl Higdon – and all indications are that the incident is genuine – then it might offer us some clues as to why the UFO phenomenon exists, and why it is so persistent.

An Unexpected Afternoon’s Hunting!

As the 25th October began, Carl Higdon was not actually planning to go hunting. At least not initially. He was preparing to go to work as normal when he received a phone call from one of his crew before the afternoon shift. He was sick and wouldn’t be into work. Higdon, reasoning that he wouldn’t be able to get anything done without his sick crew member took the day off also. With the afternoon free, he decided to venture out into the Wyoming countryside looking to hunt elk.

He would set out to Carbon County and to McCarthy Canyon with his truck packed up for the afternoon. However, along the way, he encountered some fellow hunters who appeared to have trouble with their vehicle. He pulled over to assist the pair and consequently began talking with them. They would inform him of a place deep in the Medicine Bow National Forest, where there were much more elk and where the “hunting was much better”. It was a remote, little-known spot, but due to his kindness, the stranded hunters were happy to divulge the information to Higdon.

Following his getting their vehicle started, he set off again. However, this time he changed his destination. He would now head to the Medicine Bow National Forest instead. It wasn’t too far out, he reasoned. He was around forty miles from his hometown of Rawlings. By the time he arrived at his destination, it was late afternoon, just short of 4 pm. There was still light, but it was about to go into decline.

The Bullet “Floated Like A Butterfly!”

Upon exiting his truck and preparing his hunting gear, Higdon would spot another fellow hunter, his friend, Gary Eaton. The pair spoke for a few minutes before Gary informed him he was “going higher” into the forest than Higdon, but that he “might scare down some elk” for him. As his friend went on his way, Higdon made his way to the location the stranded hunters had informed about. As he did, he came across a concealed area behind a hill. It was shortly after entering this area that a sudden burst of movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He focused on his surroundings and spotted a small herd of elk.

He was slightly above the elk, five of them in total. With his hunting rifle raised, he took aim at one of the animals and fired. However, not only did the “kickback” from the gun not happen, there was no sound whatsoever. At the same time, Higdon had the end of the rifle in his sights and claims to have witnessed the bullet leave the barrel and travel through the air so slowly it “floated like a butterfly”. It would eventually drop to the ground about fifty feet in front of him. He suddenly became aware of a “painful silence” all around him. Not a sound came from anywhere, or anything. Higdon could sense a feeling of static electricity that “you often get before a fierce thunderstorm”.

Coming to his senses a little, he stepped forward to retrieve the fallen 7mm bullet. He noticed that the lead part was no longer in the bullet, which itself – or the casing of it – was misshapen considerably. Suddenly, a twig snapped somewhere nearby.

The Non-Human Humanoid!

Higdon would spin around, immediately seeing the figure in front of him. Thinking it was a fellow hunter, he lowered his gun quickly. As the strange figure emerged from the shadows of the trees, however, he realized “something was terribly wrong”.

The figure was most-definitely humanoid, and male, but it wasn’t human. Higdon would later recall that the figure had “no detectable ears” with very small eyes and no eyebrows. He also recalled that his hair was coarse, “like straw growing out of his head”. It had a slit-like mouth that exposed three extremely large human-like teeth. Perhaps most bizarre were the antenna-like objects on each side of its forehead. Higdon would add, “No chin was visible. His face just seemed to blend right into his throat. He had no jaw bone”.

He would estimate the mystery male creature to be around six foot in height and adorned a one-piece, tight-fitting black suit, “similar to a wet-suit scuba divers wear”. On the chest were harnesses that crisscrossed each other. The figure also wore a metallic belt with a six-pointed yellow star where the buckle should have been.

Already unnerved and bordering on panic, when Higdon noticed the creature’s right arm it was all he could do to prevent absolute terror from gripping him. Where the hand should have been, was a drill-like device attached, or blended, on to the wrist. He looked at the left arm, noticing there was nothing at all on the end of the blunt limb. The creature moved forward, directly approaching Higdon. Bracing himself for the worst, it was a disorientating surprise when the creature asked matter-of-factly, “How you doing”?

The Transparent Cube

Already struggling to keep his composure and process what was happening, when the strange creature asked Higdon if he was hungry, it simply threw him even more. Before he could answer the questions, a clear package levitated towards him, seemingly at the commands of the strange visitor. Higdon reached for it. He opened the cellophane-like package, revealing four pills inside. The creature told Higdon that one of them would last him four days, and he should take one now. Without questioning, Higdon reached for one of the pills, placed it in his mouth and swallowed it. He then placed the package into his pocket.

The creature said his name was “Ausso One”. As he moved, Higdon became aware of a “transparent, cube-shaped object” on the ground behind the figure. He would estimate it to be around five feet high and wide, and around seven feet tall. Although he was not told so, Higdon somehow realized this was the strange figure’s ship. As if reading his mind, the creature asked him, “Do you want to come along?” Although he didn’t specifically answer yes, he must have gestured as much. The next thing he knew, he was inside the cube. Next to him was Ausso One. Struggling to understand how they could both fit inside such a small object, Higdon looked around in awe, but still with a persistent panic bubbling away inside of him.

When he noticed the five elk were also in the cube with them, his own memories and senses began to become “fuzzy”. He would recall, though, that “they were motionless – paralyzed”. It was then he realized he was sat in a chair with “bands” holding his arms down firmly.

A Planet 163,000 Light Miles From Earth!

He could feel that the craft was lifting off the ground. He also noticed another of the creatures enter the room. It approached him, fitting a bizarre helmet-like object to his head. The underside to the craft was clear, and beneath him, Higdon could see a planet-shaped object “similar to a basketball”. It was a planet, but it wasn’t Earth or any other planet he knew of. They would enter this mysterious world, and although Higdon’s memories of it are hazy at best, what he does recall is fascinating.

Most prominent in his mind was of a megalithic tower that dwarfed all around it. He would recall that “all around this tower were revolving patterns of multi-colored lights”. The lights were so intense that Higdon couldn’t keep his eyes open to look at them. Apparently, unaffected by their guest’s discomfort, the figures brought the craft to land at the base of the tower.

Higdon could see the alien world through the transparent walls of the craft. He was amazed, then, that in front of him, outside the craft, were several humans, talking to each other, just as they would on Earth. He claimed there were two young girls, one around eleven-years-old and one in her early teens, a teen-couple around eighteen years of age, and an older man in his fifties. As he watched this scene outside the ship, his host approached him once more. They were, he claimed, on a planet “163,000 light miles” from Earth. Higdon questioned if the creature had meant light years, to which he replied, “the passage of time is different” for them. Ausso One then motioned that they should go, and Higdon was led inside the behemothic tower.

Evidence Of A Breeding Program

He was taken into an elevator which took them to a room with a platform in the center of it. He was told to stand on the platform. As he moved he noticed he was not walking, but floating, although he didn’t understand how. Upon stepping on to the raised platform, a “glassy shield” appeared from out of the wall. It stopped in front of Higdon, evidently performing some kind of scan on him. After five minutes or so, the shield retracted away from him and back into the wall.

Then, his host informed him rather bluntly that he was to be taken back to Earth where they had found him as he “didn’t suit their purpose”. What is extremely interesting about this detail is just short of a decade later, an elderly gentleman in England named Alfred Burtoo would receive almost the exact same response to a similar examination on a landed UFO. It is highly unlikely that Burtoo was aware of Higdon’s encounter and perhaps endorses what Higdon believes “the purpose” was – a “breeding program”.

Before he knew it, he was back inside the cube with no real memory of how he had arrived there. He did recall, however, of Ausso One “admiring” his “primitive weapon” before handing him back his rifle. He also, rather bizarrely perhaps, remembers his host informing him that their home planet had no fish in their seas, which was one of the things about Earth that their people most liked. As they prepared to take off, the creature took back the pills as Higdon would now no longer need them. This was his last memory of the cosmic encounter before he found himself back on Earth.

The Discovery

Disorientated and on the verge of mentally breaking down, Higdon didn’t question how his truck had seemingly been moved several miles from where he had parked it to the spot where he encountered the humanoid creature. When the creature stated to him “We’ll see you”, he realized he was floating slightly above the ground. The next thing he knew, the craft was gone, and he was standing on the edge of a rocky cliff edge. Although the drop was only ten feet or so, he was not prepared for it. When he landed on the ground below he would sustain considerable injuries.

Perhaps he also suffered a concussion in the fall as his next memory is of struggling along a dirt road unable to remember what had happened or where he was. He eventually relocated his vehicle, although due to his shredded memory, he didn’t realize it was his truck. He was simply using it to take shelter.

When a voice came over the CB radio he quickly picked up the receiver and asked for help. Unsure of his location he would recall a sign that stated he was at the North Boundary National Forest. A search party would eventually locate him just before midnight. When they did, they were at a loss as to how he had managed to drive the truck there. Furthermore, there were no tire tracks anywhere nearby, despite the muddy ground. And just to add another twist to the whole encounter, as the search party was looking for Higdon they would encounter strange “green, red, and white flashing lights” in the skies overhead.

Signs Of “Miraculous” Medical Recovery

Higdon’s wife had joined the search effort. However, Higdon, at first failed to recognize her. When he finally did respond to the search party, he exclaimed wildly, “They took my elk”. Higdon would eventually go with his wife to a patrol car and was taken to the nearest hospital. The rest of the search unit, with great difficulty, eventually managed to remove his truck from its mysterious location.

As well as the injuries sustained in the fall, doctors would notice how bloodshot his eyes were. Further tests would reveal more intriguing results, though. His blood, for example, appeared to be enriched with nutrients and vitamins, more so than the average person. Even stranger, scarring on his lungs from exposure to tuberculosis had seemingly disappeared. In short, as Dr. Tongo who examined him would state, “He’s now in A-1 super condition”. It is hard to imagine that this transformation isn’t connected to the encounter.

It was the following day when Higdon began to remember the encounter in full. With his consent to do so, the authorities would inform the press of the incident. This, in turn, would attract members of the UFO community, researchers and enthusiasts, to seek out Higdon to hear of the mind-bending events.

Earth Is Unlike Anywhere Else!

One of those who took an interest in Higdon’s case was Leo Sprinkle, who was adept at using hypnotic regression to unlock memories of such encounters. Although much of what occurred was already known to Higdon, the sessions in early-November 1974 did manage to reveal some other interesting aspects of the incident. And quite possibly offers us an insight into why such visitations are happening.

According to Higdon, the visitations to Earth are essentially food gathering missions. Many of the animals and fish on Earth do not exist anywhere else in the universe. Groups of such animals – such as the elk on this occasion – go to their home-world for “breeding purposes”. He also stated again that humans who go to this alien world are there for similar reasons. However, no further information came to mind regarding the particulars or details of the program. Higdon did state, however, that he believed the reason he did not “suit their purpose” was due to him having had a vasectomy several years previously.

Incidentally, Sprinkle would find in his evaluation that Higdon “is reporting sincerely the events he experienced”. Aside from the bizarrely crumpled bullet that he retained, it is impossible to explain the vanishing of the lung scars that are on his medical record. And then there is the impossible location of his truck that the search party never could explain how it came to such an inaccessible spot.

Several years later in 1978, Higdon underwent a polygraph test. He passed it unquestionably, with the report stating “something utterly fantastic did happen in this man’s life. The test proves it beyond doubt”.

The video below looks at this most fascinating case in a little more detail.