Editor’s Note: This series is part of the monthly contributions to the Fort Morgan Times by the Community History Writers, a group of area individuals committed to documenting and writing about local history and the people, places and happenings that created the various communities within Morgan County.

On Dec. 15, 1975, the Greeley Daily Tribune announced that following an extensive investigation of 203 suspected cases of cattle mutilations by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, only 11 could be definitely attributed to humans. And all 11 had died of natural causes before being mutilated.

The CBI analyzed hide and tissue samples of 36 carcasses and found only two that had been cut with sharp instruments. The vets at CSU had examined 19, and nine had been mutilated by humans. There was no evidence of drugs or poisons used on any of these animals.

Because some of the cattle had been cut up by humans, Carl Whiteside from CBI planned to continue his investigation.

However, he noted, “Our investigation has been unable to produce any indications of the existence of a group or groups of persons organized for the purpose of engaging in animal mutilations.”

Following the release of the CBI findings, The president of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association made a statement saying that there was now “enough scientific data to put the idea of mutilation to a rest.”

However, not all ranchers were convinced. Many ranchers stopped reporting mutilations, stopped sending the remains of their cattle to the labs, and stopped talking openly about it. They quit trusting what the “experts” and government officials had to say.

UFO connection?

Like the ranchers, not all law enforcement officials were on board with the conclusions of the CBI.

In Logan County, Sheriff “Tex” Graves and his undersheriff, Jerry Wolvever, continued for years to investigate cattle mutilations and strange lights in the skies over northern Colorado. Graves had a file cabinet with more than 200 photos of mutilated cattle, and he was happy to share them with anyone who was interested.

He said, “Look at these pictures and tell me how anyone could blame it on natural predators. I’d like to see a coyote do that.”

According to author J. Henry McHenry, Sheriff “Tex” Graves became a star in the UFO world because he was constantly waging war against helicopters and mutilators.

After years of trying, unsuccessfully to catch them, Graves started telling stories of UFO’s, according to McHenry. Graves described “Big Mama,” which was an enormous white light that would appear in the sky with red and green lights on either side beneath it. Sometimes “baby” UFOs would break away from this mother ship and would fly off fast. Pictures of these UFOs were published in many Colorado papers in 1977.

Graves also told of finding strange “pod marks” near the scene of two separate cattle mutilations in Logan County.

In 1980, McHenry said he interviewed Morgan County Sheriff Howard Mann, along with County Attorney Hayden Johns.

Mann now indicated that he had never seen what he’d call a real mutilation. He did say that in 1975 there were almost no cattle that died of natural causes.

Mann also said he’d never been quoted about the subject in a newspaper because he didn’t want to give the topic more publicity – unlike the sheriff up in Logan County, who was talking about it all of the time.

Mann also claimed that he’d never seen any evidence of a helicopter landing near dead cattle.

Johns had a interesting story to share about both Sheriff Graves and the former Brush Banner publisher/editor, Dane Edwards. He said that around Halloween in 1975, Edwards received a call from two farmers who said they’d captured a UFO in Logan County.

Edwards called Graves and then they met and consulted with a judge in Sterling, Johns said. Off they went with a search warrant in hand. The two, joined by another deputy, drove out to the remote farm in separate vehicles. It was a cold night and the house was dark. They knocked but nobody answered. They drove off in different directions but then snuck back to the farmhouse. Now, they could see a lantern glowing inside. Graves got on his blowhorn and ordered the residents to open the door, which they did. The farmers admitted to having a UFO. However, they didn’t want to lose it. So they asked Graves to sign a contract, promising that he would return it to them after examining it. He agreed. The farmer’s wife typed up a contract and he signed it. Only then did they reveal the UFO. It was made of plastic and wood.

When they got it back to Grave’s office and looked at it closer, someone said it looked like maybe it could be blown up, Johns recounted. So they patched it and blew it up with a tire pump. It became obvious to everyone that their UFO was actually a weather balloon.

According to Johns, that was the last anyone saw of Dane Edwards, whose car was found abandoned at the Little Bandit Truck Stop. Also, he owed money to everyone in town and his car was owned by the bank.

What happened to Dane Edwards?

The new publisher of the Brush Banner, Drusilla Georgsson, said that Edwards had been terminated from his job at the end of October 1975 because of poor business practices. Plus, she recalled seeing him leave a few days later with his children.

Forty-eight years later, there’s still speculation on the internet about what actually happened to Dane Edwards.

Some think he was “silenced” by some entity because he was getting too close to the truth.

Others think he might have worked as a secret agent for the government and that his “disappearance” was an elaborate plot.

Yet, some think the story may be more mundane: Maybe he owed a lot of money and he didn’t want to be found.

End to cattle mutilations

The wave of cattle mutilations, helicopter sightings and mania that washed over Colorado in the summer and fall of 1975 hasn’t been repeated, yet almost every year some mutilations are still reported.

In 1979, there was so much pressure to get to the bottom of the mystery that the FBI did finally launch an investigation. It was led by agent, Kenneth Rommel, whose report was 297 pages long and cost $45,000 to complete.

Rommel concluded that except for a few unexplained cases, the majority of the cattle deaths were due to natural causes and that the disturbing “mutilations” were caused by natural predator and scavenger activity.

Today some ranchers in Morgan and Logan counties disagree with that appraisal, yet stay silent.

They know that they hadn’t seen anything like these mutilations before the fall of 1975. And if they’ve seen anything like them since, most are keeping that information to themselves.