North Hudson Park UFO Sightings

One of the most unusual and high-profile urban UFO cases in history

Name	North Hudson Park UFO Sightings
Occurred on	January 12, 1975
Seen by	Multiple individuals, but primarily George O’Barski and William Pawlowski
Investigated by	Ted Bloecher and Budd Hopkins

The North Hudson Park is famed for allegedly being ground zero for UFO sightings, and one of its most renowned cases happened in January 1975.

The major sighting during the North Hudson UFO Incident, also known as the “Stonehenge Incident,” was witnessed by only two individuals. However, since their reports were released, the area had experienced a surge of unusual incidents, totaling 775 cases, according to Marc Sodderstrom at the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle.

This raises the question: Are these coincidences and misidentifications, or is North Hudson Park truly a hotspot for UFO sightings?

What Are the North Hudson Park UFO Sightings About?

The North Hudson Park UFO Incident first caught the attention of enthusiasts and researchers due to its peculiarity, with a witness claiming to have seen a bizarre sight that none of the previous UFO cases in history had reported.

However, as investigations expanded, it was discovered that the sightings weren’t a one-off incident but a recurring phenomenon. This unusual account became the least intriguing aspect of the case, and the revelation not only lends credibility to the initial witnesses but also injects the area with an air of mystery.

The Timeline of Events

The media associates the case with a singular date: January 12, 1975.

This was when its most popularized event occurred. However, according to investigations conducted by Ted Bloecher, Budd Hopkins, and Jerry Stoehrer, a total of three activities happened concerning the North Hudson Park UFO Incident.

• January 6, 1975: First sighting by Francisco Gonzales
• January 11, 1975: Second sighting by the Wamsley Family
• January 12, 1975: Third sightings by George O’Barski and William Pawlowski

The Events on January 6, 1975

The first sighting happened in the early morning of January 6, when the 39-year-old Cuban emigre Francisco Gonzales was on duty at the Stonehenge.

I was standing at my desk when I saw that thing. I saw something round. It was very bright with square windows. I was really shocked.

He claimed to have seen a massive, circular object at a 45° elevation with a brightly illuminated bottom,  hovering motionless several feet above the ground. He left his station to call a security guard on duty, but unfortunately, by the time the guard arrived, the object was already gone.

Of the event, Gonzales highlighted three things about the object that left the biggest impression on his mind:

• The bright light at the bottom of the object without any apparent source
• The lighted windows, with about six to eight windows visible from his angle
• The penetrating sound created a vibrating sensation in his ear

The Events on January 11, 1975

Jerry Stoehrer learned about the second sighting at a PTA meeting at North Bergen School, and the subject of the Stonehenge incidents was opened up.

The Wamsley family came forward to share their account of the encounter, which started when 12-year-old Robert Wamsley saw a bright light outside their home.

It was about 9:30, and I usually look out the window at the stars. I saw something above a three-story building that almost looked like it was going to land on the building. It stopped above the building, and it hovered for about two minutes.

Here’s how Robert described the object:

• It had a dome on the top.
• It lit up with a fading white and green light.
• At the bottom, it had four to eight rectangular lights that were blue, red, and green.

Surprised by what he was seeing, Robert called the whole family over the window. This led to the event being a shared experience for everyone. Here were their statements:

Mrs. Wamsley:	We saw the shape of a saucer and could see the windows, and this thing that’s going around. The lights were gorgeous, and I think there’s a dome. There were a lot of windows, and they were not big. They were like square. They go right around the whole ship. It kept rotating around, a whole row of lights all different colors.
Mr. Wamsley:	It was round, from a distance, three feet high, maybe five feet high. It had a round dome and was all lit up. The windows were small and long. They were longer than they were wide, and went around the whole ship.
Joseph Jr.:	It looked like a flying saucer. It had some lights, red and white, and it was spinning. I saw some windows in front, square. The spinning lights were underneath the windows, and the top was roundish.

The Events on January 12, 1975

Two individuals from separate locations observed the event on January 12. An important note to remember from their interviews is that they didn’t interact with one another beforehand, so they had no time to corroborate their statements.

Account from William “Bill” Pawlowski

One of the witnesses was a doorman at Stonehenge, and saw the event at 2:30 AM.

I’m standing at the desk looking up at the hill, and I see all the lights up there, and they were so bright. I was like looking into the sun, you know? It’s always dark up there, and they were so bright that I was wondering, at that time, what was coming off here?

Pawlowski described what he saw as:

• Having eight to ten lights in a circle, fixed around the object’s edge
• Around 20 feet wide
• Having 10 to 15 evenly spaced lights in a horizontal row
• A dark mass surrounding these lights
• About 10 feet off the ground

He claimed he was calling a tenant to ask if they had seen what was happening when the lower corner of the building’s front window shattered. He phoned the local policemen to report the crack, but he didn’t tell them about what he saw.

The lights had disappeared, and I thought they’d never believe me anyway, so I didn’t tell them. I just suggested they drive around up there and see what they could find.

The next morning, he told a Police Lieutenant, Al Del Gaudio, who lived in Stonehenge, about the object. By the time they talked, Del Gaudio also noticed a damaged elm tree by the building.

They got a big tree, maybe a hundred or a hundred and a half. That thing was split right down the middle. I don’t know if that happened at the same time [as Pawlowski’s incident], but it was around the same time.

Account from George O’Barski

The second witness was the owner of a small local liquor store in Chelsea.

After talking to those who knew him, Jerry Stoehrer concluded that O’Barski was a serious man who didn’t have any vices and had no history of wanting public attention.

O’Barski shared that he had tried forgetting about what happened, but it was as if it had been etched deep in his mind. When he met Budd Hopkins on November 19, ten months later, he subconsciously grumbled about the “thing that came out of the sky left him scared,” which sparked the investigation into the case.

Hopkins immediately grabbed a recorder for what O’Barski was about to share.

I would say that thing was 30 feet across. It was a big thing, and it seemed to be, I would say, maybe 6 feet high, like a pancake, blown up like a pancake, and the thing landed right ahead of me.

O’Barski was driving home through the North Hudson Park when static interfered with his radio. He slowed down to check with the dials and heard a droning sound, which he compared to a refrigerator’s hum. That’s when the object bearing a bright light came into his view.

His Description of the Object

During this interview, Hopkins highlighted O’Barski’s demeanor while recounting his experience. He was meticulous about his descriptions, especially regarding the object:

• Hovered about 10 feet above the ground
• 30 feet in diameter
• Flat on the bottom with a domed top
• About 8 feet in height
• Surrounded by regularly spaced foot-and-a-half-wide windows equally distanced
• Dark in color, but an intense light shone from its windows

O’Barski watched in fascination and fear. After a few minutes of it being motionless, that’s when the bizarre account happened. He claimed that a panel opened, and an apparatus resembling a ladder appeared, where ten figures descended to the ground.

His Description of the Little Figures that Came Down

It was off the ground, and I saw this thing come down like ladders, and all these guys came down like kids coming down a fire escape. I’d guess, in round figures, ten.

He described the figures he saw as:

• Short, maybe about three and a half feet tall
• With helmets and gloves on
• Clad in a dark, whole-suit uniform
• With little bags and little shovels

O’Barski compared them to little beavers as they worked swiftly after they landed. They allegedly dug dirt into their little bags, and after approximately three to four minutes, they were already back inside their craft and left.

I was scared to death, you know. I was sweating, and I immediately made some tea. Boy, after that, I turned on the radio and took two aspirins. I was scared, either I’m going crazy or there’s something awfully wrong that time.

The next morning, he went to the park and stood over the spot where he believed the UFO landed. He saw about 15 holes, five or six inches deep.

Unfortunately, O’Barski didn’t report his encounter to the police for fear that they wouldn’t believe him. His son, Frank O’Barski, who was the only person he confided in right after what he saw, also advised that he shouldn’t talk to anybody about it.

Other Witnesses and More Sightings

While Ted Bloecher and the others investigated the events leading to January 12, 1975, they discovered that these initial accounts didn’t cover the entire case. Multiple other sightings have occurred around the North Hudson Park, some a year after, and others allegedly even before.

In this post, however, we will only cover North Hudson Park UFO sightings that occurred after the initial case in January 1975.

Ann Carlovich

After reports of George O’Barski and William Pawlowski surfaced, the incident gained popularity in the area.

My daughter and her friends went down to the park to see what was going on, and they came running back saying they saw rings and burn marks in the grass near the field.

Years later, in 1993, she came forward with another UFO encounter in the area, this time one she had witnessed. She described it as a large, elliptical light that was moving slowly. When she got home, she told her daughter and son-in-law, and the latter claimed he saw it too.

Joe Bace

Around the same time as Ann Carlovich, her son-in-law, Joe Bace, also allegedly saw the same thing, describing it as having an “eerie glow” like a fluorescent, bright floodlight. He recalled that it was an elliptical shape, just like what Ann saw, but he thought nothing of it and suspected that it was a government aircraft.

January 15, 1976

On January 15, another Stonehenge doorman, Bill Daliz, saw an object landing in the field opposite the building. This allegedly happened at the same time and in the exact location as the previous year’s incident.

Bill’s description of the object varied, however, as he reported two ovals, a red and an orange, overlapping beyond the hill’s crest. When he went out to investigate, the objects ascended as a single unit, their colors blending into each other as they did.

January 29, 1976

A friend of Hopkins reported seeing a top-shaped object hovering around the North Hudson Park. On the same night, a New Jersey schoolboy had also allegedly come home in terror, claiming that he saw a UFO landing on its legs near the park’s lake.

February 19-21, 1976

Another Stonehenge doorman, who asked not to be identified, saw a figure in a coverall-type garment with a light on his head not far from the original site. This figure allegedly moved stiffly, bending repeatedly as if picking something up and putting it in a bag he was carrying.

In the following days, Teofilo Rodriguez, the doorman on duty, observed a similar figure doing the same activity.

On the first day, he claimed to have watched the figure on and off for two hours before it left, and on the second, he notified the security guard, Alberto Perez, who joined him and observed the same thing. The latter reported seeing the figure moving approximately 500 feet away, and his description matched Rodriguez’s.

February 22, 1976

A UFO allegedly appeared in broad daylight on this day. It was reported by another doorman, Eddy Obertubessing, during a heavy rainstorm, when he saw a motionless, disc-shaped object that was flat and shiny. He claimed it remained stationary for 20 minutes before vanishing behind the dark clouds.

February 28, 1976

Six days after the previous incident, a tenant from Stonehenge saw something over the park at about 9:30 PM. They described it as:

• A small sparkling object darting around the field wildly
• Throwing off red and yellow sparks as it moved

1979

North Bergen resident Robert Stith shared that his father, Harold Stith, told him about his encounter at almost the exact location where O’Barski experienced his.

My father was driving home from work. As soon as he turned off into the park, his car stopped dead. Then the radio went dead. A bright light came on top of his car, and then my father heard strange things on the radio, some language he didn’t understand. He then noticed a spaceship. Its doors were opened, and little grey men with big eyes came out.

July 6, 1986

Years after the initial North Hudson Park UFO Incident, Ron Lee was enjoying the sunset from his Stonehenge apartment when he saw something that to him was unidentifiable. He observed it as it remained stationary for 5 to 10 minutes before taking off. He also claimed that minutes after, he heard noises and saw military aircraft following after.

1988

Two years later, resident Dave de Lia claimed he had witnessed something flying over North Hudson Park while driving home. He described the lights, which were white and green, as being in the shape of a diamond.

Investigations and Theories

The North Hudson Park UFO Sightings wouldn’t have been published to the public until Budd Hopkins, a long-time friend of O’Barski, dropped by his store and heard him grumbling.

By this time, Hopkins was already interested in close encounters and alien abductions. The fact that his friend had a personal encounter triggered him to conduct an investigation. A few calls into the UFO community led him to Ted Bloecher, the New York State director of MUFON.

Budd Hopkins and Ted Bloecher’s Investigation

On November 22, 1975, Hopkins took Bloecher to interview O’Barski and take his statement, to which the MUFON investigator concluded that:

I know very well what a staged act is and what is real. The scene of them getting soil samples was fake. It was staged. Their real target was George O’Barski. They weren’t interested in soil samples. They wanted him.

The following evening, both investigators arranged to meet at the site and reenact O’Barski’s encounter. Bloecher invited co-MUFON investigator, Jerry Stoehrer, to assist them.

They arrived at the spot where the UFO had allegedly landed. The place was a flat field covered by a thick mat of coarse grass, except for 15 bare patches, about six inches in diameter. These areas weren’t actual holes, but the dirt in each circle was noticeably lacking in roots.

Weeks later, they spoke with the park’s custodian, who recalled refilling small holes in early summer, which he assumed were dug by dogs.

O’Barski and Pawlowski’s Interviews

Efforts to obtain more information were met with little success. The team approached people who were indirectly involved in the incident, but received little to no response:

• The glass company that replaced the cracked window declined to give a statement.
• The Stonehenge management didn’t want to get involved.
• The building’s superintendent mentioned that any records of the window accident were no longer available.
• The park supervisor and his assistant confirmed the damaged elm tree.

As there were no official reports, the team heavily relied on interviews with them to evaluate them. They noticed uniformity in both statements despite them not meeting one another.

	O’Barski’s Statements	Pawlowski’s Statements
Windows and Lights	O’Barski saw the object while driving, but he guessed there were around 10, 12, or 15.	Pawlowski remembered seeing 10 to 15 lights.
Gap from the Ground	O’Barski said the UFO stopped 10 feet off the ground.	From 20 yards away, Pawlowski guessed the lights were 10 feet off the ground.
Duration	Both agreed that the entire event lasted for three minutes.

The results of this investigation were forwarded to an organization under Dr. J. Allen Hynek. They were evaluated and computerized to look for recurring patterns. On January 23, 1976, Dr. Hynek interviewed O’Barski and considered him a credible witness. 

Budd Hopkins also published an account of the North Hudson Park UFO sightings in the Village Voice’s March 1 issue, which was released on February 25. This resulted in four television stations and local radio stations reporting about the case, boosting its publicity.

O’Barski’s Theory

Immediately after the incident, O’Barski tried to justify what he saw as the government developing a secret method of propulsion that powers an unconventional craft. However, after thinking about it, he also found it nonsensical.

It makes no sense. Why couldn’t they just send up soil samples? How could they recruit all those little guys? A normal run would have guys of all heights. It doesn’t make sense.

It Was a Hoax

Like every other UFO incident, researchers and skeptics believed that O’Barski fabricated the whole incident for publicity. This claim was supported by the discovery that the man had a history of being involved in legal disputes and making dubious claims.

However, the investigators who interviewed him placed complete trust in his character and statements. Hopkins, specifically, reasoned with the following points:

• O’Barski’s role in the incident was passive. He left himself out of the events, which doesn’t make sense if he wanted popularity.
• He didn’t sensationalize the encounter by creating weird features and events.

North Hudson Park UFO Sightings’ Significance in Ufology

The North Hudson Park UFO incident remains highly debated due to its lack of official reports and evidence. This highlights the common challenges in UFO investigations and the importance of corroborating evidence. Overall, the case underscores the significance of journalism in UFO cases, transcending the typical media sensationalization.

If you want to dig deeper, check UFO Connect for more UFO sightings reports and profiles of people who are into UFOs, and explore the community’s latest findings.

FAQ

Who were the witnesses of the North Hudson Park UFO sightings?

Dozens of residents reported the sightings, but two witnesses stood out as the most well-known: George O’Barski and the Stonehenge doorman, William Pawlowski.

Were aliens reported at the North Hudson Park UFO incident?

Yes, aliens were allegedly witnessed during the event. George O’Barski reported seeing small figures emerging from the object and gathering soil samples before leaving the area.

Is the North Hudson Park incident still unexplained?

Decades later, the North Hudson UFO remains unexplained. No investigation has fully explained the event, and skeptics continue to argue that it was only a case of misidentification.