Val Johnson Incident

One of the top 10 most influential UFO encounters in history

Name	Val Johnson Incident
Occurred on	August 27, 1979
Seen by	Val Johnson
Investigated by	Allan Hendry and several other professionals

Calls about mysterious objects or lights in the sky come and go. Most of these can be attributed to meteors, balloons, or simple intoxication.

However, to this day, the discourse about a Minnesota UFO sighting hasn’t been settled, and despite the Val Johnson incident happening decades ago, it still draws people to a small county out of curiosity.

“It’s not a defining incident in my life,” Val Johnson said during an interview about the incident. His sentiment came as a surprise because anybody familiar with its events would think it was life-changing, and for good reason.

What truly happened that night of the Val Johnson incident? And if you were in the witness’s position, would you have also thought it was merely a trivial occurrence?

What Is the Val Johnson Incident?

Marshall County, Minnesota, has a population of about 13,000. It’s hardly a place for any criminal activity, but apparently, what struck the town was something far more sinister.

Dubbed as “one of the top 10 most influential UFO encounters in history” by Jerome Clark, author of the UFO Encyclopedia, the Val Johnson incident isn’t your run-of-the-mill UFO encounter. Instead, it’s a tale shrouded in mystery and a little extraterrestrial aggression about a deputy being “attacked” by a blinding light, leaving behind compelling physical evidence.

The Key Witness: Val Johnson

Val Johnson’s a very good fellow, and he’s a good officer. He has two young children and a nice wife. He’s a very reliable person. Whatever happened was strange, but there is no doubt in my mind that Val was telling what he actually saw.

Those who knew Johnson personally would vouch for his credibility and rationality. As a deputy sheriff in Marshall County, he’s required to be nothing short of logical and a respectable authority. However, after the incident, he would not only be a deputy but also a celebrity.

Even without claiming that what he saw were aliens or spaceships, Val Johnson still became a name heavily linked with UFO visits in Minnesota. Here’s what happened.

The Events on August 27, 1979

The incident unfolded around 1:40 AM. Johnson was on his routine night patrol along State Highway 220 when he saw, at a distance, a ball of bright light.

I’d been up to a town called Stephen, Minnesota, and I was going west on County Road 5. It was so flat you could see the light, this bright light off to the southwest.

In his police interview transcript, he described the light as around 8 to 12 inches in diameter, floating 3 to 4 feet off the ground. With nothing but its beam visible, Johnson didn’t conclude that what was before him was of extraterrestrial origin.

He shared that he initially thought it was:

• A plane making an emergency landing
• A semi with one headlight broken

However, when the light approached him, it became apparent that it wasn’t any of the things he thought it was. Johnson claimed that he then accelerated toward the light at a speed between 50 and 60 miles per hour, and the next thing he knew, the light was inside the car with him.

The light was coming at me. It was extremely bright. The inside of the car lit up. I can remember that it was a very dazzling, brilliant occurrence. Something did strike my vehicle. Something didn’t want me there, apparently. I can’t put a judgment on it. I really don’t know how to classify it. I don’t classify it as an attack. Perhaps it was an escape.

It felt like I got hit in the face with a 200-pound pillow, and that’s the last I recall.

The Evidence: Johnson’s Condition and His Car’s Damage 

Johnson woke up to find his car in the ditch, the engine off and the headlights still beaming. He also felt a burning sensation across his face. The deputy immediately radioed a dispatcher to report what had happened.

In the released recording of his call, you can hear the apprehension and confusion in his voice.

Someone just hit my car. I don’t know how to explain it though… Strange. Something attacked my car. I heard the glass breaking.

Then-County Sheriff Dennis Brekke was called to the scene for an initial investigation, while Johnson was rushed to a local hospital, where the burns on his eyes were attended to. The deputy was also examined by an eye specialist, who confirmed that he had a welder-type burn, a UV burn caused solely by intense light.

Back at the scene of the incident, another deputy sheriff, Greg Winskowski, examined Johnson’s patrol car post-impact. Here’s what he observed:

• There was glass on the road and skid marks in the southbound lane, then a sharp turn toward where the car ended up.
• The car’s hood was dented on the driver’s side.
• Its windshield was broken.
• Its two antennas were bent toward the vehicle’s rear.
• Its headlights and hazard lights were broken.

By 3 or 4 AM, the deputy was taken back to the station, where his account of the events was recorded. This was when he noticed another interesting thing: his watch was 14 minutes behind, which, coincidentally, was also the case with the deputy’s car.

A Similar Story After the Incident

A similar UFO accident was reported two days after the Val Johnson incident. The key witness, Russ Johnson (no relation to Val), claimed that he was driving west of Vermillion at 2 AM when he saw a light floating above the road.

Similar to Johnson’s encounter, Russ reported that the object also accelerated toward him and engulfed his car in its light. The witness kept his eyes closed as the events unfolded, and when he opened them, the light was already speeding away before vanishing.

No reports have been found regarding this incident. It’s not known whether any further investigation was conducted.

What Was the Truth Behind the Val Johnson Incident?

With the oddities of Val Johnson’s experience, Sheriff Dennis Brekke wasted no time calling experts to investigate. A team was gathered, made up of:

• A metallurgical engineer from Honeywell
• A glass expert from Ford Motor Co.
• A hyperspectral imagery consultant from Brainerd Laboratory

However, even these experts were left baffled by the car’s condition and could only speculate about its origin. The glass expert could only describe the pattern of the windshield cracks as highly unusual. At the same time, the engineer concluded that the best explanation for all the evidence was that “a highly charged electrical thing with enough momentum” hit the car.

Brekke also called Allen Hendry from the International Center for UFO in Evanston. Tests were conducted on the patrol car, and infrared pictures were taken around the site to examine whether the light affected the plants. However, no definitive evidence was gathered.

Ultimately, Brekke decided to close the investigation, leaving the event open for the public’s verdict and conclusions.

The CUFOS’s Involvement

By December 1979, a report was prepared requesting Dr. J. Allen Hynek and the CUFOS’s participation in the investigation. It highlights the unanswered questions the team would have needed help resolving.

• Johnson being unconscious for around 40 minutes during the event.
• The 14 minutes missing from Johnson’s watch and his car’s clock.

However, neither the organization nor the ufologist took any further action. There’s also no way of knowing whether CUFOS received the report. This would be the last development on the Val Johnson incident until it was brushed aside, and everyone involved seemed to move on.

The Incident From Johnson’s Perspective

For a year after that night, Brekke’s office and Johnson’s house were flooded with calls from people who were eager to share their own UFO encounters. Johnson also shared that people would sometimes show up at his house to share their theories of what happened.

Despite its lack of a clear conclusion, the Val Johnson incident managed to change the deputy’s life, but perhaps for the worse. The attention it gave him became unmanageable, so he and his family moved to another area, in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

In one of his more recent interviews, Val Johnson shared his thoughts on the case. These were what he had to say:

In police work, you take a series of evidentiary findings, put them in a line, and come up with a conclusion. In my particular instance, you take two of those and line them up; the third is not there, or the third disproves the second. Nothing lines up evidentiary. Nothing makes sense. Consequently, there’s been a great deal of conjecture trying to come up with a viable solution or explanation. It’s not there.

For the first three years, it was on my mind daily. After that, I went on with my life, had more children, took on other jobs, and got busy doing this, that, and the other. It’s of no great concern to me at this point.

Johnson chalked everything up as a mystery, and he was comfortable labeling it as such. The events initially took a toll on him and his family, but as the years passed, they became less of a priority to solve or understand.

It could be a UFO. It could be extraterrestrial. It could be top secret military from Grand Forks Air Force Base. It could be a variety of things, but my pay grade doesn’t permit me to make all these speculations with any credibility.

What Is the Val Johnson Incident’s Significance in Ufology?

Right after the incident, Sheriff Brekke persuaded county officials to keep the car, as it had been found, for public use. “People like strange and unusual things they don’t understand,” he said.

This decision later proved fruitful, as the Val Johnson incident garnered national attention for Marshall County. The preservation of the car, now known as the “UFO car,” became a primary contributor to the area’s tourism. People travel miles just to see it, and the county hosts an annual celebration of the event.

To this day, the Val Johnson incident is still considered one of the most compelling cases in ufology because it combines:

• Law-enforcement testimony
• Physical evidence
• Medical evidence

The case stands out as one of the clearest examples of documented physical effects associated with a UFO encounter, a category that is far more difficult to dismiss than eyewitness accounts alone.

For researchers and readers interested in verified UFO reports and archived UFO documents, the incident remains a topic of ongoing reference and analysis across platforms such as UFO Connect, where historical cases are preserved.

FAQ

What did Val Johnson see during the incident?

Val Johnson reported seeing a light hovering over the road. He described it as intense and unlike any vehicle headlights. Moments later, this light appeared to accelerate toward him, resulting in an impact reflected in his car’s condition.

What physical evidence was found in the Val Johnson incident?

Johnson’s patrol car displayed unusual damage, including a shattered headlight, cracked windshield, dented hood, and bent antennas. These were challenging to explain, even for experts who visited the site to investigate.

Could the Val Johnson Incident have been a hoax?

Investigators found no evidence of Johnson’s story being a hoax. The deputy had no motive and maintained a consistent story. He also exhibited genuine distress during his call to the dispatcher, dismissing any suggestion that he was making up the story.

References