Mini-UFO Sighting
June 3, 1920 - Mount Pleasant, Iowa
On June 3, 1920, Mount Pleasant, Iowa, farmer Clark Linch experienced a close encounter that would remain a secret for thirty-five years.
The story did not become widely known until October 28, 1973, when The Hawk Eye published an interview with Linch, who was 75 years old at the time. Looking back over half a century, he recalled an event that had stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Linch remembered the date with absolute certainty because it was his birthday. He had also married earlier that same year, in January 1920, making the occasion especially easy to remember.
At the time, Linch was working on his father's farm about six miles northeast of Mount Pleasant. Around 10:00 a.m. on June 3, he decided to take some time off from farm work and go fishing at a nearby river.
While sitting quietly on the riverbank, he noticed something extraordinary. About fifteen feet away, an egg-shaped object roughly the size of a cream can descended silently and settled onto the grass. The strange craft was blue, translucent, and made no sound whatsoever.
Rather than rushing toward it, Linch chose to stay where he was. For approximately fifteen minutes, the object remained completely motionless.
"I wasn't in any hurry to jump up and run over to it, and I'm glad I didn't," he later recalled. "It might have killed me. Just when I thought about going over to take a closer look at it, it took off without any sound and without turning around."
When the object departed, it left no scorch marks, broken vegetation, or other obvious evidence behind. The only indication that anything had landed there was that the grass had been pressed flat beneath it.
Linch described the object as blue and translucent, noting that it would have blended almost perfectly against the sky while airborne. At the time, he had no explanation for what he had witnessed.
"I didn't know what to believe about it at the time, and I still don't," he said. "I've concluded that it wasn't anything from Earth."
He also pointed out that the object appeared far too small to contain occupants. Because of its size, he believed it could not have carried intelligent beings as humans would normally imagine them.
Unlike many later UFO reports involving incredible speeds and dramatic maneuvers, Linch said the object moved slowly, estimating its speed at only four or five miles per hour. It also appeared to be lightweight, making his encounter quite different from the more familiar flying saucer reports that would emerge decades later.
For thirty-five years, Linch kept the experience entirely to himself. It was not until 1955 that he finally told anyone what had happened.
Reflecting on his long silence, he offered a simple explanation:
"You didn't talk about flying saucers in 1920."