Bantam Lake UFO

Ok, so this is a story that I had to blog about. There are stories all over the internet this week about a UFO falling into Bantam Lake, which is in Litchfield, Connecticut. Now for the past thirty or so years, I have been camping on Bantam Lake every summer. So this really hits home for me. Or at least my favorite vacation spot. I’ve seen my fair share of weird things while camping on Bantam Lake over the years, so this doesn’t really surprise me. I always pay attention to place names (thanks to Loren Coleman’s “name game” discussion in his books), as they are usually interesting when it comes to the history of a town. A “litch” usually refers to a type of undead creature, from the German and Dutch words for “corpse.” So it’s always been interesting for me knowing that Litchfield is a hotspot of paranormal activity.

LITCHFIELD — It was quiet on Bantam Lake Thursday, afternoon with a few scattered showers — but no UFOs.

That’s what reporters from Eyewitness News, the Connecticut CBS affiliate, and NBC Connecticut news crews were looking for at a parking area on North Shore Road in Bantam—or at least a good follow-up to a story first reported by the Republican American of Waterbury.

The story in Thursday morning’s paper recounted reports of a glowing “unidentified falling object” disappearing into Bantam Lake after midnight Monday.

“I think it’s pretty exciting the possibility of a UFO, but highly unlikely,” said Litchfield resident Marie Doyon, who was out Thursday afternoon at Bantam Lake, which spans the towns of Litchfield and Morris and is Connecticut’s largest natural lake.

According to a report posted by The Associated Press, authorities said they didn’t find anything after a state trooper and another person reported the large object falling out of the sky.

The Republican American reported that a person driving in Litchfield at about 2 a.m. Tuesday reported that a green, glowing object the size of a whale fell from the sky and crashed into Bantam Lake. Officials say that at about the same time, a state trooper 10 miles away in Warren called dispatchers to report that something fell out of the sky and landed near Bantam or Morris, the AP story said.

Morris firefighters made several passes up and down the lake in a boat looking for a possible plane crash, but didn’t find any debris, according to the AP story, which said, “Authorities called off the search, leaving the mystery unsolved.”

“I’ve heard people talking about it, it was green glowing whale size of an object,” said Lindsey Vanyo, an employee at the Green Tomato Deli in Morris, which was formerly The Ripe Tomato and is now under new ownership.

Litchfield resident Tina Landau said she had just heard about it Thursday morning.

“It’s kind of freaky, and at this point nobody seems to know. It’s pretty wild,” said Ms. Landau, who lives about a mile from Bantam Lake. “I have a pretty open mind about things, but I’m still curious.

Morris First Selectman Barbara Bongiolatti said that she didn’t know anything about the incident until she heard about it from her highway foreman.

“I have no idea what it might have been or what it was about,” said Mrs. Bongiolatti.

Ms. Bongiolatti said the Morris firefighters told that they found nothing when they went out.

According to a report posted by WTNH News 8, the National Weather Service said there was a meteor shower in the area that morning.

Goshen resident Bob Leigh called The Litchfield County Times late Thursday afternoon and told the newspaper he and two friends saw exactly the same thing in the same spot two years ago around the same time.

“We looked at each other and said, ‘what the heck is that,”” Mr. Leigh recalled.

Mr. Leigh said it came out of the sky pretty much like a green blob.

“The whole horizon lit up that weird green glow and then that was it,” said Mr. Leigh.

So what was the Bantam Lake UFO? This very well may have been a meteor, as I have seen lots of shooting stars over Bantam Lake over the years. But I’ve also seen many things I couldn’t explain. Litchfield has many Bigfoot sightings (going back to the Winsted Wildman), UFO sightings, and ghost stories. Unfortunately for this story, the details are thin and the trooper and driver have not been identified, so until they are, this is all we have to go on. Until more details emerge, I have to agree that this was probably just a meteor.