Near Frances, Crittenden County, Kentucky, United States
A UFO Lights Up a Kentucky Mine
An anonymised mine owner, W.L.D., later described seeing with employee J.K. what looked like a newly erected roughly 80-foot metal building on or near their small fluorspar property in fall 1969. After 10-20 minutes a moving light appeared and the structure allegedly vanished silently. The mining se
Why This Case Matters
A memorable high-strangeness account, but its evidential value is mainly as an uncorroborated late/anonymised narrative whose geographic-industrial setting can be checked while the event itself cannot.
Chronology
- Fall 1969 claimed morning encounter near Frances
- two men reportedly watch building-like structure 10-20 min
- moving light appears
- structure allegedly vanishes silently
- account later circulates in UFO archives
- no matching Blue Book/NICAP contemporary case located
The Witnesses
Evidence
The following evidence types are documented for this case:
Conventional explanations: Fabrication or memory distortion; mislocated real structure/equipment; sightline/terrain concealment; atmospheric/optical effect. None can be tested because the event was not contemporaneously investigated.
What Remains Unresolved
- Identity of witnesses
- date and original statement date
- Midway Mining Co. corporate/property records
- earliest publication
- exact site
- any police/Blue Book correspondence.
Key Takeaways
- The real fluorspar district supports the setting, not the extraordinary event. Until the earliest statement and witness identities are recovered, the disappearing-building claim remains source-fragile.
Sources
Primary and secondary sources for this case file: