FigureTravis Walton (b. 1953)
aka Travis Walton · Walton · the Walton case
Snowflake, Arizona logger; reported being taken from a U.S. Forest Service logging crew on the evening of 5 November 1975 in the Sitgreaves National Forest; six co-witnesses were polygraphed within days. Walton reappeared five days later in Heber, AZ. The case became the basis for *Fire in the Sky* (1993).
What's documented
Member of a seven-man Forest Service logging crew on the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest contract, Snowflake, AZ. On the evening of 5 November 1975 the crew’s pickup truck encountered a luminous object hovering above the road. Walton approached it; according to all six other crew members he was struck by a beam of light and lifted off the ground. The other six drove away, then returned to look for him and could not find him. They reported him missing to Navajo County Sheriff Marlin Gillespie that night. He reappeared near Heber, AZ five days later on 10 November 1975. The case is unusual in two specific respects: (1) the six co-witnesses were polygraphed by Cy Gilson of the Arizona Department of Public Safety on 10 November and 15 November 1975 — five passed conclusively, one was inconclusive (William Cogdill); (2) the crew was facing contractual penalties for non-completion of the logging contract that, had they been fabricating, would have given them a motive contrary to their interest. Walton’s own polygraph history is more mixed — he failed an early February 1976 test administered by John J. McCarthy (engaged by Philip Klass), passed two later tests in 1993 and 2008. The 1993 Paramount film Fire in the Sky dramatized the case. He still lives in Snowflake; the Forest Service contract records are filed.