(Photo: Pexels/Lucas Pezeta)
Over the years, numerous stories have been about unidentified flying objects (UFOs). However, according to reports, one of the most credible tales involved a man who melted his gloves when he touched the object he saw at the Falcon Lake woods in Manitoba, Canada.
UFO at Falcon Lake?
The story involves Stefan Michalak, an industrial mechanic and amateur geologist who was near a vein of quartz along the Precambrian Shield on May 20, 1967, when he encountered a pair of "cigar-shaped objects" in Falcon Lake woods. He noticed that the disc-shaped object was floating with changing hues.
He was drawn to the object, so he approached. He reportedly heard at least two beings talking inside. He offered mechanical help if they needed it. However, when he touched the object, it was so hot that it melted his gloves.
Then, the craft started to rotate counterclockwise. Stefan claimed he saw a panel with a grid of holes on it. Not long after, he felt something like a blast of gas or air hitting his chest, pushing him back and setting his cap and shirt on fire.
He tore off the flaming clothes as the craft took off and sailed away. Stefan lost his bearings in the jungle, felt queasy, and puked. After a while, he returned to his Falcon Lake hotel room and boarded a bus to return to Winnipeg.
He received treatment at a hospital for burns to his stomach and chest, which subsequently developed into elevated lesions arranged in a grid. And he experienced weight gain, diarrhea, migraines, and blackouts for weeks following that.
Stefan's son, Stan Michalak, was only nine years old when it happened. He shared his recollections of the incident on its 50th anniversary in 2017.
He remembered the incident and even wrote about it in the book "When They Appeared," which he co-authored with UFO researcher Chris Rutkowski.
According to him, he could smell a strong stench of burnt engine and sulfur when his dad entered the bedroom. He could feel it radiating from his father's pores and all around him. It was reportedly awful, and Stan was scared.
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Falcon Lake Incident: The Best-Documented UFO Case
Several governmental agencies conducted thorough investigations into the issue, and the official conclusion—including that of the US Air Force—was that there was no explanation for it, according to Rutkowski. Items were recovered from the encounter scene, including various tools and Stefan's glove and shirt, which were examined in detail at an RCMP crime lab. Nobody could figure out what was causing the burns.
"The Falcon Lake incident is possibly Canada's best-documented UFO case," Rutkowski said. "It even beats Roswell [the alleged flying disc that landed in New Mexico in 1947] because the United States still doesn't recognize that anything happened in Roswell out of the ordinary."
Stan said his dad could vividly describe the thing he saw. However, he would never reportedly describe it as "extraterrestrials" because of the lack of evidence. However, up until the time he died, his story never changed.
The ordeal was dubbed the "Falcon Lake Incident," and there were 300 pages of documentation about the encounter. However, "nothing so far that has flawed his story," Stan said.
In 1968, Stefan was still unwell and experiencing blackouts and recurrences of burns on his chest. Stefan visited the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Doctors conducted a thorough examination and even sent him to a psychiatrist "who came back with the report that this is a fellow who's very pragmatic, very down to earth - pardon the pun - and does not make up stories," Rutkowski said.
"If Dad hoaxed this - remember we're talking about a blue-collar, industrial mechanic - if he hoaxed it then he was a freakin' genius," Stan added.
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