On the night of October 23, 1973, Allan Brotzman was driving near Black Rock, a rural area of Colerain Township between Quarryville and Kirkwood in southern Lancaster County, when something extraordinary appeared in the darkness.
Without warning, a mysterious triangular-shaped object shot upward into the night sky. Then, just as suddenly, a brilliant beam of white light illuminated his automobile.
Whatever was hovering above him appeared to be following his movements.
Brotzman was traveling approximately 60 miles per hour when something even more disturbing happened. According to his account, his automobile began slowing down against his will. Was the mysterious object somehow interfering with his vehicle?
Hoping to escape the unwanted attention, Brotzman switched off his headlights. But it made no difference. The triangular object continued following him, remaining somewhere in the darkness as he traveled toward Quarryville.
The pursuit reportedly continued all the way into town.
What had Brotzman encountered along that lonely stretch of road? An unusual aircraft? Some unknown atmospheric phenomenon? Or something far stranger?
Whatever the explanation, the experience left a lasting impression on him.
“You gotta see it to believe it,” Brotzman would later tell the Intelligencer Journal.
And as unsettling as his encounter sounded, Brotzman was hardly alone. Throughout Lancaster County, other residents were reporting mysterious lights in the autumn sky.
Something Strange in the Sky
The following evening, October 24, Brotzman was among a group of Quarryville-area residents who observed another peculiar object.
Around 6:50 p.m., residents contacted the Pennsylvania State Police to report what appeared to be a ball of fire suspended in the eastern sky.
According to Brotzman, the object had been visible for two consecutive evenings, although its apparent distance had changed.
“It’s further away tonight,” he explained. “Last night it seemed much closer.”
State Trooper Arthur McVitty responded to investigate. Looking toward the eastern sky, he spotted a pale yellow light in the distance and decided to follow it.
As he traveled toward the Chester County line, McVitty watched the mysterious glow shift from side to side, occasionally flickering against the darkening sky.
“It seemed to sway,” he reported.
Despite its peculiar behavior, McVitty wasn’t convinced that an extraterrestrial spacecraft was hovering over Lancaster County. He suspected a more earthly explanation. Perhaps someone had launched a small hot-air balloon as a prank. Illuminated from within, such a device might easily resemble a floating ball of fire, especially when viewed from a distance.
McVitty contacted fellow troopers at the Avondale barracks, who could also see the mysterious light. They believed it might be somewhere over Delaware, considerably farther away than the Quarryville witnesses initially suspected.
Whatever the object was, its precise identity remained uncertain. But the strange reports were about to become front-page news.
UFO Fever Sweeps Lancaster County
On Thursday, October 25, 1973, the Intelligencer Journal greeted readers with an extraordinary headline: “New UFO Sightings Reported in County.”
The accompanying article opened with a remarkable declaration: “Nearly everybody is seeing them.”
Across Lancaster County, residents had begun reporting strange lights, unusual objects, and apparent flying saucers.
Near Holtwood, Mrs. Frank Herr and her two children, 10-year-old Frankie and 12-year-old Carole, had spent four consecutive nights watching a mysterious orange light hanging low above the southeastern horizon.
On Wednesday evening, the light seemed higher in the sky and somewhat paler than before. Mrs. Herr admitted that the strange sight had initially frightened her.
But the newspaper offered a much less alarming explanation. The object was probably Mars, whose brilliant appearance could easily attract attention from observers unfamiliar with the night sky.
Another Lancaster County resident, Brad Hudson of Schoolhouse Road, reported seeing what appeared to be an unusually colorful star in the northeastern sky. Through binoculars, the light seemed to flash white, red, green, and blue.
Hudson first noticed it around 8:30 p.m. Three hours later, it was still visible, although its position appeared to have shifted relative to the surrounding stars.
Again, the newspaper suggested a natural explanation. A distant astronomical object could appear to flash different colors because of atmospheric conditions.
But not every reported encounter could be so readily explained by the appearance of a familiar planet or twinkling star.
For Allan Brotzman, the most troubling question wasn’t whether an orange light on the horizon might have been Mars. It was what had followed his automobile through Black Rock.
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Resources
- Lancaster New Era, Thursday, August 21, 1952
- Intelligencer Journal, Friday, August 22, 1952
- Comprehensive Catalog of 1,600 Project Blue Book UFO Unknowns: Kirkwood 1966
- Intelligencer Journal, Thursday, October 25, 1973
- Intelligencer Journal, Thursday, October 30, 1975
- LNP Lancaster Online, Wednesday, June 9, 2021
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