Us29 / Near Athens, GA being encounter — October 17, 1973

Paul Brown, a thirty-five-year-old automobile salesman from Athens, reported an encounter on U.S. 29 near Danielsville at about 11:00 p.m. on October 17, 1973. According to the fuller catalogue account, his radio filled with static before a bright light passed over the car with a buzzing or swishing sound. He initially thought an aircraft was in trouble, then braked when an object settled on the road roughly three hundred feet ahead. NICAP’s November 1973 account calls the object cone-shaped. Two short figures emerged, wearing silver suits and white gloves. Brown thought their faces looked reddish and their hair white, although glare interfered with his view. Later summaries estimate their height at four to four-and-a-half feet and describe the craft as oval or egg-shaped. Brown retrieved his pistol and stepped halfway out of the car. The figures returned inside; the object darkened and lifted with a whooshing sound. Brown reportedly fired several shots as it departed, with no apparent effect. Police found tire marks but no physical sign of the object. The surviving narrative does not support confirmed bullet damage, a conversation or a close examination of the occupants. The Atlas’s broad near-Athens label is retained, with Danielsville identified as the more specific reported location. The plate depicts the initial observation rather than gunfire.