Ord, NE being encounter — October 9, 1978

The Ord Quiz of October 12, 1978, carried a short report titled “Close Encounters of a Weird Kind” naming tenth-grade student Deanne Kearns. It placed her sighting about two miles north of the river bridge early the preceding Sunday, indicating October 8. Later catalogues give October 9 or 15. The contemporary item describes a grey metallic saucer hovering two to three hundred feet above ground, with observation windows and red and green flashing lights. Kearns said two figures, approximately five to six feet tall, came from the saucer, looked around and gathered shrubs and earth. They returned inside on a beam of light. The newspaper calls them blackish-brown, with blob-like heads and tentacles on their sides. After roughly ten minutes the object reportedly shot straight upward and departed. Later retellings add a spire, a two-plate profile and details of descent in the beam that are not all present in this brief primary item. The located newspaper establishes that the named story circulated contemporaneously, correcting the impression that it appears only in late compilations. It does not independently verify the observation or provide a documented field investigation. Hatch’s record carries a hoax flag without an accompanying explanation; no confession or specific demonstrated mechanism was located. The entry preserves both the original allegation and the unresolved disputed classification, while using month-level dating on the plate.