Chatham unidentified-object report — October 18, 1973

Early in the evening of October 18, 1973, Bill Hines and another youth were on White Oak Mountain, just south of Chatham, Virginia, when they reported being pursued by a small white figure. The surviving account describes a shimmering body, an unusually large head without visible eyes, and a height of roughly three to four feet. Its sideways running motion was one of the details that distinguished the story from a conventional sighting of a person. The boys fled toward a pickup truck where an adult was waiting. A fuller chronology, citing the next day's Danville Bee, adds that a green, hazy cloud rose into the sky and moved north after they reached the truck. It does not establish that the waiting adult independently saw the figure, or that the cloud was a vehicle carrying it. This is principally an entity report. Neither the imported entry nor the fuller account describes a structured craft at the encounter site. A red fireball reported by state troopers in Salem belongs to the surrounding reporting context, rather than a demonstrated connection to the mountain figure. The illustration therefore concentrates on the two youths, the eyeless white form, and their route back to the truck; its geography and unidentified human appearances are reconstructed.