Great Falls entity encounter — February 22, 1976

At about 10:00 on 22 February 1976, 29-year-old student Leonard Hegele was driving near Great Falls, Montana, when he reportedly noticed a seven-foot humanlike figure in a field beside the highway. Its shoulders appeared about three feet wide, and he thought its manner of walking was unlike a person’s. The native brief ledger places it roughly a mile from the interstate; the fuller HUMCAT-derived account says a quarter-mile from the highway. In that fuller account Hegele stopped his car and ran toward the figure. When he had approached to approximately 700–800 feet, it turned to face him, and he retreated to the car. He also reported seeing a grey oval object about half a mile from the road. It hovered approximately ten feet above the ground and periodically rose and fell through another fifteen feet. HUMCAT 1976-41 cites Jerome Clark; the shorter record also identifies a Great Falls Tribune report dated 23 February. Detailed facial anatomy, skin colour and clothing are absent from the surviving summary. The figure and object were observations within the same episode, but the account does not show the figure entering or leaving it. The reported distances differ across summaries and should remain estimates.