McNatt unidentified light report — March 5, 1977

Lonnie and Deborah Stites reported a roadside encounter near McNatt, Missouri, around 11 p.m. on March 5, 1977. Their pickup rounded a bend and the surroundings suddenly became intensely illuminated, with a bright light shining on the windshield. Lonnie described a normal-looking man beside the road, of ordinary or slightly shorter height, waving for them to stop. The man reportedly wore green coveralls, square glasses and a tight green cap covering his ears. On the hillside, Lonnie saw another figure carrying a basketball-sized luminous object. Behind it stood something resembling a water tank, estimated at ten feet across and ten to fifteen feet tall, surrounded by red lights. Deborah instead reported two figures on the slope carrying lights. She also said the object passed over their truck. The couple turned around and drove away frightened. The fuller HUMCAT-derived account, credited to Monte Blue Skelton and Bob Pratt, preserves those differences between the witnesses. Their figures looked human; neither unfamiliar anatomy nor an extraterrestrial identity was established. The intense illumination and moving object remain reported observations rather than instrument measurements. The plate uses Deborah's hillside count with an explicit label and reconstructs the tanklike form, avoiding an invented conventional saucer.