513: Mystery in Cisco Grove: Don Shrum’s Encounter with UFOs, Aliens and Robots
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In September 1964, Captain McLeod and Sergeant Barnes were dispatched from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. They were sent to investigate a UFO sighting in Northern California.

Wright-Patterson AFB got lots of UFO reports. 99% of them could be explained, and a sizable percentage of those were just hoaxers looking for attention. The other 1% were classified as UFOs and sent on to Project Blue Book. What happened from there, McCloy didn't know. The fact that he was being sent to the other side of the country meant this sighting was important to the Air Force.

McLeod had a copy of the teletype report from the UFO tracking office. It was stamped with an unusual priority notification. It read UFO landing with entities reported by missile technician in Tahoe NF Sacramento. Orders investigate and contain via usual protocols ASAP. McLeod's first step was to interview the witness. And even after 17 years as an investigator, this was the strangest UFO story he'd ever heard.

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It was a Friday morning, September 4th, 1964, when Donald Shrum set out for the woods. Don and his two friends, Vincent Alvarez and Tim Trueblood, were headed to Cisco Grove. It was about three quarters of the way to Lake Tahoe, 80 miles or so, about an hour, hour and a half drive. The three men worked for Aerojet Corporation, a military subcontractor in Sacramento. They were

Don was a welder and specifically worked on Polaris and Titan nuclear missiles, a stressful job. A weekend with friends, bow hunting deer in the Tahoe National Forest was just what he needed to clear his head. Firearms were prohibited in the National Forest this time of year, and that suited Don just fine. He was a skilled bow hunter. He preferred the bow over a rifle anyway. It felt like real hunting. It was quiet, peaceful even. As long as he's not hunting with hooks and worms, he's all right by me.

The men quickly set up camp, hit the forest, and fanned out. They had no communication equipment, so they had to stay within shouting distance. They had an agreement that if anyone got separated by nightfall, they would return to the campsite. By sunset, Don hadn't spotted any deer. As he decided to head back to camp, he realized he got turned around at some point. He was lost. He shouted for his friends, but didn't get a reply.

Being out in the woods alone at night wasn't a good idea. Other hunters had reported bears and other predators in the area. But it was getting dark and the temperature was dropping. Don had no choice. He'd be staying in the woods that night. But there was no way he was doing it at ground level. Don made for high ground, found a massive pine tree rooted on a cliffside, and started climbing. You see, I normally think it's stupid you came from monkeys. But I gotta admit, sometimes it comes in handy.

Don had a military-type belt that could serve as a harness. He found a strong branch and secured himself. He was high enough that a bear or wildcat would have to work to reach him, but they could reach him, so he'd have to stay awake all night.

Don was fighting sleep when he saw a light through the trees. He assumed that his friends had reported him missing, and this was the Forest Service sending out a rescue helicopter. He scrambled down the tree and lit a couple of signal fires he built. He started shouting and waving his arms. By the time the light was within about 50 yards, Don realized it wasn't making any sound. It wasn't a helicopter.

The light floated silently and slowly approached Don's location. He quickly put out the signal fires and climbed back up the tree. It was dark and he was wearing all camouflage. His plan was stay still, stay quiet and wait for the light to pass. The light was small, maybe eight or 10 inches across. At first, Don thought this was a tiny spacecraft. The light moved slowly and silently. Then the light started swaying. It was scanning the area.

The motion of the light allowed Don to make out the shape of the craft. It wasn't small. The ship was an enormous black cylinder, 150 feet long, the size of a 14-story building lying on its side. The beam of light was searching the canyon, the trees, the large rocks in the area. Then the light stopped.

On the hull of the craft, Don saw three horizontal slits of light appear. The slits expanded into tall, narrow rectangles of light. They were windows or doors opening on the side of the craft. Then from the middle window, there was a flash of light and a dark object shot down the canyon. It was another smaller ship. By this point, Don was terrified. A few seconds later, the small ship floated up to the ridge line near Don's tree and came to a stop.

he could see a blinking light on top of it. It was shaped like a flying saucer that he'd seen in pictures.

Don was doing everything he could to remain still, but he was trembling. The silence made the experience worse. He could hear the sound of the wind blowing up from the canyon and hitting the trees, but the loudest sound was his blood pumping through his ears. He hadn't believed in UFOs or aliens or any of that. He considered himself a regular guy. He was a welder by trade. On the weekends, he enjoyed hiking, hunting, or just hanging out with his family. This was the last thing he expected.

Don didn't move. He had to remind himself to breathe. He looked at his hands and he was squeezing his bow so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. Five minutes went by and it was an eternity. Then Don heard branches breaking and bushes rustling. Something was forcing its way through the brush and headed right for his tree.

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For the next two or three minutes, the stomping and scraping got louder and louder. Whatever this was, it was getting closer. The sound stopped. Two shapes emerged from the brush. At the tree line stood a pair of beings. Humanoid, but definitely not human. They were between four and five feet tall, wearing silver suits. Don couldn't make out their faces, but he could see they were wearing some kind of eyewear. He thought they resembled welding goggles.

The beings seemed interested in the surroundings. They were carefully picking leaves and placing bits of soil into tubes with long, slender fingers. They slowly walked in the direction of Don's tree. He instinctively tightened his belt that was wrapped around a large branch. The being stopped, and Don held his breath.

Then he saw the two creatures slowly tilting their heads back as they scanned up the tree. They must have heard him. Then they saw him. Within the goggles, he saw large round eyes that dominated the being's faces. Their eyes locked with his and they walked toward him and stopped at the base of the tree. Dom wasn't up all that high, maybe 10 to 12 feet off the ground. If this being's reached toward him or could jump in any way, they could get to him.

The beings looked at each other and made sounds that sounded like the hooting of an owl. Then they looked back at Don. He felt a wave of panic wash over him. He couldn't tell if they meant him harm or what their intentions were at all. He just stared at them and tried not to move. A few seconds later, he heard more crashing through the trees. Bushes were bending and breaking. Whatever was coming was big and it was heavy. A third figure appeared at the tree line. It was casting a large shadow and moving mechanically.

It was a robot. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did you just say it was a robot? Well, we don't know for sure. It was basically the same size and shape as the humanoids, maybe a little taller. Don later described it as looking like and moving like a robot.

It stopped under Don's tree between the two smaller beings. It looked like a robot from pulp magazines. It was about six feet tall and metallic. It had a boxy torso and a square head. It had no neck and a square jaw. When it opened its mouth, the entire jaw opened. Like the Iron Giant? Exactly like that, just scaled down. The robot had reddish-orange eyes that glowed like flashlights in the dark. It was looking at him.

Indica or Sativa? Indica.

His vision got blurry, then everything went black.

Don woke up slumped over the branch. It's a good thing his belt was firmly attached or he would have fallen out of the tree. He shook off the paralysis and was hit with a wave of nausea. He looked down and the beings were trying to climb after him. Don was dry heaving as he inched higher up the tree. The robot reached for its jaw again, preparing another attack. And Don considered this an escalation. He grabbed an arrow, knocked it, and drew back his bow. He aimed for the chest of the robot.

It was only 8 or 10 feet away. At this distance, an arrow from a 60-pound bow moves as fast as a bullet from a rifle. He let it fly. A fraction of a second later, the arrow hit the robot square in the chest. There was a bright flash of sparks as the robot stumbled backward. The humanoids retreated to the tree line. It worked.

Then the robot steadied itself. Along with the beings, it returned to the base of the tree. It raised its arm, opened its mouth. There was a hiss and another blast of white vapor. Don inched a little higher, but he couldn't breathe. It was like there was no air. He felt himself black out again. When he came to, the humanoids were trying to figure out how to get him out of the tree again.

He grabbed another arrow. Draw! He drew back as far as he could. Loose! He released the arrow. Again, he hit the robot square, and again there were sparks. And again, it stumbled backward. The humanoids also retreated. Before the robot could get its balance, Don hit it square in the chest again. This time, it almost lost its balance and fell over, but it didn't. It regained its footing and started back toward the tree. I keep shooting that thing! When Don reached for his quiver, it was empty.

He was out of arrows. Don woke up and retched. He wasn't sure how long he was out, but the humanoids were now climbing a rock next to the tree.

They hooted and the robot lifted its arm. Don patted his pockets. Matches. He grabbed his baseball cap and set it on fire. He threw this at the robot and all three stepped backward. Don then started lighting everything he had on fire. He tore pieces off his jacket, lit those on fire and sent them down. Again, he was hit with vapor and knocked out. And this went on for hours. Don was knocked out by the gas over and over again, but he kept burning things and dropping them down.

He burned every bit of clothing he had except his shirt and jeans. Shoes, socks, gloves, everything, gone. Which could be a problem, it was getting cold. The fires would give him a few seconds to adjust his position, but not enough time to get out of range of the vapor. Then the matches ran out. He threw everything he had at the creatures. His quiver, his compass, his canteen. All he had left were a few coins, and he threw those too.

After waking up from another vapor attack, Don saw a hint of orange in the clouds. The sun would be up in an hour, but he didn't know if he could survive that long. He was exhausted and he was out of options. He thought about his wife and daughter as he passed out again.

Don opened his eyes and the humanoids were gone. But now there were two robots at the base of the tree. Arcs of electricity bounced between them like a Jacob's ladder. They were pooling their energy. Both robots reached for their jaws and opened their mouths. Don tried to scramble higher, but the air around him suddenly got so cold. He choked. He couldn't breathe. He knew it was almost over. He felt himself blacking out.

As he was losing consciousness, he wondered if they'd ever find his body. Who would be at his funeral? He thought to himself, this is going to be hard on my little girl. Then a cloud of cold white smoke hit him. Don was right. It was over.

Wait, wait, wait. What?

He told the mother-in-law? Always a mistake. Well, he told his wife, and she told the mother-in-law. Women. What? Communication is important in a marriage. Oh, you poor, simple bastard. Anyway, his mother-in-law knew an astronomy professor at a local community college. She thought his science background could help him explain the lights, the object, and what happened.

A couple of weeks later, Don spoke to the professor and recounted every detail he could. The professor thought this event was important and decided to contact the nearby McClellan Air Force Base. Everyone had a big mouth in this story. The professor gave the Air Force a summary of Don's story and the location of the incident. Within days, two investigators were sent from Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio, Captain McLeod and Sergeant Barnes.

Sketchy. Well,

Yeah, I like it. Well, remember Don worked at a highly secure nuclear missile facility. The Air Force needed to get to the bottom of this. Yeah, I don't trust these guys. Yeah, well, they brought along a bulky reel-to-reel tape recorder and extensively documented Don's entire 12-hour encounter.

The investigators asked Don all detailed questions about the creatures. What did they look like? Their height, skin texture, clothing? How did they move? What abilities or tools did they have? They asked specifics about the large ship. Its shape, visible features like lights and markings. How did it maneuver? They asked Don how he fought back against the attack. How effective he was and which creatures he targeted. They asked for a detailed map of the area. What was the elevation, topology, what kind of rocks and trees were there?

After they had all the details and chronology of events, the investigators switched into interrogation mode. And here we go.

The friendly investigators weren't so friendly anymore. The investigators became interrogators, and they came at Don hard. Time to lawyer up, chief. They offered alternative scenarios for what happened. Were there weapon tests going on? Lawyer. Was Don intoxicated on drugs or alcohol? Lawyer. Was this actually teenagers playing an elaborate prank? Lawyer. Could this have been Japanese soldiers that Don mistook for aliens? Japanese soldiers? Yep. In the woods? In the middle of the night?

Yeah, Don said that was ridiculous. He saw what he saw. He was telling the truth. He even showed them an arrowhead that had bits of metal on it from the impact with the robot. The Air Force took the arrow as evidence. And he never saw it again. And he never saw it again.

The investigators left and did not follow up. During rifle season, Don went back to the area where the encounter happened. There was an orange circle around the tree. The whole area had been raked clean for about 50 feet around the tree. There were still rake marks in the dirt and a few cigarette butts around the perimeter. It was obvious the Air Force was there and cleaned everything up.

Soon after that, Don developed anxiety. He suffered severe PTSD, including walking nightmares for about a year. Hearing owl sounds would trigger a panic attack. His welding skills declined, he was fired from his job, and his family almost went bankrupt. - He could have sold his story or wrote a book. - Yeah, but he didn't want his name attached to this. His neighbors thought he was crazy. He thought he was crazy. His family had to move in with relatives in Arizona, and the only work he could find was low wage.

The event ruined Don's life and he wanted nothing more to do with it. He tried to put it out of his mind and slowly he was able to recover. He was finally free of the Cisco Grove UFO encounter. Then, 14 years later, the phone rang. Don's case resurfaced when groups like NICAP and MUFOM were going through old files. His was intriguing enough to attract the attention of Hollywood. Don's story ended up on an NBC special called Project UFO.

Paul Cerny, an investigator for NICAP, filed a Freedom of Information request and it took a couple of years, but they finally released the file. The file said what Don experienced didn't happen. Reports said the incident was psychologically based and dismissed it as a hoax or a delusion.

But the file also contained a signed affidavit from Vincent Alvarez who said he saw a craft descending toward Don's area at the time of the event. In the mid 2000s, Don finally started talking about the event. In 2011, a book was published, "Aliens in the Forest: The Cisco Grove UFO Encounter."

Though Don's story was now available to the public, it's one of the lesser-known UFO stories. Gino knew about it. Oh yeah, we got the story from Gino's Story Hour. If you want to hear his take on it, there's a link below. He gets into it. He does. But did it really happen?

Don's story has been consistent for 50 years. He's never tried to capitalize on it. The opposite happened. This encounter broke him, financially and psychologically. There's also the other eyewitness, Vincent Alvarez, who said he saw the ship. And the Air Force did send investigators across the country to look into this. They did admit they took something from Don, presumably the arrow or arrowhead.

On the other side, there's no actual physical evidence. The Air Force never returned the arrow. Don said they cleaned up the site. And if they did, they didn't document this or test the soil for radiation or anything like that. - That we know of. - Well, true. The Air Force did wanna keep this quiet.

But these creatures had anti-gravity technology, yet they couldn't figure out how to climb a tree. Why not fly the smaller ship over? And I don't like that the beings and the robot are described exactly like 1960s sci-fi. That makes me skeptical. Also, Don said moonlight helped him see the ship, but there was no moon that night. Don said he found another one of his arrows, but we don't know if it was tested or what happened to it. Was the Cisco Grove UFO encounter real?

Well, it was real enough to Donald Shrum. It destroyed his life. He lost everything and almost lost his mind. But the Air Force said that he lost his mind before the encounter. A 12-hour life-or-death struggle with aliens. A man stuck in a tree firing arrows at a vapor-shooting robot. A government investigation and cover-up. You have enough information to decide if it's true. But one thing is for sure, it's a great story. And to me, it's all that matters.

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No, it never ends.

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The Roswell aliens just fought the smiling man I'm told, and his name was cold And I can't believe I'm dancing with the fishes Hecklefish on Thursday nights with AJ2 And the robots have been re-eyed All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the world...

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Heddlefish on Thursday nights when they chase you And the wild boars have to be off to the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the wild boars have to be off to the night Heddlefish on Thursday nights when they chase you And the wild boars have to be off to the night All I ever wanted was to just hear the truth So the wild boars have to be off to the night

Because she is a camel and camels love lips when the feeling is right.

Wasting time. Getting lucky. Getting lucky. Yeah.