The Buff Ledge Encounter
Two teenagers sitting on a camp dock at sunset watched lights over Lake Champlain come closer and closer, and lost track of time.
What was reported
On the evening of 7 August 1968, two young employees at a girls' summer camp on Lake Champlain, Michael Lapp, 16, and Janet Cornell, 19, were sitting on the dock when they saw bright lights over the lake. One came close, and they said it was a craft with domed top and figures inside.
In 1978, Lapp contacted a UFO investigator, Walter Webb, who tracked down Cornell. She had not seen Lapp since that summer. Under hypnosis, both described being taken aboard and examined, with similar details. Some campers remembered seeing lights over the lake that night.
Explanations offered
Sceptics point out that memories recovered under hypnosis are unreliable and can be shaped by the questions asked and by stories in films and books. Others find the matching details and the independent witnesses to the lights hard to dismiss.
- When
- 7 August 1968
- Where
- Buff Ledge, Lake Champlain, Vermont, USA
- Witnesses
- Two summer camp workers; other campers
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.