This is the story of the Evans family, whose harrowing encounters with the inexplicable happened in 1975, a peak year for surgical cattle mutilations in Colorado.

Though my account reads almost like scary science fiction, it is based on witness reports taken by Dr. Leo Sprinkle and Dr. John Derr, who at the time were working with the now defunct Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).

Paranoia stalked the beautiful Colorado landscape in the mid 1970s. Mysterious night surgeons were doing their foul deeds. An unseen agency was performing ultra-skilled surgery and removing specific animal parts. Only the bovine carcass with its serrated edged cavities remained behind.

Glowing aerial lights and other strange aerial forms were frequently see, but no culprit had ever been apprehended in the thousands of incidents. The middle-aged Evans family, consisting of John, Susan, their three sons, and a business partner named Jim, who spent several months cleaning and repairing the ranch the family had acquired before moving there in Oct. of 1975.

The ranch was located near a small town in the Rocky Mountains, and overlooked a military installation. Abandoned coal mines were thought to be under an area of the ranch. The new residents were immediately presented with mystery there were never able to solve. Why did the house often have a turbine-like hum?

Shortly after their arrival, an orange glowing craft shaped like the top of a lighthouse appeared over a dam on the northwest corner of the property. Little did they realize that this would be only the first of an incredible onslaught of bewildering events.

In the months that the family tried to cope at the ranch, UFOs were often seen by them and their friends. In one incident, during broad daylight, Susan and two friends spotted an object that must have been hundreds of feet across.

Most often the sighting took place in darkness. On the night when nine discs appeared beyond the front of the house, it was Susan who got zapped. She had been watching from the front room couch. There was a flash of light, and whatever it was, knocked her into the middle of the front room floor. Of all the persons at the ranch, Susan was the most sensitive to the mysterious forces and eventually the one most disturbed by it all.

Periodically she and several of her friends suffered induced headaches, momentary paralysis, and all the symptoms of panic. Several friends made an early departure from the ranch. When the discs were about, effects such as power outages, pounding on the side of the house, mutilations and other bizarre phenomena occurred.

One afternoon Joe the oldest son, and some friends visiting from Denver found the first mutilated cow. It had its udder, one eye, one ear and its rectum removed. It was devoid of blood in the fallen snow.

Eventually the Evans herd would lose four cows. This precipitated an angry confrontation between Jim and the county sheriff, who seemed unresponsive. Appearing to control his great irritation, the sheriff told Jim, "We know what the mutilations are and have known for some time. We only make public about one fourth of the total, and there have been 400 so far. It is done by extraterrestrials. The FBI has been told about it. This "cover-up" policy avoided certain panic in the county, and successfully reduced public ridicule of the sheriffs office.

Several times at the ranch a voice came out of nowhere. One night the three adults came home from shopping and found the boys in the back room cowering in fear. Something had been pounding on the house all evening. Jim lost his temper and stormed outside. He screamed curses into the silence and ended up saying, "If we can't have this land, you won't have it either! I'll blow the whole thing away. "Back in the house he had some coffee and tried to calm down. Then went back outside to work on the faulty septic tank. Suddenly, a great stereo-like voice boomed from everywhere, "Dr. Jim, we accept your offer!"

Jim hurried back into the house very upset and disoriented. The family talked to the sheriff about moving the boys to town. Incredible as it seems, a big hairy being also joined the parade of oddities on the ranch. It became apparent that "Big Foot" was just one more facet of the cunning intelligence harassing the Evans. No less than 20 persons would see "Big Foot."

One night, Jim took a shot at its dark form, without effect. In the midst of the harassment, something completely destroyed the transmissions of Susan's Cadillac and the station wagon. On another occasion, Susan got a complete surprise. Jim had quietly stepped out on the porch without turning on the porch light. Once he spotted the figure, he tapped on the window and Susan came out. Susan shaded her eyes, leaned over and looked where Jim told her into the trees. She was amazed to see the huge dark figure lean over and shade its eyes, just as she had, appearing to mimic her movement.

In two separate episodes, strange figures momentarily appeared at the house. One was an indistinct figure in a tight suit, who appeared in a window above Jim as he lay on a couch with his gun beside him. This threw Susan into a high-pulse, rapid breathing episode, even though she was alone in her bedroom when it happened. On another occasion Jim awoke on his couch in the wee hours and found he couldn't move. A tall, skinny alien stood beside him. It was wearing a space helmet, with three hoses projecting out of it and attached to a pointed box on its chest. In panic, Jim began to be able to force air through his larynx and make strange noises. The alien  vanished. Jim thought, "Oh God! I'm hallucinating--I've lost my mind."

John became more rational after John and Susan came rushing in. Of all the strange happenings that occurred on the ranch, "the meeting incident" was probably the most frightening yet fascinating. Sort of a climax of all the sinister activity. It was a cold, moonlit, winter night when Jim and Joe drove up to the mysterious burned circle.

Jim would never know why he got the compulsion to venture near this strange place after sundown. They had been parked a little while, when they noticed a dim, yellow light behind their auto, coming from the forest. As they cautiously approached there lay an illuminated black box in the snow. Jim remembered that the sheriff had warned him about black boxes which were making a buzzing sound and this increased when Jim took another step toward it. He backed up, returned to the car, then sent Joe back to the house.

As Jim stood there, he spotted another yellow light down under the dark pine trees. He began to walk toward this light. He had not felt well this day and his health was not the best anyway. He had a heart condition called "myocardial infarction."

Jim didn't want to move his legs and go to the light yet a strange, overpowering compulsion, moved him toward it. Jim had anxiety, but no real fear.