Travis Walton

Arizona logger (b. 1953, Snowflake); he was 22 when he went missing for 5 days in 1975 after approaching a luminous object. Author of 'The Walton Experience' (1978, reissued as 'Fire in the Sky'); a fixture of the UFO lecture circuit since. He marked the case's 50th anniversary in 2025 (Skyfire Summit, Sedona).

The Travis Walton incident was an alleged alien abduction of American forestry worker Travis Walton on November 5, 1975, in the Apache–Sitgreaves National Forests near Heber, Arizona. Walton reportedly had said that he was taken aboard a flying saucer. On November 5, 1975, Travis Walton was reported missing by the logging crew he worked with. The other five members of the crew said that when they were driving back to town after sunset, driver Mike Rogers stopped the truck because they saw an unusual light. His close friend Walton got out and walked into the forest toward the light. Illuminated by a beam of light, he fell to the ground. Fearful, the crew drove away, believing Walton to be dead. After their report, police organized several search parties, aided by a helicopter. After five days, a bedraggled Walton called his sister from a phone booth in Heber. Walton sold his abduction story to a tabloid, National Enquirer, which published the account and awarded the crew a $5,000 prize for Best Case of the Year. In 1978, he published his account as The Walton Experience. While he claimed sole authorship, it was rumored to have been ghostwritten by John G. Fuller. The book was adapted by Tracy Torme as the 1993 film Fire in the Sky, directed by Robert Lieberman. Science writers Philip J. Klass and Michael Shermer later alleged that Walton perpetrated a hoax.