A Believer Amongst A World Of Skeptics      Published in the Hermiston Herald - - August 20,1001 ||||| RETURN |||||
One strange experience led to another, and then to others, until the unusually determined Pendleton rancher decided to tell all and enter a subculture of specialized "non-fiction" UFO writers. These writers tell of supposed unknown species, strange flying objects, and "energy balls" that use unknown properties to lay down artistic-looking patterns involving circles in wheat fields. There is also a darker side, allegedly involving cattle mutilations and abductions of human beings. "I was only 8 years old, I was lying in my bed, and there he was hovering in the doorway, kind of shimmering." Thus the 67-year-old Pendleton author, Roy Timm, describes his earliest experience with a range of strange phenomena that he kept private until March 2001. The object in the doorway appeared to have a shape roughly similar to a human being, he says. Timm made public his beliefs about space ships, extraterrestrial beings, abductions and more, on March 9, 2001, when he appeared on the local radio show The Coffee Hour. He also published a book last year titled "Northwest History of Saucers, ETs, Abductions and More." Timm overcame unusually difficult circumstances to publish his book: He is blind. But Timm is accustomed to hardship. He built the homestead's hay barn, which is still in use, when Timm was 18 years old. He put in seven miles of telephone lines, hauling in poles on a logging truck. His fingers have little feeling left, because of nerve damage suffered while feeding cattle in sub-zero weather. He recently drove to his beloved former home and ranch to reminisce. Milky clouds lolled on limitless, pastel-blue skies, and rolling hills of sun-dried wheatlands and mountains were visible stretching from Heppner to Tollgate. Cattle and horses grazed about in the 100-degree heat. In those same pastures, Timm, his brother, and his mother had once seen strange signs in the sky: silent, speeding objects that Timm firmly believes were flying saucers. "I was 12 years old at the time, but you don't forget something like that," he said. Back at his house, where Timm has memorized the location of every item, he gropes for the remote control of the television, which he can hear, but not see. His hand closes around a video cassette about flying saucers, which he plops into the television for visitors. The tables and bookcases are filled with books and magazines, about UFOs, flying saucers, and other extraordinary events. Timm "reads" using special equipment. A button pushed on the scanner starts a computerized voice simulator, reading in a monotone the materials Timm loves best: those which tell of space vehicles, UFO sightings, saucers, football-shaped space craft. "I read a lot of good books," Timm says. In similar fashion, Timm operates a fax/printer and other electronic equipment. He also hosts Internet radio presentations. "I'm just a bit stubborn about doing these things," he says. Timm gets reports from around the world with a special network of friends and enthusiasts, and now, with his book, he has added about 50 UFO or alien-experience accounts of his own, many of them from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho residents who claim to have had experiences with extra-terrestrial beings, space ships, UFOs and so-on. More reports are coming in all the time, he says. Many people were encouraged their experiences when they heard Timm's radio testimony, he says. Timm's book includes chapters on crop circles, abductions, saucers, and (of particular interest to cattle ranchers) cattle mutilations which are attributed to alien beings. More than 100 species of alien beings have been reported, according to Timm. Timm says the alien creatures are only trying to help us out. We are polluting the world, contaminating the streams, rivers, lakes, destroying the environment. They want to warn us to stop doing that, according to Timm. Timm says the government is covering up what is known about UFOs. Conspiracy theories abound among the UFO watchers. For example, a link on Timm's web site takes one to "The Disclosure Project," a group calling upon Congress for open hearings and "a comprehensive plan for cooperative, peaceful space development."	The link features interviews with highly-placed ex-military, government and other "witnesses" who are adamant to one degree or another in interpreting what they have seen as stemming from space aliens. Timm, in support of the movement, wrote, "I am sticking my neck out for the first time in my life to open the door . . . (along with others) to try to get Congress to give open door hearings." Another group thinks in terms of government cover-ups, quasi-government organizations, and conspiracies. One of the prevalent ideas is that the government will try to foist some kind of fake attack on the world, then attribute the attack to aliens, in order to unite the world behind a leader. For Timm's part, with almost religious overtones, he calls for a kind of environmental repentance, and encourages other people to demand that Congress open the books on what they allegedly "know" about UFOs, aliens and the rest. As he put it in the introduction to his book, "It is becoming critical, very critical, folks, extremely critical. We need to do something now!" Once Timm announced his intent to write a book, he found an abundance of local people willing to contribute their accounts. The stories, many of which are only a page or two in length, tell about alleged special encounters with creatures from distant worlds or other realms. Vivian Lightfoot, 78, is cited as having seen a flying saucer 30 miles south of Pendleton on West Birch Creek, in 1947 Patricia Templeton Grandys is cited as saying she saw seven saucers in 1952, in the Tri-Cities area. She works in Hermiston at a packing plant. Mike Knight provides an account of having reported seeing what looked like a UFO over the Columbia River in 1972 or 1973, at The Dalles while looking out a hospital window. Ivan Gilliam is said to have told Timm of a 1958 experience in Sumpter, in which he and two other loggers saw a saucer, 60 feet in diameter. Gilliam also reported having been visited in his bedroom as a child, by two big, skinny, bug-eyed creatures. In fact, several sightings of creatures reportedly happened in bedrooms. The creature is one UFO watchers have dubbed the "praying mantis." Another is named "prune face" because its face is wrinkled. Gloria Blessing of Hermiston is given as an example of a person who saw space creatures, and who was abducted. It was 1969. Her radio went out and her car stalled (Many of the stories involve stalled cars and interrupted radio transmissions). She supposedly noticed a football-shaped machine with lights all around it, and then gray-green creatures with bright silver suits left the machine, reminding her of the Tin Man of Wizard of Oz. Cattle reportedly have been slaughtered, operated on with microwave beams, in order for aliens to learn more about what effects human activity is having on their systems. Some of those mutilations allegedly happened in Umatilla County and were reported to the sheriff. Others have been reported as far away as Argentina. Not everyone is pleased to go chasing after flying saucers and space aliens with Timm. The Umatilla County Sheriff's Office, for instance, is reluctant to pursue Timm's claims, and the media, Timm says, just will not print what he calls the truth. Religious people have also rejected his message, to the point he says he is ready to part company with some of them. "I won't buy into your ignorance or stupidity," he directed toward spiritual leaders who scoffed at the idea of life elsewhere in the universe. "As far as I am concerned, you are living a lie and I don't want anything to do with liars. Count me out folks. Just count me out." God created more than this earth, Timm says; "God created the entire universe," and there is a lot out there that we are just starting to learn about. "I get so frustrated when people still don't believe these things are possible when these sightings have been going on for so many years," he says. According to Timm, there was a rash of UFO sightings in 1947 and during the years corresponding to the siting of the Hanford nuclear reactors. The reported sightings continue to happen every year, he says. Aliens are trying to tell us to quit destroying the earth with our misdirected science, Timm says. Along with flying saucers, folklore, and homespun environmental and social philosophy, Timm somehow manages to fit in such things as the chickens and horses, the haying and bits of local history. The grammar is strictly mid-Columbia farm style. And while the stories have the ring of modern folklore in the making, Timm is serious about all this business.
"I have to get the word out," he says. "People need to know the truth." Timm's web page address is www.nwhistoryofsaucers.com E-mail may be sent to timm@nwhistoryofsaucers.com The telephone/fax number is (541) 276-2756.