Spooky: Conference Scheduled On UFO Sightings In Michigan 50 Years Ago

HILLSDALE (CBS Detroit) Fifty years later, a conference is being held this weekend to recall a time of unusual lights, floating discs and other alleged UFOs in southern Michigan.

In March 1966, students at Hillsdale College reported a UFO had landed on a softball field in the middle of basically nowhere.

In another incident in Washtenaw County, police rushed to a swampy area after being told of an eerily glowing floating disc. The Air Force determined it was an illusion related to "marsh gas" or "swamp gas."

That didn't end the controversy for people convinced they had seen a UFO.

Enthusiasts of that events of that time are meeting Saturday at the Wyndham Garden hotel in Ann Arbor to discuss and debate. Individual talks have titles like "Michigan UFO Archives" and "Little Green Men and the New York Times: The Origins of the UFO Ridicule Factor."

The main goal is "commemorate and revisit the bizarre historical facts behind the sightings," according to Freep.com. William Konkolesky, the state director for the Michigan chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, said a remarkable number of elderly residents recall the events and look back on them with "awe and bafflement."

"There are a lot of people who really don't have a sense of the importance of this event," Konkolesky told the Freep. "Before the event fades away into history, we want to say, 'This was a big deal.'"