By: Alison Dirr
Every year, on the last Saturday in October, an Unidentified Flying Object makes a scheduled appearance on Main Street in Belleville. Like most UFO sightings, its presence causes quite a stir.
On UFO Day, the city typically swells from its normal 2,000 residents to between 3,000 and 3,500 for the mid-day parade, says Brad Peterson, executive director of the town’s chamber of commerce, which organizes the event. Belleville residents and visitors from neighboring towns celebrate the landing with events from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. the following morning.
Various organizations sponsor different parts of the event. This year, UFO Day began with a pancake breakfast, continued with a parade mid-day and ended with a monster costume ball that was scheduled to last into the morning hours. At a crafts fair, self-published books about aliens are usually available for sale, and contests and games for both kids and adults fill the remaining hours.
“It’s one of our events in town that really brings people in from the outside,” Peterson says. “Most of the (town’s) events are set up more for the town instead of tourism.”
UFO day commemorates the first two UFO sightings in the Belleville area. In January of 1987, two police officers saw what they believed to be a UFO from a bluff southwest of the town. A few months later, on a late afternoon in March, more residents reported similar experiences with objects that vanished into the clouds. New Glarus residents, too, reported sightings that year.
But even for those who question the plausibility of the UFO story, the event has something to offer, because, as Peterson says, it is about more than that.
“It’s just one of those fun events that brings community together,” he says. “It’s really about having something to get out and do and be together toward the end of the year, before the holidays.”
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