05/01/2025
Do you believe in UFO's? I personally have seen some strange things in the sky. The following is from the "What's Going On Quad Cities" Facebook group:
“UFOs Over the River: The Quad Cities’ Hidden History of Strange Skies”
QUAD CITIES, USA — The skies above the Mississippi may look peaceful, but dig into the archives and you’ll find something… strange. The Quad Cities has quietly become one of the Midwest’s most active…and most overlooked…UFO hotspots.
From silent triangles over cornfields to glowing orbs darting across the river, the stories have quietly stacked up over the years. And while many go ignored, one moment in history practically screamed for attention.
Front Page Fright: Moline Daily Dispatch, March 9, 1967
On that Thursday morning, the front page of the Moline Daily Dispatch didn’t mince words: “UFO Seen In Area By Many Persons”
This wasn’t some blurry, secondhand report. Not a Facebook rumor.
This was front-page news…back when newspapers didn’t print UFO stories lightly.
Witnesses from Henry County to Moline reported strange red and green lights moving silently through the sky. Deputies saw it. Mothers with children saw it. One woman from St. Moline…Mrs. Arnold Buchmeyer…told reporters the object drifted slowly across rooftops around 11:30 p.m., completely silent, glowing in the night.
“I saw it clear as day,” she said. “It wasn’t a plane. It wasn’t a star. It was just… there.”
The article also reported that sheriff’s deputies and multiple Knox County residents confirmed seeing the object, and that it had moved north to south over the Mississippi River. A formal investigation was opened…but no explanation was ever given. The story faded, just like the lights in the sky.
That 1967 sighting wasn’t an isolated event. The Quad Cities has seen a steady trickle of unexplained aerial encounters for decades:
• A Rock Island patrolman in the 1970s reported seeing a football-shaped object, glowing and hovering silently near the water while on school traffic duty. His report was taken seriously…but quickly buried.
• In 2004, residents across Moline and Bettendorf reported seeing a massive, V-shaped craft gliding silently just above rooftops.
• In 2011, rural residents near Muscatine swore they saw lights moving in geometric patterns, pulsing, shifting, then vanishing as quickly as they appeared.
Some believe the area’s proximity to the Rock Island Arsenal, historic Native lands, and the Mississippi River…a known hotspot in UFO lore…make the QC a magnet for unexplained aerial phenomena. Others think it’s the quiet, rural nature of the area that makes it the perfect testing ground for either otherworldly crafts… or secret military tech.
Whatever the answer, one thing is clear:
The skies over the Quad Cities have stories to tell.
They’ve been telling them since at least 1967.
And we’re finally ready to start listening.
Send a message to learn more
