The Shag Harbour UFO Encounter, Also Known As ‘Canada’s Roswell’
Wikimedia CommonsThe site of the Shag Harbour UFO encounter.
On Oct. 4, 1967, at roughly 11:20 p.m., witnesses reported seeing something crash into the waters of Shag Harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. About a dozen people saw orange lights hovering above the harbor and heard something whistling “like a bomb” followed by a loud bang.
According to the Municipality of Barrington, witnesses initially believed they had just observed the tragic outcome of an airplane crash. Immediately, they reported the impact to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. RCMP Constable Ron Pound had also happened to see the strange lights as he was driving along Highway 3 toward Shag Harbour.
Like the other witnesses, Pound described seeing four lights attached to a singular flying craft, which he estimated to be around 60 feet long. Constable Pound arrived at the crash site to investigate alongside Police Corporal Victor Werbieki, Constable Ron O’Brien, and several local residents.
In the water where the craft had crashed, Constable Pound and the other witnesses watched as a yellow light moved slowly across the surface, leaving a trail of foam in its wake. The light dipped in and out of the water but was still too far from the shore to clearly make out.
By the time the Coast Guard arrived, the light was gone. The strange, yellowish foam was still present, though, indicating that something may have disappeared into the waters below.
Several theories emerged about the object’s origins, with some claiming it may have been a Russian spacecraft. There were also rumors that the U.S. government conducted a follow-up investigation, but officials never confirmed or denied this.
Divers later explored the waters of Shag Harbour to retrieve the object. They discovered that the UFO had indeed submerged itself and traveled underwater for roughly 25 miles to Government Point, which was located near a submarine detection base.
Witnesses at the base saw the object on sonar, and soon, the Canadian Navy began planning a salvage operation. Then, something strange happened. A second UFO appeared on sonar near the first — and both of them resurfaced and vanished into the sky.
To this day, neither object has ever been identified.
