This Historic Site Marker In New Hampshire Just Might Be The Strangest Tourist Trap Yet
By Tori Jane|Published February 23, 2021
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Tori Jane
Author
Tori Jane is a storm chaser, writer, photographer, and the village idiot - in that order. When she's not out and about dancing with the meanest storms on planet Earth for funsies she can be found wandering, shooting landscapes, writing, editing photos, and otherwise up to no good. Legend has it that she can also be occasionally spotted typing up short bios in the third person, but those rumors are unsubstantiated.
On a dark, seemingly uneventful drive home from a vacation at Niagara Falls, a New Hampshire couple would experience something so incredibly strange and bizarre that they would report it to the US military the following day, and then not speak of it again other than to family and friends, for at least another two years. It’s a truly remarkable story and, amazingly, there’s a marker on the stretch of US Highway 3 that commemorates the location where this event was alleged to have occurred. The marker is somewhat of a mecca for UFO enthusiasts from all over the country fascinated by the Betty and Barney Hill incident of 1961, and it’s probably one of the weirdest places in New Hampshire.
The Betty & Barney Hill abduction was the first-ever modern-day account of alien abduction in the United States.
So compelling was the case that the state of New Hampshire posted an official historic marker along the lonely stretch of rural US State Highway 3. Indeed, the tale the Hills recounted to friends, family, and countless experts was remarkable - but very well-documented.
The Hills claimed that on the night of September 19th into the early morning of September 20th, 1961, while driving home from a vacation in Canada, Betty Hill noticed a strange light in the sky.
At first, she thought it was the planet Jupiter, but before long, she realized that it was moving - and rather strangely. Perhaps it was a shooting star, she thought - until it appeared to be moving upward.
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Baffled and intrigued, Betty asked her husband, Barney, to pull the car over. She wanted a closer look.
Barney pulled the car over and together, they watched as a fiery, cigar-shaped object seemed to "notice" them and approach. Mildly alarmed, but still quite intrigued, the couple drove very slowly, following the object and keeping it in their sights.
The next thing they knew, they were arriving home - but it was dawn on the morning of September 20th, and they were missing several hours of time from their immediate memories. They hazily tried to piece together the events of the previous evening; Betty saved the torn clothing she had been wearing, and they decided to make a formal report to the U. S. Air Force on September 21st. Betty had strange and vivid dreams in which she recalled what may have happened during the hours she and Barney were missing.
Years later, under hypnosis, both of the Hills recounted events again with a psychotherapist, and amazingly, their accounts were both consistent with one another's. The stories they recounted during their hypnotic state were also very consistent with things they had told friends and family during the first year.
The therapist asked Betty to recreate a map of the stars that one of the beings, who claimed they were from the Zeta Reticuli star system, had shown Betty. The map, Betty's clothing, and Barney's shoes from the incident have been repeatedly examined by different agencies.
It's quite possible that the "Betty and Barney Hill Incident" is one of the most credible modern accounts of abduction of people by alien beings. It's remarkable in its originality for the time, and one can't help but feel a little uneasy when reading the detailed accounts of the September 1961 incident.
Today, UFO enthusiasts and curious parties alike visit the historic marker placed along Highway 3 where Barney claimed to have first encountered the craft.
The marker was placed in July 2011 by the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. It's not very often that the (supposedly) actual site of an alien abduction is acknowledged by the state it occurred in, especially with a monument. One thing is for sure, though: this is definitely one of the weirdest places in New Hampshire.
Do you believe the Hill’s story? Have you ever seen anything that you can’t quite explain? Tell us your stories in the comments below. Looking for more articles about intriguing tourist spots in New Hampshire? Check out this article of 7 Weird Places You Can Go In New Hampshire!
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