HARLAND ULRICH
June 12, 1923 - June 26, 2007
American Farmer
Back to Harland's Memorial Page

This picture of Harland was taken by myself near the boundary of the infamous "Area 201" just North of Moses Lake, WA. Near the site of an abandoned Air Force base, which is still an alternative landing site for the space shuttle. Area 201 is a hot bed for all kinds of paranormal activity. Potatoes, onions and other forms of vegetation have been observed levitating through the air near this spot. True to Harland's nature, as you can see in this photo taken by myself on 6 May 2007, he has one foot over the line. "Blame government, I want to know what's going on!"

Preface
So many people have asked me to comment on the UFO sightings at the Harland Ulrich Angus Ranch near St. John, Washington that I decided that, with Harland's passing, this may be an appropriate time to finally release this information. I was with Harland and took the series of images that are shown below from the winter of 1974. The pictures below are digital photos of the actual prints. They have only been enhanced to bring out a little detail and clarity. The pictures were taken with a small Kodak 110 camera some time in January or February in 1974.

Back in those days you took your film to be developed at the local pharmacy. I did this with this film, having it developed in St.John. Initially Harland thought it best not to make too much of a big deal out of the pictures in that he did not need the publicity. He was trying to sell bulls at the time and recognizing the possibility of people associating his place with a "close encounters of the third kind," (which even Hollywood hadn't even dreamed up yet) could mean a marketing disaster. Many back then, (wrongly) thought that any farm visited by UFO's was prone to producing stock whose fecundity would severely be negatively impacted. In visionary style however, Harland told me that this kind of thinking was "hay wire" and that UFOs or not, his Angus bulls could perform or out perform any ones bulls in the county. Another issue to consider was the "down winder" aspect of all of this. Harland thought that perhaps these visits were a consequence of reconnaissance being conducted by the government. One theory he propounded was that these discs were some kind of top secret government flying machines that could cover a lot of ground at once. They could do surveys, checking up on farming operations and keeping track of Hanford emissions. Indeed, his Winona place was "down wind". Again, Harland's incredible intuitiveness, was doing nothing less than describing technologies such as unmanned reconnaissance drones, that had yet to be developed...or supposedly. Hollywood could of used Harland in the 70's.

Although we kept our "encounter" under our official (new for 1974) St John Grain Growers hats pretty well, we knew that having developed the film at the local pharmacy that we were probably not the only ones that knew of this event. I had that confirmed personally one afternoon in downtown St. John. I was in the soup isle at Empire Foods when some guy in a dark suit, and sunglasses pigeon holed me and said in a very serious tone that we were going out to his car and that he had someone waiting there to see me. It was parked right along the store on main street, a shiny, black, brand new Cadillac with a jump seat and government license plates. The driver opened the door and I was pushed into the front seat while the guy in the sunglasses stood by the door on the sidewalk outside. There was a built in 8 track in the dash board and it was playing a song by Elvis that I'd never heard before. Then the tinted glass divider slowly opened to reveal an older gentleman slumped back in the big bench seat. He was dressed in a gray polyester suit, sipping a brandy, and sporting a cap with "PURDUE" on it.

The guy in the back seat just stared at me for the longest time and kind of smiled. And so trying to engage him in some conversation and break the ice, I timidly opened with, is that Elvis? I don't believe I've ever heard that song by him before?" As almost to placate me, he responded, with a kind of snide tone to his voice and said, "We know a lot before anyone else does." He took a sip of his drink and after swallowing he looked at the glass, and clearing his throat he proclaimed, "This is American brandy by the way." Then, just as the Elvis' lyrics rang out ....."way way on down...way on down".... the Purdue guy very coyly said, "Tell your boss, 'he no playa the game, he no maka the rules." I said, "You mean Harland? and with that he reached forward from his seat and while he closed the tinted divider, he concluded with "You know who I mean son." As if the whole thing was choreographed, the car door suddenly opened and the driver grabbed my arm and yanked me out unto the street.

Just before he got back into the car and drove off, the driver handed me a brown paper sack and said, "The man wants you and your boss to have this." Then the driver got into the Cadillac and with its tires squealing, made a U-turn right in front of a flat bed hauling a load of hay. The driver of the hay truck slammed on his breaks so hard that he shifted the load and the whole thing slumped off the bed and quickly and silently filled in all around his truck in the middle of main street St. John. He was upset to say the least and yelled out the truck window "Who was that! *&*%* !" The caddy quickly sped out of town toward Sprague.

When I got back to the house I found Harland and told him what happened and I showed him the bag. When we opened it we found two big long, cardboard boxes marked with the brand "USDA, CHEESE, Not For Sale". Harland kind of chuckled under his breath and said something like, "Earl huh? At it "agin", huh, he'd better go to confession." That was the end of it and I was so shook up by the incident that I just wanted to forget it ever happened. Then the strangest thing occurred three years later. On 16 August 1977, the day of Elvis' death, it all came back to me. In June of that year Elvis had released for the first time the song "Way Down!" As a tribute to Elvis, radio stations were playing the song non-stop. Then it dawned on me. That was the song I heard playing on the eight track in the caddy three years before, it ever came out. They really did know before anyone else did! And I use to think it was strange when Harland and I used to sit around and add up the values of numbers referenced to the letters in Henry Kissinger's name and they came out to be 666! There were some strange things happening out there in the 70's, even in St. John,Washington.

The Pictures

Below: Object out over the pasture.

We had just finished feeding bulls and were out behind the barn on the hillside when I snapped these pictures. The object was silent when it approach us from the north and flew across the road and then returned back toward the barn and hovered there for a few moments. It did this more than once. I just happened to have my camera with me that day. I got off four pictures. Two of the pictures came out very clear and those pictures are posted here. In the first image you can clearly see the craft headed across the highway and moving toward the pasture. It was moving slowly at this point. Then, in image number two, the craft had moved into a position directly out in front of us. and was moving along the highway toward Coyote Road. Harland seemed to think that this UFO was an older style of saucer, perhaps something from around the 1940s. His rationale for this was based on his remembrances of what he had seen in pictures from some of the first sightings of UFOs from around Mt. Rainier from about that same era. Which, even in those days, something that could fly like this, was pretty amazing for the times. It was clearly metallic in sheen and looked to be constructed of some kind of metal substance. We watched it for at least thirty minutes that late winter morning. Then, as suddenly as it came, it sped off into the direction of Hanford.

Harland had an Ayrshire cross cow in the barn in those days and right after this encounter we went down to milk her. The oddest thing happened. I looked down at the bucket and her milk was turning red. Geepers! I thought, the aliens had zapped her somehow. But then when we looked closer at it it was clear that this wasn't blood mixed with milk in the bucket, it smelled of strawberries! Sure enough she was giving strawberry flavoured milk! From then on in she gave chocolate milk for about a week, until she turned back to regular milk. But after that saucer encounter over her barn, she always gave more milk than usual and from then on it contained a very high concentration of quality butterfat.

I hope you enjoyed this tale from the Ulrich X Files.
Harland was an avid radio listener. And although back then talk radio wasn't like it is these days, it did exist. I distinctly remember listening to the old radio Harland had up in the old red barn out with Antenna Cow. Just to show you how dedicated a farmer he was, there were many a night that we listened to the Herb Jepko Night Cappers Show on KSL Salt Lake on that old barn radio. And that came on very late in the evening. That's how late we were out there on occasion, feeding, calving, milking or whatever might be needed. I know he also enjoyed, "The Rest of the Story" told by Paul Harvey. And if you are interested in the rest of this story, and what really happened when these pictures were taken please tap here.
Right: Object hovers and then heads towards the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The story above, written by
Myles Marian Mustoe
Professor of Geography Eastern Oregon University
4 July 2007 apx.. 3 p.m. 85 Degrees F, Clear
La Grande, Oregon

Others:
Renate Mustoe, Myles Mustoe, Svein Waalen

Other Links:
Bruning Funeral Home Announcement
The ambient sounds for this page were recorded from a marsh 4 May 2007 at 6:16 a.m. located on the Walter Sholz road in Whitman County Washington at the approximate coordinates of Lat. 46.858562 N,- Long 117.675741 W. The pictures in the collage above were taken with Harland while we visited Winona later on that same day.