Alien Pancakes
APRIL 18, 1961 >> EAGLE RIVER, WISCONSIN

A 60-year old plumber named Joe Simonton lived alone on the outskirts of Eagle River. He heard a noise outside his house at about 11:00 AM as he was preparing to wash his breakfast dishes. Through his window he saw a sliver object landing in his front yard. The size of it was about 12 feet by 30 feet in diameter and shaped like two inverted bowls with exhaust pipes around its rim. Simonton approached the craft as it hovered just above the ground. A hatch opened and he saw three clean-shaven men each about 5 feet tall. They were well built, looked of Italian descent, and were wearing black suits with turtleneck tops and knit helmets.

One of the MIB handed Simonton a two-handled jug indicated he wanted something to drink. When Simonton returned from filling it with water and returned to the craft another man was frying food on a flameless grill. He noticed the interior of the ship was a dull black and had several instrument panels. He asked for some of the food in exchange for the water and was given four pancakes each of which was about 3 inches in diameter. The hatch was then closed, the craft rose twenty feet, and then sped away to the south bending some nearby pine trees without any noticeable type of propulsion. The encounter had lasted no more then five minutes.

Simonton reported the encounter to a friend who was a county judge and a member of NICAP. He sent one pancake to NICAP and one to the USAF for each to analyze. Simonton ate a third pancake saying it tasted like cardboard. The analyses of the pancakes showed they were made of hydrogenated oil shortening, starch, wheat bran, soybean hulls and buckwheat hulls. The US Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Food and Drug Laboratory felt the pancakes were not of extraterrestrial origin. The recipe, unusually, lacked salt.

The USAF sent Major Robert Friend and Dr. J. Allen Hynek to investigate Simonton's encounter. They concluded that he had been eating pancakes for breakfast and had undergone a waking dream so vivid that he was unable to tell it from reality. Sheriff Schroeder of Eagle River, who had known Simonton for 14 years, said he felt Simonton believed the truth of what he was saying.

The description of the aliens leads one to believed that Joe Simonton was visited by Men in Black. They came to house, acted strangely, and left in an attempt to discredit him. He then told his story and was not believed. The question arises, what caused this visit by MIB? Simonton possibly had seen a prior event and not come forward. The MIB then came and when he reported that he counter he was not believed. This could have caused him not to report the prior encounter for fear of additional ridicule.