N.C. man spent years investigating UFO cases in Carolinas

LINCOLNTON, N.C. -- In more than 50 years of investigating UFOs and UFO-nauts -- as he calls them -- George D. Fawcett accumulated enough letters, journals, questionnaires, photographs, Freedom of Information Act documents and other materials to fill a museum.

Fawcett, who is from Mount Airy, had hoped to do just that somewhere here in North Carolina. He even made some preliminary designs for a UFO museum that would look like a classic flying saucer.

The North Carolina museum never worked out. But he has found a home for his archives: In March, he donated 20,685 documents to the International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell, N.M.

He held on to 600 case studies that he's using for a book he's writing about UFO incidents in North Carolina and South Carolina.

As the site of what became one of this country's most famous UFO incidents, Roswell is a natural site for a UFO museum. In 1947, some men found what they thought was wreckage of a spaceship and reported seeing soldiers putting dead extraterrestrials into body bags.

Fawcett, who is the founder of the Mutual UFO Network of North Carolina, said he's disappointed that he wasn't able to start a museum here, but the Roswell museum, which had about 200,000 visitors last year, is an excellent home for his collection.

In March, four movers spent 10 hours at Fawcett's house in Lincolnton packing up the material, much of it in nine four-drawer filing cabinets. Fawcett's is the largest-ever donation of documents to the museum, said Dennis Balthaser, the museum's operation's manager and a UFO investigator.

It's difficult to put a monetary value on such a collection, Fawcett said, but he estimates that it's probably worth about $350,000. Balthaser said he thinks a $300,000 to $400,000 estimate is conservative because many of the items are irreplaceable.

Some of Fawcett's collection will be put on display. The other material will be made available to people doing research.

Fawcett, 68, first became intrigued by UFOs in 1944 when he read an item in a newspaper about "mysterious silvery balls" floating in the air. At the time, the Allies speculated that the balls were a new weapon being developed by the Germans. It later turned out that the Germans thought they were a weapon being developed by the Allies.

"It certainly got my curiosity," Fawcett said. "I became a Curious George of UFOland."

He remained skeptical for about seven years before becoming what he calls a non-skeptic. He makes a point of saying he is not a believer in UFOs.

"I avoid the word believe because it doesn't have anything to do with belief," he said.

It has to do with conclusions drawn from investigations, he said.

"I'm the Ralph Nader, not a Billy Graham of UFOs."

Since Fawcett began investigating UFO incidents personally, he has looked into more than 1,200 cases -- about half of those in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Although he says that beings are coming to this world from other worlds, he doesn't count himself among those who buy every story and theory they hear.

"I've had to walk that narrow path between foolish faith where every light in the sky is a spaceship," he said, "and blind doubt, which is `Don't bother me about the facts, my mind is made up,' "

After his investigations, he could offer ordinary explanations for all but 22 percent of the incidents. Even though most incidents become IFOs -- Identified Flying Objects -- he estimates that only 1 percent were hoaxes.

"Most of the people are sincere," he said. "That doesn't mean they can't be sincerely wrong."

Fawcett saw a UFO once -- on July 10, 1951, when he was a student at Lynchburg College in Virginia. As he walked across the campus, he saw an orange hemisphere hovering about 300 feet above the administration building. He watched it until it rose out of sight 4 12 minutes later.

In dealing with the public over the years, Fawcett has seen a shift in thinking about UFOs. Early on, people tended to dismiss them, and many considered him a crackpot.

Now, they don't ask whether they're real, they ask about the latest information. Fawcett estimates that about 50 percent of people think there is something to UFOs; 25 percent are skeptics; and 25 percent don't know what to think.

Balthaser said surveys have shown that 48 percent of people say that UFOs are real and 68 percent say that the U.S. government is covering up something.

Although Fawcett didn't use to give credence to stories that the government has had contact with extraterrestrials, he now says that evidence indicates it's strongly possible that contact has been made.

In any case, he says that the way the government has handled information about UFO incidents has resulted in needless suffering.

"These people's lives have been ruined because of coming forward," Fawcett said. "A lot of people have lost their homes and families because of UFOs, and that's where I think the government went wrong."

After retiring, Fawcett decided the time had come to acknowledge that the UFO museum in North Carolina wasn't going to happen. Although the state would certainly be an appropriate place for one, he said. It's first in flight and fourth in UFO sightings. Only Pennsylvania, California and Missouri have had more sightings.