UFOs Over Wanaque Reservoir: New Jersey’s Strangest Close Encounters

Something about the Wanaque Reservoir just feels...off.

Maybe it’s the way the water just sits there, eerily still, like it’s hiding something. Maybe it’s the thick woods surrounding it, where the trees seem a little too quiet, a little too watchful. Or maybe…just maybe…it’s the fact that for decades, people have been seeing things in the sky that shouldn’t be there.

We’re not talking about some drunk guy mistaking Venus for a spaceship.

Cops. Town officials. Entire groups of people saw massive, glowing objects hovering over the reservoir - silent, bright, and completely not normal. And this wasn’t just some “one and done” sighting. Wanaque became ground zero for one of the wildest UFO waves in New Jersey history, turning an otherwise sleepy North Jersey town into a full-blown extraterrestrial hot spot.

Was it military experiments? A weird glitch in the atmosphere? Or was something - or someone - actually watching?

We’re about to dive deep into Wanaque’s history, from the government-denied UFO reports to the murky secrets lurking beneath the reservoir’s surface. Because trust me, when it comes to Wanaque, something’s not right...and it never has been.

Source: GardenStatePics.com

The Sightings

January 11, 1966: The Night Wanaque Went Full Sci-Fi

Winter in North Jersey hits different: icy air, blackened tree lines, and a stillness that makes everything feel just a little eerie.

On January 11, 1966, Wanaque was the definition of quiet. Snow covered the ground, the reservoir was frozen solid, and most of the town was home, keeping warm. Then, at exactly 6:30 PM, everything changed.

First, the calls started flooding in. People from Oakland, Ringwood, Paterson, Totowa, and Butler - all claiming to see something hovering over the Wanaque Reservoir.

Wanaque patrolman Joseph Cisco was sitting in his cruiser when the call crackled through his police radio. "A glowing light, possibly a fire." But before he could process it, the dispatcher added something that stopped him cold:

"People are saying there’s a flying saucer over Wanaque."

Cisco pulled into a clearing to get a better look. And that’s when he saw it.

Hanging in the air was a light bigger than any star in the sky, pulsating and shifting colors from white to red to green, then back to white.

And the weirdest shit? No noise.

Then, the police radio exploded again:

"Something's burning a hole in the ice! Something with a bright light on it, going up and down!"

That’s when Mayor Harry T. Wolfe, his councilmen, and his 14-year-old son Billy, who had been on their way to oversee the town’s Christmas tree burning, arrived at the scene. The group pulled into the same clearing, looking out over the vast, frozen reservoir. Billy spotted it first.

"It was like a huge star, but it didn’t flicker," he later told reporters. "Just a steady, solid light that changed from white to red to green."

More police officers arrived. Civil defense director Bentley Spencer and reservoir employee Fred Steines raced to the dam. That’s when they saw it: A massive beam of light shooting straight down from the object into the ice.

Something, whatever it was, was burning a hole into the frozen reservoir.

Police radios jammed as officers from all over the county called in, describing aerial movements unlike anything they’d ever seen before.

It hovered. It dipped. It zipped across the sky.

Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it shot off at an impossible speed, disappearing into the southeast. But the incident wasn’t over yet. By 4 AM the next morning, Cisco saw it again, this time, moving along the horizon over Wyckoff. Sergeant David Sisco and even Cisco’s own wife reported seeing a silver, cigar-shaped object silently gliding over the reservoir. Witnesses described it as oval-shaped, glowing white, and anywhere between two to nine feet in diameter. No sound. No exhaust. Just hovering.

And that was just Day One.

January 12, 1966: The UFO Returns

If people thought whatever they saw was gone for good, they were dead wrong.

The next evening, Patrolman Jack Wardlaw spotted a bright white disk floating over Lilly Mountain, just west of the reservoir. It wasn’t a plane, a helicopter, or a comet. This thing was darting left and right, stopping in midair, then shooting straight up before vanishing toward Ringwood.

Sergeant David Sisco had his own encounter that night. On patrol at 6:30 PM, he saw the UFO glide silently into view, then streak across the sky at impossible speeds.

Reservoir guard Charles Theodora, a former Wanaque cop, was even more shaken. He and Sisco climbed to the top of the dam, watching as the object rocked back and forth in the air like a boat on water. Then, just like before, it shot straight up into the night sky and disappeared.

"I didn’t believe in UFOs. I thought they were a lot of bull. And then I saw it. It was breathtaking," Theodora admitted later.

After the back-to-back sightings, authorities installed radar equipment atop the reservoir dam. Whatever was visiting Wanaque? They wanted to be ready if it ever came back.

October 10, 1966: The UFO Returns - Bigger, Brighter, and Weirder

If January shook the town, October flipped the script entirely.

This was an intelligent, responsive, physics-defying object putting on a full-blown performance for the people of Wanaque.

Shortly after 9 PM, Robert and Betty Gordon of Pompton Lakes stepped outside and immediately noticed a glowing white object floating silently in the night sky. At first, Betty assumed it was a star…until it started moving.

It drifted left, then right. It floated smoothly, then suddenly snapped back over the reservoir. It was following a deliberate pattern - like it was scanning the area.

Bob Gordon, an officer with the Pompton Lakes Police, wasted no time. He called headquarters, requesting an officer to confirm what he and his wife were seeing. Patrolman Lynn Wetback arrived, but the “saucer” was already gone.

But it wasn’t done.

The Gordons and their neighbor Lorraine Varga told Wetback the object was headed toward Wanaque Reservoir. That’s when Sergeant Ben Thompson entered the story.

A six-year veteran of the Wanaque Reservoir Police, Thompson was driving south along the reservoir when he saw it. Not in the distance. Not as a speck in the sky. Right there.

It was coming straight at him.

A brilliant white light, low, fast, and deliberate, flying just 75 feet over Windbeam Mountain. It was moving in sharp, precise angles. It would jet to the right, then straight up, then down again before repeating the pattern.

Thompson’s brain raced to make sense of it.

It wasn’t a plane - no wings, no engine noise.

It wasn’t a helicopter - nothing was rotating.

It wasn’t a meteor - it was controlling its movements.

Then, it did something that made his blood run cold.

It Stopped. It Looked Back. And It Did Tricks.

Thompson slammed his cruiser into park at Cooper’s Swamp, right near Dead Man’s Curve on Westbrook Road. He threw open the door and stepped out. The object was still there.

Then, as if it noticed him watching, it suddenly stopped midair. Then it backed up. It zigzagged left to right, performing sharp, almost taunting movements. It made precise, angular turns - like nothing built by human hands. It shifted shape - sometimes appearing like a glowing basketball, other times a football “thrust through it.”

Thompson was frozen. It was playing with him.

And then? It got even weirder.

Other motorists on Westbrook Road had begun to notice the strange light, slowing their cars to get a better look. Thompson, worried about a crash, turned back to his cruiser and flipped on the red dome light. The instant it started flashing, the UFO reacted. It shot off at an unfathomable speed, rocketing toward the reservoir. It didn’t pass over the horizon, it disappeared INTO the mountain itself.

The entire event was completely silent.

Thompson stood there, stunned. He had no idea what he had just witnessed, but one thing was clear: It was not human technology.

Meanwhile, back at Wanaque Police HQ, all hell had broken loose.

Phones were ringing off the hook. Wanaque and Pompton Lakes police received over 150 calls from residents seeing the same thing. More witnesses came forward, describing the same bizarre aerial movements. Officers struggled to control traffic as people stopped their cars to stare at the sky.

Thompson was 100% convinced. He didn’t care what the Air Force or skeptics would say later.

“I saw a UFO.”

And the government? They were about to step in.

The Cover-Up: When the Government Got Involved

You knew this was coming.

No mass UFO sighting in American history is complete without some good ol’ fashioned damage control. And the Wanaque incident? It had cover-up energy written all over it. The very night of the first sightings, before anyone even had a chance to process what the hell just happened, Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, NY swooped in with an explanation.

“Oh, yeah, that was just one of our helicopters.”

But then, at 6:15 AM the next morning, the story completely changed.

Stewart AFB backtracked hard, with Major Donald Sherman flat-out denying that any such aircraft had been on a mission in the area. So which is it, fellas? You were flying around, or you weren’t?

By the time the Pentagon got involved, the story shifted again: “Yep, definitely a helicopter with a powerful beacon.”

But they weren’t the only base trying to clean this up. McGuire Air Force Base in Wrightstown, NJ, came in hot with their own take:

“Uh, yeah, it was actually a weather balloon from Kennedy Airport.”

And then, get this, McGuire called local police and told them the balloon excuse was total BS. They literally debunked their own cover story. Meanwhile, people on the ground were watching the skies get busier, not with UFOs this time, but with military aircraft.

Jets began flying over the reservoir. Multiple Wanaque police officers reported seeing helicopters.

And yet, the Air Force continued to deny they were even interested in the event.

YEAH. OKAY. SURE.

The 1970s: The UFO’s Comeback

If you thought the UFO weirdness at Wanaque ended in the ‘60s, you couldn’t be more wrong.

By the time the 1970s rolled around, the reservoir had earned itself a reputation. People talked. Stories spread. What had once been a quiet, eerie lake tucked into the mountains was now one of the most active UFO hotspots in New Jersey. And as the decade stretched on, the sightings didn’t just continue, they evolved.

More people. More encounters. More undeniable proof that something was happening over Wanaque.

1974: A Navy Veteran Confronts the Unknown

Most people who claim to have seen a UFO? They’re regular folks. Maybe they don’t know much about aircraft. Maybe they got spooked by something totally explainable. Not this guy.

The man behind this 1974 sighting was a Navy veteran - someone who had spent years working on an aircraft carrier and a heavy cruiser. He had seen every type of military plane and helicopter imaginable. He knew what was normal and what wasn’t.

And yet, what he saw over Wanaque shattered everything he thought he knew.

It was a bitterly cold night in January or February, around 10 PM. The sky was crystal clear, no clouds, no obstructions.

He was driving home from his sister’s house, a route he had taken countless times before. Westbrook Road, past the reservoir, then south onto Ringwood Avenue.

And that’s when he saw it.

Three lights. One large, two smaller on either side. Sitting perfectly still in the sky. They weren’t twinkling like stars. They weren’t moving like planes. They just chilled there. The blue-white glow was intense. Like staring into the afterburners of an F-4 Phantom jet.

His first instinct was to listen. If this were a plane, he’d hear something. A distant hum. The chop of helicopter rotors.

But the night was completely, unnervingly silent. Nothing moved. No sound. No wind. Just those lights, hovering like they were watching. He slowed the car, straining his eyes, waiting for the moment his brain would tell him, Oh, it’s just a…

But that moment never came.

Instead, the lights suddenly blinked out.

They just disappeared.

A man who had spent his career identifying aircraft had just witnessed something he couldn’t explain.

And for someone like him? That was terrifying.

1979: Lights in the Sky, Silence on the Ground

Fast forward to late 1978 or early 1979.

North Jersey was in the middle of a serious drought. Wanaque Reservoir had receded so much that parts of the old Stonetown Quarry were visible. Land that had been submerged for decades was now dry enough to walk on.

That’s where two friends found themselves the night they saw something impossible.

Brian R. and his friend were driving home to Oakland after picking up a truck in West Milford. The sun had set, the sky was dark, and the reservoir was eerily quiet. Then out of nowhere Brian’s friend SLAMMED on the brakes, jerking the car onto the shoulder. Before Brian could even ask what was happening, his friend was already standing on the hood, pointing to the sky.

A group of three or four glowing lights hovered over the reservoir zigging, zagging, moving in impossible ways.

The two of them watched in stunned silence. The lights were too big, too controlled, too deliberate to be anything natural.

They weren’t blinking like planes. They weren’t moving like drones. They looked alive.

After a few minutes of pure shock, they decided to do something most people wouldn’t.

They got closer.

They drove down into the exposed quarry and started walking. For nearly an hour, they followed the lights, weaving through the dried-out reservoir floor.

They got closer. And closer.

Then, just like that, the lights stopped moving.

They hung in place, motionless, like they knew they were being watched.

And then…

They SHOT straight up. Instantly.

Brian and his friend stood frozen, staring at the spot where the lights had been. The air around them felt different.

And that’s when they noticed something even more terrifying.

No crickets. No owls. No rustling in the trees.

Dead. Silence.

Brian would later say: “I’m hard-pressed to find any kind of logical explanation for what went on up there that night.”

And given Wanaque’s long history with the unexplained?

He’s not alone.

What the Hell Was Actually Going On at Wanaque?

Alright. We’ve laid out the facts.

Decades of sightings. Hundreds of witnesses: cops, town officials, Navy veterans, everyday people. A sky full of silent, shape-shifting, physics-defying lights.

So now we have to ask: What the hell was really happening over Wanaque?

Theories range from plausible to straight-up terrifying, so let’s break them down.

1. The Scientific "Explanation" (That No One Bought)

That same year in 1979, a nonprofit organization called Vestigia stepped up to provide a “rational” explanation for what happened at Wanaque. Their theory? Earthquakes.

According to Vestigia founder Robert Jones, the Ramapo Fault was under extreme pressure. This pressure created an electrical energy field in quartz-bearing rocks underground. This energy then escaped into the atmosphere and ionized air particles, producing glowing lights.

Basically: Wanaque wasn’t seeing aliens, it was watching a rare, naturally occurring “earthquake light” event.

The locals? Yeah, they weren’t buying it. Jack Wardlaw, a longtime night patrol officer in Wanaque, laughed off the seismic anomaly claim. "I've ridden these streets at midnight for years, and I know a strange light when I see one. The Army tried to tell me it was marsh gas, that's ridiculous! Then they said it was a helicopter. Well, if you can't discern a helicopter or hear one, you have to be pretty bad off." Reservoir guard Charles Theodora felt the same way. He’d been a skeptic his entire life. He thought UFOs were “a lot of bull” until he saw one with his own eyes. A perfectly oval object, hovering, changing colors, shooting off at unnatural speeds. Not flickering like a star, not drifting like a balloon - something controlled and deliberate.

And yet, Washington’s “brilliant” explanation?

Venus and Jupiter in rare alignment.

Yep. "Everyone actually just saw planets."

Meanwhile hundreds of people, including multiple police officers, described an object hovering, zipping through the sky, and shooting beams into the ice.

Conclusion: The government really thought they could gaslight an entire town.

At this point, the cover-up attempt was almost as suspicious as the UFO itself. Whatever the hell happened over Wanaque Somebody didn’t want people talking about it.

2. The Military Experiment Theory

This one is simple: The government was testing something weird, and Wanaque was the perfect place to do it.

Think about it. The reservoir is a secluded, controlled area. Small town = fewer prying eyes, less national attention. 

Jets and helicopters were suddenly swarming the area AFTER the sightings. And let’s not forget how fast the Air Force scrambled to throw out excuses. Could Wanaque have been a test site for experimental aircraft, something so advanced that it looked like a UFO to everyone who saw it?

Maybe. But here’s the problem: Jets don’t hover silently. Helicopters don’t zigzag at lightning speed. And NOTHING we know of moves like those lights.

If the government was testing something, it wasn’t anything we’ve ever seen before.

And if it WAS a top-secret craft?

Why the hell would they test it in plain view of an entire town?

3. The Ramapo Fault Theory

This is the “science-y” explanation and it’s kind of fascinating.

The Ramapo Fault runs right through North Jersey, and some scientists claim that seismic activity in the area could create weird energy fields. Basically, stress in the Earth’s crust could generate glowing, plasma-like lights in the sky. These “earthquake lights” could explain the floating orbs people reported. If conditions were just right, the atmosphere could even make them move in bizarre ways.

So…were the people of Wanaque just witnessing a crazy natural phenomenon?

Maybe but this theory falls apart FAST.

     ❌ Why did the lights RESPOND to people?

     ❌ Why did cops see beams of light shooting INTO THE ICE?

     ❌ Why would a glowing energy field suddenly take off into the sky at impossible speeds?

Earthquakes don’t pull UFO tricks. And let’s be real if this were just a geological phenomenon, the government wouldn’t have scrambled to cover it up.

4. The Extraterrestrial Theory

Now we’re getting into the wild shit.

What if this wasn’t military? What if it wasn’t natural? What if Wanaque was being watched?

Think about what we’ve seen so far:

The lights were controlled - floating, shifting, scanning the area. They reacted to police sirens, radio signals, and human presence. They moved in ways that DEFIED physics - instant stops, reversals, vertical take-offs. They appeared multiple times, across different years, under different conditions.

That doesn’t sound like a government test. It sure as hell isn’t Venus and Jupiter. That sounds like something intelligent. Maybe something not from here.

But if this was an alien craft, WHY WANAQUE?

Was the reservoir itself the reason they were here? Were they studying something - testing the water, the energy, the land? Was something BURIED under the reservoir that they were trying to find?

And the biggest question of all? Did they ever really leave?

Because let’s be honest, we never really got answers.

A Mystery That Won’t Die

Wanaque never got its Roswell moment.

There were no wreckage sites, no leaked photos, no Men in Black silencing people. That almost makes it stranger, because for all the reports, the government dismissals, the “logical” explanations, the people who saw this KNOW what they saw. And they’re still talking about it today.

So what do YOU believe?

A military test gone wrong? A rare natural phenomenon? Or a close encounter with something not of this world?

Whatever the answer is, Wanaque remains one of the greatest unsolved UFO cases in history.

And maybe, just maybe…it’s still happening.

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Source: Weird NJ Vol. 1