Inside The Bizarre UFO Sightings Over Lake Michigan From Netflix's Unsolved Mysteries
"While what exactly transpired remains unknown to this day, one thing is for sure — enough people were concerned at the time to raise the alarm that something strange was taking place in the skies above them," a Newsweek article shared about a series of chilling UFO sightings above Lake Michigan in 1994. If you're a lover of all things paranormal, supernatural, and downright creepy, that introduction probably shot an riveting little chill up your spine. Netflix subscribers are celebrating this Halloween season with Volume 3 of "Unsolved Mysteries" that just dropped on the streaming platform earlier this month, so if you have yet to kick back, turn the lights down low, and indulge in a few chronicles of ominous happenstances, you should probably do so while the seasonal ambiance is still upon us.
According to Newsweek, episode two in the popular series' third season recounts the aforementioned UFO phenomenon that took place on Michigan's western coast. Of course, UFO sightings are by no means a new thing. In fact, they actually happen a lot more often than one would think — nearly 6,000 were reported in 2019 on the North American continent alone, as ABC News reports. However, the 1994 incident was, by all first-hand accounts, an exceptionally distinct one.
The 1994 UFO sightings in Michigan
It was on March 8, 1994 when, in the stark black of night, strange lights started appearing over Lake Michigan's eastern coast — lights, it would seem, that were not of this world. The Detroit Free Press reports that over 300 calls were placed to local police stations in 42 different counties that night from panicked observers who didn't know what to make of the jarring phenomenon (via Newsweek). "They were from 5 to 12,000 feet [from the ground] at times, moving all over the place," a National Weather Service operator who observed the lights via radar reported shortly after witnessing it. "Three were moving toward Chicago. I never saw anything like it before, not even when I'm doing severe weather" (per The Detroit Free Press).
Newsweek reports that callers consistently described the lights as being circular or cylindrical in shape. They were fluctuating chromatically, often changing colors and pulsing like neon Christmas lights above the glassy obsidian surface of Lake Michigan in the still of the night. "I'm known as the UFO lady of Grand Haven," Cindy Pravda, a resident of Grand Haven who remembers the occasion vividly, shared in 2019. According to a 2019 report by The Detroit Free Press, Pravda contacted her local sheriff's office after observing the mysterious lights above her horse pasture. "The one to the right was gone in blink of an eye and then, eventually, everything disappeared quickly," she went on.
Theories about what the lights could have been
When things like this happen and potential explanations seem to flicker off like lights in the night sky, people tend to jump to certain conclusions. Newsweek reports that, while there is still a lot that remains unknown about the puzzling events of March 8, 1994, experts believe that there could be a logical explanation behind it all. The lights could have been aircraft of some sort — satellites, weather balloons (Roswell 1947, anyone?), blimps, or something equally mundane and commonplace. However, given the way the sourceless luminous objects behaved that night, none of those explanations really hold up.
Of course, a spooky mystery like this is perfect for the Halloween season, or any other time of the year, for that matter. Keep your eyes peeled on the skies above — you never know who or what could be lingering behind those dark clouds.