Let’s answer a few of the obvious questions right away. Yes, there really is a Pot Mountain in New Mexico. No, it has nothing to do with marijuana. Yes, that may absolve the two ET-spotting hunters from accusations that they were high when they claim to have seen two tall big-headed, half-black/half-white aliens on Pot Mountain. No, they weren’t trying to be politically correct with that description. Yes, one saw the creatures and both saw something that was either their tent or their means of transportation. And no, they didn’t take any pictures. However, it’s an interesting story and UFO expert believes their sincerity in telling it.
“We’re a couple of guys that don’t believe in much, but we believe now.”
Josh Brinkley and Daniel Lucero were still in their bow-hunting camouflage clothing when they told their story to the Taos News. The friends and co-workers have been hunting together for elk for years, but this was Lucero’s first time on Cerro de la Olla – an inactive volcanic mountain northwest of Taos named Mountain of the Pot or Pot Mountain because of its pot shape. Brinkley brought him there a few days before the September 1 opening day of elk season to scout for some good spots. However, he was alone and wondering why there were no elk around when he had his first close encounter.
“[I noticed the] very tall shapes of these beings, standing side by side, staring right at me. The shape that would be like their heads, it looked like they had huge hoods on. It looked like two ribbons coming off either side to a point at the top and bottom (like a banana). The right side was black, left side was white and a little shiny. Torsos were kind of black, I couldn’t see many details. It definitely looked like clothes. In middle of the oval was just gray.”
Brinkley estimated the creatures were 35 feet from him. As he walked around a bush to get a better look, they disappeared. He told the Taos News that he returned to Lucero but hesitated before telling him about the unbelievable encounter with the two tall beings. They returned to the same area the next day and still saw no elk. That’s when both hunters had a close encounter of the tent kind.
“It’s this big tent structure, like a circus tent, 50-60 feet tall. Coming off the left of it was this long building, almost like what you would build for an archery lane for target practice. It was a third the height, but really long, maybe a couple hundred feet.”
As they drove around to get closer, they lost sight of the structure for less than five seconds. When they had a view again of where it was … it wasn’t.
“When we topped the hill, it was gone. Just gone. There was no dust, there was nothing, I just know it was real. It was huge and white and then gone.”
A white circus tent but not even close
They had no further encounters. In addition to the Taos News, they told their story to Peter Davenport, the executive director of the National UFO Reporting Center, who was intrigued by the witnesses claiming to see actual alien creatures and added this comment to the report of the call.
“NUFORC was impressed with what we perceived to be the apparent sincerity of the caller during the telephone conversation with him.”
One discrepancy between the two accounts – NUFORC says there were three witnesses while the Taos News says there were only Brinkley and Lucero. That might be cleared up with an official written account to NUFORC by the witnesses, but that hasn’t happened yet.
What did Josh Brinkley and Daniel Lucero see? Taos is well-known as a center for New Age beliefs, but it and New Mexico in general have had their share of strange incidents and alien encounters, ranging from the mysterious Taos hum to the Roswell UFO crash to extraterrestrials living in caverns near Dulce to the alleged 1948 ‘flying saucer’ crash in Hart Canyon near Aztec with 14 to 16 small humanoid corpses found in the wreckage.
Is the incident on Pot Mountain just a good title for a major motion picture or a real close encounter? It would have helped their case to have photos instead of drawings and another witness who is not also a friend and co-worker. It would have also helped if there were footprints of the ETs and imprints or other evidence of the mysterious tent.
Keep looking up … unless hunting season has started.