The Extraterrestrials of Indian Stream

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by Ellen Barry

One of the qualities that people in the North Country notice about outsiders is a tendency to mention every single thing that happens to them.

"You just see things," says William Griffin, who has lived in Colebrook for 11 years and still considers himself a new arrival. "Most of the people who do tell people about things are flatlanders. Even a natural thing -- like a hawk. A flatlander will run and tell someone `I saw a hawk.' "

A native -- and we're talking about families who received their land for service in the Revolutionary War -- probably would not bring that hawk up in conversation. People up here keep their own counsel, and they're not used to outside interference. Sandy Black realized this early on; when she first started collecting UFO reports, one old lady assumed she had come to take away her food stamps.

The feeling of separateness has run deep here for 300 years. An entire strip of this area -- bordered to the west by Indian Stream and to the north by Hall Stream -- actually declared independence from the United States for four years in the mid 1830s, establishing the short-lived Independent Republic of Indian Stream before "yielding to New Hampshire" in 1836. According to local historian Granvyl Hulse, the republic fell when a representative of the US military barged in on the president of the Indian Stream Republic and threatened to kick his teeth in.

And today, pockets of secessionist spirit still linger.

"From the Notches on up should probably be its own country," says Ron Scott, 65, a Boston-born man who moved up here after two disillusioning years of military service in Korea. He suspects communist infiltration of the government. "I'll tell you, I don't think the state government or the federal government are worth a hill of beans."

This visceral distrust of Washington is intertwined with the alien phenomenon. Virtually every witness interviewed in the North Country backs up personal experiences with the classic X-Files syllogism: if the government lies, and the government says there are no UFOs, then there are UFOs. Denial equals proof.

Ultimately, though, it's an outsider who has made Colebrook's aliens into a talked-about phenomenon. Bobbing from booth to booth in a diner, distributing her MUFON business card, Sandy Black has helped make it respectable -- even exciting -- to come forward. Right now, she's planning a little party for people who have seen them.

"I'm even beginning to notice a little bit of envy among people who don't have [these experiences]," she says, with a touch of pride. "One of my friends asked me, `Why don't I see them?' I said, `You're not one of the chosen few.' "

Certainly reported sightings have gone up abruptly. "Maybe people just weren't looking at the sky before," Cheries muses. Well, they are looking now. Every night at nine, when he closes his convenience store, Ron Scott strolls out and scans the skies for spacecraft.

"I gotta see one of these," he says. "I want to be a believer. "

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Ellen Barry can be reached at ebarry[a]phx.com.