37.15335°N, 98.03117°W: UFOs in Anthony KS. 2,100 People, Four Decades, Five Sightings
Field Notes: Anthony, KS. Part 2. The Five NUFORC Reports.
There is something very unusual happening in Anthony, Kansas.
What makes Anthony an anomaly is the high number of UFO/UAP sightings reported in the area. With a population of just 2,108 residents in 2024, the town has five separate reports logged in the National UFO Reporting Center’s (NUFORC) database, covering the 1970s, 1990s, 2000s, and the most recent from 2013.
Even more unusual, these reports are not just typical sightings of lights or orbs in the sky. They include explosions, sightings of actual craft, and other phenomena. Five reports spanning decades from a very small town in rural Kansas is highly unusual. In fact, Anthony is the only town in Kansas with such a high level of activity over such a long period, including two separate sightings of actual craft.
This intrigued me enough to make several trips to Anthony over the course of a week to locate the sites of these sightings, explore, and photograph them. I needed to see the conditions on the ground to place these reports in context. Here is what I found, both from research and visiting the sites.
The town is situated in south-central Kansas, just 12 miles from the Oklahoma border, placing it near the southern boundary of the 37th parallel. It is a rural community, primarily supported by farming. There is no major industry in the area, and the surrounding land is agricultural. For those unfamiliar with this part of the state, farmland here is typically open, relatively flat, and laid out in one-mile square plots. Roads generally run straight north to south and east to west along the edges of these plots.
After the Dust Bowl disaster of the 1930s, rows of trees were planted along the borders of Kansas farmland to act as windbreaks and preserve the topsoil. These hedgerows follow the roads and are generally planted one to two miles apart. This results in an unobstructed view of objects close to the ground from a distance of at least a mile, sometimes more. Any airborne object higher than forty feet above ground level (above the tallest trees in the hedgerows) can be seen from many miles away.
The town is isolated, with the nearest major city, Wichita, Kansas, an hour’s drive away. There are no major airports or military bases near the town, making it very unlikely that any unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) would be a misidentified commercial, private, or military aircraft.
Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport (ICT): Approximately 60 miles away
McConnell Air Force Base: Approximately 68 miles away
Dodge City Regional Airport (DDC): About 114 miles away
Salina Regional Airport (SLN): Roughly 115 miles away
Will Rogers World Airport (OKC): Located in Oklahoma City, is approximately 124 miles away
Stillwater Regional Airport (SWO): Situated in Stillwater, it is about 130 miles away
Kansas City International Airport (MCI): Around 270 miles away
This leaves me with unanswered questions. After the photo gallery, I’ve included the five reports from Anthony, Kansas to the NUFORC. Read them and decide for yourself if they represent real anomalies or something more mundane. Ask yourself- how can a town with a population of 2,100 file five reports with the NUFORC about UAPs, spanning across four decades?
I have read the reports, visited the town, spoke to the residents, and photographed both the town and its surrounding area. Despite all this, I still don't fully understand what is happening there.
However, one thing is clear: something very unusual is occurring in Anthony, Kansas.
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The following are the five reports filed from Anthony to the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC). I have corrected spelling and some grammatical errors to enhance readability, but I have not altered any details from the original reports.
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NUFORC UFO Sighting 96761
Occurred: 2013-03-23 21:45 Local
Duration: 3 seconds
Location: Anthony, KS, USA
Shape: Flash
There was a explosion in the air on the southeast side of ANTHONY KANSAS. APPROX TIME 21:45 ON MARCH 23, 2013.
THERE WAS AN EXPLOSION IN THE AIR AROUND 20 MIN AGO IN ANTHONY, KS. There was also another event about a week ago. There was an explosion also in the air.
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NUFORC UFO Sighting 51385
Occurred: 2006-07-16 23:45 Local
Duration: 30 seconds
No of observers: 2
Location: Anthony, KS, USA
Shape: Light. Bright white light, moving North. Faded from view on a clear night.
Skies clear, no moon. My wife and I observed a white light, as bright as Jupiter, to the West. It was moving North. No FAA lights or flashers, just a bright white light. I went inside to get binoculars. I was gone for seven seconds (I counted). When I returned, it was gone. My wife said it had just faded away rather than blink out or zip away. I reported an object very similar to this about a ten days ago. I am an avid skywatcher and know the planets, planes, and often watch satellites. This was much brighter than a satellite.
NUFORC Note:
ISS not visible from Kansas for this date. PD
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NUFORC UFO Sighting 51384
Occurred: 2006-07-07 22:00 Local - Approximate
Duration: 1 minute
No of observers: 1
Location: Anthony, KS, USA
Shape: Light. Bright white light. No FAA lights observed. Moved about 20% faster than the jets I usually see.
Characteristics: Aircraft nearby
Clear skies, the moon was almost full. I saw a light as bright as Jupiter moving SSE (away from me) about 20% faster than the jets I see. I went inside and got binoculars and returned to observe. The object was a bright white light. It had no FAA lights at all. There was another plane or jet in that quadrant of sky, and I could make out its FAA lights clearly. The object moved behind some trees, so I rushed forward to observe it further. I only lost sight of it for about 3 seconds while I moved but it had disappeared by the time I should have had line of sight. I don't think it was sunlight reflecting off a fuselage as the sun had been down for too long. It wasn't a satellite (I note those often) this was much, much brighter. I am an avid skywatcher and this is the first time I've seen something I couldn't identify. Tonight, (7/16/06) my wife and I observed an object that could have been the same one. I'll file that sighting next. I give you my word as a Texan that this is the truth
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NUFORC UFO Sighting 38876
Occurred: 1999-11-20 02:00 Local - Approximate
Duration: 1 min
No of observers: 2
Location: Anthony, KS, USA
Shape: Disk. A strange site and then a UFO passed above us.
Characteristics: Lights on object.
Once on a clear night around racoon hunting season was what I experienced. We had the hunting dogs chasing a racoon trail and everything was going fine. Until we looked off to the east I believe and saw a HUGE object entering the earth’s atmosphere. You could see the steady streak of flames it was leaving behind. At the time it hit the ground there was a very bright White light that filled the whole sky, you could not see your own hand if u held it in front of your face. It made no sound as it crashed to the ground.
We really have no idea of what it was until a few days later the local news station said NASA had reported it as space debris that landed in Australia! which I find really hard to believe since the object was so big.
This is not even the strange part of the night. As the night continued the hunting dogs that we had takin with us were not responding to a call. These are very experienced hunting dogs that have worked together for several years. About 30 minutes later we heard one of the dogs barking about a mile and a half down the road we picked it up with our truck, but the other dog was nowhere to be found. These dogs have never split up when they are hunting so we found this odd. About 15 min later we finally heard the other dog, its bark was very distant from where we were standing.
We walked into a field in the general direction we heard the dog. The field was very open and directly in front of us, about half a mile down in the field was a bunch of trees so we figured the dog must have a racoon tree'd.
We headed off in that direction and when me and my uncle were in the middle of the field a huge round object appeared and was heading directly towards us. My uncle and I at first thought it was a plane and listened for the sound, as it slowly made it almost directly over us. The object had made no sound whatsoever, it just hovered. There was lights in the middle of the object that were evenly spaced and you could tell it went around the whole spacecraft.
I was scared and asked my uncle if it was a plane, and he said no it had way too many lights to be a plane. I got really nervous and was shaking all over my heart was pounding so fast. Then the object went by us and wasn’t seen again. After the object had disappeared from site we heard the dog barking (again) this time very loud and very near from where we thought it once was. We picked up the dog and left the area immediately not knowing exactly why the object had appeared or why the dogs were separated and found about one mile away from each other.
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NUFORC UFO Sighting 15961
Occurred: 1975-08-12 20:00 Local - Approximate
Reported: 2001-01-15 00:00 Pacific
Duration: 15 seconds
No of observers: 5
Location: Anthony, KS, USA
Shape: Teardrop
Characteristics: Lights on object. It was sitting in a field, a few feet from the road. When we got beside it, the lights came on with a giant sound and lifted up.
I was driving along US highway 160 north and west of Anthony, Ks. The first thing was the loud whooshing noise coming from the right side of the road. It was dark and as I looked to the direction of the noise all the lights came on. It was triangular or bell shaped with the large side on the ground . After just a few seconds it lifted off the ground and went straight up. We watched it until it was out of sight. The windows were of translucent type. It was in a plowed field and about 25 feet back from the edge of the road. There was a fence around the field. The lights were not of any particular color, dull white. Other passengers in the car noticed the weeds in the grass whipping around from the wind caused by the craft. One person was a high school senior male, age 17, next was a female age 16, next was a male age 14 and another male age 13. The lights were coming from inside the craft. It had long oval windows near the top and appeared to be possibly 3 feet long. I could see no other features of the craft except when it was light up, I could see the outline of it.
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