CISCO GROVE
Pine forest at night. Tall tree, faint light below.
Illustration, not a period photograph.
Opening
On the night of 4 September 1964, Donald Shrum, a bow hunter in his twenties, was separated from his hunting partners near Cisco Grove in the Sierra Nevada of California. Lost as darkness fell, he climbed a tree to be safe from animals. What he described next is one of the strangest encounters in UFO history. A light came down nearby. Two small figures in silvery suits appeared at the foot of the tree, joined by a robot-like figure with glowing eyes, and they spent the night trying to get him down. He fired arrows at the robot and set fire to his own clothes to keep them back.
Timeline
4 September 1964, evening. Shrum, hunting with two friends, gets lost and climbs a tree.
That night. A light descends. Two humanoids in silver suits appear, then the robot, with a mouth-like opening. The robot emits a smoke or gas that makes Shrum lose consciousness several times. He had tied himself to the branch with his belt, which keeps him from falling.
Through the night. He sets fire to pieces of his clothing and throws them down, which seems to make the figures retreat for a while. He fires three arrows at the robot, and each hit produces a flash and pushes it back.
Dawn, 5 September. A second robot arrives. More gas, and Shrum passes out again. When he wakes, the figures are gone. He climbs down and finds his friends. One of them reportedly says he also saw a strange light that night.
Following weeks. Shrum reports the encounter, and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) investigates. Some accounts say the Air Force also interviewed him.
2011. Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte publish a book on the case, Aliens in the Forest.
Key figures
Donald Shrum was the only witness to the encounter itself. He had no known interest in UFOs before that night.
His hunting partners saw his condition afterwards, and one reportedly saw a light.
APRO investigators documented the case at the time.
Physical and documentary trail
On the paper: Shrum's account, APRO's investigation, and later books. The arrows and burned clothing were reportedly never recovered.
Competing explanations
A real encounter. Shrum's account was detailed, he had no history of seeking attention, and he stuck to it.
A night of terror and exhaustion. Lost, cold, and afraid in a tree all night, he may have experienced vivid hallucinations or mistaken real things, such as lights, animals, or other hunters, for something else. This doesn't easily explain the level of detail.
A hoax. Nothing in Shrum's background suggests one.
Later life of the case
Cisco Grove is a cult favourite in UFO circles because of its robots and its hunter-versus-aliens drama.
Finding
A single, detailed, frightening account from a sincere witness, with little to test. Exhaustion and fear explain a lot. They don't obviously explain everything, and there's no physical evidence either way.
What still will not resolve: the light his friend saw, and whether it had anything to do with Shrum's tree.