Dundee UFOs: Alien Encounters and Benson’s UFO Headquarters
UFOs in Dundee? For residents of this Wisconsin UFO hotspot in the heart of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, UFO sightings, alien visitors and other mysterious extraterrestrial activity are real. And, of course, the aliens are Green Bay Packers fans.
A crowd had gathered in lawn chairs on the shore of Long Lake for the annual UFO Daze festival hosted by local UFO researcher Bill Benson on the evening of July 17, 2004. UFO enthusiasts have been gathering here at Benson’s Hide-a-Way by the hundreds to share their experiences, with hopes of spotting something strange in the sky, since 1988. But this particular night would be different.
When the hot and humid summer day gave way to night, many of the day’s visitors still remained to see if anything unusual would show up in the night sky. It was near midnight when excited murmurings from the crowd turned all eyes to the sky.
Something was coming.
“What I remember first about the experience was the bluish green light,” attendee Noah Voss wrote in his book UFO Wisconsin. “From the absentee stars I observe what seems to be perhaps a triangle shape.”
The object passed low and silent over the crowd with a Y-shaped pattern of lights, and disappeared over the tree line.
Whatever the crowd at UFO Daze witnessed that night, it was not an isolated incident. Mysterious orbs of flashing lights and strange objects in the sky are not uncommon in the area, and have turned more than a few skeptics into believers.
There is a long history of unexplained sightings over Long Lake and Dundee Mountain, and bar owner Bill Benson was always eager to share it with anyone who asked.
Spheres of light filmed over Long Lake by UFO Daze attendees on July 22, 2002
Benson’s UFO Headquarters
Bill’s extraterrestrial-themed tavern, Benson’s Hide-a-Way, was most likely the only place in Wisconsin where you could report a UFO sighting, see an alien in a jar, and get a killer fish fry on a Friday night. Alien posters, UFO models, tinfoil hats, and inflatable little green men adorned the interior. There was a scrapbook at the bar full of unidentified flying objects photographed in the area by Bill’s friend Tim Hildebrandt, who spent many nights with his cameras on the summit of Dundee Mountain capturing those images.
Benson’s is located in the heart of the picturesque Kettle Moraine State Forest, an area known for hiking, camping, and fishing. It seems an unlikely setting for flying saucers and alien abductions. Nevertheless, decades of strange happenings have lead locals to proclaim it the UFO Capital of Wisconsin.
Visitors come from around the globe to get a glimpse of something otherworldly hovering over the rural community, and they would congregate at Benson’s.
Benson’s Hide-a-Way UFO Headquarters
Bill’s unusual interest began in the late 1940s, he said in a recent interview. When he was a child, crop circles appeared in an oat field about four miles from his home. The farm was owned by relatives of Bill’s in an area near Dundee known as the jersey flats.
Later, during his time serving in the US military in Vietnam, Bill personally witnessed a large bright light moving unnaturally in the distant sky while on guard duty one night.
“I saw a strange orange light dancing off in right angles, flashing quickly, twisting and moving around rapidly,” he told Fond du Lac Reporter in 1993.
But for Bill, the seminal moment came in 1985 when a circular object hovering near his neighbor’s farm on Vista Drive in Dundee kept frightening the cows out of the pasture and into the barn. Another neighbor witnessed the UFO from his car while driving down the road.
This incident prompted Benson, along with his friend and radio personality Robert “UFO Bob” Kuehn, who maintained ongoing telepathic communication with an alien named Eveata from the Plaidian star system (Eveata often visits the Dundee area and tunes into Green Bay Packers games when she’s in our neck of the cosmos), to hold the first UFO Daze as a safe place for others who had similar experiences to share their stories.
UFO Daze continued on for more than 30 years as a popular annual event, and Benson’s enthusiasm for aliens was known worldwide.
A triangular object filmed over Long Lake by UFO Daze attendees on July 17, 2004
Something Under Dundee Mountain
Dundee Mountain looming over the Kettle Moraine
Dundee Mountain looms high above the tree line at the southern end of Long Lake. Gouged from the earth by the last glaciers to tear through the area, the “mountain” is actually a 270-foot high moulin kame formation made up of sediment left behind by the glaciers when they retreated over 10,000 years ago. And, depending on who you ask, it may be the source of the area’s mysterious activity.
Long before the modern sightings around Dundee Mountain, it seems Native Americans were well aware of it’s unusual properties.
“They called it ‘Spirit Hill,'” Bill said during a 2008 interview with the Fond du Lac Reporter. “There’s been strange things forever out here.”
But what exactly does the ominous mound of dirt have to do with the unusual occurrences in the area?
Bill didn’t pretend to have the answers. He had no idea why Dundee is the center of so much strange activity. But he did seem to believe Dundee Mountain may be the source of it.
“Something is under there,” he told a reporter in 2016.
He didn’t know what it was, but he did have a theory.
Dundee Mountain as seen from Benson’s Hide-a-Way
Timeline of key Dundee UFO incidents
1947: A crop circle appears in an oat field on the Ludwig farm
1985: Multiple witnesses see a circular object hovering over a pasture scaring a herd of cows
1988: Bill Benson and UFO Bob Kuehn hold the first UFO Daze event
1995: A crop circle formed by flattened and interwoven reeds appears in a marshy area of Long Lake near Benson’s Hide-a-Way
1998: Bill Benson and 5 others witness a large orange ball hovering over Dundee Mountain. It vanishes when 4 fighter jets suddenly fly in after it.
2000: UFO Daze attendees witness two pyramid-shaped objects over Long Lake that join together into a diamond shape and tumble off silently through the sky
2002: UFO Daze attendees witness 6 glowing and flashing amber spheres in the sky
2004: UFO Daze attendees witness a triangular craft move over their heads with a Y-shaped light pattern on the underside
2021: Bill’s final UFO Daze
2022: Unofficial UFO Daze held to celebrate Bill’s life
Have you experienced anything strange in the Kettle Moraine or around Dundee Mountain? Share your story in the comments below or contact us.
