Witness Reports Multiple UFO Sightings Near Chowchilla

Firsthand accounts are the backbone of unexplained history. While photos, videos, and official reports are often debated or dismissed, personal experiences—especially those told years later without the promise of attention or validation—offer something else entirely: consistency, memory, and context. These stories help map patterns of high strangeness across places and time, even when no clear explanation exists. 

The following account is one such story, shared by a Central California witness on the /aliens subreddit that described a series of encounters that took place more than 30 years ago in the agricultural land near Chowchilla.

The witness was 16 years old at the time, working overnight during grape harvest season in vineyards outside Chowchilla, California (Fresno is about 35 minutes south of here). Around 2 a.m., he was assigned to water dirt roads on the far eastern edge of the ranch to keep dust down for harvesting crews. While driving slowly through the fields, he noticed a red light hovering low over the vineyards toward the Sierra Nevada foothills.

At first, he thought it was a helicopter. That assumption changed when the light abruptly stopped, then moved toward him at speed. As it closed the distance, the red glow shifted into an intense white light aimed directly at him. There was no sound—no engine noise, no rotors. Feeling threatened, he sped away toward the ranch office more than a mile away and did not return to the fields that night.

The next night, he returned to work but stayed closer to other workers and harvesting equipment. While watering a main road near several operating harvesters, he observed a dark gray object hovering roughly 30 feet above the vineyard, about 100 feet away. He described it as roughly the size of a large SUV, shaped like two shallow bowls pressed together, with surface details but no windows or markings. Despite workers nearby, no one else appeared to notice it. For some reason he feared  panic and left the area without alerting anyone.

The encounters didn’t stop there. The next day, while riding an ATV near a riverbed bordering the vineyards, the witness claims he saw the same object high in the sky. It hovered silently before suddenly accelerating away and vanishing. 

Decades later, he says the events remain vivid and unexplained, leaving him convinced he witnessed something non-human over multiple days near Chowchilla.

Encounters like this are rarely isolated. If you’ve experienced something unexplained in the Central Valley—or anywhere in California—and are willing to share your story, I want to hear from you. Firsthand accounts help preserve local history and document patterns that might otherwise be lost to time.

You can share your experience with Weird Fresno by reaching out directly or submitting your story through the site.

Source: Firsthand Reddit account can be found here.

Author's Note: The two images shown are from my family's old vineyard in Madera, which is near Chowchilla. Vineyards like this are similiar throughout the valley and having grown up and worked on our ranch I am familiar with the harvesting as was described. Sadly we never saw any UFOs.