Black Echo

Colfax Close Encounter Case

The Colfax close encounter case is a controversial Wisconsin UFO photo story from April 1978. It is usually told as a police-officer sighting in which Mark Coltrane photographed a metallic disc near Colfax after his patrol-car radio began crackling. But later photo-archive versions attach the same images to an anonymous witness and his girlfriend near Tainter Lake, making the case important not only as a photographic encounter claim, but as a lesson in how unstable UFO case histories can become.

Colfax Close Encounter Case

The Colfax close encounter case is one of those UFO files that becomes more interesting the closer you look at it. On the surface, it is a straightforward daylight photo case from Wisconsin in April 1978: a police officer supposedly stops during patrol, notices radio interference, sees a metallic disc, and photographs it with a Polaroid camera. In that version, the case looks like a classic credible-witness daylight disc report. [1][2][3][4][5]

But the deeper you go, the more unstable the story becomes.

A second tradition attached to the same photographs says the witness was not a police officer named Mark Coltrane, but an anonymous “Mr. S.” accompanied by his girlfriend near Tainter Lake, and that the sighting involved nine photos total, seven of which came out, along with stronger emotional and bodily effects than the simpler police narrative usually mentions. [6][7]

That contradiction is not a minor detail. It is the central fact of the case.

Within this encyclopedia, the Colfax case matters not just because of the photos, but because it shows how a UFO file can evolve from a simple witness claim into a case-history puzzle about provenance, attribution, and narrative drift.

Quick case summary

In the most commonly repeated version, the incident happened on 19 April 1978 near Colfax, Wisconsin. Police officer Mark Coltrane was on patrol around midday, pulled over in an isolated place to eat lunch, noticed unusual crackling on his radio, and then saw a metallic-looking disc rising nearby. He got out of the vehicle and took Polaroid photographs as the object approached and then moved away. The sighting allegedly lasted a few minutes, after which the object accelerated out of view. [1][2][3][4][5]

That is the familiar “Colfax police photo” story.

But in another version circulated through the UFO Photo Archive and later Open Minds, the same photographs are attributed to “Mr. S.” and his girlfriend, who were near Tainter Lake trying to fish when they saw the object. In that version, the object circled them, came lower, passed nearly overhead, and produced sensations of fear, heat, prickling, and radio-like interference from a transistor. [6][7]

So the first question in the Colfax case is not “What was the UFO?” It is: Who actually took the photos, and under what circumstances?

Why this case matters in UFO history

The Colfax case matters because it sits at the intersection of photographic evidence and source instability.

It is historically interesting for four reasons:

  • it is a daytime disc-photo case rather than a night-light story
  • it is often linked to a law-enforcement witness, which raises its profile
  • the photographs are visually clearer than many classic UFO images
  • the public record attached to the photos appears to split into conflicting witness traditions. [1][2][3][6][7]

That means Colfax is important not only as a UFO report, but as a cautionary archive case.

Date and location

The core date is consistently given as 19 April 1978. The location is generally described as near Colfax, Wisconsin, but later circulation of the photos introduces a second geography: the vicinity of Tainter Lake. [1][2][3][4][6][7]

This matters because a high-quality page cannot pretend the file is geographically cleaner than it is.

The safest way to frame the case is:

  • widely circulated location: near Colfax, Wisconsin
  • alternate photo-archive location: Tainter Lake area, Wisconsin
  • stable core: western Wisconsin, daytime, April 1978, disc-photo encounter claim. [1][6][7]

The Mark Coltrane narrative

The best-known version of the case is the Mark Coltrane narrative. In that retelling, Coltrane was a police officer on patrol near Colfax who stopped at midday to eat. His patrol-car radio supposedly began to crackle, and he then noticed a metallic disc rising nearby. He got out, took photographs, watched the object for a few minutes, and later hesitated to report the event for fear of ridicule. [1][2][3][4][5]

This version is important because it gives the case three credibility-enhancing features:

  • a named witness
  • law-enforcement status
  • and a claimed instrumental side effect in the form of radio interference. [1][2][3]

If this version were securely documented, it would be the natural core of the file.

The anonymous “Mr. S.” narrative

The problem is that the UFO Photo Archive / Wendelle Stevens version tells a materially different story. In that account, the witness is not publicly named, is identified only as “Mr. S.”, and is accompanied by his girlfriend. They are not eating lunch during patrol; they are parked near Tainter Lake and had stopped with the idea of fishing. The object then circles them, descends, glides nearly overhead, and the witness takes more photos than in the simpler police story. [6]

This alternate version adds details such as:

  • a total of nine photographs, with seven usable
  • an overhead pass
  • a feeling that the object “knew” it was being photographed
  • fear, heat, and prickling sensations
  • a transistor radio “buzzing” and “crackling like crazy”
  • visible underside lights and possible landing-gear-like protrusions. [6]

That is a very different narrative from the short Coltrane police encounter. And yet it is attached to what are treated as the same or substantially the same Colfax photographs.

Why the witness dispute matters so much

The witness-identity dispute is not a side issue. It changes everything.

If the photos belong to Mark Coltrane, the case becomes:

  • a police daylight-disc encounter
  • with apparent radio interference
  • and a brief but direct photographic response. [1][2][3][4]

If they belong to Mr. S. and his girlfriend, the case becomes:

  • a civilian encounter near Tainter Lake
  • with a longer sequence
  • stronger emotional effects
  • and a more elaborate craft approach narrative. [6][7]

Those are not minor differences in wording. They are two different case structures.

This is why Colfax should be treated as a contested photo file, not a settled witness report.

The photographs themselves

Despite the narrative instability, the photographs are the reason the case survives at all. They show a dark or metallic disc-shaped object in a bright daytime sky, with at least one image often said to reveal details of the underside. [1][2][3][4][5]

In the simpler versions of the case, only a small number of photographs are emphasized. In the photo-archive tradition, the sequence is larger and more narrativized, with images said to show the object:

  • changing direction
  • tilting
  • descending in a roller-coaster motion
  • passing overhead
  • then climbing back toward the sun. [6]

That makes the visual record appear more dynamic than the basic police retelling suggests.

The radio interference claim

One of the most repeated details in the Coltrane version is the claim that the patrol-car radio emitted crackling just before or during the sighting. In the alternate “Mr. S.” version, the relevant device is not a police radio but a transistor radio, which was also said to buzz and crackle during the object’s approach. [1][2][3][6]

This overlap is important. It may indicate:

  • a real recurring detail remembered from an original witness story
  • a shared motif transferred from one retelling to another
  • or a sign that two nearby or similar accounts were merged in later circulation.

Whatever the explanation, the interference motif is one of the most stable cross-version features in the public story.

Was there a close approach?

In the police-officer narrative, the object rises near the parked vehicle, appears to come toward the witness, and is close enough in at least one image that supposed underside structure can be seen. [1][2][3][4][5]

In the anonymous archive version, the close approach is even more dramatic. There the object is said to level off near treetop height, move toward the witness, and pass nearly overhead, with the witness crouching, falling backward, and describing apparent underside lights and pods. [6]

This is why Colfax is classified here as a close encounter case rather than just a photograph in the sky. The core tradition, even in its weaker form, places the object at relatively close visual range.

Why believers find the case persuasive

Supporters of the Colfax case usually focus on:

  • the clarity of the images
  • the daylight conditions
  • the claim that the object was close enough to show structure
  • the association with a police witness in the better-known version
  • the radio-interference motif
  • and the short, surprise nature of the encounter. [1][2][3][4][5]

For believers, Colfax is one of those deceptively small cases that looks stronger than it first seems: a simple stop by the roadside turns into a direct photographic encounter with a structured disc.

Why skeptics push back

A strong encyclopedia page has to be just as clear about the skeptical side.

The main skeptical objections are:

  • the public source trail is weak
  • the witness identity appears unstable
  • the number of photos changes between tellings
  • the location is not entirely consistent
  • and the case survives mainly through later UFO-photo compilations, not a widely available original police or newspaper file. [1][3][6][7]

There is also the straightforward possibility of:

  • miscaptioned or reattributed photographs
  • a model or staged image sequence
  • or a case that became inflated through archive circulation and repetition. [6][7]

In other words, Colfax is visually intriguing but historically messy.

The Tainter Lake / Colfax confusion

One of the most revealing later clues comes from regional Wisconsin writing that published the Colfax photos but captioned them not as a police case, but as an incident involving “Mr. S.” and his girlfriend” near Tainter Lake. [7]

That is valuable because it shows the instability is not hidden deep in obscure files. It is visible in later public retellings.

This confusion suggests at least three possibilities:

  • the Coltrane and Mr. S. stories are two versions of one underlying case
  • the photographs were reassigned or anonymized during later archive handling
  • or two separate Wisconsin stories were merged onto one set of images. [6][7]

At present, the public record does not fully resolve which is correct.

Was this really a police case?

The honest answer is: maybe, but the public documentation is not strong enough to say so with full confidence.

The Mark Coltrane version is widespread in modern case directories and photo compilations. [1][2][3][4][5] But the existence of a competing anonymous-witness version attached to the same photos means the “police officer case” label should be used carefully, not triumphantly. [6][7]

That makes Colfax very different from cases where the police provenance is documented in a clearly traceable official report.

Why the case remains unresolved

The Colfax case remains unresolved because it has two incompatible strengths.

Its visual strength is obvious:

  • the photographs are striking
  • the object appears structured
  • and the daylight setting makes the images memorable. [1][2][3][4][5]

Its historical weakness is just as obvious:

  • the public source chain is unstable
  • witness identity is disputed
  • the event narrative changes between sources
  • and no decisive official case file has stabilized the account. [1][6][7]

That means Colfax survives less as a solved event than as a persistent photographic mystery with provenance problems.

Cultural legacy

The Colfax images have survived through:

  • UFO photo archives
  • modern case directories
  • “best UFO photos” collections
  • law-enforcement witness lists
  • and recent online commentary revisiting older photographic cases. [1][2][3][4][5][6]

Their afterlife is stronger than their documentation. That is why the case persists.

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  • /aliens/theories/genuine-daylight-disc-theory
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  • /aliens/theories/retelling-amplification-theory
  • /collections/by-region/american-ufo-cases
  • /collections/by-theme/classic-ufo-photo-cases

Frequently asked questions

What happened in the Colfax close encounter case?

The most widely repeated version says that on 19 April 1978, near Colfax, Wisconsin, police officer Mark Coltrane saw a metallic disc after his radio began crackling and photographed it with a Polaroid camera. But a later competing version attributes the same photographs to an anonymous witness and his girlfriend near Tainter Lake. [1][2][3][6][7]

Who was Mark Coltrane?

In the standard retelling, he was a police officer on patrol near Colfax who became the principal witness to the event. However, the public record is complicated by later sources that attach the photos to a different unnamed witness. [1][2][3][6]

Why is the Colfax case controversial?

Because the photographs are intriguing, but the case history is unstable. The witness identity, setting, number of photos, and some encounter details differ across later sources. [1][3][6][7]

Were there really radio problems during the sighting?

Both major versions of the story include an interference motif. In the police version it is the patrol-car radio; in the alternate archive version it is a transistor radio. [1][2][6]

Is the Colfax case solved?

No. The case remains unresolved not because the public evidence is overwhelmingly strong, but because the photographs are memorable while the source history is too contradictory to settle easily. [1][3][6][7]

Editorial note

This encyclopedia documents the Colfax close encounter case as a photographic daylight-disc incident with serious provenance problems. The images are the reason the case survives, but the instability of the witness tradition is the reason it remains disputed. Colfax should therefore be read carefully: it may preserve a genuine close-range aerial anomaly, a miscaptioned photo sequence, or a merged archive story that no longer cleanly reflects its original source. That uncertainty is not a flaw in the page. It is the case.

References

[1] Patrick Gross. Colfax, Wisconsin, USA, April 19, 1978.
https://ufologie.patrickgross.org/htm/colfax78.htm

[2] Patrick Gross. UFOS at close sight: Casebook (index entry listing “Policeman snaps UFO photographs in Colfax, 1978, USA”).
https://ufologie.patrickgross.org/htm/casedb.htm

[3] UFO Casebook. The Best UFO Pictures Ever Taken, Page 3, 1970–1979 (Colfax entry).
https://ufocasebook.com/bestufopictures3.html

[4] Think AboutIt Docs. 1978: Police officer photographs disc in Colfax, Wisconsin.
https://www.thinkaboutitdocs.com/1978-police-officer-photographs-disc-colfax-wisconsin/

[5] UFO Insight. More Than You Think: Lesser-Known UFO Sightings With Photographic Evidence (Colfax section).
https://www.ufoinsight.com/ufos/sightings/lesser-known-ufo-sightings-with-photographic-evidence

[6] Wendelle Stevens / Open Minds. UFO Photographs from Colfax, Wisconsin (alternate “Mr. S.” / girlfriend / Tainter Lake narrative).
https://openminds.tv/ufo-photographs-from-colfax-wisconsin/

[7] Adam Levin. Look Up—What’s That in the Wisconsin Sky? Shepherd Express (captioning the Colfax photos to “Mr. S.” and his girlfriend near Tainter Lake).
https://shepherdexpress.com/culture/milwaukee-history/look-up-whats-that-in-the-wisconsin-sky/

[8] The UFO Database. Colfax, Wisconsin UFO.
https://theufodatabase.com/ufos/colfax-wisconsin-ufo-april-1978

[9] Timothy B. Fling. A Visual Commentary — Chapter 13: The Colfax UFO Photos.
https://timothybfling.substack.com/p/watch-the-skies-a-visual-commentary-c03

[10] UFO Sightings Daily. This Day In UFO History: April 19, 1978 Colfax, Wisconsin, USA.
https://www.ufosightingsdaily.com/2015/04/this-day-in-ufo-history-april-19-1978.html