Horse Archer
Productions
Above: One of the photos Danny Gordon was able to snap in December 1987. The negatives were stolen from his home, but not before he had prints made. Below: A feature on the story behind the story in the National Enquirer.
Above: Headline from Wythe Enterprise editorial indicating the general displeasure of Wytheville's treatment by Current Affair. Below: Virginia Governor Jerry Baliles receives a "UFO Capital of VA" T-shirt. Below right: Danny Gordon's story inspired a full week of the popular comic strip "Gasoline Alley" in 1988.
Strange Country:
A Different Kind of UFO Documentary
Fall 2021
30 years after international media attention came to tiny Wytheville, VA on the heels of massive UFO sightings, the echoes still ring for reporter Danny Gordon. Gordon, a newscaster with a wall full of UPI awards and community work citations, became the unintentional center of the upheaval caused by an array of strange objects in the country skies from 1987-88.
The print and national television news units (including impostors) descended on the town and on Gordon. His home was invaded, private property was stolen, he received threats and warnings to silence, and his son was shot in circumstances that are still not fully explained. He managed to snap some of the only photographs known but he is still looking for an answer.
And today, people are still seeing strange things in the skies of southwest Virginia, with few answers to be had.
Strange Country looks at the human experience of high strangeness and the way the very real but ultimately inexplicable events can affect a small town. No wild speculations or cheesy dramatizations--just the straight story.
This is a different kind of UFO documentary.
Right: One of the few photos Danny Gordon was able to snap outside of Rose's Department store in early December, 1987. The original negatives were stolen from Gordon's home while he lectured in Virginia Beach, but he'd already had some copies made. Below: Quote from Janet Colley, one of hundreds of witnesses during the original flap.
