The Langenburg Event, one of Saskatchewan’s most famous encounters with unidentified flying objects, is being commemorated with a collector coin by the Royal Canadian Mint.
Langenburg area farmer Edwin Fuhr was swathing his fields on Sept. 1, 1974, when the then 36-year-old saw five highly polished, disc-shaped objects at the edge of a nearby swamp, according to historical records of the event on the town’s history webpage.
Believing that he was the target of a prank, Fuhr stepped down from his swather for a closer look, maintaining a 15-foot distance from the steel-like saucers that he says were hovering a foot off the ground and rotating at a high rate of speed.
Fuhr backed away and climbed onto his swather, which would no longer start. He sat paralyzed by fear as he watched the objects hover, the town’s record said. After 15 minutes the objects lifted off into the sky, releasing a strange vapour before vanishing from sight.
A 50-year-old RCMP report about the incident said the saucers created “five different distinct circles, caused by something exerting what had to be heavy air or exhaust pressure over the highgrass.”
A patch of grass remained standing in the centre of each of the circles which became “extremely radioactive,” according to the Town of Langenburg website.
The Royal Canadian Mint is marking “The Langenburg Event” with a one-ounce pure silver coin that features a glow-in-the-dark design.
The Langenburg Event coin will be the seventh unusual encounter re-told as part of the Mint’s “Canada’s Unexplained Phenomena” series.
The 99.99 percent pure silver coin features a rectangle shape that shows a back view of Fuhr on his swather as the five saucers hover over the bog in front of him, the Mint says. A blacklight flashlight, which is included in the purchase, activates the glowing colour effect on the reverse side of the coin to showcase the five saucers emitting an eerie glow as they fly away.
A blacklight view of the collectible silver coin depicting the famous Langenburg UFO sighting in 1974. Coin image©2012 Royal Canadian Mint – All Rights Reserved
The Langenburg incident came “at the tail end of a golden age for UFO sightings, when reports of seeing physical craft had tapered off,” according to the town website.
But that doesn’t mean that sightings of unidentified flying objects, better known as UFOs, aren’t still happening today.
A survey from Ufology Research said 570 people officially filed UFO sighting reports in Canada in 2023.
Approximately 50 UFO sightings were reported each month in Canada last year, although there were “noticeable monthly peaks” in reported sightings in both February and August.
Forty-five percent of the UFOs appeared as lights in the sky, better known as nocturnal lights, the survey said, while approximately 6 percent of the cases were considered “unexplained.”
The survey also found provinces with higher population densities were more likely to report UFO sightings.
