The Val Johnson Car
At 1:40am on August 27, 1979, a Marshall County deputy radioed that a light had come at his patrol car. The Ford was found 854 feet on, stopped across the road with a broken windshield, a dented hood, and both antennas bent back. His wristwatch and the dashboard clock had each lost 14 minutes.
Field Guide Entry
Deputy Val Johnson was patrolling near the junction of County Highway 5 and State Highway 220, west of Stephen, at about 1:40am on August 27, 1979. He reported a bright light in the trees, turned toward it, and said the light came at the car. The next thing he remembered was lying against the door.
He radioed in. The 1977 Ford LTD had traveled 854 feet and stopped at right angles across the road. The windshield was broken inward and outward, the hood was dented, a headlight and a roof light were smashed, and both antennas were bent back toward the rear. Johnson's eyes were burned in a way the doctor at Warren compared to a welder's flash. His wristwatch and the car's clock were each 14 minutes slow.
What the examiners said
The sheriff's office sent the car out to be examined rather than filing the report and moving on. Roland Wardell, an engineer at Honeywell, looked at it on November 6, 1979, and reported that no single mechanical cause he could identify would produce that combination of damage. An examiner from Ford said the windshield looked as though something had gone through it and come back out.
Philip Klass, the most persistent skeptic in American UFO investigation, argued in 1983 that Johnson had staged it. He did not account for the eye injuries. Johnson took a polygraph, kept his job, and never claimed to know what hit him.
The car is still the evidence
It was never repaired. The county held it for 40 years and transferred the title to the Marshall County Historical Society at the anniversary event on August 27, 2019, where a few hundred people turned out for a reenactment. It sits in the middle of the museum with the glass still broken.
The junction where it happened carries no marker. It is farm road and sky in every direction, and nothing about standing there explains anything.
Visiting Information
The museum is small and seasonal. Doors are open Monday through Friday, 10am to 4pm, from Memorial Day through Labor Day, and the society opens by appointment outside that window, which is worth arranging by phone before making the drive. Listings disagree on the exact days, so calling ahead is sensible even in season.
The car is displayed indoors at the center of the main building, damage untouched, with the sheriff's file material alongside it. The society sells a bound case file of the documents for $25, which is the closest thing to a primary source anyone can buy.
Settler's Square is a museum campus rather than a single building, with a restored railroad depot and other moved structures on the grounds. Warren is about 50 minutes north of Grand Forks by road, and the incident site itself is unmarked farm country further northwest.
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