By Trelle Kolojay

Sask. UFO club growing in popularity

Feb 13, 2015 | 9:28 AM

Dianne Saum calls herself a “skywatcher” and over the years looking up from her acreage near Watrous, she’s seen some things she can’t explain.

“There were six to seven huge, white lights in the sky and we were watching these for probably five minutes,” Saum said, explaining an incident from a couple years ago. 

“Then there was an airplane that looked like it was going from Regina to Saskatoon and when we could see the airplane, these lights kind of dimmed off and then when the airplane was out of sight, these lights came back on and zipped and zoomed all over the place.”

Saum, who has also seen crop circles around Watrous and Manitou Beach, said Saskatchewan has lots of UFO activity with hotspots including Watrous, the Lumsden Valley, Indian Head, Fort Qu’Appelle and Kamsack. 

“I don’t know whether people in general live in cities nowadays or they just don’t look up, but there’s lots going on up there.”

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But, because there’s no official number to call or place to report sightings, Saum said they’re hard to track.

She hopes to change that with the creation of the Sask Ufology Club with her husband Dave.

“We want to set up spotters throughout the province, so when people see things, they do have numbers to phone, so we can actually document this better,” she said.

The club had their first meeting this past fall where almost 100 people showed up. The group’s second meeting is Feb. 16 at the Manitou Springs Hotel and everyone is welcome.

Saum said so far their UFO group has attracted people including retired RCMP officers, former university professors, farmers and others – all with their own stories to tell. Some of the people have even brought photos or videos that Saum hopes to collect and start Canada’s first ufology museum with.

Another one of her own experiences Saum hopes to have explained is from Canada Day about six years ago. Saum and her husband were down on Manitou Beach with their snowcone machine making the icy treats for people until the sun went down.

They were the last ones on the beach when they noticed a bright light, almost like a floodlight, shining down and then they were approached by two young men. The young men asked what they were doing and had never heard of snowcones.

“I said to those two guys, ‘Doesn’t that bother you that light that’s above us?’ and the one guy piped up ‘Oh that’s nothing, that’s an air ambulance out of Lanigan,’” Saum phoned Lanigan to check on that and was told they did not have an air ambulance. She has never seen the two men since.

Saum hopes by creating a network of UFO spotters, some of their unanswered questions and experiences will be addressed.

“It’s something that needs to be acknowledged. I always tell people, the more we get involved, the bigger the voice. It’s a matter of the government telling us what these things are – whether they’re from another country, whether they’re from another plant. We want to know the answers,” she said.

The meeting is on the Family Day holiday, Feb. 16 and will last from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. It costs $50 a person or $75 for a couple. It is adults only and participants are encouraged to bring any pictures or videos with them. For more information or to donate anything to the ufology museum, contact Saum at 306-946-3553.

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