UFO researcher and author Ellen Crystall is largely responsible for bringing attention to the Hudson Valley sightings. Her 1991 book "Silent Invasion" is often credited with encouraging witnesses to come forward with their stories and opening public discourse about UFO activity in the region.
Fascinated by UFOs since childhood, Crystall became serious about the subject after witnessing strange lights in the skies over Hollywood, California, in 1971. As detailed in "Silent Invasion," a close encounter with a triangular UFO eventually frightened Crystall into leaving Los Angeles for her parents' home on the East Coast. Still, the sightings, many of which she photographed, continued unabated.
Crystall first traveled to Pine Bush, New York, in 1980. Although the infamous flap of 1982 was still nearly two years away, the Hudson Valley community was already becoming known as a UFO hot spot. In July of that year, locals directed Crystall to a field where they claimed UFOs regularly landed. According to Crystall, she and her companions were surrounded by at least a dozen large triangular craft. In a scene she described as "like Grand Central Station at rush hour," the brightly lit UFOs filled the sky before landing in the nearby field. The following day, Crystall returned to the site, where she discovered burned areas and deep impressions in the soil.
Over the course of her years-long study of the Pine Bush sightings, Crystall allegedly saw hundreds of craft which seemed to actively interact with witnesses, as well extraterrestrial beings.
