History for Chron

Odd reports of some sort of object in the sky came about the same time that something caused the wires to burn out the city radio equipment on Kellogg Peak in Silver Valley.

The first reports Wednesday came in from truckers driving through the valley who began communicating via Citizen Band, or CB, radios about seeing an object very high “and a lot bigger than a star.”

An Idaho State Police employee reported seeing an “object” midway between Kellogg and Coeur d’Alene.

And Kellogg resident, Jeannie Brennan, said the object she saw appeared as a stationary light that gave off red, green and yellow colors.

Brennan said the object, which appeared to have a halo under it, was southeast of her location in uptown Kellogg.

The object was apparently seen directly above Kellogg Peak just before the city police radios stopped functioning. A repairman found the wires there to be burned out as if the facility had been struck by lightning.

The search continued for Steve “Buzz” Martin, 16, a North Central High School student who disappeared five weeks earlier during a camping trip in Pend Oreille County.

Martin disappeared from a camp of 20 other runners who were on an informal training camp in a rugged and remote area of the county.

Scores of trained search-and-rescue volunteers, family, friends, U.S. Forest Service personnel and sheriff’s deputies searched for a week without finding a clue as to what happened to Martin.