Local legend has it that Elmwood is a favorite visiting place of extraterrestrials and U.F.O.s, a reputation that inspired the name of the annual festival. The stories go back many decades. One of Elmwood’s most infamous stories is the one about the police officer George Wheeler, whose squad car is said to have been hit with some kind of blue light from a U.F.O. one night in 1976. Six months later, Wheeler was dead, as reported in Howard Blum’s 1990 book, “Out There: The Government’s Secret Quest for Extraterrestrials.”

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Persons: George Wheeler, Wheeler, Howard Blum’s, ” Locations: Elmwood