KATEPWA VALLEY — Local authorities have received a string of unusual reports involving "anomalous light activity" near the summit of the north valley wall late Saturday evening. While seasonal decorations on the well-known "Moose" art installation have been a fixture of the ridge this winter, at least one veteran resident claims that what appeared in the sky last night was of a different nature entirely.
Silas Thorne, a local landowner who has lived in the valley for over sixty years, reported the sighting around 10:45 PM.
"I'm well aware of the Christmas lights on the Moose; I see them every night from my porch," Thorne stated while surveying the ridge this morning. "But what I saw last night wasn't attached to any statue. There was a cluster of brilliant blue lights hovering roughly fifty feet above the ridge line. They weren't static—they were rotating in a slow, counter-clockwise synchronized pattern."
Thorne, a former bush pilot with a keen eye for aviation lights, noted that the objects were completely silent and displayed flight characteristics inconsistent with commercial drones or local aircraft.
"A drone has a specific pitch, and you'll see the navigation strobes. This was a solid, pulsing sapphire glow. It stayed perfectly stationary for about four minutes, defying the heavy crosswinds we had last night, and then simply... vanished. It didn't fly away; it just wasn't there anymore."— Silas Thorne, local landowner and former bush pilot
While some skeptics suggest the "rotating" effect could be attributed to atmospheric refraction or "light pillars" caused by ice crystals in the valley air, Thorne remains unconvinced.
"I've seen every weather phenomenon this valley has to offer in sixty years," he added. "Ice crystals don't rotate in perfect formation fifty feet above a landmark. There's something else going on up there."
The Valley Sheriff's office has not issued an official statement, though they confirmed that "multiple inquiries" regarding the lights were logged over the weekend. For now, the mystery of the Katepwa Ridge remains unexplained.