Bright Light Near Yukon Burial Ground

On the night of January 31, 1968, a strange ball of light was observed in the vicinity of Canyon Creek, Yukon Territory. The sighting occurred approximately one year after a previous event known as the McKinnon sighting. The primary witness, Pieter Van Der Veen, the proprietor of the Talbot Arm motel in Destruction Bay, was driving south on the highway searching for a stalled pickup truck. He observed a bright, reddish-yellow light with no discernible edges, which he described as a glow. The object appeared at an estimated altitude of 2,000 feet, descended toward the road, performed a half-arc maneuver to the right, and then ascended rapidly until it disappeared. The observation lasted for three to four seconds. Van Der Veen subsequently encountered the driver of the stalled truck, Doug Smith, who confirmed witnessing the same phenomenon. Because Smith was traveling in the opposite direction, he reported that the object veered to his left. The report notes that the sighting occurred near an Indian burial ground at Champagne, drawing a parallel to the location of the earlier McKinnon sighting.