Northland MUFON is a new Chapter of the Mutual UFO Network. It is a cooperative chapter between North Dakota MUFON and Northern Minnesota (Northland) MUFON.

A little history of North Dakota MUFON. Prior to 2007 – 2008 time-frame little is known about the North Dakota MUFON Chapter. What is known is this:

The Mutual UFO Network of North Dakota was founded in 2008. North Dakota MUFON was a 501(C)3 from the very start. Among its founding members were Kurt Pfleger, Lorna Hunter, Lawrence Gessner and Dale Brown. Kurt Fleger was the chapters first Director. Serving as the State Director from April 2008 until Nov 2010. Lorna Hunter took over as the chapters interim Director for November of 2010. Finally, Lawrence Gessner was appointed as the third Director for North Dakota MUFON in December of 2010. Mr. Gessner was a former Sheridan County North Dakota Sherriff. Subsequent years saw Mr. Gessner step down as State Director to the position of Assistant State Director while Dale Brown stepped up to the position of State Director. In later years of the chapter Mr. Gessner’s former wife, Kelly Benson-Gessner, would join the group and become a Certified field Investigator. Later she would serve as Secretary and treasurer. She would eventually be appointed as the chapters Assistant State Director.

The Chapter held its first public meeting on Jan 31^st 2009. The chapter quickly rose from non-existent to among the top 10 chapters within the State Directors Chapter Rankings by MUFON International. At its peak, North Dakota MUFON had eight field investigators. Lawrence Gessner, Dale Brown, Kelly Gessner, Rob Ellies, Dawn Dodgson, Wal Habib, Daniel Jackson and Jurt Pfleger.

The group served under four international directors; James Carrion, Clifford Clift, David McDonald and Jan Harzan.

Public meetings were routinely held at the Bismarck North Dakota Public Library. They were highlighted with monthly statistics, sighting reports, State Directors rankings, video presentations, and oral discussions of current events in ufology including active cases that were assigned to the North Dakota Chapter. The chapter even had floats at annual parades.

An exciting Highlight in the chapter’s history was a speaking engagement by the late Ufologist and MUFON International Director of Special Investigations, Stanton T. Friedman. Mr. Friedman was hosted by the chapter to speak at a monthly public meeting as Mr. Friedman had become a mentor to Dale Brown.

A website was created for the North Dakota Chapter in January 2010.. At one point the website attracted over 3000 members. Unfortunately, the website is no longer. But It can be viewed here: (thank you Wayback Machine!)

https://web.archive.org/web/20210705145606/https://mufonnd.webs.com/

The sad ending of the chapter happened in 2017. Ongoing health concerns for Dale and a lack of volunteer staff position crippled the chapter and caused its demise. September 1^st, 2017 saw the end to the North Dakota MUFON when the chapter was officially dissolved. Dale is doing much better now and has joined the new “Northland MUFON Board” as the chapter’s consultant.

Fast forward a few years;

In early 2023, shortly before Northland MUFON formed, Anna Scott, the former Minnesota Assistant Chief Investigator, had moved to the border area of Minnesota and North Dakota. Being a former resident of North Dakota, she wanted to get back to her roots. But before moving and after speaking with Dale Brown, the former North Dakota State Director, she decided to reform the North Dakota chapter once again. Knowing that forming a new chapter is a daunting task, she called her good friend, Jerry Nelson, for some help. Jer was, and still is, the State Section Director of Northern Minnesota (or Northland MUFON). Both, seeing an opportunity to not only start this new North Dakota Chapter but to also help serve the residents of Northern Minnesota, they decided that a cooperative chapter would be best for the area. After several emails, phone calls, and months of hard work, they were able to finally get permission to start.

The best reasoning for the new chapter was simple. North Dakota did not have an active MUFON chapter and the residents of northern Minnesota found it difficult to attend in-person meetings in the Minneapolis area. Although Minnesota MUFON recently started having the option of online zoom attendance, it’s always better to meet in-person and speak with like-minded people and those that may have had similar experiences. For those that live in northern Minnesota, driving to the Minneapolis area was just too much to ask. Both Anna and Jer knew this. It only solidified their reasoning for forming this new chapter and they knew it was the right thing to do.

Northland MUFON Incorporated in July of 2023 and started putting together a group of motivated and knowledgeable team members to run the chapter. Shortly after incorporating, Northland MUFON Applied for, and was granted, Federal 501(C)3 Non-Profit Status. After several months of setting everything up and figuring out how to conduct meetings, they decided on a split approach. Since both Northern Minnesota and North Dakota are very rural when compared to the Minneapolis area, it was decided that they would conduct cooperative in–person meetings in both the Fargo area of North Dakota and the Grand Rapids area of Minnesota. The meetings would be held at the same time and would be connected via the internet. With plans to expand meetings to Duluth and Bismarck in the future once they have recruited enough people. These meetings would join the other two and be connected via the internet so there will be interaction between all locations.

The first meeting was in December of 2023. Anna hosted from Moorhead Public library in Moorhead, MN and Jer hosted from the YMCA in Grand Rapids, MN. The meeting was a joint meeting connected via zoom. It was a great success. The very next meeting in January of 2024 they incorporated a zoom option for those that couldn’t make it to the meeting. That way everyone could still enjoy it through an online presence. This meeting featured Larry Hancock from SCU (The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies). In February 2024 we were lucky to get Kathleen Marden, the niece of Betty and Barney Hill. She gave a wonderful presentation on “UFOs ARE REAL, The History and the Evidence.” Again, it was a great success.

Future plans for the chapter include: Setting up information booths in Remer MN for Bigfoot days and other venues, future sky watches, and other activities. Starting meetings in the Duluth MN area and Bismarck North Dakota are always being considered. It is hoped it won’t take too long before we can start that up. Community Outreach and Education is a priority for the chapter. Our goal is that a lot of people will either know of or be involved with MUFON in the coming years.

If you think you could help, please contact us at NorthlandMUFONInfo@gmail.com.

Event and Meeting Re-Caps

Northland MUFON & MN MUFON

will NOT have a meeting in July (2024).

The Beaches of our Home Planet are calling us and we must obey! We’ll be back in August. See you then!

Remer Bigfoot Days

Name: Northland MUFON Monthly Meeting Fargo
Start: 2024-09-28T13:30:00-05:00
End: 2024-09-28T16:30:00-05:00
Location: Fargo Public library Northport

“The Home of Bigfoot”

Northland MUFON is heading to Remer, MN for “Bigfoot Days” on July 5 and 6th. Although we don’t hunt for Bigfoot, there is evidence that our Furry Friend could be associated with ET’s. Whether they are ET’s themselves or part of the ET agenda we simply don’t know. All we do know is that Remer, MN “The Home of Bigfoot”, is celebrating the big guy with a special festival every year. This year we have been invited to attend and are looking forward to fun and festivities. Come out and join Anna, Jer, Keeley, Michele, and others. We’ll all be there getting the word out about Northland MUFON, what we do and how we help! Come meet us. We’d love to talk with you if you’ve had an event or experience you would like to share. Heck, we’d just love to talk with you regardless! While we are there we do plan on making a series of short video’s that will be featured on our YouTube Channel “Northland MUFON”. If you are willing to talk on camera we’d love to chat. If you are not, we’d still love the hear all about. Keep in mind that Anna and Jer are both on MUFON’s “Experiencer Resource Team”. A team set up my MUFON to help experiencers talk about and deal with the odd and strange. We understand if you are having a tough time, we can help! For questions contact us at NorthlandMUFONInfo@gmail.com.

We’ll see you all in Remer July 5 and 6!

Event Re-Cap!

The little sleepy hamlet of Remer, Minnesota came to life on the July 4th weekend.

Remer is like a lot of small towns in rural northern Minnesota however, it is a gateway to the very popular vacation areas of Outing, Emily, Nisswa and the Brainerd Lakes Area. There is always quite a bit of traffic in the summer months but on this particular weekend it was exceptional! The Bigfoot festival is comprised of 2 days of activities including Bigfoot story time, scavenger hunts, bingo, a Bigfoot calling contest and Karaoke as well as several vendors and food stands.

Northland MUFON was set up in a great location, a small green space with a lot of shade trees, benches and a gazebo. The first night was pretty quiet but there were a few people who stopped by to purchase MUFON merchandise and share UFO experiences.

The second day was definitely the “big day” with hundreds of people packing into the small town, all sporting various types of Bigfoot regalia. People came from all over Minnesota and many had personal UFO experiences to share. These will be posted on the Northland MUFON YouTube channel.

Everything was going really well until some heavy clouds moved in, bringing a pretty good rain. The MUFON staff was on hand to protect the merchandise and literature, and the sun came out once again. Unfortunately, even bigger, badder clouds moved in with rain, wind and hail! This last storm was enough to send all but the MUFON group packing. They were the last ones to leave.

All in all it was a success. Maybe next year Mother Nature will be a little more cooperative!

June 22nd, Northland MUFON had Rich Hoffman give his presentation

“Investigating UFOs For 6 Decades: What Has Changed?”

Wow, what a meeting. Although we had a few technical difficulties at the start, Rich pulled through with a wonderful presentation. Originally Rich told us his presentation would take about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. Rich talked for over 2 hours! He had lots to say and talk about. My only suggestion for you is to watch the Full meeting video on the Insiders page!

Great Presentation Rich!

If you were camping, fishing, napping, or working on Memorial Day weekend you missed an amazing presentation by Earl Gray Anderson on Saturday, May 25th, 2024. The meeting was hosted at the Fargo Public Library Northport in Fargo, ND and was broadcast live via Zoom in Grand Rapids, MN to an audience of very interested UFO/UAP enthusiasts.

Mr. Anderson was live via Zoom from Southern California, where he is the Southern California State Director of MUFON. His background in this fascinating topic actually began with his mother, who was employed as personal assistant to Howard Hughes of Hughes Aircraft fame. She had some inside knowledge of secret programs but was sworn to secrecy, as is so often the case. She did share some things with her young son Earl, not thinking that he would actually remember what she told him. Well, he did remember and has been trying to put the pieces of the UFO/UAP phenomenon together ever since. If you would like to hear more about his mother’s history with secret programs, you will have to watch the YouTube video of the presentation.

Mr. Anderson regaled the crowd with several reports from the CMS (Case Management System), all from California which has a rich history of UFO/UAP sightings including the infamous “tic tac” video case from 2017. He also has his own personal experiences, which adds an interesting dimension to his role as a Field Investigator. The CMS is now available on the MUFON web site, www.mufon.com. You can also go there to report a sighting anonymously and a local field investigator will be assigned to your case. All information is confidential.

Again, if you would like to hear about the cases discussed during the meeting, check out our YouTube videos! Or even better, be a subscriber at http://www.youtube.com/@NorthlandMUFON

This month’s joke was sponsored by Northland MUFON: “What did the alien say to the garden? Take me to your weeder!”

You won’t want to miss the June 22nd presentation by Rich Hoffman, “Investigating UFOs for 5 Decades – What Has Changed?” We hope to see you there!

The April 27, 2024 meeting of Northland MUFON was held on a rainy Saturday afternoon at the Grand Rapids VFW Post 1720 and via Zoom in Fargo.

The meeting was maybe not as well attended as it could have been but it was a real honor to host Charles J. Hall and his wife Marie. Charles was working for the military as a weatherman in the remote desert and had interactions with the Tall Whites for approximately 2-1/2 years. He gave a fascinating account of his experiences in an area called Indian Springs near Nellis AFB, with many, many stories to share. His co-workers did NOT want to be posted out in the desert out of fear of “Range 4 Harry”, one of the adult Tall Whites. His interactions with them and the other military was fascinating, and his knowledge and recall of the events that took place was stunning! Hardly something anyone could forget. Many thanks to Mr. Hall and his lovely wife for a great afternoon!

Zach was this month’s meeting sponsor and provided the Joke of the Month, “Who was the first deer in space? Buck Rogers!”

We are still working on uploading the videos to the Northland MUFON website however, this April meeting will be posted on YouTube.

The next meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 25th and will be hosted at the Fargo Public Library in Fargo. The guest speaker is Earl Grey Anderson, author of “My Known Unknowns”. You won’t want to miss this one!

Northland MUFON attended their very first conference during the weekend of April 13^th and 14^th 2024 in Baxter Minnesota. The “Brainerd Psychic and Paranormal Wellness Fair” was a huge success for the chapter. We had a table set up to showcase who were are along with some trinkets we sold for fundraising. We had a great time. Anna Scott, Michele Rinne, and Jer Nelson (along with the elusive Krissy) were able to “man” the table for most of the weekend. We met many interesting people and got several people to sign up for email announcements. Many of them joined us during our next meeting with Charles Hall.

A highlight of the event was the opportunity for us to give presentations. Anna Scott gave an awesome presentation “Consciousness and the ET Connection” on Sunday. While on Saturday Jer was able to give his presentation “They are Here”. Both Jer’s and Anna’s presentations will soon be (if not already) available via the “Northland MUFON in the News” on the Insiders page.

We really enjoyed our weekend and thank Terry Flick at Metaparapro.com for the opportunity. We hope we are able to make this an annual conference!

Saturday, March 16, 2024 at the VFW Post 1720 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and at the Fargo Public Library Northport, Northland MUFON had its next meeting. We are excited to report that meeting attendance continues to improve with approximately 30 people present in Grand Rapids, About 18 present in Fargo and another 15 online! Northland MUFON was able to host well-known UFO and Bigfoot researcher, Stan Gordon. Stan has been researching these topics since the early 1970s and has extensive knowledge of the phenomena, including potential relationships between extra-terrestrials, Bigfoot and orbs that are often times seen together. Stan gave a 2-hour audio presentation and answered many questions from those in attendance. Northland MUFON welcomes anyone who wishes to attend meetings and share their stories. Meetings are typically held on one Saturday per month. We also welcome anyone who wishes to become involved in Northland MUFON and be a part of this exciting new community in northern Minnesota or North Dakota. We hope to see you there!