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 31st 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 1st, 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.