Of all the bizarre stories from around my hometown, one of the weirdest has to be about
an Ozarks rancher who claimed he was once abducted by aliens, and then mysteriously disappeared.
Buck Nelson’s out-of-this world story began on July 30, 1954 at his ranch just outside
the town of Mountain View, Missouri. Around sixty years of age, Nelson had spent most of
his life as a farm and railroad worker, only managing a sixth-grade education.
At four o’clock in the afternoon, Nelson claimed that his pony and his pet dog Ted started to
go crazy, and he rushed outside to see three disc-like objects appear overhead in the sky.
He went inside, grabbed his camera and a flashlight,
and returned to take three photographs of the unidentified aircraft. He then used
his flashlight to signal for them to land, but instead, the closest saucer fired a heat ray,
knocking him off his feet, and the convoy quickly flew away.
When Buck stood up, he realized that the chronic back pain he had developed
over the years from hard manual labor was suddenly gone. As well,
his eyesight improved, and he no longer needed glasses.
Mildly curious about the episode, he went on about his life, and six months later on February 1st,
1955 at 12 o’clock noon, the saucers returned, and this time spoke to him through a loudspeaker,
asking for permission to land in the back of his pasture beyond his house, near a spring. Buck
granted them permission, and the ships promised to return soon, before launching back out.
A month later, on March 5th, at about midnight, Buck claimed the ships came back, landed,
and the crew visited him at his house. Among them was a young human male named Little Buck,
an unnamed old man who was a trainee learning to fly, a 200-year-old man named Bob Solomon
(who looked to be about 19 years old), and a giant 385-pound dog named Bo.
They visited with Buck in his house for about an hour, sharing with him small details about life
among the stars, and laughing at the primitive technology on Earth. Being a religious man,
Buck asked them if they were familiar with Jesus, and the aliens retorted that they knew more about
him than anybody on Earth. They asked Buck if he would be interested in going for a ride on their
ship. He agreed and they left, making plans to have him fly with them in the near future.
A few weeks later, (on March 22nd at about midnight) they circled low over his house
again, and then created a monument at the nearby spring, placing 12 rocks in circle,
which they claimed to be a symbol of what they called the “12 Laws of God”.
1. Love your Maker 2. Do not kill
3. Love your neighbor 4. Let your light shine before men
5. Don’t commit adultery 6. Don’t steal
7. Do unto others as you want others to do to you
8. No other gods but God 9. Do not take the name of God in vain
10. Honor your father and mother 11. Treat your body as God’s possession
12. Recognize God as the creator of Heaven and the Earth
These “Twelves Laws of God, On Venus” evidently allowed the inhabitants of the other planets in
our solar system to live in peace and harmony - no wars, no armies, no tobacco, or coffee, or tea,
no liquor or harmful drugs, next to no disease, no prisons, and greatly lengthened lifespans.
One month later (on April 24th), Buck alleged the aliens finally invited him
aboard their ship. He put on a pair of clean overalls, fetched his dog, and strapped in.
[MUSIC]
Their first stop was the palace of a ruler on planet Mars,
which Buck quickly learned was full of people, horses,
and cattle. Though the buildings of the planet were designed to look like rocks on the outside,
on the inside, they were solid steel industrial marvels that ran on solar and electric power.
Next on the tour was our moon - both the light and dark sides, of course - they visited a
very important ruler there for a banquet, and then later hung out with the locals. Then they
hopped back on the ship and traveled to the alien’s homeplanet of Venus, where (surprise,
surprise) another eminent ruler awaited them. Buck was surprised to find that most everybody
there also wore overalls, though a bit more futuristic than his. Evidently according to him,
life on Venus was far better than life on Earth. There were no loud or busy roads, no police force,
no jails, no government buildings and no wars. Taxes were only 5% of what they are on Earth,
and citizens of Venus enjoyed one hour work days. Their main source of entertainment came from “Book
Machines”, where books were placed into special mechanical devices that read the page aloud,
played music and pictures along with the story. Venus also had meticulous records
of the happenings on Earth - even a record of the lost city of Atlantis, and what happened to it.
As Buck would tell it, folks on Mars, the Moon and Venus look just like us here on Earth,
but a bit cleaner - they dress more simply, no ties, buckles, beads, no ear rings, no bracelets.
Nothing that could restrict their bodies in any way. They mostly eat fruits and vegetables,
but meat was occasionally enjoyed as a delicacy. According to him, all these lifestyle choices
meant that aliens live happy and healthy lives with very little death or disease among them.
The aliens continued to impress upon Buck that if humans began living by their 12 Laws,
they would see similar societal improvements.
Three days later, Buck was returned to Earth and he continued to enjoy
on-again-off-again communication with his friends from the great beyond.
In 1956, almost a year after this alleged outer space journey, Buck wrote and published a pamphlet
detailing his experience and became somewhat of an Ozarks celebrity, even launching a small
UFO convention which was attended by people from all around the world for many years.
Now, I’m not one to claim that this was all an elaborate hoax or some kind of money-making scam.
I never knew Buck Nelson. It’s possible that he believed that all of this stuff actually
happened to him. If you are a Buck Nelson radicalist, I’m not trying to disprove your
prophet! All I’m saying is that some of the details in his pamphlet don’t quite add up.
For one, Mars the Moon and Venus don’t seem to be populated, though,
maybe they’re all on vacation, or died out.
He claims to have seen 3 moons while on Venus. There are none.
The day/night cycle of the planet also doesn’t seem to square with
recent scientific discovery. Buck records that the people of Venus had 17 hour days,
but current orbital arrangement actually puts a single day at over 5,800 hours.
I will say, I did enjoy the hand-drawn diagrams and pictures of what he supposedly
saw! I’ll go ahead and include his map of the journey on screen and
leave it to you astronomer-types to figure out if any of it makes sense.
Buck Nelson also claimed that the United States
government took an interest in him and actively tried to suppress his message,
detailing in his pamphlet that three men in black visited his house right after the journey,
and told him to forget all he knew about space ships and where they come from.
He then hilariously notes, “I showed them my rifle and told them not to come any closer
unless they wanted trouble.” According to his Venusian friends, they’ve taken several
government officials up in their ships and shown them life on other planets, but the government
refuses to admit it. Nelson says although he has never personally felt threatened, he was offered
a thousand dollars by someone to never tell his story again, though he doesn’t tell us by whom.
As the years continued, he claimed that the Armed Forces sent men to his farm
and took measurements and photographs, one servicemen seeming to be straight up assigned
to his property and always on it surveying and scanning the area. They even evidently
paid him an untold sum for the clothes that he wore during his fateful flight.
The biggest message that Buck claimed to have from the people of Venus,
apart from his Twelve Commandments, was a warning about Atomic Weapons. The next war,
they warned, would be fought on American soil,
leading to the end of all civilization, unless humanity abandoned atomic weapons.
In fact, one of the aliens claimed this was their entire purpose for visiting
Earth in the first place: “We are here to see which way this world will use Atomic power,
for peace or war. We have stood by and seen other planets, one other,
destroy itself. Is this world next? We wonder, and watch and wait.”
Buck's Nelson's alien conventions started off fairly popular and focused mainly on his message
of peace and clean living, but over time, things started getting a bit wacky. With bigger crowds,
keynote speakers began making more and more outlandish declarations about worlds beyond our
own. Many attendees began claiming to BE aliens visiting Earth to support his universal message.
But as the sixties approached, Buck began hitting a few speed bumps. One year,
his convention announced a $20,000 fundraiser to build a radio station that he could use to
broadcast his message. This sudden ask for cash was not well-received by his core audience. Turns
out UFO conspiracy theorists tend to be a bit stingy with their pocketbooks. Still,
the popularity of the space race ensured that Buck could book speaking gigs and occasional oddball
radio appearances. This influx of cash combined with sales from his famous pamphlet meant that he
could retire his old pony and buy a truck to drive into town. With Old Man Nelson's net worth on the
steady rise, critics came out of the woodwork, and by the time the United States landed on the moon,
the concept of outer space was quickly demystified for the general public. And when what they saw on
television didn’t line up with Buck’s story, the True Believers became fewer and fewer.
The eighth-annual convention in 1966 was poorly attended and received barely any press coverage,
and from that point on, Buck Nelson seems to have mostly vanished from public records. Wikipedia
claims that Nelson died in 1982 after spending his final years with relatives in California,
although I can’t be too sure about the accuracy of that statement. It doesn’t seem to be sourced,
so take it with a grain of salt. Afterall, you can’t trust everything you read.
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I sometimes get asked how I find these weird
stories. This one was sent to me by Andrew. So, thank you Andrew.