Northeast of Tappen is the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge (yellow).
Some excerpts:
There have been many unusual animal deaths and disappearances in the region. Not far to the northeast is the Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge where 29,000 American White Pelicans disappeared from the refuge in May 2004. The next spring in 2005, about 18,000 adult pelicans returned, but eight thousand White Pelican baby chicks mysteriously died - perhaps from West Nile virus. Further south of Chase Lake is the Roestler Lake Waterfowl Protection Area. For six straight years between 1999 to 2004, thousands of ring-billed gulls and double-crested cormorants died - challenging the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service to understand why the die-offs should be so persistent year after year.
Farmers in Tappen, with a current population of about 200 people, have also been challenged by mysterious deaths and disappearances of livestock. One of those families is Myra and Torrey Briese, both in their late forties, who have lived in Tappen all their life. Their five children are Tessa 23, Trista 20, Evan 16, Tia 11 and Marshel 3.
The Briese farm has 1200 acres and 100 head of cattle, the family's main source of income. For fun, 16-year-old Evan Briese and his 11-year-old sister, Tia, have raised six hogs in a corral not far from the house.
Evan Briese, 16, standing next to two pet hogs in the corral about 250 feet north of Briese home behind trees. Image © 2006 by Richard Moss and Lorna Hunter.
A half mile beyond the pig corral, Torrey Briese found one of his cattle dead in October 2005, just over a small embankment at the edge of a dug out water pond.
farm in Tappen, North Dakota [top is north], the pink circle in upper left is the location of the pig
corral. Red rectangle is farm house. One-half mile east, the dark rectangle between two
tan-colored embankments is a dug out water hole on the neighbor's property. The orange circle
marks location of October 2005 dead cow at eastern edge of southern embankment.
Blue dots are Soil Conservation District's code for wetlands.
Torrey Briese, Cattle Rancher, Tappen, North Dakota: "The predators never ate on her. That is something I just don’t understand. In fact, I can tell you that up the gully from where that dead cow was (in October 2005), I had lost a big sucking calf - about a 900-pounder. I had some feed out there and one over-ate and bloated. And the coyotes devoured that thing in about five days. It was gone - just a little bit of hide and a couple of bones. That's it. So, that's the contrast. These two critters were that close together. That cow was never bothered. But this other calf was eaten within the matter of a few days. "
. . .
But what happened before the family found the odd pattern and triangular punctures on the long-dead cow is what 16-year-old Evan Briese saw near the water pond at 12:30 a.m. on April 6, 2006. Evan had left the farm house around midnight to go check the cows that were ready to calve. With him was his cattle dog, Buster. The cows seemed fine and Evan and Buster were heading back to the farm house when Evan saw a light flash that seemed to curve over a hill to the east of them. He started walking toward the pond and said he could see blue beams flashing repeatedly.
The UFO looked triangular-shaped to me and had like oval-shaped lights on it that were real pale blue – with beams shining out. They were real big from what I could see and it looked like they (blue beams) could bend over hills. When they would shine over them embankments down there, it looked like they could bend right over them.
IT WAS AS IF THEY WERE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING?
Yeah.
HOW BIG DO YOU THINK THIS TRIANGLE WAS?
About 40 feet long, I suppose. . . .
HOW HIGH WOULD IT BE FROM THE GROUND UP?
Probably 6 or 7 feet.
the sides of the craft. Estimated craft dimensions: 40 feet long,
20 feet wide and about 7 feet high. Drawing © 2006 by Evan Briese.
[The rest of that interview dialogue is at Linda's site in the free section]
. . .
August 2006 - Strange Lights Move in Grid Pattern Over Farm
Then in August about 2.5 miles northeast of the farm house, Torrey was moving cattle out of his bull pasture. Myra and the kids were about a mile away. Torrey was on his motorcycle that had a broken headlight. So, there was no light on the ground. But suddenly in the sky, lights appeared that moved around in odd searching patterns for at least an hour.
. . .