Mike Rogers, who was the leader of the logging crew that included Travis Walton, died on February 6, 2026. He became something of a controversial character in the tale, often accompanying Walton to various UFO conventions, appeared with him on several documentaries, and was a featured character in the movie about the abduction, Fire in the Sky. He eventually said that no one saw Walton abducted, but seemed to believe that was what happened.
He
was a gifted artist and many of the drawings and paintings of the Walton case
were the work of Rogers. He was also somewhat hot headed and sometimes saw
conspiracy where none existed. When I interviewed him for my X-Zone radio show
and podcast, there was a glitch in the taping which he believed was our attempt
to sensor some of the things he said. It was just a glitch which arose out of
the complications of creating a show with the host in Iowa, the guest in
Arizona and the producer in Canada. Sometimes the Internet did not cooperate
and sometimes mistakes were made.
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| Rogers's interpretation of the Walton aliens. Used with permission of Mike Rogers. |
During
that interview, Rogers said that the Phoenix Lights were not the important
sightings. He, among others in widely spread parts of Arizona and southern Nevada
had seen a large, triangular object that traveled across most of Arizona. He
provided a detailed description of that UFO, but the lights seen over Phoenix
dominated the news media reporting of the events that night.
As
we discussed the Walton abduction, I told him I thought it was a little chicken
that he and the others left Walton behind. True, they did return, but that was
after Walton disappeared. That is, of course, why no one saw Walton abducted,
but they did see him hit with that beam of light.
On
March 19, 2021, Mike Rogers in a Facebook post wrote, "I, Michael H.
Rogers, being of sound and rational mind, do hereby give notice that I am no
longer to be considered a witness to Travis C. Walton's supposed abduction of
November 5, 1975.”
That
set off a firestorm of controversy. After that, Rogers told me that he not only
hadn’t seen Walton abducted, but that he had been saying that for years. It was
only in 2021, that people noticed. Given that discussion, I wasn’t sure exactly
what Rogers was saying but note that it doesn’t bode well for the Walton tale.
To
make matters worse, a couple of days later, Rogers told movie producer Ryan
Gordon, " We were talking about creating a UFO hoax, okay? I don't know
how the UFO got there. But I remember... when I was driving the truck and he
jumped out; it was all deliberate. It was all a staged thing, okay? He ran up
there and there was something about the UFO not being real, although it looked
real.’”
Rogers
and Walton later reconciled and Rogers issued a statement retracting his
confession but the damage was done. And there was the important point that
Rogers said that no one saw the abduction and that, of course, included Rogers.
This is what Wikipedia says about Rogers’ “confession”:
ReplyDelete«On March 19, 2021, Mike Rogers posted a statement to his Facebook page announcing "I, Michael H. Rogers, being of sound and rational mind, do hereby give notice that I am no longer to be considered a witness to Travis C. Walton's supposed abduction of November 5, 1975." He later clarified: "Travis tried to keep a new remake of the movie a secret from me. He has always had his big secrets that he has kept from me. It angered me. I tried over the last two weeks to reason with [him], but of no avail. I don’t believe Travis is an honest person, and therefore I want nothing to do with him." On April 30, Rogers placed a call to producer Ryan Gordon, who was working on a new film about the Walton incident. Gordon recorded the call without Rogers's knowledge, as permitted by Arizona law. Two months later, on July 4, Gordon publicly posted audio from the call which featured Rogers explaining: "We were talking in the woods one day... We were talking about creating a UFO hoax, okay? I don't know how the UFO got there. But I remember... when I was driving the truck and he jumped out, it was all deliberate. It was all a staged thing, okay? He ran up there and there was something about the UFO not being real, although it looked real."] Rogers and Walton later reconciled and Rogers issued a statement retracting his confession.»
I don’t know about you, Kevin, but to me it seems like Rogers claimed it was a hoax mainly to get back at Travis. Travis hadn’t involved him in the remake of the film, so Rogers lashed out and told the producer it was a hoax out of anger and resentment. I mean, let’s be honest, we’ve all been there at least once. You get into a major fight with someone and later, while venting to a third party, you exaggerate the truth or even make something up just to make the other person look bad. I’ve done it, you’ve probably done it too, and plenty of other people have as well. It’s a very human reaction.
Later, when Travis and Rogers reconciled, Rogers walked back what he had previously said to Gordon during the phone call. So to me, the whole thing feels less like a genuine confession and more like a statement made in anger and spite.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m completely open to changing my mind about the story and admitting that Travis might have made the whole thing up. But this episode doesn’t strike me as convincing evidence of that.