John Salter Jr.

Civil Rights Pioneer

John Salter Jr. was a prominent civil rights activist and organizer in the American South during the 1960s. Working directly with NAACP leader Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, he participated in sit-in demonstrations and became a faculty member at historically Black Tougaloo College. Later, he held a position as a sociology professor at the University of North Dakota, where he remained involved in social justice causes.

The 1988 Wisconsin Encounter

On March 20, 1988, Salter and his son John Salter III departed Grand Forks, North Dakota, for a speaking tour in Mississippi via Route 61 through Wisconsin's remote Driftless Region. As they drove through the sparsely populated, hilly terrain, both men reported experiencing an inexplicable compulsion—what they described as "mind control"—that caused them to deviate significantly from their planned route. Suddenly, they witnessed a luminous UFO with a silvery "energy field" materialize above the road. Both reported being taken aboard a craft and subjected to medical examinations in a well-lit chamber by humanoid beings.

Benevolent Contact Experience

Unlike the more frightening abduction narratives that predominated in UFO literature during the 1980s, Salter described his encounter in explicitly benevolent terms. He referred to the beings as "friends" and characterized their intentions as constructive rather than exploitative. Following the encounter, he and his son reported significant physiological changes: improved health, heightened vitality, and a remarkable reduction in sleep requirements (Salter claimed he could function adequately on approximately one hour of sleep per day). These claims echo the utopian contactee accounts of the 1950s—figures like George Adamski—more than the trauma-centered abduction narratives of contemporaries like Budd Hopkins.

Publication and UFO Activism

Salter documented his experience in a self-published account titled Friends of the Vast Creation: An Account of the Salter UFO Encounters of March, 1988. He became increasingly involved in UFO research and served as coordinator of the North Dakota chapter of the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) beginning in 1989. In later years, Salter adopted the name Hunter Gray to honor his Native American heritage, reflecting both his activist commitments and spiritual perspective on his UFO encounter.