Mystery Sphere Discovered on Fort George Island in 1974

[L.P. Hovercraft]

Here's an interesting local yarn with a slight whiff of the Fortean...

Back in 1974 the Betz family discovered a mysterious object on their Fort George Island property: a metallic sphere smaller than a bowling ball that seemingly moved of its own volition. 

The story in the April 12, 1974 St. Petersburg Times:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=qupRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NnMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5777%2C1258785

And before anyone else says it:

[strider]

A little more updated info:

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2012/04/the-betz-mystery-sphere-alien-artifact-or-doomsday-device/

[Houseboat Mike]

so what the heck happened to it?

[finehoe]

How come the Times-Onion never covered it?

[strider]

A 2014 articles:

http://www.utaot.com/2014/11/15/the-mysterious-betz-sphere-case-was-it-an-alien-artifact/

Conclusions: This unusual ball was a magnetic sphere sensitive to magnetic fields, numerous sound emissions, and mechanical stimulation. It was both passive and active. If it was an extraterrestrial probe, it might possibly be in a damaged state.

Where is the Betz ball today? There is no certainty as to its present location. If someone made the metal sphere, they apparently went through a lot of trouble (and money) to create it as well as they did. It makes no sense that they did not bother to try and retrieve it. Perhaps, the "ball from space" might, indeed, be just that... something from beyond our Earth.

Perhaps someone on this forum knows the Betz family and can ask what happened to the sphere.

[L.P. Hovercraft]

There's an article from the April 15, 1974 Ottawa Citizen claiming after an examination by the Navy the damned thing was just a "stainless-steel ball made somewhere on earth":
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=J0I_AAAAIBAJ&sjid=2EwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1226%2C5473511

Though I prefer to conveniently ignore that mundane explanation and would like to think the mystery sphere was simply BB-1, an early forerunner of this little guy:

[Tacachale]

How come the Times-Onion never covered it?

They may have, but their online archives don't go back that far.

[Tacachale]

A 2014 articles:

http://www.utaot.com/2014/11/15/the-mysterious-betz-sphere-case-was-it-an-alien-artifact/

Conclusions: This unusual ball was a magnetic sphere sensitive to magnetic fields, numerous sound emissions, and mechanical stimulation. It was both passive and active. If it was an extraterrestrial probe, it might possibly be in a damaged state.

Where is the Betz ball today? There is no certainty as to its present location. If someone made the metal sphere, they apparently went through a lot of trouble (and money) to create it as well as they did. It makes no sense that they did not bother to try and retrieve it. Perhaps, the "ball from space" might, indeed, be just that... something from beyond our Earth.

Perhaps someone on this forum knows the Betz family and can ask what happened to the sphere.

Sounds like a job for Metro Jacksonville.

The Betz's will at least know what became of it.

[finehoe]

How come the Times-Onion never covered it?

They may have, but their online archives don't go back that far.

Most online archives don't.  What I meant was, it's funny that all of the early articles seem to be from other Florida papers (St. Pete, West Palm).  I guess it's typical that the T-U often ignores what's happening in its own backyard.

[Tacachale]

^They mostly seem to be wire reports, not real reporting. Websites researching it today are probably just using the easiest things for them to access. Until the last few years, you could get the St. Pete Times archive on Google News and you can still get it pretty easily through libraries.

Which is to say that the "mystery" here seems to be mostly due to the researchers. Who knows how much they've really looked into this besides just reading old papers from back when it was in the news. Google turns up this grave marker for Antoine Betz:

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=98310233

There's also a Betz Tiger Point Preserve on the Northside, not far from Fort George Island. I wonder if it's related:

http://timucuantrailparksfoundation.org/Parks/betz-tiger-point-preserve.html

[Tacachale]

Two articles from the FTU on a Gerri Betz-Jackson who owned a fish camp in this area:

Published Wednesday, September 22, 1999
2 McKenna Drives drive renaming effort

By Alliniece Taylor


There's McKenna Drive and then there's McKenna Drive.

There's the portion of McKenna Drive that extends from Heckscher Drive on Pine Island east of Sisters Creek. And then there's McKenna Drive that also extends from Heckscher Drive but on the other side of the creek.

Some residents want to change the name of the road on Pine Island to ease confusion.

...

''I think that will be great,'' said Gerri Betz-Jackson, who owns a fish camp on McKenna Drive. ''I think this would be kind of a tribute to the river and what the mayor's trying to do with his preservation project.''

Betz-Jackson lives in North Jacksonville and owns a total of about 100 acres on both sides of McKenna where the name change is proposed.

The two McKennas, as Betz-Jackson called the streets, cause a lot of inconveniences, she said.

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/092299/ner_n1roadna.html#.VlX6GnarSUk

Published Saturday, June 29, 2002

Residents fight development

They dislike small lots, traffic woes

By Kandace Lankford
River City News correspondent

Residents near a proposed development in North Jacksonville complained at a community meeting Monday night that the construction of new homes will increase traffic and have a negative impact on their quality of life.

About 60 people attended the meeting at Oceanway Senior Center to discuss the proposed 247-acre, 670-lot development Victoria Lakes, slated to be built on Yellow Bluff Road about two miles north of New Berlin Road.

The meeting was held by City Councilman Warren Alvarez, and representatives of the city's Traffic Engineering and Planning and Development departments attended, as did representatives of developer H. Smith Inc.

By zoning code standards, the developers are within their legal rights, officials said: They plan to build 2.7 units an acre, while the code allows for seven units an acre. But residents said they were unhappy about many facets of the project, including the width of the lots -- most are 50 feet wide -- and the traffic problems that would arise as a result of the development having only one entrance and exit.

"If each of those families has two children, it would take about 20 school buses to send those kids to school," said Gerri Betz-Jackson, who has lived in the area since the early 1960s. "That's going to make the traffic problem worse."

http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/062902/neR_9780940.shtml#.VlX6uHarSUk

[Tacachale]

Apparently, this is indeed the Betz family of Betz-Tiger Point fame:

Pumpkin Hill site impressive, say Council members
08/16/2002
Mike Sharkey

by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer

Earlier this week, several City Council members got a first-hand look at 548 acres of property on the Northside that Mayor John Delaney wants to add to the City's Preservation Project. Council members Faye Rustin, Lynette Self, Warren Alvarez, Mary Ann Southwell and Elaine Brown joined Council president Jerry Holland on the tour.

Delaney is asking Council to approve $7.95 million in taxpayer money to buy the 548-acre tract which is the home to several species of birds, plenty of other wildlife and some of Jacksonville's best, untainted views.

The land is also being pursued by developer Safa Mansouri, who has offered the owner, Gerri Betz-Jackson, a little over $1 million more than the City for the property. Mansouri has proposed a gated, low-density development for the land and has assured the City he would also sell back more than 180 acres to the City in exchange for permitting and infrastructure assistance.

The tour, which was led by Preservation Project Jacksonville executive director Mark Middlebrook, was an attempt to convince Council members to buy the land and set it aside as a publicly available nature preserve.

...

http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=1951

[Tacachale]

In 2003, Gerri Betz-Jackson purchased Otter Springs in Gilchrist County, in North Central Florida. She turned that into a park as well. This article indicates that she had married Arnold Jackson after the death of her first husband and owned Providence Ministries, Inc. She was still in Gilchrist as of July 6, 2006:

Geneva Cornwell, "Gerri Jackson is recognized for her vision...", Gilchrist County Journal, July 6, 2006
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=%22Otter+Creek%22+Gilchrist

Another article on Gerri Betz-Jackson and Otter Springs:

Anna Wild, "Come And Re-Visit The Otter Springs You Remember So Well", Gilchrist County Journal, July 6, 2006
http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00028300/00024/10j

If this is the Gerri or Jerri Betz from the "Mystery Sphere" story, it should be possible to track her down.

[Houseboat Mike]

How come the Times-Onion never covered it?

Back then the Journal and the TU were separate papers. The photographer was from the Journal, which is probably why the TU didn't cover it.

[L.P. Hovercraft]

Some more interesting details about the story from the April 15 1974 St. Pete Times:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=repRAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NnMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4073%2C4448046

According to Mrs. Betz, after being placed in the middle of a table and without anybody touching the sphere, "it rolled to the edge and then began to move around the four sides... it then made smaller and smaller rectangles and wound up in the middle of the table".  Neat-o! 

The Betz family apparently also planned to get it insured through Lloyd's of London.