Near where the Western Way Plaza now sits, in Brooksville, there was a replica UFO. It was built by John Reeves who reported that he frequently saw UFOs in that area.
He enjoyed taking walks through the sandy pine covered area around his home. He reported that on March 2, 1965 in the woods he came across a strange object sitting on the ground. The object was disc shaped and held up with four stilts keeping it a few feet off the ground. The disc was 40 feet in diameter and 9 feet tall at the center.
He said he saw strange creatures near the disc, which had a luminous skin. The creatures were tall and thin and their skin was porcelain smooth. The creatures carried a small square object which the creature held at chin level and made a bright flash of light.
John was startled and ran away. He was caught in the underbrush, tripped, and lost his eye glasses. The creature retrieved his glasses and dropped them near by him. The creature then returned to the disc, but dropped two things that resembled sheets of paper with odd writing. The disc then began rotating counterclockwise and ascended at a rapid speed.
Reeves told his story on a local radio station where he showed the sheets of paper. According to John, the Air Force visited him after his interview and confiscated the papers. The sheets were later returned to him, but they no longer had the odd writing and were thicker.
John says he continued to meet with the spacemen over the next few years. During walks he would meet with the spacemen.
On August 6, 1968, John states that space man asked him if he would like to go to the moon.
The trip to the Moon lasted a total of six hours. John said the space men's base was in a transparent dome on the Dark Side of the Moon.
While John was on the surface of the moon he used a medicine bottle to collect gray lunar dust and picked up a rock that looked like a crystal. John would show off the gray dust and rock when telling his story.
John's story and roadside UFO attracted attention. He was willing to tell his story to people that stopped by interested about the UFO he had built. For a while in the 60s and 70s Hernando County was referred to as the 'UFO Capital of the World.'