The Granger Taylor Flying Saucer rests on stilts in the back yard of the Taylor home at Duncan on Vancouver Island. It is a mute memorial to its builder, young Granger Taylor.

"He built his spaceship out of two satellite receiving dishes and outfitted it with a television, a couch, and a wood-burning stove. He became obsessed with finding out how flying saucers were powered, spending hours sitting in the ship thinking and often sleeping there," wrote Douglas Curran in his book In Advance of the Landing: Folk Concepts of Outer Space (1985).

Then one November night in 1980 Granger Taylor simply disappeared. He left behind a yard strewn with old tractors; machine engines, vintage automobiles, a bulldozer, as well! as a note which read: "Dear Mother and Father, I have gone away to walk aboard an alien ship, as recurring dreams assured a 42 month interstellar voyage to explore the vast universe, then return. I am leaving behind all my possessions to you as I will no longer require the use of any. Please use the instructions in my will as a guide to help. Love, Granger." The forty-two months were up in May 1984 and his parents, Jim and Grace Taylor, leave the back door unlocked in case their son shows up. But he never has.

"... If there is a flying object out there, he's the one to find it."

Granger Taylor left school in the eighth grade and found work as a mechanic's helper, showing a flair for repairing machinery. At the age of fourteen he built a one-cylinder car which is on display at the Duncan Forest Museum. He constructed a replica of a World War light fighter plane, and he left behind his silver-and-red flying saucer. He told a friend a month before he disappeared that he was in mental contact with someone from another galaxy and that he was in receipt of an invitation to go on a trip through the Solar System.

"On the night that Granger disappeared," wrote Curran, " a storm struck the central part of Vancouver Island. Hurricane winds were reported and electrical power was knocked out. Granger vanished, along with his blue pick-up truck.

"After four years of `exhaustive checks' of hospital, passport, employment, and vehicle records, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have not uncovered a single clue as to the whereabouts of Granger Taylor. `I can hardly believe Granger' s off in a spaceship, ' his father said. `But if there is a flying object out there, he's the one to find it.' "