In 1973, an unprecedented wave of UFO encounters swept the nation. Overnight, somber headlines detailing the Vietnam War and emerging Watergate Scandal found themselves replaced on newspaper front pages by fantastical tales of saucer sightings and alien abductions. Apart from the Pascagoula Abduction, in Mississippi, few stories have survived the ensuing decades. Take a trip back in time and re-visit the Great UFO Wave of 1973 as it was experienced by the communities of Appalachia, in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. In this study of the events of that autumn, the author examines the wave as it occurred in the region, using archival news sources, and places it in perspective within the history of the UFO phenomenon as a whole and the national events of the time.