Large oval orange red craft seen in John Day.

We were at the drive in theater when I was 7 when my mother noticed something to her right coming from the east.  She gasped and got everyone's attention by saying something about it.  
It was large, big enough to cover the entire drive in.  It was oval to oblong shaped and had a glowing reddish-orange light.  It was silent and moved very slow and consistent.   As it passed over head my mom was telling us to duck down and don't look. 
Well, I was curious and tried to watch it as much as I could.  As soon as it was flying over people panicked and tried to leave the drive in.  So we did too but we wanted to try to follow it but had no luck.  As we had seen strange lights, usually white float on by nearby.  
One night we spent an hour or so driving around trying to keep an eye on one.  In 1976, there was a ball of light perched on top of a mountain you could see off in the distance.  My mother woke everyone to see.  
It sat there after I woke to watch for about a half an hour an! d then it zipped almost seamlessly to the next mountain top over.  Which I have seen to be about 5 miles apart.  
It stopped dead on the top of that mountain.  It sat there for about 45 min. to an hour before it shot off faster than a bullet.
Witness indicates that the date of the event is approximate.  PD