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in the news 1947


PART SIX OF SEVEN PARTS


By the end of July 1947 the UFO security lid was down tight. The few members of the press who did inquire about what the Air Force was doing got the same treatment that you would get today if you inquired about the number of thermonuclear weapons stock-piled in the U.S.'s atomic arsenal. No one, outside of a few high-ranking officers in the Pentagon, knew what the people in the barbed wire enclosed Quonset huts that housed the Air Technical Intelligence Center were thinking or doing.

-- Captain Ed Ruppelt
Chief of the Air Force Project Blue Book
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects (1956)


FOR THE FIRST two to three weeks of summer, 1947, the so-called "flying saucers" or "flying discs" were a public phenomenon covered in newspapers regardless of whether the source was civilian or military. But beginning in early July, and for decades to come, witness accounts of the sightings began to diverge onto two separate tracks -- civilian reports continued to be publicly featured in newspapers, while military reports were confidentially referred to military intelligence and not shared publicly. By the end of 1947 the military intelligence effort had coalesced into the first official Air Force investigation of the phenomenon, under the code name Project Sign.

But by that time six months had passed, and although Project Sign looked back briefly at a few of the most notable civilian reports, its declassified files today give only a part of the story of 1947. This then is the other "half" of the story, the publicly-reported accounts, opinion and analysis -- and especially the public's reaction -- exclusively as told through the newspaper and magazine articles of the time.


Note: News reports for the period from June 25, 1947 to July 9, 1947 (plus a few from July 10, 1947) were featured in the eight-part series It Seemed Impossible -- But There It Is. The story of Project Sign will be covered in an upcoming series.



JULY 23 THROUGH AUGUST 15, 1947:

Burlington, Iowa Hawk-Eye Gazette - 23 Jul 47



Flying Disk
FLYING DISK? -- Harriett Dunham, 722 N. Sixth street, holds a silver-colored contraption rigged up with a radio tube, coil and condenser wired and soldered together in what appears to be a 10-inch cake tin. She found it lying upside down in her front yard Sunday morning, and thought at first sight it might be a bomb. (Hawk-Eye Gazette photo).


Baldur, Canada Gazette - 24 Jul 47



Spots In Eyes
FLYING SAUCERS, OR SPOTS BEFORE EYES? -- The theory of Prof. F.S. Cotton of Sydney, Australia, that the "flying saucers" which many citizens of Canada and the U.S. claim to have seen, are nothing more or less than a visual phenomenon, has many persons doing some personal experimenting. The idea is to stare at a fixed point in a clear blue sky, and according to the professor, the red corpuscles of the blood, passing in front of the retina of the eyes, give the impression of flying kitchenware. So these two young ladies are trying out the theory.


Time Magazine - 21 Jul 47



Busted Dish

The mysterious "flying saucers" that had bedeviled the heavens for a fortnight (TIME, July 14) seemed to have whisked back to Wonderland. A few U.S. citizens still saw them, last week; so did people in England, Italy, Chile, Iran, Holland, Japan and China (see A LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER). But by last week the "somethings" had petered out into a trail of rueful headshaking and self-conscious laughter.

Psychiatrists put the pandemic uproar down to mass hallucination, horseplay, suggestibility, insecurity or outright psychopathy. Scientists found "no evidence to substantiate the existence of heavenly disks."

Even Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Gromyko got into the act. Said he, twinkling like a Russian tea-tray: "Some attribute [the 'saucers'] to the British for exporting too much of their Scotch whiskey into the United States; some say it is a Russian discus thrower training for the Olympic games who does not realize his own strength."


Charleston, West Virginia Daily Mail - 21 Jul 47



The War Fever
By Bill Cunningham

The size of our armed forces, how they'll be recruited and who'll have overall charge are subjects of major dispute, some of it official and public and major propagandizing, some of it unofficial but likewise public. The common run of citizen needs to understand that many of the warlike headlines and statements in the press of these days come from this domestic argument rather than from the International situation.

The public needs to understand that, when it saw the banner headline "Eisenhower Says War Possible in a Year," that the general was pleading before a congressional committee against any cuts in the army appropriations bill. It needs to know that he went on to say that he didn't expect one. It needs to know that, when M.T.T.'s President Compton says we must be fully prepared and that any delay in preparation might well prove fatal, he is speaking as the President's man in favor of a universal military training bill.

When the findings of Dr. Compton's committee are attacked by another distinguished group, causing warlike terms and phrases again to crackle in the headlines, the public should know and should keep well in mind that this crowd is merely against the military training bill. In short the public should know where these words are coming from and why, because the public needs to keep a very clear head -- most of all clear for what is happening internationally. That's really important.

The public at the moment is jittery. If any proof were needed, the flying saucers offered it. There may or may not have been any such objects. There may or may not have been any material significance to them if they did exist. There's no doubt however, about the public reaction to the mystery. It was nervous. The public can't afford to be nervous.

One of the first questions asked when I got back from England was "Is there as much war talk over there as there is here?"

"War talk?" I asked, "Why I didn't hear any. Has there been any here?"

"Quite a lot of it," I was told. "To read some of it, you'd think we'll be fighting before the year is out."

This is no effort of mine to say we shouldn't be on guard. It's really to put us on guard that I would venture to suggest that we understand clearly where all of it comes from and what is behind it. Things are considerably tighter internationally now than they were even a week ago.

The Marshall plan, whatever else it may be, has proved to be an unmasking in Europe. It's stripped the pretense of democracy and freedom from the eight European nations that have fallen within the Russian clutch. They're gone. Something close to war is taking place in Greece. The Greek government dragnet has been heavy with Communists, and it now is revealed that $35,000,000 of U.S. arms are well on their way to Greece. The timing may be deliberate.

We have plenty to watch, but we must keep the subjects sorted. That doesn't mean the local arguments are to be ignored. In fact, nothing is probably more important right now than the size of the army we need, and that brings in the question that's causing most of the headlines. It's been argued for months, but the showdown is approaching.


New Castle, Pennsylvania News - 21 Jul 47



Looking At Life
By Erich Braindeis

Everybody everywhere seems to be seeing those "flying saucers" in the air, and all sorts of theories about them have been propounded.

We have just returned from California in one of the new DC6 planes of the American Airlines -- San Francisco to New York in 12 hours -- and I want to report to you that neither my wife nor I saw a single one of those phenomena, although both of us looked for them.

But we did see all sorts of things that looked like flying saucers and which would have been flying saucers if imagination had been as good in selling us as it apparently has been for very many other people.

Mind you, I do not say for sure that there are no flying saucers and that some people have not actually seen them.

I shall certainly not stick out my neck and insist that these things are not real and that everyone who claims to have seen one, or a whole swarm of them, is a liar.

But I do insist that your imagination can certainly make you see almost anything you want to see. And if your imagination is strong enough you may see not only flying saucers in the air but pink elephants, two-headed snakes with wings, or banshees dressed in tuxedos.

Who, for instance, has not been positively sure that there was a burglar downstairs in the living room, when it was nothing but a mouse or a squirrel? Who, in a dark forest, has not distinctly heard the walling of ghosts, when it was nothing but the wind howling in the trees?

There are actually burglars, of course, and there may even be ghosts, for all I know.

There may be flying saucers and, maybe, by the time you read this the whole mystery of this latest thing to scare humanity may have been solved.

Personally I believe that there will be a very simple and very harmless solution of this new puzzle.

Of one thing I am absolutely sure. We will find out whether these saucers really exist and what they are.

If they are something dangerous to our safety, we will know how to cope with them, just as we have known how to cope with every other danger that has confronted us.

If they turn out to be a hoax, or a gag, we have enough of a native sense of humor to laugh at ourselves and our gullibility and settle down to our innate common sense -- until the next hoax comes along. Until then, I consider the flying saucers as something akin to the many other creations of our imagination such as the worries over things that never happen, such as the fears, stews and frets that make our lives needlessly miserable.

Let us hope that those who see a new war in the offing will be just as wrong as those who are now seeing flying saucers.

Let us hope that the fear of America going to the dogs will be just as foolish as the opinion of those who say that the flying saucer is the fiendish invention or a hostile nation that is trying to scare us.

Let us hope that the flying saucers, like all the figments of our imagination, are nothing but flights of fancy.


Chester, Pennsylvania Times - 22 Jul 47



Chestergrams

Walter Crooks of the Wawa Dairy Family has been seeing stars -- and for that, we think, he may be congratulated. He is probably the only man in the United States who has seen something unusual in the sky in the past few weeks and has not called it a flying saucer.

Crooks insists that what he saw at 6 p.m. Sunday was a star -- or at least was anything but flying chinaware. He says several persons around Wawa saw it and that it was very bright, the only thing the least bit unusual about it was that it was flying north and it appeared at 6 p.m., before it was dark.


Big Spring, Texas Daily Herald - 22 Jul 47



More Discs Seen

Add to that ever-growing number of persons who have sighted flying saucers winging their way across America's skies the names of Mr. and Mrs. R.L. (Bob) Cook.

Cook was seated in his front yard at approximately 6:10 o'clock Sunday evening gazing at an eastbound commercial airliner flying over the hills south of town when his eyes picked up a bright disc-like object traveling in the opposite direction. At first, he fancied the saucer had been tossed from the aircraft, then realized that the mysterious thing was much higher than the ship.

He immediately summoned his wife, who was in the house, and pointed it out to her. It ultimately disappeared into the sunset but another wheeled into sight, following the flight of the other.

Mrs. Cook then claimed she sighted two more higher, much higher, than the others. Bob did not catch sight of the latter two but reasoned his eye sight isn't what it once was.


Lubbock, Texas Evening Journal - 22 Jul 47



Those Saucers Again

It's those flying saucers again.

Attracted by the noise of a four-motored plane, Helen Jane Mize, 12, daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Earl Mize, 2518 Ruby street, sighted a "flying saucer" at about 8:30 o'clock this morning.

The object, she said, was about 200 feet high and appeared to be tumbling along in the air, moving in a southwesterly direction, but was quickly lost to sight behind a clump of nearby trees.


Salt Lake City, Utah Tribune - 24 Jul 47



Pilot Reports Winged 'Vs' Over Idaho

BOISE, July 24 -- Seven V-shaped objects which appeared about the size of fighter planes were reported flying within 1,500 or 2,000 feet of a civilian aircraft over the Mountain Home desert Sunday.

The pilot told the Idaho Statesmen, Boise, that so far as he could determine the objects were not United States planes.

He notified the Civil Aeronautics administration radio station of his experience and the 190th fighter squadron of the Idaho national guard reported it to McChord Field, Washington.

The Statesmen quoted the pilot as saying he was "frightened and shaken" by the experience. He said the objects, in tight formation, but not the type of formation used by military aircraft and they were flying "at tremendous speed."

The pilot, the Statesmen said, has wide experience in aviation. He trained pilots during the war and operates an airport in the Boise Valley. He made his information available only on the condition that his name would not be used, the paper said.

The pilot described the objects as being in the shape of a V, with a solid, circular body under the nose of the V.

There was no evidence of any means of propulsion, he said -- no propeller, and no smoke trails indicating jet or rocket power.

There were no markings of any kind. The color, he said, was a shade he "couldn't describe and hadn't seen before."

He said he had the objects under observation for two minutes.

The pilot said he was about ten miles west of Mountain Home flying toward Boise at about 10,000 feet on the right side of the highway. He said the objects were flying at about 9000 or 9500 feet.

He described the formation as in two lines of three each with the seventh object either in the center, between the two lines, or above them.


Mason City, Iowa Globe-Gazette - 26 Jul 47



Flying Saucers

Flying saucers continued make news this week.

A Mason Cityan, Oliver Gregerson, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ole Gregerson, 1210 4th S.W., made the front page of the Boise, Idaho, Statesman, with this story:

"Fragments of ashes floating down from objects which 'turned red and vanished' were given The Statesman by Oliver Gregerson and Vesta Mitchell, both of Boise," the newspaper stated.

"The fragments were recovered about a mile and a half from Boise on Highway 20.

"Gregerson said that he saw a number of objects 'twirling in the sky, large and very high.' Two of the objects, he said, were quite large. They were shiny as though reflecting the rays of the setting sun.

"He and Miss Marshall watched the objects as they came closer to the earth and then reported they turned red and vanished.

"A minute or 2 later, he said, fragments of ash came floating to the ground. He and Miss Mitchell caught 2 portions of the ash before they hit the ground.

"The ash was pearl gray in color and one fragment was a combination of a shell like material with bits of the ash plastered over it.

The other fragment was about the size of a rose leaf. The ashes will be turned over to the state chemist for analysis."


Hayward, California Daily Review - 26 Jul 47



Saucers Seen Over Ashland

ASHLAND --The "flying saucers" were out again yesterday, according to the people who work in the Storm block on East 14th Street.

At about 10 a.m. someone standing in front of the Storm block saw something hovering in the west. In a short while 30 or 40 persons had gathered to watch.

The "flying saucers" looked not like birds, not like airplanes, but like flying saucers, observers said. One woman said they looked tear shaped.

Most observers said the objects looked miles away and appeared in two groups of about 15 each.

Many who scoffed at flying saucers before are convinced they saw them yesterday. So non-believers can just ask those who work in the Storm block.

In Hillcrest Knolls, Mrs. John Murray, 14770 Altamont road, reported that eight children playing in her yard called her out to see the "flying saucers." When Mrs. Murray took a look she saw about a "dozen saucer-shaped silver objects" flying toward Hayward and the bay. They were not in formation and they just drifted along until they gradually disappeared, Mrs. Murray said.


Helena, Montana Independent Record - 27 Jul 47



Flying Saucers, or Discs, or What Have You, Are Reported Seen In Missoula and Arlee Sections

Missoula, July 26 -- Two groups of children reported seeing flying discs. The groups were not near each other at the time and neither knew the other had reported the incident. They agree that three strange objects in the sky passed rapidly over Missoula between 9 and 9:30 a.m., but descriptions vary. Some girls said they were red with black centers; other children said they were orange with brown spots.

The discs passed west of town, the children report, heading south. So far as is known, no adults, saw them.

Seen at Arlee

Arlee -- Two "flying saucers" have been reported in this area. Mr. and Mrs. Roger Morin saw them while at home here. The objects were fiery, they said, and played about the clouds for some time, then vanished.


Ogden, Utah Standard-Examiner - 27 Jul 47



Saucers Are Gravity-Resisting Army Missiles, Idahoan Avers

BOISE, Ida., July 26 (UP) - Kenneth Arnold, Boise flying salesman who first reported seeing the "flying saucers," said Saturday he feels science has figured out a revolutionary type aircraft which probably can carry humans.

"I also have been very interested to note that science has perfected a new light metal which resists gravity," he said.

"Recent reports from the army that they are experimenting with projected missiles make me feel someone knows all about the objects I and many other have seen," he continued.

"Strange Aircraft"

Arnold saw what he calls a "strange type of aircraft" on June 24 while flying at 9,200 feet from Chehalis to Yakima, Wash. His report started a flood of similar ones from residents throughout the country.

"I'm certainly not sorry I made the first observation of the objects," Arnold said, "but I feel they should be labeled a strange type of aircraft instead of 'flying saucers'."

"I think the reason they have not been seen lately can be explained by the turbulence of the air in the northwest since July 6," he said.

"About the time people of Washington, Oregon and Idaho saw the objects, the air was very, very smooth, there was little haze and the days were the longest of the year. I feel atmospheric conditions have a great deal to do with our ability to see them."

He Carries Camera

Arnold has carried a movie camera with telescopic lens in his airplane since he saw the objects in the hope of being able to photograph them if he saw them again.

"I talked yesterday with an official of one of our biggest companies making photo equipment. He told me it would be almost impossible to photograph one. If the picture was taken from a distance its outline would not show up, and if it was taken close-up, its speed would be so great nothing would show on the film," Arnold concluded.


Hayward, California Daily Review - 28 Jul 47



Flying Saucers 'Seen' Over Valley

Latest in the flying saucer stories was the one reported by Jess Lassty, Tony Cardola and Melvin Peters of the Battcate Livestock Transportation Company who said they saw three "discs" pass over Castro Valley at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

They were "about 15,000 feet high and split up right over the yard, two going south" they said.


Amarillo, Texas Daily News - 29 Jul 47



Carpenters Won't Spike Those Saucer Rumors

Three Amarillo carpenters have joined the list of "converts" who have seen flying discs.

E.L. King, speaking for himself and two other carpenters, Jimmy Watson and Johnny Jester, said the three men observed six of the saucers flying high over the city about 12:30 o'clock yesterday afternoon.

"I didn't believe those stories," King said. "Now I do. I've seen them."

King said the disks remained in sight about 30 seconds. They were flying to the northeast, one disk behind the other in column file.

The trio were working on the San Jacinto Church of Christ structure at the time of the observation.


Gallup, New Mexico Independent - 29 Jul 47



Airlines Pilot Sights Another Flying Saucer

BOISE, Idaho, July 29(AP) -- It's flying disc time again in Idaho and the United Air Lines pilot who spotted the latest one says "they ought to be kept off the civil airways."

Capt. Charles P. Gibian, who while coming in to Boise for a landing last night reported spotting a disc-like object "going like hell" at about 9,000 feet, told the Boise Statesman:

"If it is real it must be some sort of military experiment and if that is the case they ought to arrange to keep the objects off the civil airways."

Army and Navy spokesmen have denied knowledge of the discs.

Gibian, who talked to the Idaho Statesman by telephone from Pendleton, Ore., became the second United pilot on flight 105 to report seeing the flying object. His predecessor was Capt. E.J. Smith who said he spotted two groups of discs July 4, near Emmett, Idaho.

Smith's story came during the climax of the flying discs reports, which started in late June in the state of Washington. During early July there were few states in the nation without at least one report of a disc and persons in numerous other countries, including Japan, also said they sighted the objects.

Gibian's disc -- or whatever -- was the first reported since word of the objects tapered off about two weeks ago.

The pilot said his first officer, Jack Harvey, also saw the object last night.

They said they saw a round, flat object in the sky west of Mountain Home, a village 45 miles east of here.

Both men said they thought the object was an airplane until "in a matter of seconds it disappeared, apparently going away from us."

Gibian said if the object was 40 miles or so distant from the airliner, it was as big as an airplane.

The Civil Aeronautics Administration's communications station here reported there were no other aircraft in the sky in the vicinity of Mountain home at the time Gibian and Harvey reported seeing the object.


Twin Falls, Idaho Times-News - 29 Jul 47



Speculation Revived On 'Flying Saucers'

BOISE, July 29 (AP) – Speculation about the "flying discs" revived today after a United Air Lines pilot -- the second in the past month -- reported sighting a saucer-like object last night in the sky 45 miles east of here. One of the airmen said it "might have been" a cloud.

Capt. Charles F. Gibian and First Officer Jack Harvey reported the incident to the airways control tower and to the United operations office in Boise before landing their mainliner at 8:40 p.m.

Four hours later after landing at Portland, Ore., Gibian was quoted by a newsman as saying "I'm not convinced this was a disc. This might have been a small fragment of a stratus cloud which dispersed as we watched it."

In an interview Gibian was quoted as saying that the "only logical explanation was that it was a bit of rapidly forming and disappearing cloud. But I say that's logical because I don't know what I saw. It wasn't an airplane and if it was an object when it vanished it was going like hell."

Harvey, who first sighted the object, was quoted as saying "the object appeared to have considerable substance."


Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 29 Jul 47



Report Seeing 'Saucers'

What appeared to be five "flying saucers" were seen by a group of prune pickers in the Stateline district shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday, according to a telephone call to the Union-Bulletin office. The discs were sighted in the southeast.


Corpus Christi, Texas Times - 30 Jul 47



Preacher Sees Flying Disk

ELECTRA, July 30. (AP) - The Rev. J.O. Jarrell, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Electra, reported that he saw an object similar to those described as "flying disks," about 12:40 yesterday. The object, about twice the size of an automobile wheel, spherical in shape, aluminum colored, was traveling eastward at approximately 2,500 to 3,000 feet and then suddenly veered toward the northeast and disappeared, the pastor said.


Twin Falls, Idaho Times News - 30 Jul 47



'Saucers' Return To Magic Valley

CASTLEFORD, July 30 — The 'flying discs" have returned to Magic Valley after a lapse of more than two weeks.

Dwight Brown reported Wednesday that he had seen one of the elusive and mysterious "discs" about two miles west of Castleford. He said the "disc" sounded like an outboard motor and was headed southeast over Salmon canyon. Brown observed the "disc" at about 7:10 a.m. Wednesday.


Canandaigua, New York Daily Messenger - 31 Jul 47



Flying Discs Are Reported Here

Mr. And Mrs. Richard Martin, who live at Crystal Beach, East Lake Road, today reported they saw several flying discs last night high in the western sky. The discs appeared to be a glistening white and whirled back and forth. It was "quite a sight", they agreed.

Earlier in the month a furor was caused by reports of flying discs sighted all over the country, and they were a daily topic of conversation and surmise as to their origin.


Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 31 Jul 47



Army Probers Reopen Flying Disc Puzzle

PORTLAND (AP) -- Two army air force investigators reopened the flying disk" puzzle here Wednesday in an interview with Dick Rankin, pilot, who reported June 14 he had sighted a mysterious air formation near Bakersfield, Calif.

Rankin, a brother of the late Tex Rankin, reported the two army representatives said they were from Fourth AAF headquarters at San Francisco and mentioned they have interviewed four other experienced pilots who reported similar unidentified aerial objects.


Connellsville, Pennsylvania Daily Courier - 1 Aug 47



Quartet Claim Big Channel Bass Catch; Chase "Saucer"
KAHRYAN C. HAAS
The Courier's Dunbar Township Correspondent

All of us are familiar with the tall tales of the nimrods, when they return from a successful or unsuccessful trip. This fish story is surely a "honey," combining truth and maybe a bit of fiction.

Lloyd Seal of Bullskin township and Fred Leighty, Jr., Michael Glessner and Thomas Leighty, all of Dunbar township, related it following a three-day fishing trip to Tilghman Island in Chesapeake Bay.

Last Friday the four fishermen spent 11 hours on the bay in a chartered boat owned by Captain Luther Garvin. During those hours of telling stores, fishing and giving advice, a whopper was certainly due them. Mr. Seal, a veteran with the rod, landed a 70-pound channel bass. Excitement was at a peak when within 30-minutes, Tom Leighty had its twin brother which weighed just two ounces less. Seal, to save his reputation, was determined to prove to his friends back home that his big one was not a fable. He purchased a 125-pound tin can in which the bass was iced and packed to be brought back home where he will exhibit it on his country estate along the Connellsville-Mount Pleasant road.

Pictures had been taken after the catch but Mr. Seal, not content with that evidence of his prowess with the denizen of the deep, had more taken at his estate.

Now comes the tall story, or is it a tall story? Can a "flying saucer," story be believed when four fishermen saw the "saucer"? Traveling home on Route 40, between Frederick and Hagerstown, in Maryland, they aver they saw a "silvery flying saucer" about 15 feet in diameter and approximately 10 miles ahead of the car and at an angle of about 45 degrees. "Step on the gas and see what this thing is," said Mike to Fred. Fred stepped on the gas, keeping his speedometer just below the 110 miles-an-hour reading. After a 10 minute chase, the saucer disappeared.

That's their story. When four fishermen go on a successful fishing trip, they should get something out of it, but in this case their experience seemed to be in the reverse. Lloyd lost his conscience, Mike, his headache, Fred, his rheumatism and Tom his nerve.


Reno, Nevada State Journal - 1 Aug 47



Flying Saucer Opens Orebody In Old Tunnel
Mysterious Projectile Solves Miner's Problem

A communication from Luning to the Tonopah Times said that one of the best stories to come out of the west in connection with the "flying saucers," or what have you, concerns Joe Cardwell, well-known Luning miner.

A few days ago Joe was at work on his claim, a few miles out of Luning, when a loud whizzing noise overhead attracted his attention. Joe looked up just in time to see some round object cut across the sky and disappear in a tunnel farther up the hill. As he stared in startled amazement at the accuracy of the unseen marksman who had fired the missile, a cloud of dust erupted from the mouth of the tunnel.

Joe dropped his tools and began climbing the hill. He approached the tunnel with the correct degree of awe and, after a bit, entered.

The unknown object had left plenty of evidence that it had progressed some distance in the tunnel as it caromed from one side to the other. It had knocked piles of muck from the tunnel walls and dust was still drifting about.

Farther back in the tunnel Cardwell came to a spot where enough muck and rock had been knocked down to block the passage and he could go no farther. The mysterious flying object lay behind the obstruction and it's there today awaiting some curious individual to dig it out.

On his way back to the mouth of the tunnel, Joe happened to notice a spot where a quantity of wall rock had been torn loose. The rock had the appearance of ore and Joe took a few samples along with him. Out in the sun he was surprised to discover the rock was freely sprinkled with gold.

Pannings made by Luning miners indicate Joe's ore will run $300 or so in gold. Joe is now at work in the tunnel and reports he has a vein 14 inches wide of the rich quartz. Oscar Olsen, Luning storeman and Goldfield pioneer, is said to be interested in the property with Cardwell -- but Oscar is not talking.


Long Beach, California Press Telegram - 1 Aug 47



Disc Story Supported
Saucers Seen by Others Over L.B. Last Friday

Four Long Beach residents reported Wednesday having seen a flying saucer about 6 p.m. last Friday, and today others telephoned to say that they saw an aerial disc -- supposedly the same one -- at the same time, and to concur emphatically in the assertion made to the Press-Telegram Wednesday, that "this definitely isn't a hoax."

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Kessler, 3477 Orange Ave., said they were in their yard at that time, looking at an aviator's "skywriting,", when a circular object raced across, the sky. They said it "was between us and the skywriting," and that it "seemed to have a greenish and a reddish-tinge in the front and the back respectively."

John Salerno, 1528 Linden Ave., who also saw the flying disc from his home, described it as "a red object, with smoke coming from the rear," and declared it was traveling "about six times as fast as a plane."

Mr. and Mrs. Paul R. Rioth, 1331 Junipero Ave., and Mr. and Mrs. Van Corn R. Carpenter, 1037 Raymond Ave., reported Wednesday having seen the flying saucer from the Rioths' yard.

Four persons at the J.K. Walker home, 2603 E. Pacific Coast Hwy., today added their testimony to the reports previously given by other Long Beach residents: that a flying disc was seen about 6 p.m. July 25, scooting across the sky.

"The saucer was flying below the 'skywriting' which, we had been watching," Mrs. Walker stated. "It was partly reddish, and partly either green or blue. Before the speeding disc disappeared, we saw three or four pieces, which you might call little discs, break away from, it."


Miami, Oklahoma Daily News-Record - 4 Aug 47



Flying Saucers

Several Wyandotte citizens reported seeing "flying saucers" going over Wyandotte, around sunset last Thursday evening. The objects were shining looking double funnel shape, and the noise was so loud several hearing the buzz thought a large swarm of bees were flying overhead. They discovered the object going high in the air at a high rate of speed.

A couple of families living southeast of Wyandotte were the first persons seeing these objects. Several minutes later a number of persons in Wyandotte saw the peculiar missiles. One woman reported they sounded like a large electric fan running.


Sitka, Alaska Daily Sentinel - 6 Aug 47



Flying Disc Seen By Two Pilots

ANCHORAGE (AP) - Two veteran Alaska pilots reported yesterday a five-minute aerial pursuit of "a disc-like object" at 170 miles an hour.

The pilots Jack Peck, a veteran of 17 years flying in the north and co-pilot Vance Daly, informed the Civil Aeronautics Administration that the incident occurred northwest of Bethel at about 500 feet altitude.

The CAA issued the following release on their report:

"A disc-like object resembling the rear view of a C-54 without motors or flying wing; wind negligible; ceiling and visibility unlimited; true course northwest; no visible means propulsion. After determining no reported traffic at Bethel. Peck followed the object in a DC-3 for five minutes at indicated air speed of 170 miles per hour before it disappeared."


Lowell, Massachusetts Sun - 7 Aug 47



Flying Saucers Now Are Big Platters

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 7 (INS) - The "flying saucers" which have plagued the nation for weeks appear to have grown up.

Numerous Philadelphians reported today that objects resembling "large plates" were seen racing across the sky last night.

Some of the reports said the objects left a "hissing sound" in their wake. The "plates" were said to be "bluish white" and traveling at a tremendous speed.

Astronomers in Philadelphia, however, said they hadn't seen anything unusual.


Algona, Iowa Upper Des Moines - 7 Aug 47



Odds and Ends

Flying saucers have passed out of the news picture almost, but Bill Laivell and two men from Minnesota swear they saw some in southern Minnesota last week.


Helena, Montana Independent Record - 7 Aug 47



Helena Girls Report Seeing Flying Disks at Night Here

Six Helena girls reportedly sighted a number of flying disks traveling in "V" formation over Helena at 2 o'clock this morning.

The girls, on a slumber party at the home of Peggy Mitchell, 610 North Logan, were in bed on the back lawn when they sighted the objects which Jacque Cauble, spokesman for the group, described as being light orange in color and traveling at a terrific rate of speed.

Miss Cauble who said that she recognized the discs from some that she had seen in Boise earlier in the summer, added that they were traveling too fast to count but estimated that there were about 12.

The other girls of the party who saw the strange night flyers were Janice Hummell, Ruth Robertson, Jerry Gruner, Joanne Huber and Neva Hardy.


Flagstaff, Arizona Daily Sun - 8 Aug 47



Report Flying Discs Again, Nogales Area

NOGALES, Ariz., Aug. 8 (AP) – People in this border country are seeing disks again, so they claim.

A party of eight persons, including city water department employees, and an 11-year-old girl living in different parts of the city, reported they saw one heading for Mexico this morning.

Kelly Smith, cleaning shop operator, said the thing he saw in the air was "red, a bright colored round object, moving very fast." He and seven other persons claimed they saw it.

A few minutes later young Carolyn Gardner reported and said she and her neighbors had seen another. This one was "black," she said, and disappeared behind some clouds.


Hagerstown, Maryland Morning Herald - 8 Aug 47



Meteors Flashing Through Night Sky
'Flying Discs' From Space Better Seen After Midnight

New York, Aug. 7. (AP) - The Perseid meteors -- an annual visit of "flying discs" from space -- again are flashing through the night sky, with the greatest shows visible early next Monday and Tuesday mornings.

Up to 70 an hour may be seen then. The best time to look is after midnight in your own locality.

Most of the meteors will appear in the northeast, but also will be visible in other parts of the sky.

The moon will be in its last quarter, and so placed as not seriously to interfere with visibility.

The meteors are a train of particles of stone and metal, ranging from buckshot to pea size, that race around an orbit which brings them once a year into the earth's path around the sun. They are traveling at upward of 20 miles per second, and the friction and heat when they speed through the earth's atmosphere makes them glow. These meteors are believed to be the wreckage from a comet, Tuttle's comet, which disintegrated, with the tiny particles still traveling in the same orbit. They get their name because they appear in the part of the sky occupied by the constellation Perseus. The Perseids are the best known stream of meteors, and always are practically certain to produce a good annual display.

A few of the Perseids may be seen any time between August 1 and August 21, and high rates may come occasionally between August 9 and 13. The early morning hours of August 11 and 12 bring the greatest visible showers.


Walla Walla, Washington Union-Bulletin - 9 Aug 47



Evidence on Flying Discs Inconclusive

HAMILTON FIELD. Calif. (AP) - Intelligence officers of the fourth air force reported Friday "there is not sufficient evidence or testimony available to this headquarters to conclude whether or not the reports of so-called flying discs in the Tacoma area or any other area have any basis of fact."

Two army officers who had been assigned to investigate reports of flying saucers in the Pacific Northwest were killed in the crash of their plane as it was returning to Hamilton field from McChord field.

Lt Col Donald L. Springer, assistant chief of staff, army intelligence, returned Friday from the Tacoma area.

He stated that a reported explosion of a small boat off Maury island, attributed by some persons to a flying disc collision, did not occur.

Colonel Springer said fragments resembling molten metal were found on the beach at Maury island, and that similar material appears in great quantity both in that area and in other parts of the Tacoma country.

Samples of this material were turned over to McChord field authorities by persons who reported having seen the flying discs.

The officer said that Master Sgt. Woodrow Matthews, crew chief in the plane in which the two Hamilton field men were killed, reported he had placed a heavy box aboard the bomber before it left McChord field. It is presumed here the box contained samples of the metallic substance.

The plane was destroyed by fire and neither the box nor the material was retrieved.

Sgt. Matthews and another passenger parachuted from the flaming ship.


Twin Falls, Idaho Times-News - 15 Aug 47



Urie Sketch
This is an artist's conception of the flying disc that A.C. Urie saw sweeping through Snake river canyon six miles west of Blue Lakes ranch. It seemed to be powered by jets emitting a fiery glow on both sides, and could well be the inspiration for something new in women's hats, such as a "flying saucer" creation. (Drawing by Vic Goertzen -- staff engraving)


Heads up, folks! The disks are flying again
Flying Saucer Reported Flashing Down Canyon At 100 Miles Per Hour - Two Others Seen

By John Brosnan

Just as Magic Valley and the nation were starting to let go of lampposts after reeling under a welter of flying saucer reports, two more Twin Falls county men revived speculation on the mystery with vivid descriptions of discs they saw.

From A.C. Urie, who operates the Auger Falls Trout Farm, six miles west of Blue Lakes Ranch to Snake River Canyon, came perhaps the most detailed account of any of the fast flying objects the nation has yet produced.

The flying saucer Urie saw was skimming along through Snake River Canyon at a height of about 75 feet at 1:00 pm Wednesday. At 9:30 am the same day, L.W. Hawkins, Twin Falls county commissioner and former county sheriff, also saw two circular objects soaring along at great speeds near Salmon Dam 40 miles south west of Twin Falls.

Here is Urie's eye-witness description of the flying discs, seen by him and his son, Keith, 8, and Billy, 10:

"I obtained a close-up view of the flying saucer as it passed the trout farm at 1:00 p.m. August 13th going down Snake River Canyon at a height of about 75 feet from the canyon floor. I would estimate the speed about a 1000 miles per hour."

Urie explained that the incident occurred while the two boys were coming across the river from the north side in a boat. He had become concerned about what was delaying them, and walked toward the river to see if they were all right.

"I had a side view of a distance of about 300 feet and almost was level with the thing," he continued. "Two of my boys, Keith and Billy were below me and they also saw it at about a right angle. They both saw a lower and a side view, and we and we were staring at it from the north side of the facing toward the north. The boys saw it coming from about a half a mile up the canyon, and we all lost sight of it in less then a mile."

While the impression was still vivid in their minds, the three all got together and made rough sketches of what they had seen. These in turn were the basis of the artist conception of the strange affair by Vic Goertson of Twin Falls for the Times-News.

"The canyon floor underneath at that particular point was that it rode up and down over the hills and hollows at a speed indicating some type of control faster than the reflexes of man. It is my opinion it is guided by some type of instruments and must be powered by atomic energy, as it made very little noise -- just a s-w-i-s-h when it passed by."

Urie described the size as about 20 feet long by 10 feet high and 10 feet wide, giving it an oblong shape. It might be described as looking at an inverted pie-plate, or broad-brimmed straw hat that been compressed from two sides.

Pressed for his opinion of just what it was, he said he was convinced there was something to this "flying saucer" situation. "I know a number of people who have also seen them, and I know now that they're not just imagining seeing these things or trying to get their names in the paper.

"I do know that it scared the boys, and made me feel uneasy," he added.

Tracing down a rumor that county commissioner Hawkins had seen an unusual object in the air on the same day as Urie's experience, the Times-News called him at his Filer home.

"Yes I did," he replied without hesitation. "I'll have to admit, I've been skeptical all along until I saw it with my own eyes. I can't say what it was, but I can say there is something in the air."

Hawkins related that while at Salmon dam Wednesday morning, a sound resembling that of an echo of a motor caused him to look upward, and there he saw two circular objects that reflected light. They were traveling at a great speed, and higher than most airplanes, according to Hawkins.

Aside from this, he declined to add details, except to say, "there's something in the air."

His general description however, corresponded closely to hundreds of persons who reported seeing "flying saucers" after Kenneth Arnold, Boise business man, touched a deluge by telling of coming upon nine disc-like objects while he was flying in his private plane in Washington.

Thereafter the nation became increasingly "flying saucer" conscious creating a state of mind for four teen age Twin Falls boys to cause a mild sensation when they built a model flying disc and tossed it in a local yard July 10th. This was subsequently revealed as a hoax, following the investigation by the army and the FBI.

There after the saucer reports tapered off into a few scattered incidents until the question was revived by this week's occurrences.

Speculation has ranged from mention that the discs could be army navy guided missile experiments, or they could be experiments by some foreign country, to something out of this world.

Whatever they are, a lot of people have seen something.






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Notes:

1. In 1947 -- having just lived through five years of world war -- much of the U.S. population had at least passing familiarity with the concept of describing aerial objects in terms of their "apparent size". This was part of basic civil defense training intended to avoid estimations of actual size, which is notoriously difficult to gauge accurately for an object at an unknown distance and/or elevation (for instance, an aircraft at a certain distance and elevation might visually appear to an observer on the ground to be only two feet long). Both military and civil defense training included such things as comparing an aerial object to the size of a coin held at arm's length, so that, for instance, an object might be reported as the size of a dime or as the size of a quarter. Another common descriptor was comparing an object to the apparent size of a full moon. Therefore it is sometimes extremely difficult to discern whether witness reports given to the newspapers refer to an object's actual size or its apparent size, and such descriptions as "the size of a serving tray" or "the size of a washtub" should not necessarily be seen as a literal description of size.









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