Case 105: June 29, near Cliff, New Mexico
A rancher near Cliff, named Arthur Howard, reported that he had seen a round, shining object fall to earth in
broken country near his ranch some time during the day. Later, two pilots, Bud Hagen of Hurley and Ed Nelson of
Cliff, made an aerial search of the location. They found nothing, but they reported that at one point while flying
over the reported landing site their plane flew through a layer of stinking air
-- something for which they
could find no explanation.
Case 115: June 30, near Grand Canyon, Arizona
Lt. William G, McGinty, U.S. Navy flight student, was flying out of Williams Air Base in the vicinity of Grand
Canyon at 9:10 a.m. MST when he saw two circular, light grey objects descending straight down from an altitude of
25,000 feet, one after the other. They were moving at inconceivable speeds
, and he estimated that each was
about eight feet in diameter. The two objects appeared to have come to earth some 25 miles south of the southern rim
of the canyon. This sighting is among those in the Air Force files, and it is explained as probable meteors
.
Case 200: July 3, near St. Maries, Idaho
Mrs. Walter Johnson, of Dishman, Washington, a Spokane suburb, reported that she and her family had been visiting
her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Beeman, of Butler's Bay, on the St. Joe River in northern Idaho, after having spent a
few days camping in the area. About 6:30 p.m. PST, on the 3rd, Ben Beeman, who had been working in his garden,
suddenly shouted for us to come outside of. the house
, Mrs. Johnson reported. When they had come out, at
least nine members of the family, including Mrs. Johnson's sister and a niece, saw 9 large objects (some counted
only eight) flying out of the southern sky in a loose formation.
With that mountainside as a background, we saw the saucers come in very fast, slow down jerkily, then flutter to
the ground like leaves
, she told the press, several days later. The objects made no sound
, Mrs. Johnson
said. Suddenly they stopped in mid-air, then started again. When they reached a point over a clearing in the
timber, they stopped again and settled down a few at a time until they were out of sight. The mysterious part was
that we could see them flutter down into the timber, and yet we couldn't see that they did anything to the
trees
.
The objects, thicker than discs and looking more like washtubs, were described by Mrs. Johnson as being about
the size of a five-room house
. They glittered with the brilliance of a mirror in the sunlight, but they must
have given off the light themselves, because the sun itself was not visible
(Since it was too early for sunset,
this must mean the sky was overcast, and the objects seen below the clouds). The area where they went down was
several miles away
, Mrs. Johnson explained, and darkness prevented any search for the objects that evening.
Besides having been seen by Mrs. Johnson's family, the flight and landing was witnessed by at least a half-dozen
neighbors. After an aerial search, three days later, two missions of the National Guard's 116th fighter group
reported no trace of the objects. Renewah County sheriff's deputies made a land search as well, but results of this
are unknown, although if any traces had been discovered, it is likely that the findings would have been made known
in the papers, since the sighting had been given such prominent news coverage. Mrs. Johnson reported the sighting to
officials at the Spokane Army Air Base, but no record of it is found in the Air Force files.
Case 382 -- July 6, near Miami Springs, Florida:
While vacationing in Florida, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Walsh of Boston saw three objects rise up out of the Everglades
like some rare species of bird
from what may have been a landing site in the sparsely settled area. The couple
were fishing at 6:00 a.m. EST in the canal, several miles north of the Hialeah Bridge, when they saw two round,
silvery objects, followed by a third, ascend from the trees in the Everglades to a height of about 6,000 feet. Mr.
Walsh estimated the size of the objects at ten to fifteen feet in diameter. He said they flew due south and quickly
disappeared from sight.
Case 383 -- July 6, near Pocatello, Idaho:
H. C. McLean, a touring Seattle resident driving through Pocatello, reported by letter to the local paper that he
had seen a small disc float slowly to the ground in front of his car just after dawn. He described the disc as about
two or three feet in diameter, about the size of a wagon wheel
. It came down on edge, like a wheel in the
road. Something held it upright
, he reported, and then moved it forward in a series of short jerks
,
each move carrying it a foot or two further. In the middle of the disc
, McLean wrote, I could made out a
bulge, as if a plate had been welded onto the disc, and there were two narrow strips of metal running almost
parallel to each other above and below this mid-section
. The edge of the disc was surrounded by a tube that
had a funnel-like opening at one end, set into the disc's rim so that the latter could roll freely
.
After having moved ahead about 20 yards, the object rose easily and at once began to climb. I examined the place
where the disc had landed but it touched the ground so lightly that it left no mark. I am convinced that the disc's
flight was controlled, that it gave out signals indicating its position, and that it is harmless
.
Case 431: July 6, Tempe, Arizona
During the afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Francis Howell were in their yard at 317 Ash Street, with a neighbor couple.
Suddenly they all noticed a circular object northeast of the house, floating down to the ground with a kite-like
motion
. The object appeared to be about two feet in diameter, was flat and thin, made of some sort of
aluminum, and looked transparent
.
The Howells and their neighbors watched the disc disappear behind a row of trees some distance away, and they
quickly approached the area to get a better look at it. As they came to within 600 yards of the landing site they
saw the disc ascend slowly into the air at a 45 degree angle, and then take off at a high rate of speed
to
the northwest, towards Phoenix, nine miles away. The Howells agreed that the disc was too small to contain a pilot.
The Air Force conclusion about this observation was that there was insufficient information
to find an
explanation.
Case 803 -- July 9, Spokane, Washington:
Cliff Markham, of North 1019 Crestline, Spokane, and members of his crew at the Layrite Concrete Producing Plant on
Trent and Erie Streets, reported seeing a group of three disc-shaped objects spinning in the sky over the Sperry
flour mill at 6:15 p.m. PST. Markham said they estimated the speed of the objects to be 50 or 60 miles an hour. One
of the discs left the group and appeared to land on the bank of the Spokane River. Some of the men made a search of
the area, but could find no evidence of the disc's having landed there.
