Puzzle Alerts Entire Nation to Scan Sky

The Oregonian

Dimanche 6 juillet 1947

By Associated Press

The nation’s perplexity over discs reported spinning through the skies deepened Saturday in the wake of July 4 reports from virtually all parts of the country.

There was no scientific explanation offered to fit the observations which spanned the nation from the Pacific to the gulf to the Atlantic.

A mass of evidence piled up swiftly as holiday throngs and fliers joined in telling of seeing bright, pancakelike objects skimming through the air at varying estimates of altitude and speed.

Former skeptics joined the ranks of the believers as the flashing objects glittered before their eyes. Reliable observers, such as Capt. E. J. Smith of United Air Lines, his copilot Ralph Stevens, and his stewardess Marty Morrow, told of seeing the round flat objects for 12 minutes while flying west from Boise, Idaho, on Independence day evening. Ex-airmen, picnickers, motorists, and housewives swelled the number of witnesses to the strange phenomenon.

Pilot Sees Objects First

The first published report of “flying saucers” came from Kenneth Arnold, Boise, Idaho, businessman pilot, who reported at Pendleton, Or., on June 25 that he had seen nine flying at 1200 miles an hour in formation, shifting position “like the tail of a kite,” over Washington state’s Cascade mountains.

Before scoffers had more than begun to offer explanations such as “reflections,” “persistent vision” and “snow blindness,” an Oklahoma City private flier, Byron Savage, said he had seen a similarly shaped object some weeks earlier, but that fear of ridicule kept him quiet.

Then the reports began to filter in, mostly from individuals. The discs were seen in Texas, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Missouri, Colorado, California, Arkansas, Nebraska. The number varied from one to a dozen, seen by one or two people mostly.

Reports Come in From East

Then the July 4 deluge hit. Two hundred persons in one group and 60 in another saw them in Idaho; hundreds saw them in Oregon, Washington and other states throughout the West.

And for the first time, the Eastern states had their reports. Observers, earlier all from west of the Mississippi river, came in with reports from Michigan, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina, and Canada’s Atlantic seaboard.

Ted Tannich and William Lemon, of Albany, Saturday saw a silvery object fly southward, halt abruptly, and then retrace its course. It was visible for possibly 15 seconds, they said.