Farmington Daily Times, samedi 18 mars 1950, vol. 61, n° 194 < Retyped from original (poor quality) microfilm copy obtained from offices of the Farmington Daily Times by Glenn Campbell, 10/4/1995
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Des appareils vus par des centaines de personnes
Une vitesse estimée à 1000 miles/h, à une altitude de 20 000 pieds
Pour le 3ème jour consécutif des soucoupes volantes ont été signalées au-dessus de Farmington. Et à chacun des 3 jours leur arrivée fut rapportée entre 11:00 et midi.
3 personnes ont appelé le bureau du Daily Times pour signaler voir d'étranges objets dans les airs juste avant midi.
Des personnes le long de la Rue Principale ont une fois de plus pu être vus regarder et pointer le ciel.
Des vents élevés et une tempête de poussière ont empêché une vision claire.
Une bonne moitié de la population de cette ville reste certaine aujourd'hui d'avoir vu des vaisseaux spatiaux ou des appareils étranges — des centaines d'entre eux zooming through the skies hier. Des estimations de leur nombre allaient de "plusieurs" à plus de 500. Quoi qu'ils furent, ils provoquèrent une sensation majeure dans cette communauté, qui ne se trouve qu'à 110 miles aériens au nord-ouest de l'énorme installation atomique de Los Alamos.
Les objets semblaient jouer tag haut dans les airs. Par moments ils fonçaient au loin à des vitesses presque incroyables. Un témoin fit une observation de triangulation sur un des objets et estima sa vitesse à environ 1000 miles/h, et estima sa taille à à peu près celle d'un B-29.
Farmington citizens stood in the streets yesterday watching the first reported mass "flying saucer" flight ever sighted. Traffic was slowed to avoid hitting sky gazers. Le bureau du Farmington Daily Times fut submergé d'appels de personnes ayant vu les objets.
Une masse de gens décrivirent les objets comme étant des disques argentés. Un certain nombre s'accordaient pour en avoir vu un rouge -- plus gros et plus rapide, et apparemment le chef de file.
Clayton J. Boddy, 32 ans, directeur commercial du Farmington Times et ancien capitaine des Ingénieurs de l'Armée en Italie, fut parmi ceux qui virent les objets surprenants.
Boddy was on roadway when all of a sudden I noticed a few moving objects high in the sky.
"Moments later there appeared what seemed to be about 500 of them," Boddy continued. He could not estimate their size or speed, but said they appeared to be about 15 000 feet high.
Boddy's account was confirmed by Joseph C. and Francis C. Kelloff, retail grocers from Antonito, Colo., who were in Farmington to inspect the site of a proposed new store, and by Bob Foutz and John Burrell of Farmington. The Kelloffs said the objects appeared to be flying in formation.
One of the most impressive accounts came from Harold F. Thatcher, head of the Farmington unit of the Soil Conservation service. Thatcher made a triangulation on one of a number of flying craft, He said if it had been a B-29 it would have been 2000 feet high and traveling more than 1000 miles/h.
Je ne suis pas un ingénieur professionnel, dit Thatcher, mais j'ai des ingénieurs qui travaillent pour moi et je sais comment faire une triangulation approximative d'un objet.
Thatcher emphatically denied an earlier report that the objects could have been small pieces of cotton fuzz floating in the atmosphere.”
It was not cotton," he said, "I saw several pieces of cotton fuzz floating around in the air at the time, but I was not sighting on any cotton.”
The "cotton" report was started by State Patrolman Andy Andrews, who quoted several Farmington Residents as asserting it was cotton they saw. The residents denied Andrew's report.
The first reports of flying saucers were noted a few minutes before 11 a.m. yesterday. For a full hour thereafter people deluged the Times with reports of the objects.
A second large scale sighting occurred at 3 p.m. At that time, Mrs. Wilson Jones, 27, and Mr. Roy Hicks, 33, housewives reported seeing objects to the north of Farmington, flying in perfect formation. Others reported the same sight.
Johnny Eaton, 29, a real estate and insurance salesman, and Edward Brooks, 24, an employee of the Perry Smoak garage, were the first to report the red-colored sky object.
Brooks, a B-29 tail gunner during the war, said he was positive the objects sighted were not airplanes. "The very maneuvering of the things couldn't be that of modern aircraft," he said.
John Bloomfield, another employee of Smoak's garage, said the objects he saw traveled at a speed that appeared to him to be about 10 times faster than that of jet planes. In addition, he said the objects frequently made right-angle turns.”
They appeared to be coming at each other head-on," he related. "At the last second, one would veer at right angles upward, the other at right angles downward. One saucer would pass another and immediately the one to the rear would zoom into the lead.”
Marlow Webb, another garage employee, said the objects to the naked eye appeared to be about eight inches in diameter as seen from the ground. He described them as about the size of a dinner plate." "They flew sideways, on edge and at every conceivable angle," he said. "This is what made it easy to determine that they were saucer-shaped." None of the scores of reports told of any vapor trail or engine noise. Nor did anyone report any windows or other markings on the craft.
In general Farmington accepted the phenomenon calmly, although it was reported some women employees of a laundry became somewhat panicky.
Opinion was somewhat divided among those who saw the objects as to whether they were from another planet or were some new craft of our own nation's devising. Some expressed the opinion the entire incident was a fulfillment of a Bible prophesy.
From sifting all reports, the Farmington Times compiled this "timetable" of sightings:
Article was accompanied by two editorial pieces:Article by Santa Fe editor on Page 1: "Newsman Writes Letter To Flying Saucer Pilot." Apparently this article was prompted by earlier sightings in the Santa Fe area.Local editorial on an inside page: "give us the Facts"