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URECAT - UFO Related Entities Catalog

SEPTEMBER 30, 1954, DEARBORN, MICHIGAN, USA, LAWRENCE CARDENAS:

Brief summary of the event and follow-up:

A British ufologist indicated that according to various Michigan newspapers. on September 30, 1954, driving to his work at a laundry at Dearborn, Lawrence Cardenas, aged 45, slowed down his car at a traffic light at 04:45 a.m..

To the right, there was a field through which a road was being driven. Close to the derricks, Cardenas was dumbfounded to see about 15 little men who were speaking an unknown tongue. They were around 1 meter 65 tall, in dark-green uniforms, they had tightly fitting skull-caps on their heads, with pointed peaks in front.

A larger entity, or man, in a brown uniform, about 15 cm taller than the rest, seemed to be addressing them. All wore heavy goggles over their eyes, and what looked like oxygen cylinders on their shoulders. Dawn was breaking, no other car was in sight, and Cardenas had just started up the car, when he was even more dumbfounded, he says, to see some 250 feet away a big oval thing resting on the grass, with colored lights on its upper surface, flickering on and off.

It seemed about twelve feet high, and had smoothly finned sides suggestive of a seas shell. He said he was not scared, but did not wish to be late for work.

The entities seemed quite friendly, and curious about their surroundings.

It is said that Mr. Cardenas is a reliable man and not given to tall stories.

Basic information table:

Narratives:

[Ref. hw1:] HAROLD T. WILKINS:

The author indicates that on September 30, 1954, driving to his work at a laundry at Dearborn, Lawrence Cardenas, aged 45, slowed down his car at a traffic light at 4:45 A.M.

To the right, there was a field through which a road was being driven. Close to the derricks, Cardenas was dumbfounded to see about 15 little men who were speaking an unknown tongue. They were around 5 feet 4 inches tall, in dark-green uniforms, they had tightly fitting skull-caps on their heads, with pointed peaks in front.

A larger entity, in a brown uniform, about six inches taller than the rest, seemed to be addressing them. All wore heavy goggles over their eyes, and what looked like oxygen cylinders on their shoulders. Dawn was breaking, no other car was in sight, and Cardenas had just started up the car, when he was even more dumbfounded, he says, to see some 250 feet away a big oval thing resting on the grass, with colored lights on its upper surface, flickering on and off.

It seemed about twelve feet high, and had smoothly finned sides suggestive of a seas shell. He said he was not scared, but did not wish to be late for work.

The entities seemed quite friendly, and curious about their surroundings.

Mr. Cardenas is a reliable man and not given to tall stories.

Harold Wilkins indicates that the source of the above is various Michigan newspapers.

[Ref. jv1:] JACQUES VALLEE:

In his UFO landings catalogue, Jacques Vallée indicates that on September 30, 1954, at 04:45 a.m., in Dearborn, Michigan, while driving to work, Lawrence Cardenas, aged 41, a laundry employee, saw 15 strange men wearing dark green uniforms to his right. They had cylinders on their shoulders, tight-fitting skull caps with pointed peaks in front, and heavy goggles. They were of medium height, and a taller man seemed to be giving them instructions. About 80 meters away was a craft 4 meters high with colored lights flickering on and off. The witness did not wait. Vallée indicates that his source is "Wilkins U 230".

[Ref. ar1:] ALBERT ROSALES:

Albert Rosales indicates that in Dearborn, Michigan, on September 30, 1954, at 04:45 a.m., driving to his work at a laundry, Lawrence Cardenas, aged 45, slowed down his car at a traffic light. To the right was a field through which a road was being driven. Close to the derricks, Cardenas was dumbfounded to see about fifteen little men who were speaking an unknown tongue.

They were around 5 feet 4 inches tall, in dark green uniforms, they had tightly fitting skullcaps on their heads, with pointed peaks in front.

A larger entity, in a brown uniform, about six inches taller than the rest, seemed to be addressing them. All wore heavy goggles over their eyes, and what looked like oxygen cylinders on their shoulders. Dawn was breaking, no other car was in sight, and Cardenas had just started up the car, when he was even more startled, he says, to see some 250 feet away, a big oval thing resting on the grass, with colored lights on its upper surface, flickering on and off.

It seemed about twelve feet high, and had smoothly finned sides suggestive of a seashell. He was not scared, but did not wish to be late for work and drove on. The entities seemed quite friendly, and curious about their surroundings.

Rosales indicates that the source is Harold T. Wilkins, in Flying Saucers Uncensored, quoting newspaper sources.

Points to consider:

This is good example of the many stories picked in newspapers and introduced in the ufologic literature and copied from author to authors without any checking being made, and, in the absence of sure quotation of the articles, it is not possible anymore to differentiate the remarks from the newspapers and those from the ufologists. For example, the term "entity" could be merely a fashionable qualifier of the debutant ufology of that time for what the witness perhaps never called "entities" but "weird-looking men."

It should be noted that 5 feet 4 inches is 1.65 meters, that is to say a normal size, neear average, the 15 cm taller "chief" hardly qualifying for high strangeness, the more so as nothing is known as of the distance of observation and the certainty of the estimate.

The object on the ground is neither seen landing nor taking off, and its vague description allows all interpretations in term of some unusual but earthly vehicle or helicopter posed there.

The case could be as well a visit of extraterrestrial beings as some confusions caused by a group of foreign workmen carrying securiy goggle and having to complete some work on the neighbouring derricks, as a pure hoax by the witness or a newspaperman's invention.

List of issues:

Evaluation:

Extraterrestrial visitors, hoax or confusion. Insufficient data.

Sources references:

* = Source I checked.
? = Source I am told about but could not check yet. Help appreciated.

• [hw1] * "Flying Saucers Uncensored", book by Harold T. Wilkins, Citadel Press, page 241, 1955.
• [jv1] * "Passport to Magonia - On UFOs, Folklore, and Parallel Worlds", book by Jacques Vallée, Contemporary Books publisher, USA, 1969.
• [jv1] * "Chronique des Apparitions Extra-Terrestres", French translation of "Passport to Magonia", book by Jacques Vallée, Denoel publisher, France, 1972.
• [ar1] * "1954 Humanoid Reports", compiled by Albert Rosales, circa 2002, at www.ufoinfo.com/humanoid/humanoid1954.shtml

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This page was last updated on July 9, 2013