Kenneth Arnold's sighting

Flying Saucers Reported Seen In 38 States

San Francisco, July 7, (AP) -- From one end of the country to the other, new reports of disk-like "flying saucers" skimming through the sky today added to the mystery which has baffled the nation since June 25.

There was no satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. The saucers first were reported seen in the state of Washington June 25. Then persons in other western states said they had seen them. The peak came over the July 4 holiday when they were first reported seen east of Mississippi.

The latest tabulation showed the mystery objects had been reported seen in 30 states, the District of Columbia and in Canada.

Yesterday they were reported seen in more than a dozen states and in southwestern Ontario.

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AN AERIAL patrol by the Oregon National Guard failed to sight one of the objects. The guards planned to send a plane today to a spot near St. Maries, Idaho, where one woman said 10 persons saw 8 of the discs disappear in timber July 3.

Kenneth Arnold, businessman pilot of Boise, Idaho, first reported seeing the discs. He said he saw nine flying in formation at 1200 miles an hour over the Cascade mountains. Other observers have given the objects varying speeds and in at least one case said they appeared to be suspended in the air.

Most observers usually agreed that the objects were round or oval. Guesses as to their size have ranged from that of a five-room house or a large airplane to one description of "a silver ball, 6 inches in diameter."

The army, the navy and the atomic energy commission all disclaimed any connection with the mystery. An army spokesman in Washington said the A. A. F. had been checking into the reports "and we still haven't the slightest idea what they could be."

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SOME SCIENTISTS suggested that reflections of light, such as from aircraft, might account for the bright objects which have been reported. In some cases the observers have insisted that the "saucers" have been accompanied by sound.

A Hagerstrom, Md., woman, said she saw five go eastward at "terrific speed" and that they roared with a sound like a faraway train."

Mrs. Walter Johnson of Spokane, who reported she was one of a group which saw the objects fall near St. Maries, said she and her companions could not find either the disks or anything to indicate where they might have fallen. She described them as "about the size of a five-room house" and said they resembled washtubs, more than discs.

The coast guard [Fred Ryman] at Seattle said there was nothing to indicate that

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SAUCERS --

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the objects might have come from foreign vessels near shore.

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A NUMBER OF Iowans have reported seeing the mysterious "flying saucers" which have been mystifying the nation for 12 days, and one said he believed he had seen one of the saucers long ago as July, 1946.

Orrie Miller, engineer at radio station KSO, reported that last year, while he was driving from Muscatine to Winfield at about dusk, he saw a "bright object" which he thought at first was a locomotive headlight, until it occurred to him that there was no noise.

"It was low in the sky and was flying at high speed on level flight," he said. "It appeared pear shaped and gave a brilliant light," he said.

Miller, an amateur astronomer, said the object hardly could have been a meteorite, because "it had no tail and its level flight was not like that of a meteorite."

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HE SAID he believed then it might have been one of the high speed projectiles the army was experimenting with, and so did not report his discovery, because he feared he might bring about the revelation of a military secret.

First Iowa reports of the "saucers" came from Waterloo and Keokuk.

J. E. Johnston of Waterloo said he saw one of the discs about 1:30 a.m. Saturday. He said it was flat in shape and made a "rocket like swishing noise" as it flew directly over his house about 25 feet off the ground. "It was too close from the ground to be an airplane." he said.

At Keokuk, S. M. Bayloer, William Buehl and C. F. Bowles, instructors at the Keokuk municipal airport, reported they saw three of the discs flying in formation over the airport.

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AT SIOUX CITY, Mrs. B. E. Morrison, wife of a printer, said she saw three "saucer-like, real bright objects," in western sky last Wednesday evening.

Mrs. H. F. Aneas, of Sioux City said she saw an object "about the size of a pie plate," quite high in the sky and traveling south rapidly as she and her husband were moving north on highway 141 north of here about 5:30 p.m. a week ago Sunday.

Kathleen Hartsook, Des Moines, said she saw "one of the things" while she was visiting in Omaha last Thursday or Friday evening. She described it as a flat, shiny, gold object traveling south and not very high.

W. A. Verzani, of Sioux City, reported he saw one of the discs as he was driving down town about 4 p.m. yesterday (Sunday).

He described it as saucer-like in appearance, giving off an extremely bright glow. He estimated it altitude at about 1,000 feet.