The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Evening Lookout, Santa Monica, California, USA, pages 1 and 3, on July 5, 1947.
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Disks Reported Near Bay District
By The Associated Press
The "Flying Saucers" mystery closed in on Santa Monica today with reports that the mysterious sky visitors were seen nearby.
Two fliers from Santa Monica airport, Pilot Dan J. Whelan and Duncan Underhill, said they were "scared silly" by one of the saucers, 40 to 50 feet in diameter, at 7000 feet 25 miles south of Santa Monica. "They looked exactly like skeet disks."
Frank E. Chester, Beverly Hills, reportedly spotted a flock of the saucers between Pacific Palisades and Malibu. "They crackled at a speed of 300 or 400 miles an hour, not more than 1000 feet over my car. and disappeared over the ocean," he said.
Hundreds of persons throughout the West told today of seeing mysterious sky discs while scattered observers elsewhere in the country said that the bright, saucer-like objects zipped high over them in the Independence Day sky.
From Idaho, Oregon, Washington in the Far West, Louisiana in the South, Michigan in the Midwest, Pennsylvania in the East and Canada's East Coast Prince Edward Island came reports of the strange objects first reported over Washington state June 25 by Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Id.
(Military and scientific experts in Washington had only bleak looks and shoulder shrugs today at a new rash of "flying saucer" reports from around the country. Researchers of the Army, Navy and a government observatory agreed on one thing - they "don't know what it's all about - or so they said.)
Both ground and aerial observers told of seeing the discs. Early in the afternoon Portland, Ore., police, swamped with calls, issued an all-clear alert and within minutes two patrol cars radioed reports that they were watching the discs.
Observers said they were certain they were not the 24 P-80 jet planes which were high over that city yesterday.
At 2:50 p.m.. a group of picnickers at Twin Falls, Id., said they saw discs going West. A few minutes later another group was seen and at 3:10 a third group of the discs - the total number was estimated at 35 - was seen also speeding West. Nearly 60 persons were in the observing group.
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WASHINGTON (AP. -- U.S. Naval Observatory officials concluded unofficially today that the mysterious "flying saucers" were not astronomical phenomena.
An official said the observatory's unofficial decision was based on descriptions of the strange flying objects, since none of their astronomers had seen them.
Meanwhile, both the Army and Navy confessed themselves unable to give an explanation for the reported objects. The Army began an investigation Thursday.
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Continued From Page 1
At 7 p.m., George Astor of Spokane, Wash., said a group of 200 persons observed one disc circle for 30 minutes at Hauser Lake, Id., before it zoomed upward and disappeared.
The entire crew or a United Airlines plane said they saw the discs - "like a pancake standing on end" - eight minutes after taking off from Boise at 9:04 p.m., and kept them 1n sight for about 12 minutes.
Yeoman Frank Ryan of the Seattle Coast Guard photographed a disc - but it appeared in the negative only as a pinpoint or light.
A Los Angeles pilot and his companion said they were "scared silly" when they saw what they thought was one of the flying saucers moving swiftly North by Northeast at 7000 feet, some 2000 feet above their plane.
At New Orleans, Miss Lillian Lauters said she saw one going northeast over Lake Ponchartrain last night. Port Huron. Mich., also joined the reporting group.
And for the first time, reports came from the East. Something round with a luminous halo was sighted over Philadelphia, but Dr. M. K. Leisy said it appeared to be going at about the speed of the wind blowing clouds.
From Summerside, Can., on Prince Edward Island, came reports or the discs, one was said to be moving South and another Southeast.
Nearly all of the observers agreed that the objects - whatever they might be - were round, flat and shiny. How big they were remained uncertain.
Capt. E. J. Smith, pilot of the United Air Lines plane which spotted several, said "it's hard to judge size unless you know how far away a thing is."
But, he agreed with others that he had seen the much-discussed "saucers," and added, "none of us believed in these saucer reports before."
By JOHN CORLETT
Idaho Manager, United Press
BOISE, Id. (U.P.) - Just before dusk last night, as my wife and I and two friends were relaxing after dinner, a tiny white disk - one of the mysterious "saucers" - scudded across the sky at a terrific speed.
We were entertaining friends and were relaxing in the garden when my wife suddently pointed skywards and cried. "Look!"
In just about the time it takes to turn your bead, the silver object was nearly out of sight.
Both my wife and I, and our guests, Mr. and Mrs. V. H. Selby, caught a glimpse of the tiny object. Selby is a Boise artist.
During the last few days we had discussed the various news stories carried about the discs, many of which came from the Boise area, and, frankly, I had been a bit skeptical of tbem. But tbe disk was unmistakable, even in the three of four seconds time during which we had the chance to see it.
The disk traveled at a high rate of speed. It appeared firts in the Northwestern sky, apparently coming from the general direction of the Oregon-Washington line, and sped southeast.
There was no noise - absolutely none that we could hear, either before or after the disk shot by.
Until last night I didn't believe in them. But I know that those "saucers" aren't just a myth, part of someone's imagination. It took seeing them with our own eyes to believe in it.
