The article below was published in the newspaper The Medford Mail-Tribune, Medford, Oregon, USA, on page 1, on July 6, 1947.
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Only kinks in their necks have so far rewarded persons scanning the skyways in the Medford area for the mysterious flying discs, according to the latest reports.
Robert D. Church, in charge of the Medford office of the U. S. weather bureau, said yesterday that his office had no theory to offer in regard to the objects reported seen in other localities. He stated that, judging from the publicized widespread observation of the objects, the discs are seemingly more than "spots before the eyes."
Church added, however, that he, personally, would have to see the discs before he could be convinced as to their nature.
By United Press
The mystery of the flying saucers reported over a good portion of the country was still without an official explanation tonight but at least one scientific observer believed they are radio controlled.
Dr. Gerhard Kuiper, director of the Yerkes observatory, Williams Bay, Wis., says he is certain of one thing from the description, they are not meteors.
"But whatever they are," he said, "the description of their flight suggests radio-control."
Believed Man-Made
"If these things are real and not imagined, they must be man-made. There is absolutely no correspondence between the descriptions given by any astronomical body, such as a meteor," he said.
Dr. Kuiper said his guess was that the discs were being controlled either by our armed services or were being sent from abroad."
The army, in an effort to aid in solving the mystery, revealed it had a P-80 fighter plane standing by at Muroc army air base, Cal., to give chase if one of the careening saucers appears here.
National Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander Louis E. Starr said in a speech at Columbus, O., he was "expecting momentarily" a telegram from Washington explaining the puzzling discs.
An unidentified Manhattan project scientist reportedly said the saucers were being used in connection with experiments in transmutation of atomic energy, but an atomic bomb project official said he knew nothing about it.
Flier After Pictures
Col. F. J. Clarke, commanding officer of the Hanford, Wash., engineering works of the atomic energy project, said there was "no connection" as far as he knew between Hanford experimental work and the saucers.
As more persons from Maine to Oregon reported sighting the careening discs, the man who started all the sky-watching went out to find one of the saucers and take pictures of them.
Kenneth Arnold, who said he saw rocketing saucers June 24 while he was flying over the Pacific northwest, set off on a disc expeditionary flight late today.
He was accompanied by Col. Paul H. Welland, Provo, Utah, and took along a new movie camera to photograph any saucers he might sight.
Hundreds of persons stared into the sky, hoping to sight one of the flying saucers as debate was rife over whether the discs were careening through people's minds, or really were spinning objects in the sky.
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
