The article below was published in the newspaper The Minneapolis Star, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, on pages 1 and 2, on July 5, 1947.
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From Late Dispatches
THE "FLYING SAUCER" mystery reached fever pitch today, after "I saw them myself" statements from a United Air Lines crew, Canadian farmers and scores of persons in various sections of the United states.
The pilot, co-pilot, and stewardess, who had scoffed at "flying saucers" tales, said they saw such objects Friday night while flying a passenger plane from Boise, Idaho, to Portland, Ore.
Their statements followed a day during which the "saucers" were reported seen in many parts of the nation.
While the identity of the "flying saucers" remains a mystery, a coast guardsman, Frank Ryman, 27, took a picture of one of the disks late Friday.
Ryman, using a speed graphic
A short while before it was taken, hundreds of people reported seeing the strange objects over Portland and Vancouver, Wash., on opposite sides of the Columbia river.
Many of the witnesses choruses:
"I don't know what they were, but I know I saw something."
Many Portlanders - including police, experiences fliers, and three newspapermen - declared they saw silvery discs undulating over the city.
In New Orleans, La., Miss Lilian Lawless said she saw a round, saucer-like object, shining like silver on [sic, "or"] chromium, flying at a great height and at a terrific speed in a northeasterly direction over Lake Pontchartrain.
Describing what they saw as flat, translucent plates 12 to 15 inches in diameter, several Port Huron, Mich., residents reported seeing the "saucers" criss-crossing the sky and moving northward.
"They definitely were not fireworks," said one witness.
Farmers living near Summerside, Canada, in the Prince Edward Island region, claim to have seen more of the disk-like missiles.
Brenton Clark at Augustine cove, 19 miles from Summerside, said he saw a bright object traveling north to south at medium height.
The objects also were reported seen in Illinois, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Utah and California.
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In Illinois, motorists reported that they had glimpsed the mysterious "flying saucers" near Decatur.
At Augusta, Ga., a physician said he was certain that he saw the "flying saucers."
Dr. Colden R. Battey claims he spotted the disks six weeks ago in the middle of the day while fishing in St. Helena sound near Beaufort, S. C. This was four weeks before the first published report of the disks.
At Philadelphia, an astral phenomenon was being investigated to determine whether residents had seen mysterious "flying disks" in the sky.
Dr. M. K. Leisy, a junior interne at the Pennsylvania hospital for mental diseases, and other persons in the western section of the city, reported seeing strange objects in the sky Friday night.
It was something round with a luminous halo about it, Dr. Leisy declared. It was not shiny itself, but dark in color and seemed to be propelled by whirling wings.
Contrary to previous reports, Dr. Leisy said, the object he saw was moving at approximately the speed of the wind, below the clouds. It eventually vanished in the clouds, he added.
The "saucers" made their appearance at Akron, Ohio, Friday night. Dr. Forrest Shaver said the silvery disk he saw "looked like a balloon with a light inside."
Harry E. Hoertz described it as "a light with a propelling device."
The disks also were reported over Utah Friday night, for the second time in two weeks. Two Salt Lake City women, Mary Powers and Mrs. Genevieve Dangerfield, said they saw three
Disks
Continued on Page Two
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By WALTER JOHNSON
Minneapolis Star Staff Writer
Recurring claims of mysterious "flying disks" being spotted by persons throughout the nation were held today to be "just a matter of suggestion" by a University of Minnesota professor.
William T. Heron, professor of psychology at the university, came up with a term which he said probably applied to the flood of reports - entoptic, or "within-the-eye" phenomena.
That means that shadows of the blood corpuscles on the retina of the eye are projected out against a bright blue sky, he said.
Combined with the power of suggestion, it has resulted in the imaginative manufacturing of the rollicking "pancakes," Prof. Heron added.
Dr. Alfred O. Nier, university physics professor famous for his work with atomic power, also said he was inclined "to lean very much toward the belief that the flying disks are connected with people's imaginations."
"If there is something to it, and it isn't a fluky optical effect," he said, "it may be a bending of light rays."
Dr. Nier admitted he hadn't "the slightest idea of what it might be," adding that "it's just cockeyed."
He expressed surprise that no one had observed it before now, and pointed out that "one shouldn't simiss it completely -- new things are being discovered all the time."
"It's likely, however, that it is just something that someone imagined, and now everybody is imagining it," he said.
He said that the possibility that it might be some sort of atomic deveice "can be ruled out."
As more and more of the objects were reported seen, the opinion that the disks might be spirits from another world came from the Rev. A. M. Drake of the Progressive Spiritualists society.
Mr. Drake said that "we haven't made any effort to make contact with them," and his wife expressed willingness to hold a "trance sitting and let guides come and talk directly" in regard to it.
Asked if there were any special reason for spirits wanting to make their approach in such a manner, Mr. Drake explained that "these people on the other side, like those on this side, have their own reasons for doing things and nobody else knows why."
None of the airline pilots at world-Chamberlain field has reported seeing the disks, said F. B. Zoelle, flight control officer.
No report of the objects were yet forthcoming from any part of the Upper Midwest.
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Other versions of the disks mystery, according to wire dispatches, came from Detroit, San Diego, Calif., Washington, and Evanston, Ill.
A DETROIT meteorologist has theorized that the disks may be signals from Mars.
"It's not that far-fetched," he insisted. "For a long time people have speculated on life on Mars, so why shouldn't be as logical for Mars to try to contact earth as for earth to try to contact Mars?"
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MEADE LAYNE, publisher of an occult magazine who said he made contact with a "space ship" seen over San Diego last November, declared that he had received a message from passengers aboard the "saucers."
He said they were "etheric," becoming visible only when they entered the dense atmosphere around the earth. "They come with good intent," Layne added.
NAVAL OBSERVATORY officials at Washington concluded unofficially that the "saucers" were not astronomical phenomena. An official said the observatory's unofficial decision was based on descriptions of the objects since none of their astronomers had seen them.
DR. OLIVER J. LEE, director of Dearborn observatory at Northwestern university, Evanston, Ill., declared the disks "are probably man-made and radio-controlled.
[Photo caption:] IS THIS A 'FLYING DISK'? -- Frank Ryman, 27, Seattle, Wash. coast guardsman, says the indicating arrow on this photo points to a "flying disk." He made the picture Friday afternoon from the front porch of his home. "I've been waiting for a chance to get a picture of one of them," Ryman said, "and today I got that chance. I don't believe anything until I get it down on a hunk of film." Ryman said his 4x5 negative had to be enlarged almost 20 times. He believes the white spot to the right of the arrow was caused by flaws in the film. -- AP Wirephoto.
Continued from Page One
"flat disks" moving from north to south over the city.
Three flying saucers were reported seen Friday over San Diego, Calif., flying in formation.
Navy Chief Petty Officers Robert L. Jackson and William Baker said they saw the disks traveling about 400 miles an hour 20 miles west of the naval air station here.
"They came in from the west, circled, and headed out over the sea," Jackson said.
Meanwhile, Capt. E. J. Smith, the United Airlines pilot who reported seeing the disks, told at Seattle how he chased the strange group of objects, which looked "like pancakes standing on end."
"My co-pilot, Ralph Stevens, was in control shortly after we got into the air. Suddenly he switched on the landing lights.
"He said he thought he saw an aircraft approaching us head-on.
"I noticed the object -- or objects -- then for the first time.
"We saw four of five 'somethings.' One was larger than the rest and, for the most part, kept off to the right of the other three or four similar, but smaller objects.
"Since we were flying into the sunset. we saw whatever they were in at least partial light. We followed them in a north-westerley direction for about 15 miles.
"Finally the objects disappeared in a burst of speed. We were unable to tell whether they outsped us or disintegrated.
"We never were able to catch them in ou DC3. Our air speed at the time was 185 mph.
"Whatever they were, these were not another aircraft, nor were they smoke or cloud."
Sixty persons picknicking at Twin Falls Park, near Twin Falls, Idaho, said they saw the disks Friday afternoon.
John C. Corlett, Idaho manager for the United Press told at Boise, Idaho, about seeing the disks.
"Just before dusk Friday night, as my wife and I and two friends were relaxing after dinner, a tiny white disk scudded across the sky at terrific speed.
"In just about the time it takes to turn your head, 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."
To: Kenneth Arnold or Newspapers 1940-1949.
