On June 24, 1947, something quite extraordinary burst onto the world stage: "flying saucers," today bearing the impersonal, scientific-sounding name "Unidentified Flying Objects." The Pacific Northwest was where it all started. Last month we looked at Boise, Idaho, businessman Kenneth Arnold's incredible sighting (for its time) of nine unknown objects flying at tremendous speed down the backbone of the Cascade Mountains. That fateful sighting forever changed our view of our place in the universe.
What the public may little know (except for UFO aficionados) is that Arnold's
sighting-- and other sightings on June 24, 1947 in the Pacific Northwest--were
the trigger point for one of the most massive UFO waves in modern history. A UFO
"wave" is a sudden and pronounced increase of UFO sightings on a large scale,
often nationally or regionally; the increase is a significant change in the daily
average of UFO sightings as monitored by the press and UFO investigators.
The 1947 UFO wave was big, and even today, UFO researchers are studying this inexplicable event. Arnold's sighting opened a deluge of reports. For two weeks the nation was seized by a furious outpouring of bizarre accounts by credible people in every state in the Union. Although researchers have found several UFO reports in the United States that predated Arnold's, there was no explaining this sudden, large-scale phenomenon. It was clear that Arnold's report had "broken the ice," and hundreds of people came forward to say that they, too, had or were seeing strange objects in the sky.
Within a few days of publication of Arnold's report, 20 people from widely separated places had talked to reporters. Most of the sightings were from the Pacific Northwest. The objects were seen generally during the day. Half of the reports described a single object; the rest two or more objects--multiple objects in formation like Arnold's. The objects were usually round or "disk"-shaped, metallic, shining and maneuvering at incredible speeds. In some cases, they made a "whooshing" sound.
When June ended, 128 people had reported objects in 30 states and in two Canadian provinces. Fifteen per cent of these had been seen in Washington state. Ninety of the objects were seen in daylight; 28 at night; 10 other reports had insufficient information.
The press were in a frenzy. On June 26, The Portland, Oregon Journal splashed Arnold's story and similar sightings by two other witnesses on the front-page in banner headlines. Excitement, wonder, and fear ran through the public. In this state of turmoil, it didn't take long for the "voice of reason" to speak. By June 27 authorities and officials, taking note of Arnold's sighting, came forward with "explanations." Elmer Fisher, a Portland meteorologist, said that Arnold must have encountered "a slight touch of snow blindness from the mountain peaks." Al Smith, a United Airlines pilot, said that Arnold's objects were "reflections of his instrument panel." The ridicule and skepticism ran unabated even as the sightings surged. On July 1, 24 sightings. On July 2, 13 more. On July 3, 33 sightings. Then on July 4 and outpouring of 88 sightings in 24 states.
On that Fourth of July, Portland, Oregon was the scene of a large number of sightings made by dozens of police and scores of citizens in separate locations. It began at 1:00 p.m when Don Metcalfe at Oaks Amusement Park saw disk-like objects. At the same time Patrolman Kenneth A. McDowell on the other side of town was seeing "five large, disk-shaped objects dipping up and down in an oscillating fashion." Two disappeared at high speed to the south, the other two to the east. An all-car alert went out. Across the Columbia River in Vancouver, seven sheriff's deputies went outside to check and saw 20 disk-like objects heading south in a single line. They were making a droning sound, and broke formation, peeling off to the south and to the west toward Portland.
Simultaneously, Harbor Patrolmen at the Irving Street headquarters in Portland saw three to six objects like "chromium hubcaps, shining and flashing in the sun." They wobbled and oscillated as they flew. Patrolman Earl Patterson at Southeast 82nd Avenue and Foster in Car 13 saw an aluminum-colored disk come out of the northeast traveling silently southwest at rapid speed. Meanwhile scores of residents were inundating Portland newspapers and police stations reporting similar objects.
July 5th--it continued, now up to 77 sightings in a single day. Then 157 sightings on July 6th. Then on July 7th--162 sightings in 32 states! And then the sightings mysteriously dropped. On July 8th, there were "only" 90. After the 8th, sightings fell sharply. By mid-July there was only about one sighting per day. The wave was over. Eight hundred and fifty sightings had occurred in every state and Canada. Undoubtedly there were hundreds of others, perhaps thousands, that were never reported for fear of ridicule.
What had happened during those two weeks? For one, the idea of spaceships and extraterrestrial visitation was instantly drilled into the minds of millions of people on a scale never known before. There had been sightings of unexplained aerial objects throughout history, but this mass experience was unprecedented. "Flying saucers" had become part of our language and they are a fixture of our cultural view of ourselves in space: are we alone?
In June 1947 there were no fixed "attitudes" about UFOs--no preconceptions, no policies set by the press or government concerning unknown flying objects. In the first few days, the press openly and freely reported a genuinely baffling phenomenon. But soon, as the conflicting voices of "experts" and "officials" sowed confusion and doubt, the press pandered to hoaxers, jokesters, and ridicule and misinformation. Scientists consistently showed a total lack of scientific curiosity. Pilots said that "a lot of folks must have had too much to drink;" and witnesses had seen "some freak cloud formation." Air Force officials made sweeping pronouncements: "...it appears to be either a phenomenon or a figment of somebody's imagination."
By August 1947 the UFO wave of 1947 was history. In place of curiosity and a desire to scientifically study a remarkable social event and a seemingly real, physical phenomenon were secrecy and suspicion. The Air Force stepped in. The agency's earlier openness to answer questions from the press was gone. A campaign of silence, misguided public relations, and ignorance became the standard. But the UFOs never went away. Sightings continued on a daily basis and they came back in even more waves: in 1950, 1952, 1957, 1965-1967, and 1973. And today, UFO sightings continue.
Next month we'll venture to the Yakima Indian Reservation near the Cascade Mountains where glowing UFOs in the 1970s made an unprecedented appearance.
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