The article below was published in the daily newspaper The Eugene Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon, USA, page 1, on July 5, 1947.
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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hundreds of persons throughout the west told Saturday 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 and California and in the far west, Louisiana in the south, Michigan in the mid-west, Pennsylvania in the east and Canada's east coast reported Prince Edward Island came reports of the strange objects first reported over Washington state June 25 by Kenneth Arnold of Boise, Idaho.
Portland Alerted
Both ground and aerial observers told of seeing the discs. Early in the afternoon Portland, Ore., police, swamped with calls, issued an all-car 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 were high over that city Friday.
At 2:50 p.m., a group of picnickers at Twin Falls, Idaho, 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 about 35 – was seen also speeding west. Nearly 60 persons were in the observing group.
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, Idaho, before it zoomed upward and disappeared.
The entire crew of a United Air Lines 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 in sight for about 12 minutes.
Yeoman Frank Ryman of the Seattle Coast Guard photographed a disc - but it appeared in the negative only as a pinpoint of light.
Pilot "Scared Silly"
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 Laulers said she saw one going northeast over Lake Ponchartrian [sic] Friday 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 Doctor. M.K. Leisy said it appeared to be going only at about the speed of the wind below clouds.
From Summerside, Canada, on Prince Edward Island, came reports of the discs, one what 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. Dan J. Whelan, the Los Angeles pilot, estimated the one he saw at 40 to 50 feet in diameter, while Port Huron residents thought they were small.
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."
