ALSACATHome 

Cette page en françaisCliquez!

ALSACAT:

ALSACAT is my comprehensive catalog of UFO sighting reports in Alsace, the region is the North-East of France, whether they are "explained" or "unexplained".

The ALSACAT catalog is made of case files with a case number, summary, quantitative information (date, location, number of witnesses...), classifications, all sources mentioning the case with their references, a discussion of the case in order to evaluate its causes, and a history of the changes made to the file. A general index and thematic sub-catalogs give access to these Alsatian case files.

◀ Previous case Next case ▶

Case of Colmar, in mid-september 1954:

Case number:

ALSACAT-1954-09-00-COLMAR-1

Summary:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book about the history of UFO or flying saucers sightings in Alsace, and he tells that there was a sighting in Colmar in mid-September 1954, according to an article in the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Saturday, September 25, 1954, in the bilingual edition; of which gives this translation:

"A gatekeeper told us these days the following fact: in the day, around 3 p.m., he saw suddenly above the Church of St. Joseph a luminous and transparent ball which descended vertically and fairly slowly over the street of Logelbach before rising above the warehouse of the Red Cross in Talbahnstrasse. It seemed to our correspondent that there was like a door on this ball."

Data:

Temporal data:

Date: Mid-september 1954?
Time: ~03:00 p.m.
Duration: ?
First known report date: September 25, 1954
Reporting delay: Days, weeks?

Geographical data:

Department: Haut-Rhin
City: Colmar
Place: From rue de Logelbach, UFO above St-Joseph church.
Latitude: 48.083
Longitude: 7.337
Uncertainty radius: 200 m

Witnesses data:

Number of alleged witnesses: 1
Number of known witnesses: 1
Number of named witnesses: 0
Witness(es) ages: Adult
Witness(es) types: Male gatekeeper.

Ufology data:

Reporting channel: Told it to the local Press.
Type of location: City.
Visibility conditions: Outside in daylight.
UFO observed: Yes
UFO arrival observed: No
UFO departure observed: ?
Entities: No
Photographs: No.
Sketch(s) by witness(es): No.
Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): No.
Witness(es) feelings: ?
Witnesses interpretation: ?

Classifications:

Hynek: DD
ALSACAT: Unidentified, insufficient data.

Sources:

[Ref. spa1:] "SPICA" UFOLOGY ASSOCIATION:

Fifty ears ago
"The ufos in Alsace"

[... Other cases...]

In September several observations, a luminous ball in broad daylight in Colmar,

[... Other cases...]

[Ref. cvn2:] CHRISTIAN VALENTIN:

Former journalist Christian Valentin published in 2012 a very interesting book about the history of UFO or flying saucers sightings in Alsace, and he tells that there was a sighting in Colmar in mid-September 1954, according to an article in the newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles du Haut-Rhin for Saturday, September 25, 1954, in the bilingual edition; of which gives this translation:

A gatekeeper told us these days the following fact: in the day, around 3 p.m., he saw suddenly above the church of St. Joseph a luminous and transparent ball which descended vertically and fairly slowly over the street of Logelbach before rising above the warehouse of the Red Cross in Talbahnstrasse. It seemed to our correspondent that there was like a door on this ball.

Discussion:

Scan.

About Christian Valentin's book:

It is not at all my habit to "advertise" a book or anything, and I have no interested relationship with the author, but I wanted to say a word on the book by Christian Valentin, "Mythes et Réalités des Phénomènes Aériens Non Identifiés" (i.e. "Myths and Realities of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" (cover on the left), ref. [cv2]; which, as its subtitle indicates, is about Alsatian UFO sighting reports and the saucer lore in Alsace.

I think Alsatian ufologists and, generally, people interested in the UFO question, or in the history of Alsace, my region, would probably like this book.

The 144 pages book is sober but well presented, unbiased, richly documented and illustrated. It is the first work in print specifically about UFO sightings in Alsace. (There was another one a few years ago, but it was partly made by copying - pasting without mention of the sources, portions of my website, especially the Alsatians cases I almost exhaustively documented in my catalog of UFO sightings in France in 1954, and copies from another websites; the trivial explanations I proposed or gave there being almost always stripped off!)

The author does not want to prove or disprove the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors or some other so-called "extraordinary" explanation, he rather offers a chronologically ordered review of Alsatian UFO reports, starting from the origin and stopping in 1980, based on known sources ufology, on the articles of the regional Press, and cases less known or even unreleased so far that he collected directly with the witnesses. His own comments are printed in a different color, references to the sources are always given. A very nice work in my opinion!

The author currently has a blog where he shows what libraries in Alsace have the book available, see: christian.valentin.overblog.com

Map.

We have some localization information for this case, but insufficient because the witness is not located. First, here is a close up view of the Saint-Joseph church :

Scan.

The witness said that the thing was over the church - a sure landmark - and above the street of Logelbach, a less obvious landmark since we do not know where above this street. I have the impression that he was at the east or south-east of the church, and the UFO was West or Northwest, but it is not certain. Of course, the UFO could be very far away, we do not know anything about the distance.

I have not been able to locate the "warehouse of the Red Cross in the Talbahnstrasse" . The "Bahnstrasse" would rue de la Gare now. Talbahnstrasse would rather means "street of the train to the Valley" , a street that would be along the train up to the valleys of the Vosges to the west, as opposed to Bahnstrasse, the main North-South railway of the Alsace valley, perhaps.

On my map, I show the street of the station, "rue de la Gare", the train station, the Red Cross which is probably now in a different place than in 1954, the street of Logelbach, the church, and the railway track which was towards the Vosges (blue line) along which there may have been a street known as "Talbahnstrasse" in 1954.

Scan.

As to what it would have been... A "luminous and transparent ball," with maybe a "door", going down and up. A helicopter? A bouncing meteor?

Evaluation:

Unidentified, insufficient data.

Sources references:

* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.

File history:

Authoring:

Main author: Patrick Gross
Contributors: None
Reviewers: None
Editeur: Patrick Gross

Changes history:

Version: Create/changed by: Date: Description:
0.1 Patrick Gross March 27, 2014 Creation, [cvn2].
1.0 Patrick Gross March 27, 2014 First published.
1.1 Patrick Gross October 13, 2016 Addition [spa1].

Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict



 Feedback  |  Top  |  Back  |  Forward  |  Map  |  List |  Home
This page was last updated on October 13, 2016.