Kenneth Arnold's sighting

More Flying Saucer Reports Add To Mystery That Has Baffled Nation

Officials Unable To Explain Strange Objects

SAN FRANCISCO, July 7. (A.P.) -- From one end of the country to the other, new reports of discs like "flying saucers" skimming through the skies Monday added to the mystery which had baffled the nation since June 25.

There was no satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon. The saucers first were reported seen in the state of Washington on June 25. Then persons in other western states said they had seen them. The peak came over the July 4 holiday, when they were first reported seen east of the Mississippi.

Seen Throughout Nation

The latest tabulation showed the mystery objects had been reported seen in 33 states, the district of Columbia and in Canada.

Sunday they were reported to have been seen in more than a dozen states, and in southwestern Ontario.

An aerial patrol by the Oregon national guard reported it had failed to sight on of the objects.

The guard planned to send a plane Monday to a spot near St. Maries, Idaho, where a woman said 10 persons saw eight of the discs disappear in timber on July 3.

Kenneth Arnold, businessman-pilot of Boise, Idaho, first reported seeing the discs. He said he saw nine flying in formation at a speed estimated at 12 hundreds miles an hour over the Cascade mountains. Other observers have given the objects various speeds and, in at least one case, said they appeared to be suspended in the air.

Mrs. Walter Johnson said at Spokane that the objects seen near St. Maries came into view at an ex-

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Lands in Pocatello?

Pocatello, July 7. (UP) -- The Pocatello Tribune received a communication on Monday morning from H. C. McLean of Seattle who reported that as he was driving through Pocatello early Sunday he saw a disc about the size of a farm wagon wheel float lightly to the middle of the street and come to a stop. It stopped only a few seconds but he got a good look at it, since it was only 20 yards away and almost still.

"It was not a saucer, but a disc," said The Tribune. "This was surrounded by a tube that had an enlarged opening at one end, like a funnel, and ending in a tapered point at the other. In the middle of the disc he could make out a bulge as if a plate had been welded onto the disc and there were two narrow strips of metal running almost parallel to each other above and below the midsection. Something held it upright, and then the disc was subjected to a number of short jerks, moving forward each time a foot or two. The funnel part of the tube was set into the disc so that the latter could roll freely and after moving a distance of about 20 yards, it rose easily and began at once to climb," he wrote.

"I examined the place where the disc had landed but it touched the ground so lightly that it left no mark. I am convinced that the disc's flight was controlled, that it gave out signals indicating its position..." said Mr. McLean.

Attitude 'Seeing Is Believing, Taken On Discs'

Idaho Falls airmen and airport officials are on the lookout for the now often seen "flying discs or saucers" in the hopes that they can get a look at one.

Up to Monday afternoon, however, no one had reported spotting any of the mysterious objects crossing the Upper Snake River Valley sky.

No one Monday wanted to speculate either, on what the "discs" might be until they got an actual glimpse of one here. One observer ventured, however, that when the objects are identified they would probably be something "very simple."

In the meantime, dark glasses were being kept close at hand for a look in the bright sky.

This is It! Or Is It?

FIRST PHOTO of the "flying discs" which have aroused the nation's curiosity was taken by Coast Guardsman Frank Ryman, 27, of Seattle. As scores of reports of the mystery objects continued from "eye witnesses" across the country, authorities were skeptical that the objects were any sort of new aircraft. Ryman's photo, which was taken from about 10 thousand feet, is enlarged here about 50 times. Lines on the photograph resulted from telephoto transmission.

Pilot to Photograph 'Saucers'

BOISE, Idaho, July 7 (AP) -- The airman who first reported "flying saucers" sailing through the western sky said Monday he had invested $150 in a movie camera to film photographic proof of the discs he said flipped through the wild blue yonder "like fish skimming through water."

Kenneth Arnold, 32, Boise, flying businessman, said he would take the camera with him on every flight he makes overs his five states business territory because "a picture of them would be the most beautiful thing you ever saw and it would provide a record of what I saw and I know to be true." He took off Monday on an aerial search over Washington in the hope of again spotting the flying objects.

Since Arnold reported sighting a flight of nine saucer like objects scooting between Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams in Washington state June 24, he has received "fan mail" from all parts of the country.

"None of the writers called me screwball," Arnold said. "They really want to help figure this thing out."

More Flying Discs Reported Seen

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treme speed, going in a northerly direction, suddenly slowed and then "fluttered like leaves to the ground."

Size of Houses

She said her and her companions could not find them afterward, nor any sign that they did anything to the timber into which they apparently fell. She said they were "about the size of a five room house" and resembled wash tubes more than discs. The saucers appeared to be self luminous because of their extreme brightness, she added.

The discs were reported Sunday to have been seen at Chicago over Lake Michigan, in southwestern Ontario, in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and in Maryland.

Most observers usually agreed that the objects were round or oval.

Army Mystified

The army, the navy and the atomic energy commission all disclaimed any connection with the mystery. An army spokesman in Washington said the A. A. F. had been checking into the reports "and we still haven't the slightest idea what they could be."

Some scientists suggested that reflections of light, such as from aircraft, might account for the bright objects which have been reported. In some cases, the observers have insisted that the "saucers" have been accompanied by sound.

A Hagerstown, Md., woman, said she saw five go eastward at "terrific speed" and that they roared with a sound like a faraway train."

The objects were reported seen since June 25 in Canada, the District of Columbia and the following states: Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana, Kentucky, Georgia, south Carolina, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Arkansas, Tennessee, Maine, Florida, Utah, Maryland, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, Alabama, and Virginia.

Official Search Denied

Gen. Carl Spaatz, commandant of the army air forces, in the Pacific northwest on a fishing trip,

said he knew nothing about the mystery objects or of plans to use AAF planes to search for them.

His comment came after Louis E. Starr, national commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars said at Columbus, Ohio, that he understood Spaatz had "a group out right now" searching for the objects.

From the east coast to the Pacific, from the deep south to the Canadian border and beyond, the reports piled in.

Discs were reported seen high in the sky west of Salt Lake City, and former Utah state Treasurer Oliver G. Ellis and others said: "The luminous discs behaved like radio controlled objects, hovering in a group for a moment, then suddenly they formed a swiftly whirling horizontal circular pattern."

There were numerous reports of the objects in the skies over San Francisco and neighboring cities.

Search for Saucers

SPOKANE, July 7. (AP) -- Air and ground patrols on Monday began a search of an Idaho mountainside where a Spokane housewife reported that 10 persons saw eight or nine "flying saucers" fall into timber.

Sheriff Oron L. Thomas organized a detail of Boy Scouts and other volunteers at St. Maries, Ida., to scour the area, and two light aircraft, one owned by A. W. Runser, secretary of the local chamber of commerce, were to take off shortly after nine a. m., Pacific standard time, to make an air search.

From Spokane, too, Col. Franck Frost, commanding officer of the 116th fighter squadron, Washington national guard, was preparing to take off for the area.

Mrs. Walter Johnson of suburbian Dishman said the saucers fell near Butler's bay on the St. Joe river six miles west of St. Maries.