Documents / FOIA release
This Federal Bureau of Investigation file section collects 1947 records on flying disc reports, including field office memoranda from Butte, Seattle, Salt Lake City and San Francisco on sightings in Washington, Montana, Utah and Idaho. Several were attributed to burnt paper or weather balloons, and Wright Field judged debris from a Danford, Illinois farm a hoax unconnected to Project Mogul. After the Army Air Forces described FBI work as chasing "ash can covers, toilet seats and whatnot," the Bureau discontinued its flying disc investigations and referred reports to the Air Forces.
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Office Memorandum . UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO : D. notor FBI FROM SAC Butte SUBJECT: FLYING DISCS Refer teletype to the Bureau dated August 15, 1947. Enclosed please find the newspaper account carried by the Twin Falls, Idaho "Times News" on August 15, together with a sheet of paper on which A. C. URIE attempted to sketch his impressions of the instrument which he claims to have seen. Concerning URIE's sketches, it may be noted that he believed the rolled outer edge which he attempted to create in his drawing to have been about a foot through. URIE likewise believed that the tubing or exhaust flame which he and his sons claim to have seen was about a foot through and extended at least to the back end of the device. The flame did not appear to taper off nor to widen out toward the back. BILLY and KEITH URIE stated that they could see a knot on the side of the device from which the flames were shooting, and that they could see daylight between the exhaust flame and the side of the device. The flames did not leave any smoke or odor. The URIE boys thought that the "side view" sketch should show that the device was more sharply angled from bottom to top, while URIE himself thought that it was more streamlined and curved. URIE said that the instrument came to a pointed or rounded top. In his notations, URIE mistakenly said that he had seen it on Thursday. During interview, he stated that it actually had been on Wednesday, August 13, 1947, when he and his sons saw the contrivance about 1:00 P.M. URIE explained that he had sent his boys to the river to get some rope from his boat. When he thought they were overdue, he went outside his tool shed to look for them. He noticed them about 300 feet away looking in the sky and he glanced up to see what he called the flying disc. He said he could only see it for a moment before it disappeared behind a hill which obscured his view. URIE further stated that the contrivance was about seventy-five feet in the air. URIE resides in the depths of the Snake River Canyon, which is about four hundred feet deep and twelve hundred feet across at that place. According to his account, the contrivance was about three hundred feet below the rim of the canyon and he saw it against the steep walls of the canyon on the far side. He described its color as sky blue and stated that he doubted if it could be seen against the sky. He likewise said that it was purely by chance that he saw it. It did not spin like a top. OCT 6 1947 INDEXED 19-12-874 11 SEP-L01547 EX.66
FOIA release, from the fbi-vault collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 77 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.