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This 217-page Project Blue Book desk file on the 24 April 1964 Socorro, New Mexico sighting by policeman Lonnie Zamora comes from the Rob Mercer collection. It contains the Blue Book record card, which carries the case as unidentified pending more data, along with Foreign Technology Division messages and resumes and a narrative of the sighting. It also holds inquiries about lunar modules, helicopters and VTOL craft, soil and radiation findings, and a letter by J. Allen Hynek rejecting Donald Menzel's hoax hypothesis.
“Hill”20 pages
DJ.·. Donald Henz~:l M:L·s. !ifle Boyd Ha~-d Collc3e Obser.~tory Ca r:ibr1dge 38, l·nsaachusetts Dear Don ana Iqle: 29 April 19J5 At lo~ last. I a!!l preparC\1 to t:Rke a re?ly to your letter of Feb:t"'..!lll'Y 19. I a:J al.so encloslns a piece of the identical type of cardbco.:r:i o:d.,:1inall:1 picked up l:ry !:le at the lnndlng site. T'.::.:e only dlrfercr.ce betveen t l:is cardban·:i and the one t'bo.t I pi ~cl up and tu:..'lled into t he Air Fol'ce is that the ori"'inal plece had ctarred edges wilich uJ.y or ney not :have 'had uny connection vith t he alle~ed landing. But tl1c.'Lt it was cbl.rl'ed I will attest to. This sort o! ca.rdboe:d. gets cnught under r nrry of the uu3hes in t l"lut area. As you know the wlnds there can get verJ high in the windy sooson ~ ani yoo nat otD.y see tu:.:!bleT..reeds batting acroos t 1:e ccunt1-y, 'but ~pe r s, old lunch boxes, ptlcking c:rat~a, etc. also r::-err i~ batting alon3. These get wedged in under the bushes ani otay there to Weather somet.i!.iCS fcl~ a year or !!lOre, I would Ju'lC"· This cardboard., a,;3 you ca.n see, r.as pJ.alnlY been veathered quite SO!:le time a.nd. is l~l'dly the kind t!-at woul,'t have been used to fake a :noclel of a spaceship. I ahc~lld !:!entlon that I llacu.ssed this whole \~tter 'o."ith l·i'lJor Quintamlla., and he a~1 I are in ~-e~nt on wrAt foll~J. In ~ visit to Socor:tq I determined that Za.::x:lra tad been urged by the 1·Ay'or· t.o get into the l!.:CVie and tha.t . he hi!~elf l~:vl been rather reluctant to uo so. The txw!e is due to rove its world pre:;.d.e:t·e in Scorro, and I a ::i hoping to get down to see it! I don •t think we can ~ too wch about the :f'la.;Je \ihlch could be pretty subjective. A swirl or duzt 1 etc. r.light :fror1 the dintnnce rave been inte..'"P!"et.ed as a f1&.1e. An far as st:cke or a burnine bush, etc. , I could.n ·~ get anyone to say at this th-.e that they r.ad seen s'ooke or tba.t anything 'Ua3 burnint;. Chavez inslated. only on the :f"a.ct tr..at a grease-wood bush appeared to be cha.rreJ. in spots or rather seared and tl:e.t the searing w.s highly localized. Greas~ltood is notoriously hard to 1c;nite, and. a t:utcl1 or ordinary fkne held to it r.a1·dly af'f'ects lt. Chavez said tlat the ourns appeared as thou.g..l'\ intonoe but localized fla nes had seared the grass and t he uaheo, but r~~ked that right next to a sear~l portion he =ound po~ions cr..t!te urrtoucht..>d. A.:}ain, I don •t knov hov ~tch credence can be pla~e-1 on all the burning bu.Gh 1 etc. I tr.J.nk we r.nat ~o to other rujor points.Rob Mercer
Document, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 217 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.