Project Blue Book File on Tremonton Film, Utah, 1952

This U.S. Air Force Project Blue Book file compiles 1952 and 1953 messages, memos and reports on the movie film Navy Chief Photographer Delbert C. Newhouse shot on 2 July 1952 near Tremonton, Utah. It records interviews with Newhouse's family, requests about the film, and Navy and General Mills balloon experts judging that the objects closely resembled pillow balloons. It also covers internal debate about releasing the film to the press. Unrelated reports from Phoenix, Lexington and Highland Park sightings are included too.

From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 7/2/52, Tremonton, Utah. This document records the Project Blue Book investigation and subsequent assessments of an incident near Tremonton, Utah, on July 2, 1952. Project Blue Book was a 1952-1969 U.S. Air Force program to investigate the nature and origin of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). The file describes the Air Force’s assessment of the principal witness, Delbert C. Newhouse, a U.S. Navy Warrant Officer specializing in photography, as honest and reliable, and as an expert with more than 1,000 hours of aerial-photography experience. Newhouse reported observing 12 to 14 reflective objects and recorded the event on color motion-picture film using a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera. The file reflects an evolving Air Force assessment of the imagery over several years. Early documentation considered several possible explanations, including sunlight reflecting from birds or balloons, and a mirage effect, and did not identify the objects conclusively. Later assessments became more confident that the objects were seabirds reflecting sunlight, citing identifiable seabirds and similar films showing seabirds as bright points of light under comparable conditions. However, the film’s limited detail and lack of fixed reference points prevented reliable determination of the objects’ distance, size, altitude, or linear speed from the film alone. AARO Comment: The file contains conflicting references to the film format. Several documents describe a 35mm film, while contemporaneous submission documentation identifies the original as a 50-foot roll of processed 16mm Kodachrome color motion-picture film recorded with a handheld Bell & Howell Auto Master camera. Newhouse reported exposing approximately 30 feet of the roll during the incident and using the remaining film later that day to record unrelated mountain scenery in Idaho. Other records show that 35mm positive and negative duplicate blowups were produced from the original 16mm material. The file also indicates that the original film was duplicated for preservation, citing its deteriorating condition. The footage retained by the National Archives and Records Administration and presented in this collection as DOW-UAP-PR159 is a digitization of a 16mm print.

UNCLASSIFIED
The Navy report says the objects are:
--a. Self-luminous or light sources
b. Could not be aircraft or balloons
ird is known is reflect enough light to cause the images
shown on the film,
It.can be noted that tbe Na:vy people deduced tbis from tbeir analysis
of the~or the image on each frame. This required about a 11 000
manhours. It was brought out by two astronomers who heard a Navy briefing
on the analysis of the movies that the method used to measure the brightness
of each spot was wrong, therefore, the results of the entire study were wrong.
4. The subject of the release was discussed with Lt Col Johnston and
Col McDuffy and it was decided that the movies would be released without com
ment as to what they were and hope that no questions were asked about the
Navy report. This is a "calculated" risk of another big "flap".
5. The other alternative is to quickly get more data on the subject.
Several things can be done and are listed below in the order of how soon they
DOWNGRADED AT o YEAR !NTJ!R
could be accomplished: DECLASSIFIED AFTER l2 V~
DOD DIB. p200J.O ..~ •
a. As far as gulls are concerned the big question is, how much _
M •.-..6~ ... .. ,.Jfff•
light will be reflected? Can you see a gull reflecting light and not recog
nize that it is a gull? To check this it would be necessary to go to a loca
tion where you have a lot of gulls and bright sunlight and talce movies with
a 3-inch lens. It would be necessary to know how far the gulls were away each
time a movie was taken. At this time of the year florid.a is the only place
where sunshine and gulls can be assured.
b. Using special funds, have General Mills release a group of
pillow balloons arranged in the same sequence as the objects are in the reovies
and measuring the distance at which taken. lJNCLASSlFIED
.,;., ;,..,--h,.~"- k? ~ )- ~ • .s-,.._ -i....
~ \A"-'\. s~?R -~1.J2-t1~ - ~ f',c,.,L<. ~/ .L, 4...f'/ /4,I '
DECLASSIFIED Authority NND 923007