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.

·code 01/Jrtrw/lbh
J12
UNCLASSIFIED
Serial:
Subj: Interpretation o:f Movies of Unidenti.f'ied Objects;
progress report on
b. Densitometric teets:
Densitometric data were obtained with a Densichron, Mod.el 2150
manufactured b : - the Welch Scienti.f'ic Company. The 'D,nsichron has a scale
range or 0-3 . The procedure was to project each f'rame at approximately
22 times magnification onto a finely-grained-glass screen. The back
ground. (sky) was then measured at several places and the density set to
3.0 (variations in background densities were in the order of 0.02 and
were regarded as uniform) . A set of three readings were made of each
of seven objects in Part I, and of the single object in Part III of
the Utah Film. Readings were made o:f the entire Montana film.
Enclosure (6a and 8b) are graphs ot the density readings
obtained of the two lower groups of objects in frames l-129 of the
Utah film. Enclosure (9) is a density graph of the single object (94
frames) in Part III. Enclosure {10) is a graph where six successive
Densichron readings were averaged and advanced one reading each deter
minant.
Of the M:>ntana film, densities were plotted as above and are
enclosures (ll) and (12).
The results of' the density readings may be questioned in that
these objects varied in size so that at the minimum sizes the densichron
probe was measuring the entire object, and at the maximum size the probe
was measuring only a portion of the objects . Because of this situation
only the largest readings obtained b scanning the objects were uaed.
It is understood that normal procedure would be to read the entire object.
This was illlpossible with the equipment on hand.
In addition the film, with which this investigation was conducted,
is a duplicate of a copy. Thie raises the question as to whether the
central portion of the objects were burnt out during the duplication
processing. Density readings were made to compare the clear areas and
the objects. It was :found that the minimum difference is 0.4. This
indicates that relative luminosity may still be obtained with the pro
cedure used. Concurrent with the density readings, relative sizes of
the objects were noted in order to correlate distance and luminosity.
Enclosure (13) is a plot of the same object wherein the relationship of
distance and luminosity can be detected in Utah .film. •
l>OWNGRADED AT S YRAR ~'.J,...T"T>Y n .-n.
DEC.LASS - ~ L"i"''
3 Answers to Questions IFIED AFTER 12 YEARS.
• • DOD DIR 5200.10
Answers keyed to the questions contained in enclosure {7) of
reference {a) are hereb:,- presented. They supercede those contained in
reference (c) and present the final analysis as requested.
UNCLASSIFIED