Documents / Official release
This FBI file section (62-HQ-83894, Section 2) collects 1947 Bureau memoranda, teletypes and enclosures on reported flying discs. It includes a Newark interview report on a disc seen at Hackensack, New Jersey on August 3, a Detroit report on fused sand from Midland, Michigan, and War Department requests to investigate Richard F. Shaver of Lily Lake, Illinois after sightings over southern Wisconsin. It also covers Army Air Forces investigation reports and a Delaware pilot's claimed rocket-like sightings near Rehoboth Beach.
From the source:Release of 2026-05-08 Incident: N/A, N/A. The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing. Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
“Wilcox”3 pages
~--~M • • ... Office Memorandum . UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT TO Director, FBI DAT E : 9-17-47 Portland REPORrS OF FLYnm DISCS SECURITY MATTER - X ' Refer San Francisco letter dated September 4, 1947. FRID ~ HNSON, Globe Hotel, 106 mv. First Avenue, Portland, reported without consulting any records that on June 24, 1947,while prospecting at a point in the Cascade Mountains approximately five thousand feet from sea level, during the afternoon he noticed a reflection, looked up, and saw a disc pro ceeding in a southeasterly direction. Immediately upon sighting this object he placed his telescope to his eye and observed the disc for approximately forty- five to sixty secondil. He remarked that it is possible for him to pick up an object at a distance of ten mil.es with his telescope. At the time the disc was sighted by Mr. JOHNSOO it was banking in the sun, and he observed five or six similar objects but only concentrated on one. He related that they did not fly in any particular formation and that he would estimate their height to be about one thousand feet from where he was standing. He said the object was about thirty feet in diameter and appeared to have a tail. It made no noise. According to JOHNSON he remained in the vicinity of the Cascades for several days and then r eturned to Portland and noted an article in the local paper which stated in effect that a man in Boise, Idaho, had sighted a similar object but that authorities had disclaimed any knowledge of such an object. He said he cozmnunicated with the Army for the sole purpose of attempt ing to add credence to the story furnished by the man in Boise . JOHNSON also related that on the occasion of his sighting the objects on June 24, 1947 he had in his possession a combination compass and watch. He noted particularly that immediately beiore he sighted the disc the compass acted very peculiar, the hand waving from one side to the dther, but that this condition corrected itself immediately after the discs had passed out of sight. Infonnant appeared to be a very reliable individual Y1ho advised that he had been a prospector in the states of Montana, Washington, and Oregon for the past forty years. FJS:KAM 62-1531 2 cc: San Francisco (62-2938) 31 SEP 2 9~7
Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 194 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.