![]() ![]() I saw it but did not mention it as I thought people would think me a little off.” Over a week that October, there were seven UFO sightings in Sitka. Said Mortenson, “I am positively not mistaken. A railroad foreman claimed to have seen a flying saucer in Healy six weeks prior but had declined to report it “for fear of being laughed at.” In January 1950, a retired fisherman in Sitka, Jorgen Mortenson, said he saw a flying saucer outside his cabin at Jamestown Bay. Lee Teague, special agent in charge of the Anchorage FBI office, stated, “We haven’t heard a single report of any persons seeing a flying disc in Anchorage, or even Alaska.”Īs it happened across the nation, once one person made a UFO sighting, more reports followed. No one else from either the Army, Air Force or Merrill Field saw the UFOs. On July 8, the Daily Times published the first local coverage on the developing story out of Roswell, fueled by the original Army press release that described the weather balloon as a “flying disc.” The article also noted, “None have been reported in Alaska, yet.” Then, the very next day, three teenagers just happened to see a UFO. On July 7, the Daily Times ran its first article on the UFO craze, just two days before the three girls claimed to see something over Elmendorf. Before that week, there had been zero references to “flying saucers” or “flying discs” printed in the local newspapers, covering the previous 32 years of Anchorage’s existence. ![]() The Anchorage girls promptly reported their sighting to the Anchorage Daily Times. Roger Ramey, Commanding General of the Eighth Air Force, issued a correction later that day that the “disc” was simply a weather balloon, but the damage was done. On July 8, the Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating Army personnel from there had recovered a “flying disc” from a local ranch, notably utilizing the new phrasing promulgated by sensationalist newspaper accounts elsewhere. For many caught within the hysteria, the supposed appearance of flying saucers marked the potential end of civilization as they knew it, whether by Russians or aliens.Ī movie poster for "The Flying Saucer," a film that was set partly in Alaska. The concept of UFOs burrowed itself into the public psyche, fueled by the rapidly growing fears of the postwar world, of atomic weapons and the Cold War with the Soviet Union. In just 1947, there were more than 850 reports of flying discs and saucers in America and Canada. However, the misquote endured, influencing science fiction and the gullible public for decades.įrom almost nothing, there were suddenly daily sightings of UFOs across the country in the wake of Arnold’s report. He did not say the objects looked like saucers or discs. Arnold said the objects above Mineral “flew like they take a saucer and throw it across the water,” skipping and fluttering in the air. Headlines boldly announced reports of “flying saucers” and “flying discs,” wordings based on a misunderstanding. The story spread like wildfire from there, aided by overeager editors. He reported the sighting after he landed and was interviewed by an intrigued reporter the next day. Lights flashed from them, all together and then in a sequence down the line of objects. On June 24, amateur pilot Kenneth Arnold was in the air above Mineral when he spotted nine unidentified flying objects in an echelon formation traveling at an extreme speed. The continuing American fascination with UFOs began in 1947, not in Roswell, New Mexico, but Mineral, Washington, a small town south of Tacoma. These three girls had made the first documented UFO sighting in Anchorage history. According to the girls, the unidentified object “traveled at great speed and was moving faster than ordinary planes.” The girls also said that it was smaller than any fighter plane and not a weather balloon, which they were familiar with since they were all daughters of servicemen and passed the time watching the base flight operations. On July 9, 1947, three teenage Anchorage girls - Judy Kerr, Vicky Novack and Nancy Green - claimed to see an unusual white “disc-shaped object” above Elmendorf Air Force Base, where it streaked across the sky and disappeared to the south. ![]() Have a question about Anchorage or Alaska history or an idea for a future article? Go to the form at the bottom of this story. Part of a continuing weekly series on Alaska history by local historian David Reamer. ![]()
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