Alternate Perceptions Magazine, January 2021
Advent of the Flying Saucers - 1950
by: Rick Hilberg
(1950)
March 11 - Salinas, California - More than twenty persons reported seeing a saucer-shaped object in the Salinas area on March 11. The various reports had the saucer diving on an automobile, looping the loop, and or speeding across the horizon at a low altitude.
The sheriff's office reported a "lot of calls" shortly after 8:00 p.m. by people claiming to have seen the mysterious object. Simultaneously , a number of calls were received by the local newspaper office.
The sheriff's office said the first call came in from Mrs. Sam Raguindin of nearby Chualar, who said the saucer "swooped down" over her automobile as she and her mother and two children were driving south from Salinas.
"It looked like two dinner plates placed together," she said. "It came down to about 2,000 feet and as it came close it gave off a strong bluish-white light that hurt our eyes like a welder's torch."
She said it seemed to "loop the loop" and then sped away in a southerly direction at a high rate of speed.
"I'm still scared," Mrs. Raguindin said. "I hope I never see anything like that again."
The saucer was next reported by Hiram Don, a Chinese market owner, who said he saw it in the sky as he left his market to take some groceries to his car. He said it appeared bright in front and had a long fiery tail. It was traveling quite close to the ground, he said.
Most of the other reports were similar to the two above.
Source: Paper unknown, March 12, 1950.
March 17 - Farmington, New Mexico - The first large group of "flying saucers" was reported over Farmington this morning. Some estimates placed the number at hundreds, others said 20 or more were seen, first loafing, then streaking through the skies.
Clayton J. Boddy, business manager of the Farmington Times and former army captain, corps of engineers, was among those who witnessed the objects in flight.
He stated that a large number possibly 100 or more appeared in the sky over Farmington shortly before noon. He said at least 20 were close enough to earth to describe them as flying saucers. No other or better description could be given, he stated. He said they disappeared in a northeasterly direction with a sudden burst of speed that could not be estimated.
Kenneth Evans, airport employee said a neighbor of his reported seeing an object circle town earlier in the day and that it too developed high speed and disappeared northeasterly. So fast was its flight, she said, that only a streak was apparent in the sky.
Source: Las Vegas Daily Optic, March 17, 1950.
March 19 - Toronto, Canada -Five Toronto residents, including two air force veterans, claimed they had seen four flying saucers doing aerobatics over the east end of the city yesterday.
Unshaken by skepticism of friends, George Moore of Elmwood Avenue, said "I was skeptical too, until I saw these things."
An RCAF veteran, Moore described the things as "silvery-gray in color, flying at about 10,000 feet, doing maybe 180 mph."
But, said Moore, when one of the four saucers got detached from the other three, which were flying in formation. "It put on a terrific burst of speed, and caught up in nothing flat."
The four leisurely moving whatsits flew in from the west, circled overhead, and finally flew away to the northwest. One swooped down to 500 feet in the course of stunt flying, Moore said.
A woman who lives in the district said that the saucer-watchers had called to her to come out and look, but that when she came, she couldn't see anything.
"I must have the wrong glasses," she said.
Source: Toronto Telegram, March 20, 1950.
March 29 - various places - Flying saucers, variously described as full moons, moons with wakes of fire, or strange bodies emitting smoke trails, have been reported skittering in all directions across the heavens above the Mediterranean.
In Haifa today, reports circulated that they had been seen over northern Israel.
A Lebanese pilot who took Lebanese Prime Minister Riad es Sohl to the Arab League conference in Cairo, said he had seen them aver Acre - traveling at a high speed in a westerly direction. Others described them as disks traveling northwards at a great altitude and emitting a smoke trail.
Italy reported that they had been sighted over various parts of the country five times yesterday.
At Salo, on Lake Garda, they were "as large as a full moon streaking across the sky in a northeasterly direction."
In the town of Carrara, "four saucers, three miles up, flying southwards from the direction of la Psezia," were sighted.
In the Cantanzaro area of Calabria in southernmost Italy, the disks zooming westwards was described as "like a moon with a wake of fire."
In Cagliari, on the Island of Sardinia, eyewitnesses said the saucer remained suspended over the city for 20 seconds before disappearing towards the south.
And from Val d'Aosta in northern Italy 10 persons vouched for the presence of a "saucer."
Saucers were observed yesterday at Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital; at Santiago de Chile; over Nicosia Airport, Cyprus; over Bogota, Medelin and Cali, all in western Colombia; and at the northern Caribbean port of Barranquilla.
Source: The Hamilton, Canada, Spectator, March 29, 1950.
May 4 - Louisa, Kentucky - A flying "something-or-other" was reported independently today by several local residents. They agreed it didn't look like a "saucer."
R.L. Vinson, retired businessman; Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Rice and Joe Hardin, freight agent for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, told of the flying object.
It seemed to be about 10 feet long and perhaps two feet wide at about 1,000 feet, and emitted a "luminous red" glow.
All said the object was traveling at a "medium speed" and remained in sight for some minutes about 9:00 p.m. yesterday.
Source: Paper unknown, May 5, 1950.
May 25 - Canon City, Colorado - A Canon City man Thursday night saw not just one flying saucer; he saw eleven.
Ben C. Herzel, operator of the East Canon store, Friday described how he stood at a window in his home between 10 and 11 o'clock Thursday night and saw a parade of the disks in the vicinity of Pikes Peak, northeast of Canon City.
"I happened to look out and saw a peculiar thing go sailing past,” Herzel said. "I was a little startled and surprised and kept looking in that direction. About a minute later another one came by, then another and another, each about a minute apart. There were seven, then I called my wife. She and I counted four more before they quit."
Herzel described them as "moving fast and looking like saucers all right. They were sort of a star color, but they weren't falling stars, of that, I'm sure."
He said it was "pretty hard" to tell how high they were; “they looked about as high as Pikes Peak but of course that is deceiving from where we saw them."
He added that he didn't see any tail, as has been described by some saucer-spotters. There was, however, a "little streak behind, that looked like it might have been from an exhaust of some kind."
The East Canon man added that "there's no question in my mind now about these flying saucers."
He stated that he was a little reticent about calling The Record because "people might think I was imagining all this; but my wife will bear me out."
Source: The Record, Canon City, Colorado May 27, 1950.
August 5 - off Delaware - Those "things" are being seen, around Delaware now - flying saucers, that is.
The captain and crew of the Marcala which docked yesterday at the Wilmington Mariene Terminal with a load of barytes from Nova Scotia, all saw something.
Their descriptions differ as to flying altitude, distance from water, and shape of the white metallic flat object - but they all caught a glimpse of its appearance, dip toward the ocean, and departure.
This all took place about 100 miles west of Five Fathom Bank Light Vessel, off the mouth of the Delaware Bay, on August 5.
Captain Nils Lewring, master of the vessel, and Third Mate Osle Parson, gave their description first. They agreed, as did most of the crew, it was a large flat white metallic object which traveled at a rapid rate on an angle with the ocean.
The captain said it came toward them from the northwest, ran parallel with the vessel, dipped toward the water, and vanished in the northeast. He thought it looked about 10 feet long, and the same distance in diameter.
"It reminded the mate of a large kite, somewhat diamond in shape and he thought it was about 70 feet above the water. Unlike a kite however, it dipped and rose again rapidly.”
There was nothing attached to it or on it, all the observers said.
Some believed they estimated the speed at 12 to 14 miles an hour, while others guessed at 70 mph.
One or two thought it was four to five feet wide, but still others were closer to the captain's estimate.
Captain Lewring said he didn't have time to take a photograph; the thing was going too fast and had gone when he was ready with the lens.
"Flying saucers" or objects fitting that unofficial category, were reported last May by a Shipside housewife, who thought she saw an object "odd in shape and shiny silver in color."
But the ship's crew report is the first one given by a large number of people who said they saw it at the same time and reported a simultaneous action.
Source: Wilmington, Delaware Journal-Every Evening August 7, 1950.
