July 3, 1947 — A family of ten reported eight objects landing near St. Maries, Idaho, prompting an actual National Guard air search. thinkaboutitdocs.com.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP ENCOUNTER REPORT
1947: The St. Maries, Idaho Landing: A Family, Eight Objects, and a National Guard Search
On the evening of July 3, 1947, a family of ten in northern Idaho, near St. Maries, reported watching eight huge objects land nearby. What sets this case apart from most 1947 landing claims isn’t the family’s account alone — it’s what happened next. The report reached intelligence officers at Spokane Army Air Base, who took it seriously enough to launch an actual military response: two full air search missions flown by the Washington National Guard’s 116th Fighter Group, backed by a ground search from local sheriff’s deputies. No trace was found. And in a detail that says as much about the phenomenon’s broader history as the sighting itself, the case likely never made it into Wright Field’s official record at all — an early example of exactly the kind of gap that would make later government UFO record-keeping so difficult to fully reconstruct.
Date: July 3, 1947
Sighting Time: Evening
Day/Night: Evening/Night
Location: Northern Idaho, near St. Maries, Idaho
Urban or Rural: Rural
No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: CE-I (Close Encounter of the First Kind — a landing observed at close range, no entities and no physical trace located)
Duration: Not specified in available sourcing
No. of Object(s): Eight
Description of the Object(s): Described only as “huge objects” in the located sourcing; no further shape or color detail preserved
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Not specified beyond “huge” in available sourcing
Distance to Object(s): Close range — a landing observed directly by the family
Height & Speed: Not applicable; objects were on or near the ground
Number of Witnesses: Ten (one family)
Special Features/Characteristics: Triggered an actual military air search — two missions flown by the Washington National Guard’s 116th Fighter Group — plus a ground search by local sheriff’s deputies; no wreckage or trace evidence was found by either search effort
Case Status: Unexplained
Source: The Denver Post; Ted Bloecher, Report on the UFO Wave of 1947
Source Status: VERIFIED — a ten-person family witness group, and an official military response (two National Guard air search missions plus a sheriff’s ground search) that is itself independently documented, giving this case institutional corroboration beyond the family’s testimony alone.
Summary/Description: A family of ten near St. Maries, Idaho reported the landing of eight huge objects. Intelligence officers at Spokane Army Air Base launched two National Guard air search missions and a sheriff’s ground search; no trace was found, and the report likely never reached Wright Field’s official files.
Related Cases: Bloecher’s own research connects this case to the broader “flap” that began within 24 hours of Air Materiel Command’s official statements about continuing its investigation — sighting reports arriving almost simultaneously from Southern California to New Brunswick, Louisiana to North Dakota. See this archive’s July 1947 Part 1 monthly index.
Detailed Report
On the evening of July 3, 1947, a family of ten in rural northern Idaho, in the vicinity of St. Maries, reported watching eight huge objects come down and land nearby. The surviving sourcing does not preserve a physical description of the objects beyond their large size, nor the family’s names, nor an exact time of night.
What makes the case unusual is the official response it triggered. The report reached intelligence officers at Spokane Army Air Base, who treated it as credible enough to warrant an actual field investigation. Two separate air search missions were flown by the Washington National Guard’s 116th Fighter Group, and local sheriff’s deputies conducted a corresponding ground search of the area. Neither search located any wreckage, debris, or physical trace consistent with a landing.
Ted Bloecher’s own research on this case notes a further, broader point: the report likely never made it into Wright Field’s official investigative files as a result of how it was handled locally — an early instance of the kind of documentation gap that has complicated later efforts to reconstruct a complete record of official 1947 UFO investigations. Bloecher connects this case to the true onset of the national “flap”: within 24 hours of the Air Materiel Command’s official statements that its investigation into the wave was continuing, sighting reports began arriving almost simultaneously from citizens across the country, from Southern California to New Brunswick, from Louisiana to North Dakota.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Why This Case Is Taken Seriously
- A ten-person witness group: An entire family, rather than one or two individuals, reported the same event.
- An independently documented official response: The military’s own search effort — two National Guard air missions and a sheriff’s ground search — is corroborated separately from the family’s testimony, giving the case an institutional paper trail most 1947 reports lack.
- A documented gap in the official record: Bloecher’s finding that this case likely never reached Wright Field’s files is itself a valuable piece of evidence about how incomplete the government’s own 1947 investigative record actually is.
- Context within the broader wave: This case sits at the very threshold of the national “flap” that Bloecher identifies as beginning within a day of the Air Materiel Command’s public statements.
- What the record does not include: The family’s names, a physical description of the objects, or an account of their eventual departure. This is one of the sparser detailed cases in this archive’s July 1947 record, despite its unusually well-documented official response.
The St. Maries case is thin on physical description but unusually rich in institutional response — a rare instance where the military’s own search effort is as well documented as the sighting that prompted it. This archive lists it as Unexplained, direct about how much of the original witness account has been lost to time.
Two missions of the National Guard’s 116th Fighter Group, plus a ground search by local sheriff’s deputies — no trace was found.
From Ted Bloecher’s documentation of the official response to the July 3, 1947 St. Maries, Idaho landing report.
