August 1949 — four cases: the Hebgen Lake, Montana crash claim; the Norwood, Ohio searchlight sighting; Clyde Tombaugh's Las Cruces sighting; and the Death Valley crash claim.
1949: August UFO|UAP & Entity Sightings Archive
August 1949 carries two cases substantial enough for their own full reports: an Air Force intelligence memo describing a disc crash claim at Hebgen Lake, Montana, and the well-witnessed, photographed searchlight sighting at a Norwood, Ohio church carnival. The month also includes two already-standalone cases — the Death Valley crash claim and astronomer Clyde Tombaugh’s Las Cruces sighting — alongside a strong run of New Mexico green fireball reports and the ongoing Fort Hood, Texas UFO Wave.
Date: August 1949
Location: Fresno, California
Time: Around 1400
Summary: One object was observed for 30 minutes (Bromley).
Source: Project Bluebook
Date: August 1949
Location: Arlington, Virginia
Time: 1430
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for over three minutes (Witt).
Source: NICAP
Date: August 1949
Location: Weinbergen, Germany
Time: Afternoon
Summary: A daytime disc was reported (Biehler).
Source: Schoenherr, Luis
Date: August 1949
Location: Yardley, Pennsylvania
Time: 22:00
Summary: One object was observed by one witness for over one minute (Buczuy).
Source: NICAP
Date: August 1949
Location: Hot Springs, Arkansas
Time: Night
Summary: A flame-colored object, longer than wide, traveled end-up with its upper end slanting to the south; witnesses exclaimed “look, it’s going sideways!” Estimated 100 ft long at 500 ft altitude, passing over a school stadium. Observed by a male witness (Kight).
Source: Sullivan, Edward. CSI/LA investigation files
Date: August 1, 1949
Location: Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Time: ?
Summary: A torpedo-shaped object zipped over the countryside near Tampico, described as looking like a “4th of July sparkler.”
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: August 3, 1949
Location: West Los Angeles, California
Time: 17:15
Summary: An experienced male witness (Wernicke) saw a shiny metallic disc, about 20-40 ft across, ascending in peculiar jerky motions; after bobbing several times it flipped over, became obscured by a brownish smudge, then shot rapidly north at over 500 mph. Duration two minutes.
Source: Sullivan, Edward. CSI/LA investigation files
Date: August 6, 1949
Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Time: 20:00
Summary: One observer of unknown reliability saw a round, bluish-green object with a trail move east to west, larger than a falling star, before it disappeared behind a building. Duration 1-2 seconds.
Source: NICAP
Date: August 6, 1949
Location: Alamogordo, White Sands & Albuquerque, New Mexico
Time: 20:00-20:30
Summary: Multiple sightings across three locations of a round object, bright white with a slight reddish cast, about half the size of the moon.
Source: Undocumented
Date: August 8, 1949
Location: Medford, Oregon
Time: 11:20 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.
Summary: At Medford Municipal Airport, six observers (some military, some civilian control tower operators) saw one to seven shiny objects at an estimated 30,000 ft, traveling at varying speeds, flying in formation for a while before breaking off and reforming in trail formation, disappearing and reappearing in the same general area. Tower personnel using binoculars could distinguish wings on the objects but made no further identification. Air Force conclusion: balls of thistle.
Source: Dan Wilson, Blue Book Archives
Date: August 8, 1949
Location: Peytona, West Virginia
Time: Around 2200
Summary: One object was observed by four witnesses for over three minutes (Frye).
Source: NICAP
Date: August 9, 1949
Location: Hebgen Lake, Montana
Time: 0930
Summary: An AFOSI memo, dated August 17, 1949, summarized a report that seven flying discs had been sighted over Hebgen Lake, with two allegedly crashing — one in the lake, one on the opposite shore. Agents dragged the lake with negative results; the sole informant was described as “absolutely trustworthy” but “prone to exaggeration.” [Full Report]
Source: AFOSI
Date: August 10-12, 1949
Location: Fort Hood, Texas
Time:
Summary: One blue star-like object was observed. Part of the ongoing Fort Hood, Texas UFO Wave. [Full Report]
Source: AFOSI
Date: August 14, 1949
Location: Alamogordo, New Mexico
Time: 21:35
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw a reddish-orange, round object larger than Venus, with a trail, appearing at about 25° elevation and disappearing at 12°, on a course 10-15° off vertical. Duration two seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: August 15, 1949
Location: Circleville, Utah
Time: 11:00
Summary: Three discs, about 25 meters each, flew north in V formation at about 15 meters altitude, tilting and veering to the northwest, with a whining sound. Observed by five witnesses on a farm for over one minute.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: August 18, 1949
Location: Lake Magelungen, Sweden
Time: Afternoon
Summary: A flying disc, about 40 ft across, was observed by three male witnesses; gravity effects were noted.
Source: Undocumented
Date: August 19, 1949
Location: Sts. Peter and Paul Church, Norwood (Cincinnati), Ohio
Time: 8:15 p.m. to approximately 10:15 p.m.
Summary: During a church carnival, an Army-surplus searchlight operated by an ROTC sergeant swept across a stationary, circular object; several hundred witnesses watched it fly in and out of the beam for about two hours, and a witness named Davidson took ten still photographs. One source describes an estimated four-mile altitude and animal reactions in the area. [Full Report]
Source: Keyhoe, Donald E. Flying Saucer Conspiracy, Holt, New York, 1955; Hill, H. Edward. Catalog Through 1950
Date: August 19, 1949
Location: Death Valley, California
Time: Daytime
Summary: Two prospectors (Fitzgerald and Garney) reported watching a disc-shaped object, about 40 ft across, land; two small humanoid figures emerged but were lost in the sand dunes when pursued, and the object then departed. A noise was heard. This site’s standalone crash report on this case gives the date as August 20. [Full Report]
Source: Webb, David. HUMCAT: Catalogue of Humanoid Reports
Date: August 19, 1949
Location: Norwood, Maryland
Time: Night
Summary: An unidentifiable object was observed at close range. This entry’s place name and date coincide closely with the Norwood, Ohio searchlight sighting above, from an unrelated source catalog (Haines); whether this is a genuinely separate Maryland report or a state mix-up in the original cataloging could not be confirmed.
Source: Haines, Richard F. CE-5: Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind, Sourcebooks, Naperville, 1998, ISBN:1-57071-427-4
Date: August 20, 1949
Location: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Time: Night
Summary: Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, and two family members watched a formation of six to eight rectangular, window-like lights, yellowish-green in color, arranged geometrically, cross the sky from northwest to southeast. Tombaugh stated he doubted it was any terrestrial reflection, calling it unlike anything he had seen before or since. He later disclosed the sighting, along with sightings of green fireballs, to J. Allen Hynek during a 1952 astronomers’ survey for Project Blue Book. [Full Report]
Source: Tombaugh’s own 1957 written account and 1956 public statement; NICAP files
Date: August 20, 1949
Location: Douglas, Arizona
Time: 21:30
Summary: Two observers of unknown reliability saw a round-to-oblong object, like an inverted saucer, about the size of a single-engine plane, moving north to south at 8,000-10,000 ft on a flat trajectory at an estimated 3,500-4,500 mph, before disappearing in the distance. Duration 6-10 seconds.
Source: AFOSI
Date: August 22, 1949
Location: Tigvariak Island, Alaska
Time: ?
Summary: Six discs in circular formation, with a whining sound, were seen moving rapidly from the northeast to the southwest; a seventh disc wove through the sky separately. Observed by one experienced male witness on the shore.
Source: Hatch, Larry
Date: August 28, 1949
Location: Snow Lake, Washington
Time: Afternoon
Summary: One object was observed by three male witnesses at a lake briefly (Hamilton).
Source: Doubt Magazine
Date: August 29, 1949
Location: Seattle, Washington
Time: Afternoon
Summary: Six objects were observed by one witness for 45 minutes (Gailey).
Source: Newspaper
Date: August 30, 1949
Location: Mint Canyon, California
Time:
Summary: One object, about 600 ft across, was observed.
Source: Vallee, Jacques
Date: August 30, 1949
Location: Los Alamos, New Mexico
Time: 23:00
Summary: One observer, rated reliable, saw a green object with a reddish tail fall almost straight down from directly overhead, much larger than a meteor, before burning out. Duration one to two seconds.
Source: AFOSI
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Two Cases Promoted, One Geography Error Fixed
Two entries this month were rich enough to become standalone case pages: the Hebgen Lake, Montana crash claim, documented through an internal Air Force memo, and the Norwood, Ohio searchlight sighting, witnessed by several hundred people and photographed. Both remain filled out inline with a link to their full report, and both embedded photographs from the original page — the small thumbnail near the Norwood entries and the larger photo now placed within the Norwood standalone report — have been preserved rather than dropped. The Tampico, Mexico entry’s summary incorrectly placed the city in the “State of Veracruz”; corrected, since Tampico is in Tamaulipas, matching this entry’s own Location field. Several raw catalog metadata dumps (Las Cruces, Alamogordo) were rewritten as prose without losing data. The Death Valley and Clyde Tombaugh entries, already covered by standalone pages elsewhere on this site, are now filled out inline with links rather than left as bare headers.
“I doubt that the phenomenon was any terrestrial reflection… nothing of the kind has ever appeared before or since.”
Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, describing his August 20, 1949 Las Cruces, New Mexico sighting.
