On May 7, 1950, a family returning from a picnic watched a silvery-white object hover about 100 feet up near East Ely, Nevada.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
1950: East Ely, Nevada, A Silver Object That Seemed to Be Trying to Climb
On the evening of May 7, 1950, a grandmother, her husband and their grandson were driving home from a picnic south of Ely, Nevada, when a silvery-white object appeared hovering about 100 feet above the ground, a little over two miles away. For about ten minutes it moved back and forth “as though it was trying to gain altitude,” as she later put it. Then, all at once, it went up into the air and was gone in less than a minute.
The family did not report it for seven weeks. When the grandmother finally wrote to the Air Materiel Command on June 28, 1950, she apologized that it should have been reported long before but that she had not known one was supposed to report such things. The Air Force card labeled the East Ely, Nevada UFO case Unidentified, and the file shows no investigation.
Date: May 7, 1950
Sighting Time: About 6:45 p.m. (18:45)
Day/Night: Day (early evening daylight)
Location: East Ely, Nevada, about 9 miles south of Ely, as the witnesses returned from a picnic
Urban or Rural: Rural
No. of Entity’s: 0 — Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: DD (daylight disc category by default; the shape is not described in the file)
Duration: About 10 minutes of hovering and back-and-forth motion, then out of sight in less than a minute
No. of Object(s): One
Description of the Object(s): A silvery-white object hovering low, moving back and forth as though trying to gain altitude, then shooting up and away
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Silvery white; shape and size not stated
Distance to Object(s): About 2.5 to 3 miles (“directly across” from the witnesses)
Height & Speed: About 100 feet above the ground; no speed stated for the hover; departed upward and out of sight in under a minute
Number of Witnesses: 3 (a woman, her husband and her grandson)
Special Features/Characteristics: Low hover observed for ten minutes in daylight; late report by letter; no investigation
Case Status: Unidentified (Project 10073 Record Card); never investigated
Source: Project 10073 Record Card; witness letter to Air Materiel Command, June 28, 1950; Air Materiel Command acknowledgment, June 1950 (Col. Bryan L. Davis, Air Adjutant General); Vallée, Magonia 79 (BBU #721)
Summary/Description: A family saw a silvery-white object hover about 100 feet up for ten minutes, then shoot upward out of sight.
Related Cases: None identified in the archive
Detailed Report
The sighting. The witness letter, handwritten from East Ely, Nevada, and addressed to the Air Materiel Command, says that on May 7 she, her husband and her grandson were returning from a picnic at about 6:45 p.m. when they saw this silvery-white object hovering quite low, possibly 100 feet from the ground. It moved back and forth for ten minutes as though trying to gain altitude, then went up into the air all of a sudden and was out of sight in less than a minute. They were directly across from it, only about two and a half or three miles away, and it was about nine miles south of Ely.
The card. The Project 10073 record card repeats these facts: date of information May 7, 1950, location East Ely, civilian source, time 18:45, color silvery white, altitude 100 feet, one object, ground observation, with the maneuvers recorded as hovered and moved back and forth before shooting up and away. Its conclusion is Unidentified. A handwritten note on the card appears to read “Copy for Hynek.”
The paper trail. The Air Materiel Command acknowledged the letter on June 28, 1950, over the signature of Col. Bryan L. Davis, saying it would be forwarded to the office interested in these matters and that the writer would be contacted if more information was needed. The NICAP chronology, citing Vallée’s Magonia 79, lists the case as Blue Book Unknown #721 and transcribes the file’s note: “No investigation.” It names the witnesses as Mr. and Mrs. George Smith and their grandson, a surname the hard-to-read handwriting in the uploaded letter cannot confirm.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
A Quiet Case With a Clean Record
- Seven-week delay: The sighting was reported only after the writer learned that such things could be reported, which accounts for the slim file but also means memory had time to drift.
- Nothing about shape: Neither the letter nor the card describes the object’s shape or size; only color, height, distance and behavior are recorded.
- Behavior over appearance: The case rests on behavior: a ten-minute low hover with back-and-forth motion, then an abrupt climb out of sight.
- Distance matters: At 2.5 to 3 miles and 100 feet up, the object was low and fairly far away, so any size estimate would be rough. The letter gives none.
- Witness identity: The signature block is redacted; the family surname is Smith per NICAP’s transcription, but I could not confirm it from the handwriting.
- No investigation: Blue Book labeled it Unidentified without ever checking aircraft, balloons or other conventional causes.
East Ely is not a dramatic case, and its value is exactly that: three ordinary people, a clear daylight view and a low object doing something odd, followed by a file that says Unidentified and shows nobody looked into it. It stays an open, unexplained report.
“as though it was trying to gain altitude”
— Witness letter to the Air Materiel Command, June 28, 1950
