Houlton, Maine, August 2, 1952: twenty-one objects, thirty-five minutes.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
Houlton, Maine: Twenty-One Discs Over 35 Minutes, August 2, 1952
At 9:55 on the night of August 2, 1952, Jack Smart and his wife Patricia, standing on a wharf, watched 21 disc-shaped objects to the north and northeast. The objects moved at an estimated 200 to 600 mph, and the couple kept them in view for 35 minutes.
The Houlton, Maine UFO sighting is a long, two-witness count of an unusually large group of objects. It was later re-evaluated by J. Allen Hynek’s Center for UFO Studies and indexed by the Fund for UFO Research, which is how it reaches the archive today.
Date: August 2, 1952
Sighting Time: 9:55 p.m.
Day/Night: Night
Location: Houlton, Maine, United States (the sources place the witnesses on a wharf)
Urban or Rural: Rural
No. of Entity(‘s): Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Nocturnal Light (NL)
Duration: 35 minutes
No. of Object(s): 21
Description of the Object(s): Disc-shaped objects seen to the north and northeast, estimated to be traveling 200 to 600 mph
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Disc-shaped; size and color not recorded
Distance to Object(s): Not recorded
Height & Speed: Estimated 200 to 600 mph; altitude not recorded
Number of Witnesses: 2 (Jack Smart and his wife Patricia)
Special Features/Characteristics: A count of 21 objects; a long observation of 35 minutes; speeds estimated at 200 to 600 mph
Case Status: Insufficient Data — a two-witness account known through the CUFOS re-evaluation and a catalogue index; the original Blue Book file was not available for this entry
Source: J. Allen Hynek / CUFOS re-evaluation; Jan Aldrich; FUFOR Index
Summary/Description: Jack Smart and his wife Patricia, on a wharf, saw 21 disc-shaped objects to the north and northeast traveling 200 to 600 mph over 35 minutes.
Related Cases: Albuquerque, New Mexico, August 1, 1952; Hamilton AFB, California, August 3, 1952
Detailed Report
The Houlton account is short. Jack Smart and his wife Patricia, standing on a wharf, saw 21 disc-shaped objects in the sky to the north and northeast at 9:55 p.m. on August 2, 1952. The objects traveled at an estimated 200 to 600 mph, and the couple watched for 35 minutes.
The sources named in the archive are the Hynek-CUFOS re-evaluation of Blue Book cases, Jan Aldrich’s Project Blue Book research and the FUFOR (Fund for UFO Research) Index. None of the sources I could reach gave the wording of the original report, the objects’ colors, whether they moved in formation, or what the weather was.
One detail needs checking. Houlton, Maine is an inland town near the New Brunswick border, and a wharf there would be unusual. The wharf may belong to a lake or river site near Houlton or to a coastal location that the index records under the Houlton name.
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
Twenty-One Objects, Two Witnesses, and a Location to Verify
- The count: Twenty-one objects is a large number for a two-witness report. A count that high in 35 minutes of observation suggests a repeating or streaming phenomenon, and it is also what flocks of birds, a string of aircraft lights or meteors can produce in the dark.
- The wharf: Houlton is inland. The wharf in the sources is a detail to resolve before the location is treated as settled.
- Speeds: Estimated speeds of 200 to 600 mph come from the witnesses and have no instrument behind them.
- Hynek and CUFOS: The CUFOS re-evaluation of Blue Book cases is a later review of the Air Force files by Hynek’s group. It places the case on a list of reports worth a second look but does not by itself explain it.
Houlton records a long observation of an unusually large group of objects by two people. The archive carries it as Insufficient Data because the original file and the location need confirming.
Twenty-one disc-shaped objects, north and northeast, 200 to 600 mph, over 35 minutes.
— Summary of the Houlton, Maine report of August 2, 1952 (Hynek-CUFOS re-evaluation; paraphrased)
