West Warrenton, North Carolina, October 21, 1950: eight named residents watched two circles of lights maneuver around each other.
THINK ABOUTIT UFO|UAP SIGHTINGS REPORT
1950: Warrenton, North Carolina — Two Circles of Lights Chase Each Other Over a Small Southern Town
On Saturday night, October 21, 1950, at about 8:30, a gathering at the home of Col. Claude Bowers in West Warrenton, North Carolina spilled onto the lawn: two huge circles of lights were wheeling over the town, each seemingly trying to out-maneuver the other, one passing clean through the center of its partner. Col. and Mrs. Claude Bowers, Mr. and Mrs. Selby Benton, Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Scott, Bill Boyce, Mrs. B. G. White and others watched, and two of them drove toward the lights, only to find they could get no closer.
The Warrenton, North Carolina UFO lights made both Raleigh papers and then, a week later, Air Materiel Command, where Project Blue Book filed them under “Astro (stars/planets).” The local newspaper, tongue in cheek, called them “the fluorescent dinner plates playing ring-around-the-rosy” and noted it was the first time anything of the kind had been reported in the area.
Date: October 21, 1950 (Saturday night)
Sighting Time: About 8:30 p.m.
Day/Night: Night
Location: West Warrenton, North Carolina, near the home of Col. Claude Bowers
Urban or Rural: Small town
No. of Entity’s: Not Applicable
Entity Type: Not Applicable
Entity Description: Not Applicable
Hynek Classification: Nocturnal Light (NL)
Duration: Not stated
No. of Object(s): Two circles of lights
Description of the Object(s): Two large circles of lights, each seeming to try to out-maneuver the other; more than once one circle passed through the center of the other. Illuminated and apparently close to the earth
Shape/Size/Color of Object(s): Circles of lights; size and color not stated
Distance to Object(s): Apparently close to earth and “not too far” from the Bowers home; two witnesses drove toward the lights but could get no nearer to them than when they started
Height & Speed: Not stated
Number of Witnesses: At least 8 named, plus “others”
Special Features/Characteristics: Two light-circles in apparent mutual maneuver, one passing through the other’s center; the lights seemed to keep their distance from the pursuing car
Case Status: Evaluated by Project Blue Book as astronomical (stars/planets); the basis for that evaluation is not stated on the card
Source: Raleigh Times and Raleigh News and Observer, October 25-26, 1950 (clippings forwarded by Headquarters Third Army, October 30, 1950, Control No. A-1917); Project Blue Book record card
Summary/Description: Eight named residents of Warrenton, including a colonel, saw two circles of lights maneuvering around each other near the earth; two of them chased the lights by car without closing the distance.
Related Cases: Same state, the same month: Pope AFB (October 15) and Bonlee (October 23); see the October 1950 archive.
Detailed Report
The Raleigh newspapers reported that “prominent Warrenton citizens added credence over the weekend to previous reports over the nation that strange objects have been seen in aerial acrobatics.” At 8:30 on Saturday night, they wrote, “two unusual lighter-than-air craft” were seen over West Warrenton by Col. and Mrs. Claude Bowers, Mr. and Mrs. Selby Benton, Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Scott, Bill Boyce, Mrs. B. G. White, and others.
According to the witnesses, they saw “two large circles of lights, and each circle seemed to be trying to out-maneuver the other. On more than one occasion, one circle of lights passed through the center of the other object.” The illuminated objects seemed close to the earth and not far from Col. Bowers’ home, where the party was gathered. Two of the witnesses drove in the general direction of the lights but “couldn’t seem to get in closer proximity to the lights than before they went in pursuit.”
The paper noted that it was “the first time that flying saucers, illuminated bubbles, or heaven-bound whirling dervishes have been reported seen in this area,” and that the report of Col. Bowers and his party “of sighting the fluorescent dinner plates playing ring-around-the-rosy increased speculation as to their origin rather than doubt as to their existence.”
Headquarters Third Army at Fort McPherson, Georgia, forwarded both clippings to Air Materiel Command on October 30, 1950 (Control No. A-1917). The Project Blue Book record card lists the source as “Col and other (Newspaper RPT),” the time as 2030, and the shape as “circle of lights,” with the manuever noted as “two circles of light with each circle trying to out manuever each other.” In pencil, it is evaluated “ASTRO (STARS/PLANETS).”
RESEARCHER’S NOTES
A Light Show With a Stars-and-Planets Label
- The date: The articles say “Saturday night” and “this weekend,” which works out to October 21; the date of information on the record card is hard to read.
- The Blue Book label: The card reads “Astro (Stars/Planets)” but does not say which star or planet, or how stars or planets would appear to pass through one another as the witnesses described. The label is an evaluation, not an investigation.
- Local color: The coverage is lighthearted but names eight prominent residents, including a colonel, and the paper treated the witnesses as credible.
- Before the wave: This was the first report of its kind in Warrenton, and it came the same week as the Bonlee dirigible, two days later elsewhere in the state, and nine days after the Oak Ridge flap began in neighboring Tennessee.
- Third Army’s role: Third Army forwarded all three Carolina press clippings to Wright-Patterson with the same control number, showing how press reports, not just formal witness statements, were still being collected in late 1950.
Warrenton is a well-witnessed light show with no timing, distance or angle data; the record offers a label, not an analysis. It stands as one of several reports in a busy Carolina fortnight that the military noted but never resolved.
“…the fluorescent dinner plates playing ring-around-the-rosy…”
— Raleigh newspaper account of the Warrenton, North Carolina sighting, October 1950
