20 Mi N Of Statesville, N.C., November 1959November 1959

Early on the morning of November 3, 1959, Robert L. James, a used car dealer from Taylorsville, North Carolina, reported seeing a glowing object that seemed to chase his car for about 20 minutes as he drove south on Highway 90, roughly 20 miles north of Statesville. James described the object as roughly six feet long and four feet wide, with a golden center surrounded by a blue glow. He said it appeared to rotate slowly and hovered just above tree-top level, moving alternately at slow and very fast speeds. The object seemed to rise and fall, disappearing and reappearing several times during the sighting. James stopped his car six times, and he reported that the object stopped as well each time.

The Air Force interviewed James indirectly through local police and newspaper contacts, since James and his companion were unavailable when investigators tried to reach them directly. The police chief noted that both men had poor reputations, and initially suspected they might be fabricating the story to establish an alibi. However, after further investigation, the chief changed his assessment and believed they had genuinely witnessed something unusual. The Air Force intelligence officer who compiled the report agreed, stating he believed the observers had experienced a real visual phenomenon.

On the same morning, other reports came in from a roughly 50-mile radius in the area around Hickory and Salisbury, North Carolina, describing similar objects. A Weather Bureau official suggested that a weather balloon released at 3 a.m. that morning might account for some of the sightings, since the balloon could have caught the sun's reflection. However, James reported his sighting around 1 a.m., roughly two hours before the balloon was launched. The official Air Force evaluation listed the case as "probably balloon," though the timing discrepancy between James's sighting and the balloon launch remains unresolved in the file.

The complete case file, consisting of 8 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.