Project Blue Book Case File
Adrain, MichiganJuly 1953
Summary
On a July afternoon in 1953 in Adrian, Michigan, a witness observed a group of unusual objects in the sky that the U.S. Air Force ultimately classified as unidentified.
The witness reported seeing one large object and several smaller ones that resembled crude, shapeless balloons. The sighting lasted about twenty-five minutes during daylight hours. The objects appeared to move back and forth in the sky before fading slowly into the distance. According to the witness's account, one of the larger objects seemed to move northward, while the smaller objects behaved differently. The witness drew sketches attempting to show the shapes and movements of what was observed.
The Air Force's written conclusion on the case file cover sheet identifies the sighting as a balloon, though the OCR text on the summary pages is heavily degraded and difficult to read clearly. The file does not contain obvious radar corroboration, interviews with additional witnesses, or detailed meteorological analysis that might shed further light on the event. The witness provided estimates of bearing and elevation angles, though the precision of those measurements and their bearing on the investigation is unclear from the available text.
The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives and spans eleven pages of microfilm.
Reported location
Adrain, Michigan
Date of incident
July 1953
State / country
MI / US
Page count
11 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unidentified
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 19