Bark River, MichiganFebruary 1961

Unidentified

Summary

On February 27, 1961, around 10:15 p.m. local time, a housewife and her teenage daughter near Bark River, Michigan, reported a round, fiery red object about the size of a grapefruit. The witnesses, listed with unknown reliability, watched it for about 10 minutes from inside their house. Their dog began barking before they saw it.

The object was fiery red, like flames, and light rays appeared to be projected ahead of it. No sound was heard. It was first sighted in the west, about 20 degrees above the horizon. It seemed stationary at first, then began to move slowly north and down before disappearing behind some trees.

A check with local fighter squadrons and a radar bombing site found no aircraft in the area at the time. The Air Force card notes the description matches a fireball except that it projected light rays ahead and lasted much too long. Because of this, the report was evaluated as unidentified until further information might aid identification.

Reported location

Bark River, Michigan

Date of incident

February 1961

State / country

MI / US

Page count

5 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 41

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 5

View transcribed text

: PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD |
| 1. DATE pi | 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
| O Was Ball |
27 Feb 61 Bark River, Michigan 0 Probably Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION 8 Fessitiy Selleon
Lowal 2215 | ®%mwendViwd OGrundReder (5 Mos Averett |
one. SO0RLSR O Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar O Possibly Aircraft
5. ‘PHOTOS » SOURCE O Was Astronomicol
O Yes O Probably Astronemicol
: 0 No n O Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE O Other LEH DERT/F ES
oy 2 hd Deto for Evaluation |
| 10 min 1 N ht J!
i 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING Round, fiery red objt, |[1. COMMENTSDescription of © S 8 ar
| about size of a grapefruit. Light rays to that of a fireball, except that it
appeared to be projected ahead of objt. projected light rays ahead of it and |
Sighted--aprox elevation 20°, azimuth 270°. |mem duration was much too long. Objt wa |
Disappeared O° elevation, 360° azimuth. Moved| apparently stationary for a few minutes,
| N very slowly. Disappeared behind some trees.|then it bagan to move NE. No a/c in areg.
| No air intercept attempted. Report is
| evaluated "Unidentifed" until such time
i that further info is received that
] will aid in identification.
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)
t 1
| | /
E ' 4 ;
/ A
ji AR a EE a £5 TARE pI 3 git SR ;
CE

/ 5

Use ← → keys to navigate · scans hosted by the U.S. National Archives

Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28991595