Brookville, OhioSeptember 1957

On September 4 and 5, 1957, multiple witnesses in the Midwest reported unusual lights in the night sky. The sightings occurred in Brookville, Ohio, Spencer, Wisconsin, and Dayton, Ohio, among other locations across the region.

Witnesses described seeing objects that were red, white, orange, and green in color. Some objects appeared stationary in the sky and resembled planets in size, while others displayed bright flashing lights that shifted between red, orange, and white. According to the reports, the weather observers at Vandalia remarked that these were "some of the best displays ever seen in this area." The lights appeared to cover the commonly called northern sky (the Aurora Borealis, or northern lights).

The sighting in Brookville, Ohio alone lasted approximately 21 minutes and involved one stationary object. One witness in Dayton reported seeing a very bright light to the west that blinked red, orange, and white in color at 0350 hours (3:50 a.m.).

The Air Force investigated these reports and concluded that the observed objects were the Aurora Borealis. This natural phenomenon is caused by particles from solar explosions entering the atmosphere and interacting with gases, creating the colored light displays. The aurora had been visible across several states during this time period, which explained the multiple sightings across the Midwest.

Years later, in 1959, a Navy serviceman wrote to the Air Force about a similar sighting he claimed to have witnessed two years earlier near New Holstein, Wisconsin, where approximately 25 people allegedly saw a UFO that changed color from blue to red. The Air Force responded that this report was too old to evaluate but noted that the Wisconsin sighting from September 1957 had been determined to be the Aurora Borealis.

This case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 31 pages.