Calena, Ill, February 1951February 1951

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the night of February 3, 1951, over Galena, Illinois, civilians reported a strange object in the sky. The mayor said he was flooded with calls from people who claimed they saw a 300-foot-long, brilliant red object shaped like a telephone pole or baseball bat. Witnesses said it glided along silently, not very high and not very fast.

The report came from a newspaper account. The sighting in this northern Illinois town near the Wisconsin border lined up in time with reports of a brilliant blue flash over central Wisconsin, which observers thought was caused by a meteor.

The Air Force recorded the case in Project 10073, its official file for unidentified flying object reports. The conclusion was that the object was probably a large meteor.

Reported location

Calena, Ill, February 1951

Date of incident

February 1951

State / country

? / XX

Page count

2 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 8

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 2

View transcribed text

.
PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
ar Wes 0 BE 3 ond DESIR Site
" 0 Vies Bailoon
E08 ERS EE RR GC Probobly Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION = |9 Pessibly Ballon
Local —— X81 Ground-Visvol 0 Ground-Radar o Probobly Aircraft
cmt. lob Given es 0 AirVisual 0 Air-Intercopt Rodar 0 Possibly Aircraft
5. PHOTOS 8. SOURCE EX Was Astronomical Meteor
QO Yes 0 Probgbly Astronomical
BH No Civilians 0 Possibly Astronomicol
7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 18. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE i CE TARR eA)
- + nn Dota for Evaluation
Known
Not Given 1 N
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
Shape like a "telephone Pole", Color was Probably large meteor. Report says it
brilliant red, Size 300! long. Speed was was viewed over Wisconsic where it
not very fast. Alt not very high. p appeared to be blue,
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52)

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28939052