Coburn, VirginiaFebruary 1959

Between March and April 1959, residents of the Coburn and Wise areas in southwestern Virginia reported seeing strange lights in the night sky. The sightings sparked immediate interest from the Air Force, which launched an investigation in early June 1959. What the investigators found was a mix of misidentified natural phenomena, weather effects, and genuine confusion, rather than evidence of extraordinary aircraft.

The witnesses included a diverse group: funeral home directors, forest rangers, college professors and students, and local residents. Many had been watching for the lights over several nights, sometimes with binoculars and cameras in hand. A Clinch Valley College astronomy club had recorded the dates and times of at least nine sightings between late March and mid April. The objects were typically described as moving lights, sometimes red or orange, and observers reported seeing them rise from or descend toward Sheep Rock Mountain in the area.

One key finding involved the aluminum foil. Investigators discovered strips of aluminum foil scattered across the mountains near where sightings were reported. This was not random debris. The material was identical to "window" (a military term for radar-jamming chaff), which the Air Force had been using for decades. Further investigation revealed that Air Force planes testing radar countermeasures in the region had dropped this foil, which could easily remain visible for extended periods when dropped from high altitudes.

The Air Force investigators concluded that several factors likely explained most or all of the sightings. The Coburn area had numerous open coke furnaces (industrial ovens used in coal processing) to the west, which burned constantly and produced bright orange flames shooting straight up into the night. On many of the nights when sightings were reported, the weather conditions were poor, heavy fog, low clouds, or hazy skies, which could distort the appearance of distant lights. Observers unfamiliar with how astronomical bodies or distant objects look under unusual atmospheric conditions may have misinterpreted what they saw. Some witnesses saw car headlights on distant roads running along ridgetops and mistook them for something extraordinary. Finally, the investigators noted that once newspaper coverage of "flying saucers" in the area became widespread, the power of suggestion almost certainly influenced subsequent reports. People who went out specifically looking for strange lights, the report suggested, would find them, whether real or imagined.

The complete case file, comprising 197 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.