Grand Forks, North DakotaApril 1959

A farmer near McHenry, North Dakota reported seeing an unusual object on the evening of April 1959, roughly 60 miles southeast of Grand Forks Air Force Base. The sighting occurred near Minuteman Missile Site I-37, which prompted the farmer to report what he had witnessed. The man described the object as resembling glass bulbs arranged inside a ring. He said the sound it made was like a farm tractor backfiring. The farmer did not report the sighting immediately but grew concerned about the object's proximity to the missile installation, which led him to file a report.

The Air Force sent the farmer a detailed questionnaire to fill out, seeking more information about the sighting. The case file shows that officers at Grand Forks Air Force Base and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base's Project Blue Book office exchanged correspondence about the report in April 1966, roughly seven years after the actual sighting occurred. This significant time delay presented a serious problem for investigators. In the official summary, the Air Force noted that so much time had passed since the sighting, and memories had likely become distorted, making any meaningful investigation nearly impossible. The Air Force classified the case as information only, meaning no substantive evaluation could be made.

The case file also contains numerous unrelated documents, including correspondence about a C-118 transport plane crash that occurred in April 1959 near Tacoma, Washington, as well as materials concerning lectures by UFO researchers. These materials do not pertain directly to the McHenry sighting itself.

The full case file, comprising 49 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.