Harrisville, MichiganSeptember 1953

# A Shiny Object Moves Silently Over Michigan

On the afternoon of September 28, 1953, a lumber operator from Bay City, Michigan, was loading beans onto a wagon near Harrisville when he noticed something unusual in the sky. He looked up and saw a bright, disc-shaped object in the distance. He pointed it out to his friend, the farmer whose property he was working on, but the farmer initially didn't see it. Within two seconds, the object disappeared, then reappeared. Both men watched as it made two distinct banking turns and headed east, eventually vanishing into the distance. The entire sighting lasted between two and five seconds.

The witness estimated the object was about five miles away and roughly fifty feet in diameter. It appeared silvery and highly reflective, like looking into a bright mirror. The man described its appearance as resembling polished aluminum paint. He heard no sound coming from the object, and he saw no exhaust trail. When asked about the object's movements, he noted that it made sharp turns, banking like an aircraft would, and traveled at what he estimated to be extremely high speed. Based on how quickly it covered distance, he calculated it might have been moving at around 23 miles per second, though he acknowledged his measurement method was imprecise.

The sighting occurred at 3 p.m. (1508 EST) with excellent weather conditions. The U.S. Air Force received reports of the incident and investigated. Local radar stations reported no contact with any object in the area. Military aircraft were operating nearby at the time, including P-36s and R-86s on training missions, but all aircraft landed by 3:21 p.m. The witness appeared genuine and sincere to investigators, and there was no physical evidence recovered. The Air Force ultimately classified the case as unidentified, meaning they could not determine what the object was.

This case file contains 21 pages as held by the National Archives.