Herkimer, New YorkAugust 1951

On the evening of August 5, 1951, a man camping near Big Moose in Herkimer, New York, was awakened by a sudden gust of wind at approximately 1830 (6:30 p.m.). He stepped outside his tent and saw an unusual object in the sky. The witness described it as a solid sphere that appeared reddish in color, with a vivid green light surrounding or partly obscuring it. He said the object made no sound and maintained a steady, constant brightness as it moved across the sky in a straight, level flight path.

The witness watched the object for only 3 to 5 seconds. It appeared to be moving at low speed and low altitude. As he tracked its motion, the object moved through approximately a 60-degree arc before disappearing behind trees to the southwest. He noted that the outline of the object seemed fuzzy or blurred rather than sharply defined. In his written account, the witness suggested the object resembled a fireball, though he wondered whether it might have been a comet or meteor.

The Air Force interviewed the witness in detail through a questionnaire completed in December 1953, more than two years after the sighting. The witness estimated the object was between 2,000 and 6,000 feet away and traveling at speeds between 200 and 300 miles per hour, though he acknowledged uncertainty about these figures. He was alone at the time and was the sole observer of the event.

The file includes correspondence from the Smithsonian Institution's Astrophysical Observatory, dated December 8, 1953. The observatory noted that while they had no record of a meteor shower on that date, "spurious" meteors (unassociated with any known shower) do occasionally occur. They observed that such objects often display colors matching the witness's description and cautioned that observers frequently misjudge the distance and altitude of such phenomena. The Air Force's final evaluation of this case was "unidentified," though the scientific comment in the file leans toward a natural astronomical explanation. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 17 pages.