HICKMAN CANYON, UTAHOctober 1952

In October 1952, two hunters in Hickman Canyon near Tooele County, Utah reported seeing an unusual object flying toward them at about 3,000 feet altitude. The object was shaped like a saucer with a dark spot in the middle and had two or more pipes sticking out from its front. It was dark gray or light brown in color and made a sound similar to a car traveling at about 60 miles per hour, or like a car window defroster running at high speed.

The primary witness used a rifle-mounted telescope to follow the object as it flew in a straight line on a heading of 110 degrees east to 290 degrees west, descending at about a 15-degree angle toward the ground. The witnesses heard what they described as a terrific crash when the object seemed to hit a mountain called South Mountain, but they saw no explosion. When they searched the area afterward, they found no wreckage.

On November 2, about a week after the sighting, the witnesses and others in the area reported hearing the same distinctive noise again, intermittently for about five minutes. No explanation could be offered for this sound. The witnesses conducted an extensive ground search of the area without finding any physical evidence. An air search by personnel from nearby Dugway Proving Ground also came up empty, though the dense cedar coverage made it difficult to see the ground. The file notes that the background and reliability of the observers were unknown.

A document in the file assesses the incident as "probably balloon" but offers no detailed analysis of this conclusion. The full case file, comprising 19 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.