Lake City, FloridaMarch 1957

Unidentified

Summary

On the evening of March 20, 1957, in Lake City, Florida, three people observed an unusual object in the sky for about 51 minutes. The object appeared pear-shaped and roughly the size of a pea when viewed from the ground. It was white in color and moved toward the east-northeast. As darkness fell, the witnesses lost sight of the object.

The Air Force investigation noted that Eglin Air Force Base, located in the vicinity of the sighting, had released a weather balloon (a test instrument used to measure atmospheric conditions) at 4:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time that same day. The balloon was 16 feet long and 6 feet in diameter. Based on the wind conditions recorded at Eglin and the timing of the release, the weather balloon would have been in approximately the right area when the sighting occurred.

The Air Force's official evaluation of this case was "unidentified," meaning the investigating officers could not conclusively determine what the witnesses had seen. While the weather balloon was in the vicinity and timing seemed consistent, the case file does not state that investigators definitively concluded the object was the balloon. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives across 27 pages of microfilm.

Reported location

Lake City, Florida

Date of incident

March 1957

State / country

FL / US

Page count

27 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 27

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 27

View transcribed text

1 :
PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 12. CONCLUSIONS
rd tags ‘ Ox Wos Balloon |
20 March 1857 Lake Citv Florida CO Probably Balloon i
. J viel Ll O _- ss CF] dod IS] \’ 2 p i
3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Hi Eassikly Balison |
; XH 7 7 O Was Aircroft |
Lipa) costa ke Sail ae XO Ground- Visual O Ground-Radar 00 Probably Aircrof?
| GMT 20 /22%337 O Air Visual 0 Air-intercept Radar DO Possibly Aircraft
5 PROTOS 8. SOURCE CZ Was Astronomical
el QO Yes ! O Probably Astronomical
LNo Civilian {0 Possibly Astronomical
7. LENGTH OF. OBSERVATION | 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE CL ORE BeBe
: : 0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation |
SU 5 Hag 0 Unknown
Sh 21 min one | ENE
10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF 5IGHTING ji. COMMENTS :
Onz object, pear shaped, size of pea, |Of preparing officer: that a 6it
color white, Object moving ENE. Lost WX balloon was released Eglin
sight of object as darkness set in. Field at 1600 hours, EST and. was |
i in the vicinity of the sighting a
: : at time indicated,
ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 32)
a

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28969431