Manitowoc, Wisc., November 1953November 1953

On November 17, 1953, a pilot and amateur astronomer spotted a silver, disk-shaped object in the sky near Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The witness, who had been flying since 1922 and held a private pilot license, was parked in the countryside about ten miles south of town having lunch. While observing the sky, he noticed the object hanging due north at about twenty-five degrees above the horizon. It appeared roughly the size of a pencil eraser when he looked up at it.

The witness watched the object for about fifteen minutes around midday. The sky was clear except for some high-altitude dust haze that occasionally blocked his view. His first thought was that he might be seeing the star Vega or Capella, but he quickly dismissed that idea because neither star would be visible to the naked eye at noon. The object had a silver color and a steady light that reminded him of the planet Venus as it appears during daylight.

What struck the witness most was the object's behavior over time. He stopped his car again at 4:15 p.m. on a hill with a good vantage point and saw the object in exactly the same position. This stability ruled out several explanations in his mind. A balloon would have drifted with the upper atmosphere winds. A star would have appeared to move due to Earth's rotation. The fact that the object remained motionless for over four hours made him curious enough to stop work for the day. He drove into Manitowoc, borrowed a pair of binoculars from a neighbor, and walked to the shore of Lake Michigan for a clearer view. The binoculars were of poor quality and did not reveal any additional details. He waited until after dark for another sighting but the object had vanished. When he checked the sky again on following days, it never returned.

The complete case file, as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below across 10 pages.