Matador, TexasAugust 1951

Unidentified

Summary

On August 31, 1951, two women driving north of Matador, Texas spotted an unusual object near U.S. Highway 70. The driver, Mrs. Anna Sheffield, first noticed it about 150 feet ahead of their car. She described it as pear-shaped, made of aluminum or silver, and about the length of a B-29 aircraft fuselage. The object had what looked like a door or window on its narrow end, which pointed forward as it moved. The women stopped the car and got out to watch. The object was drifting slowly eastward at a low altitude, roughly the height of a nearby oil derrick (about 120 feet above ground). Within seconds, the object suddenly began climbing sharply and moved away to the east in a circular pattern. Mrs. Sheffield heard no noise, saw no exhaust, and observed no visible means of propulsion.

Her daughter, who was visiting from Lawton, Oklahoma, was also in the car. (The daughter was not available for formal interview with investigators.) Local inquiry confirmed that Mrs. Sheffield was a reputable citizen in her community with a good character and credit reputation.

The Air Force investigation, conducted in September and October 1951, examined weather reports and background information. The weather observation from Reese Air Force Base at the time of the sighting showed clear conditions with broken clouds at 6,000 feet, visibility of 15 miles, and light winds from the east-northeast at about 3 to 7 knots. Investigators looked into the possibility that the women had seen crop dusting aircraft or other routine aviation activity in the area, but made no final determination on those questions. The case file notes that investigators would attempt to locate members of a road repair crew who may have seen a similar object later that same day.

The complete case file of 22 pages is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.

Reported location

Matador, Texas

Date of incident

August 1951

State / country

TX / US

Page count

22 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unidentified

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 8

RR ——————————— 4 1 PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD Be TY Egy ERT | \ '|O0 Was Bolloon 31 Aug 51 Matidor, Texas OD Probably Balloon | 3. DATE-TIME GROUP 4 TYPE OF OBSERVATION : 0 Peseibly Balloon ond XB Ground-Visvol 0 Ground-Rodar o Lg AN Sun SNES ro O Air Visual O Air-Intercept Radar |O Possibly Aircraft S. PHOTOS . R 2 So Jen Hr - arg Civilians (0) Possibly re | UNIDENTIFIED 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE TE Bi cnn SR | Not given - Re Date for Evaluation 1 E 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SICHTING 11. COMMENTS Object like a yellow pear-shaped tomato, Huration much toeshort for a balloon. aluminum or silve in color that reflected the | Disappearance tooquickly, Case sunlight readily. Had a door, window, or some-| unidentified. thing similar located at a pt where the object bezan to taper toward smaller end. Moved throught the air with small end forward.No noise, exhaust ] wind or visble means of propulsion were observed. Object estimated 40 ft long & 16 ft diameter. i Object it was drifting slowly in easterly direction about 150 ft above ground, it began rapid ascent and moved away to the east in a : circular direction in a matter of seconds, | ATIC FORM 329 (REV 36 BRP 32)