N of Tonopah, NevadaSeptember 1961

On the night of September 24, 1961, a geologist working for the Bureau of Land Management stopped his car about 1.39 miles south of Pine Creek Ranch on Highway 82 in Nevada's Monitor Valley. At 11:40 p.m., he spotted an intensely bright light hovering over a ridge in the Toquima Range to his west-southwest. Using 7x35 power binoculars, he watched the light for eight minutes. At 11:48 p.m., the light focused downward in a vertical beam and then disappeared. The witness estimated the beam's diameter at over one hundred feet. He noticed smoke or fumes hovering just above the light, and heard no engine sounds.

About an hour later, as the witness drove back through the area, he saw a second large glowing object. This one had an orange-yellowish color and was traveling at high speed in a southerly direction, low over the Monitor Range to the east. Within two or three minutes, it turned east and flew away. The witness tried to report both sightings that night. He called the Central Intelligence Agency and then Nellis Air Force Base, but both operators refused the collect charges. He eventually reached the sheriff of Lander County at about 2:25 a.m.

On September 27, the witness thoroughly searched the three-mile area where the first object might have landed. He found no landing marks, debris, vehicle tracks, or any sign that anyone had been there recently. The weather that night was clear and calm with a full moon.

The Air Force's analysis sheet concluded that the first object was probably the planet Jupiter, which was indeed positioned in the sky where the witness reported seeing it. However, the Air Force noted that Jupiter, being just above the horizon, would appear higher in the sky than its actual altitude. The second object, with its unusual maneuvers and long duration, had characteristics that suggested a possible aircraft, but the Air Force could not confirm this and categorized it as unidentified. The complete case file, comprising 11 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.