Project Blue Book Case File
Oliver Springs, TennesseeJuly 1958
Summary
On July 15, 1958, a draftsman in Oliver Springs, Tennessee, west of Knoxville, spotted an unusual object in the sky during the daytime. The object appeared as a small white dot, about the size of a dime. It was brighter than even the evening star and stood out noticeably against the sky.
The object moved in a straight path across the sky and gradually faded away. The witness watched it for one to one and a half minutes before it vanished. The object traveled from northwest to southeast during its passage.
On the same date and in the same general area, another sighting occurred at Oak Ridge, a nearby classified facility. An observer there reported a round, white object two and a half to three feet in diameter at dusk. This object was spotted to the east of the observer and eventually went behind a cloud. The Oak Ridge sighting happened at 22:52 (10:52 p.m.), later in the evening than the Oliver Springs report.
The Air Force noted that the two sightings were similar to each other. In its evaluation, the Air Force concluded that the Oliver Springs object was "probably balloon," though the OCR text is unclear enough that some uncertainty may be present in the original file. Weather data was recorded for both sightings, including wind speeds at various altitudes. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, comprising 8 pages.
Reported location
Oliver Springs, Tennessee
Date of incident
July 1958
State / country
TN / US
Page count
8 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unknown
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 33