Oregon City, OregonNovember 1957

On the night of November 18, 1957, a civilian observer in Oregon City, Oregon, watched a bright circular object that split apart and eventually merged back together. The witness reported seeing a light roughly the size of a flashlight held at 100 yards away. It was very bright, with what appeared to be three or four portholes visible on one of the objects. The observation lasted one hour and twenty-three minutes.

The object's behavior was unusual. It first appeared stationary for about 30 minutes, positioned at an 840-degree angle from the Oregon City bus depot (the apparent OCR error suggests a corrupted bearing reading). The object then moved eastward at what the observer described as very high speed before coming to a merge point. The initial single object split into two objects, and the second object split into two again, for a total of three separate objects. All three eventually came back together as they moved over the horizon.

The witness used binoculars during at least part of the observation, from around 1927 to 2237 (7:27 p.m. to 10:37 p.m.). Weather conditions at the time included generally broken clouds with scattered rain showers in the area, mostly along mountain ridges. Wind speeds were variable throughout the evening, ranging from about 10 to 50 knots from different directions.

The Air Force evaluated this case and labeled it as "probably balloon." The investigating officers noted, however, that while the object's round appearance and movement with the wind suggested a balloon identification, inconsistencies in the report led them to classify it as an unreliable account. No photographs were taken, and no radar confirmation was obtained. The full case file, 14 pages as held by the National Archives microfilm T1206, Roll 30, is reproduced below.