Piggott, ArkansasMarch 1950

On the afternoon of March 14, 1950, a man standing in front of his service station in Piggott, Arkansas saw an unusual object in the sky. He first noticed a four-engine transport plane circling overhead. Then he spotted something else: a white or aluminum-colored object shaped like a one-hundred-pound sack of potatoes, hovering higher than the plane at about 8,000 feet. The object appeared at a 60-degree angle above the horizon and roughly 70 degrees clockwise from north. It drifted slowly from west to east for about 10 minutes before moving out of sight. The observer made no sound and seemed to move with the wind.

The Air Force investigated the sighting by checking the observer's background and reliability. Agents interviewed his neighbors, the local newspaper editor, the county sheriff, and the town marshal. All confirmed that the observer was a trustworthy, law-abiding citizen with an excellent reputation and no police record. He was a garage and Phillips 66 service station owner.

The investigation file notes that weather was clear with no clouds at the time of the sighting. The file also mentions that a similar sighting had been reported near Biggs Air Force Base on March 11, 1950, which the Air Force determined was the planet Venus seen under particular atmospheric conditions.

The investigation was ultimately discontinued. While the case file does not state a definitive conclusion about the Piggott sighting itself, the reference to the Venus identification at Biggs suggests investigators may have considered a similar explanation. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 9 pages.