Puente, CaliforniaFebruary 1954

# Summary

On the morning of February 1, 1954, a woman in Puente, California saw an unusual object hovering in the sky around 10:15 a.m. She described it as round and shiny silver, with fuzzy edges. When it tilted, the bottom glowed a bright orange-red. She watched it through her binoculars for about thirty seconds before it drifted away and disappeared. Her husband did not see the object himself, but he noticed something odd afterward: strands of a fine, cobweb-like material had settled on their telephone wires, trees, and yard.

The husband tried to collect the material. He said it was so delicate he could barely feel it between his fingers, and it seemed to evaporate when exposed to air. He wrapped some of it around a black cloth and stored it in a jar. When the couple brought the sample to a civilian writer and photographer interested in aerial phenomena, the material disappeared from the cloth as soon as it was removed from the sealed jar. The photographer sealed the remaining sample in a smaller jar and photographed it.

The Air Force's Office of Special Investigations interviewed the witnesses and collected the sealed jar for laboratory analysis. Investigators noted that the substance resembled cobweb but showed no obvious military or extraordinary characteristics. Lab reports indicated the material most closely resembled common spun glass or cobweb. The investigation checked police records and background information on all witnesses and found nothing of concern. The investigators could not establish any firm connection between the aerial object and the recovered residue.

The Air Force marked this case unidentified. The full case file, comprising 11 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.