Red Bluff Area, CaliforniaAugust 1960

On August 13, 1960, just after 11:40 p.m., two California Highway Patrol officers spotted what they thought was an aircraft about to crash near Red Bluff. The object appeared suddenly in front of their patrol car, about 13 miles south of Red Bluff and roughly 200 to 300 feet above the ground. When the officers jumped out to help, they noticed something odd: there was no sound at all. The object then reversed direction and climbed rapidly to about 40 feet of altitude before stopping completely. The officers described it as round or oval in shape, surrounded by a glow, with red lights at each end and approximately five white lights in between. One officer believed he saw the object sweeping the ground with red light beams. That same night, two sheriff's deputies and a night jailer reported seeing the same or a similar object.

Over the following days, more sightings occurred in the Red Bluff area. On August 17, a family driving near Red Bluff saw a bright, metal-like object about three to four miles away, moving northward at low altitude. They watched it rise from a canyon and pass over the road in front of them. The object was described as completely round, roughly 35 to 50 feet in diameter, with reddish-purple and bluish lights. That same evening, a forest lookout supervisor and two other observers at Inskip Mountain reported seeing dull red lights above the horizon that faded and reappeared several times.

The Air Force investigation ruled the objects were not present on radar and found no evidence of any aircraft in the area. Instead, the Air Force concluded the sightings were caused by atmospheric refraction, a natural optical effect. The investigators noted that a strong temperature inversion (a layer of warm air below cooler air) was present in the northern California region during this period, which can cause light to bend and create mirages. The planet Mars, which was just below the horizon at the time, may have been the light source that appeared to observers due to this refraction. Smoke from forest fires in the area, trapped by the inversion conditions, could have contributed to the effect. The investigators also noted that objects observed from moving vehicles, such as the patrol cars, can appear to move at the same speed as the vehicle due to the geometry of how mirages work, which likely explained witness estimates of the object's speed.

The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, spanning 13 pages.