River Forest, IllinoisJanuary 1958

Insufficient Data

Summary

In early January 1958, in River Forest, Illinois, a civilian woman reported filming an object on 8mm movie film. She was in her backyard around 1:00 to 1:30 a.m. taking pictures of a full moon. She first thought the object was an unusually large star and watched it through binoculars for several minutes. The object seemed to move toward her and grow in size. She then aimed her camera as it appeared to approach from the west. The object then turned at a right angle and moved north. There was no sound. She reported it months later. Air Force investigators examined the film, which showed the object for about six inches of footage. It was red-orange in color, but no other features could be seen. The report was filed under Project 10073, the Air Force's official record for unidentified flying object reports. Investigators noted the area had heavy air traffic and that the right-angle turn strongly suggested aircraft. They also noted that watching objects at night through handheld binoculars can produce odd effects.

Reported location

River Forest, Illinois

Date of incident

January 1958

State / country

IL / US

Page count

6 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 31

Original case file scans

Original case file · scanned by NARAPage 1 of 6

View transcribed text

| PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD
1. DATE 2. LOCATION 3 12. CONCLUSIONS
| 0 Was Balloon
: 1-9 Jan 52 River Forest, Illinois O Probably Balloon
—_— 10 Possibly Balloon
3. DATE-TIME GROUP \ 4. TYPE OF OBSERYATION
Locat 0100 to 0130 | ‘8 Ground-Vi sual : a Ground-Radar 8 onl Hag EA :
GMT | oa DRS] i QO Air-Intercept Radar |O Possibly Aircraft
WELL CL OL en Ea EE UE ULL ee EY verre
Byes film : 0 Probably Astronomical
O No | civilian 0 Possibly Astronomical
| 7. LENGTH OF OBSERVATICN ’ NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE BO. Other: Siti bib li sil os
0 Insufficient Data for Evaluation
i O Unknown
i ob rive ONE Nortn
: 10. BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS
: Source first thought the obj to be Exact time or date not given,
‘fan unusuallv lorie star and observed it Source located under heavy air
| for 9 mins throuzb binoculars, during traffic, The majority going E-WJ |
which time it ap-eared to He moving Source stated obj approaching
toward her & incrsasing in size. She fii Yest & tvuned left & went N,
then aimed the camera toward the obj which definitely suggest A/C.
approaching fro tue west, No sound, Attenpting to obsa2rve objs at
Examiration of the fidm disclosed that night thru hand held binoculars
the obi was approx 6 inches in length can produces weivd effects,
: and appeared red-orange in color,
nl wey,
E. ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP S2) \
jp Fano RRR MA a le A 5 She

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Source: National Archives Catalog · NAID 28976355