Project Blue Book Case File
Salmon Dam, IdahoAugust 1947
Summary
On August 13, 1947, two men at Salmon Dam, Idaho heard a loud roar and looked up to see two circular objects flying at a great height. The men estimated the objects were between 4,000 and 6,000 feet up, though they could have been several miles away. The objects reflected light and were traveling at high speed, faster than most planes of the time.
One of the men told an Air Force agent that both witnesses were satisfied they had seen something real, but they were very doubtful the objects were ordinary aircraft. A newspaper account from the Twin Falls Times News (August 15, 1947) quoted one of the men describing the same sighting and the sound that drew his attention to the sky.
The Air Force evaluator noted that although this sighting occurred on the same day as another reported incident in the area (Incident No. 75), the descriptions seemed quite different from each other. The evaluator concluded there was no information in the report to rule out the possibility that the men had simply seen two ordinary aircraft at a distance too great to make out details.
The Air Force officially rated this incident as unidentified. The full case file is reproduced below as held by the National Archives, consisting of 7 pages of microfilm.
Reported location
Salmon Dam, Idaho
Date of incident
August 1947
State / country
ID / US
Page count
7 scanned pages
USAF evaluation
unidentified
Microfilm
T1206, Roll 2