Shelby, MontanaApril 1960

On April 25, 1960, a woman living eight miles west of Shelby, Montana reported seeing unusual objects in the sky. She said she had actually witnessed five separate sightings over the previous months, with the most recent one occurring around that date. In each sighting, she saw objects arranged in a perfect line formation, with a strong white light shining downward and a red glow apparently coming from inside them. When held at arm's length, the objects appeared to be roughly ten feet in diameter.

The witness said the objects behaved in a distinctive pattern. They would hang completely still in the sky for several minutes, then move slowly, at about the speed of a person walking. After moving at that pace for a while, they would suddenly accelerate to very high speed and disappear. Each sighting lasted between twenty and thirty minutes. The objects appeared at various heights and directions, though the first sighting was ten degrees above the horizon to the southeast. Except for one occasion when clouds were present, the sky was completely clear. The witness took photographs and movie film of the objects, though investigators noted the photos themselves contained no information that would help identify what the objects were.

The Air Force took the sighting seriously enough to send a message to Cut Bank Air Force Base, Montana on May 23, 1960, requesting an investigation. A formal interview form and an Air Intelligence Information Report were prepared in June 1960. Investigators noted that while they had no explanation for what the objects could have been, the number of sightings, their length, and the witness's close proximity to the objects lent a "certain amount of weight to her story." The photographs and movie film were forwarded for photoanalysis on June 28, 1960.

The Air Force concluded that the case was unidentified, finding no basis to classify the sightings as balloons, aircraft, astronomical phenomena, or any other known object. The full case file, comprising 11 pages, is reproduced below as held by the National Archives.