West Branch, MichiganNovember 1959

Insufficient Data

Summary

On the evening of November 29, 1959, near West Branch, Michigan, an observer spotted eight evenly spaced objects in the sky for about three seconds. The objects appeared to be red in color and moved northwest, emerging from the horizon in front of the witness before rising rapidly into the clouds. The witness initially thought they might be reflections from nearby red tower lights, but after retracing the same route, concluded that explanation was unlikely. The objects were estimated to be roughly elliptical in shape, about 30 feet long.

The Air Force's initial assessment noted indications that "a reflection of some sort was observed," though investigators acknowledged there was no conclusive evidence to support this analysis. The case was assigned insufficient data for evaluation. In November 1959, the Air Force contacted the witness by mail requesting they complete a detailed questionnaire so the sighting could be forwarded to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio for formal analysis and evaluation. The questionnaire pages in this file remain difficult to read in the OCR scan, and the full written responses are not clearly legible.

The file's official conclusion states only that the case was marked "probably balloon," though the analysis sheet does not elaborate on the reasoning behind this determination or provide additional technical findings. No radar data, weather reports, or follow-up investigation notes appear in the available documentation.

The full case file, comprising 24 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.

Reported location

West Branch, Michigan

Date of incident

November 1959

State / country

MI / US

Page count

24 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 37

js! Bon of) ge ELE SO ME Th EUR INRA , EEL 3% EY : . L . te PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD p Cy RE Re RRA re Ee TT C90 CONCLUSIONS. ob £1 ‘Yas Balloon 29 Nov Wes nach, Mi O Probably Balloon Salven PON OD) ani Gia INBRS DANROR, Michigan oo 0 Possibly Balloon | 3. DATE-TiME GROUP 4. TYPE OF OBSERYATION | 4 5 0 Was Aircraft § 100 © 8 eal Si eta Ue Ch Coan a BXGround- Visual 0 Ground-Radar 2 Probably Aircraft | GMT__39/ 0015 2 0 Air Visual 0 Air-Intercept Radar 0 Possibly Aircraft IPHONE 8. SOURCE 0 Was Astronomical Q Yes 0 Probably Astronomical | 2 No Civilian Sl 0 Possibly Astronomical 7. LENGTH OF OBSERYATION 8. NUMBER OF OBJECTS | 9. COURSE EP ARR Shes a bi ae UL 1 Insufficient Dato for Evaluation ; 0 Unknown B EEE yf CERO aN 2 LORIE ARR EE BRE © 1 ENRON BE FEE A CUR ae 10, BRIEF SUMMARY OF SIGHTING 11. COMMENTS "|Eight evedly spaced obJs in view for 3 secs Indications are that a reflection of Direction NW. Emerged in front of obs=zrver some sort was observed, however there : on the horizon & went up into the clouds at is not comslusive evidence to support #reat speed. Objs ghowed red. At first this analysis & the case is listed as : nelieved to be reflections fm red tower inaufficient data. Lights, however upon retracing the same course this was not apparent. ObJjs were assumed to be >lliptical about 30 ft long. -~ ATIC FORM 329 (REV 26 SEP 52) ¢