WHITE LAKE, S. DAK., September 1952September 1952

A Ground Observer Corps supervisor in White Lake, South Dakota watched a bright, reddish, cigar-shaped object in the sky on September 1, 1952. The object had three puffs of what looked like smoke or vapor trailing behind it. It moved westward and then appeared to veer south before disappearing. The observer watched it through binoculars for 30 to 40 minutes as daylight faded. The object was high in the sky and very bright, with a clear outline and shape.

The observer reported the object was definitely not an airplane. He described it as brightly burning, too close and too large to be a star, and moving from east to west. He also noted that a similar object had been sighted in roughly the same location about five weeks earlier, also visible for 30 to 40 minutes.

The observer was known to the Air Force as reliable. He held a position in the town of White Lake and was also registered with the Ground Observer Corps, a civilian volunteer network that watched the skies for unusual activity. He asked that his name not be made public. The Air Force noted that the area had a history of weather balloon sightings, but the observer had not seen structural features that would identify this object as a balloon, even accounting for the distance involved. No weather information was available for the time of the sighting. The Air Force took no interception or identification action, and no physical evidence was recovered.

The full case file, comprising 7 pages as held by the National Archives, is reproduced below.