Holiday Visitors
I was very fortunate to receive an interesting e-mail from Mr. Michael Sullivan this morning. You may know him as one of Tacoma’s longsuffering cultural workers and a Principal at Artifacts (a historic preservation and architectural conservation firm); Or perhaps you’ve been fascinated by the stories he’s told in his nearly 20 years teaching PNW history at UWT. He sent me this fascinating little story, and I couldn’t help but share it with you. Enjoy. – Dan
TRUE STORY
Every year about this time, I dive into refreshing some aspect of Pacific Northwest history as I prepare for my winter quarter course on the History of Tacoma at the University of Washington Tacoma. This year I began exploring the years just after the end of World War II. Somehow I came across the extraordinary events surrounding an airplane flight by Kenneth Arnold on June 24th of 1947.
A few minutes after 3:00 p.m. at about 9200 feet near Mineral on the shoulder of Mt. Rainier (sic.- Mt. Tacoma) he saw a bright flash of light. Thirty seconds later, high on the north side of the mountain 20 to 25 miles away, he clearly observed a long chain of flying objects traveling way too fast to be geese or a formation of conventional aircraft. They quickly approached Rainier and then passed in front appearing in dark profile against the bright white of a snowfield. Arnold stated later that there were nine objects. One was crescent shaped and the others flickered between a round shape and a flat light “resembling saucers skipping on water”.
Though moving on a more or less horizontal plane, Arnold stated to Army Air Force analysts later that the group weaved from side to side “like the tail of a Chinese kite”. As the objects passed Mt. Rainier, Arnold turned his plane southward on a parallel course and opened his side window so he could observe the objects unobstructed by any glass that might have produced reflections. Curious about their speed, he timed their passage from Rainier to Mt. Adams where they faded from view. He timed them covering the 50 miles in one minute and forty two seconds by the clock on his instrument panel. He later calculated the speed at 1700 miles per hour (2700 km/h). This was three times the speed of the fastest manned aircraft in 1947 and well beyond the sound barrier that would be officially broken by Chuck Yeager in the X-1 later that year.
When military intelligence began investigating the Arnold sighting, they encountered a number of corroborating witnesses including the flight crew of a commercial airliner that was in the area, a forest service ranger, a prospector on the mountain and several residents in and around Tacoma, Yakima and Richland. When the newspapers across the country picked up the story they featured the term “saucer-like” and soon the idea of flying saucers became a national fascination.
On July 9, the day after the disclosure of the Roswell NM incident, AAF intelligence, with the help of the FBI, secretly began an investigation of the best sightings – mostly from pilots and military personnel. Arnold’s sighting, as well as that of the United Airlines crew, was included – as was a re-examination of many observations of unidentifiable aircraft in the WWII theaters (called Foo Fighters). Three weeks later, following a number of interviews and classified meetings at McChord Field, they came to the conclusion that the saucer reports were neither imaginary nor adequately explained by natural phenomena; something real was flying around Tacoma.
So it was from Tacoma that the fascination with flying saucers and UFOs began, and propelled by cold war paranoia and mid century gee-whiz technology, everything from radio, movies and television, popular culture and science fiction was changed forever. But that winter of 1947, the weather station at McChord got very quiet as Christmas approached. In a 1950 interview with Edward R. Murrow, Arnold reported seeing the objects on three other occasions since, during winter.
Being a historian with a reputation to maintain I would not call to attention the coincidence that eight reindeer and a sleigh would match the number of objects Kenneth Arnold and other have observed cruising around the snowfields on Mt. Rainier. Nor would I mention the mirthless, clipped report each year just before Christmas from McChord weather station.
But I’m just sayin……
Mr. Arnold Himself
Filed under: General
19 comments
R RR Anderson December 24, 2010
i want to believe
S Stan Shaw December 24, 2010
Won, that’s a great story!
Y You're Welcome December 24, 2010
Ho ho ho.
P Point.Dexter December 26, 2010
low.bar:
In.a.moral.universe,your.plagiarizing.of.Carl.Sagan.is.a.wrongful.act.
In.Carl.Sagans.universe,which.you.deliniated,there.is.no.right.or.wrong.and.
nothing.makes.sense.because.there.is.no.thing(s)…
(Something,ie.a.universe,cannot.come.from.nothing.)
The.celebration.of.the.birth.of.Jesus.today.is.the.reason.for.the.season
(in.a.reasonable.universe.created.by.a.self.existent,benevolent,eternal.being.)
P Point.Dexter December 26, 2010
In.reality,Mt.Rainier.is.just.a.backlit.sunshine.daydream.powered.by.
Tacoma.City.Light.
R RR Anderson December 27, 2010
Mofo, you know nothing about Carl Sagan or science. Please keep to the meta-physical where you can make a living spewing baloney. That is all.
P Point.Dexter December 27, 2010
Is.it.probable.that.higher.life.forms,like.Carl.Sagan,
who.travel.by.flying.saucers.arrived.at.Earth.by.the.force.of.gravity?
Only.Stephen.Hawking.knows…
R RR Anderson December 27, 2010
Q: what do little green men and immaculate conceptions have in common?
A: they’re both science fiction
P Point.Dexter December 28, 2010
Mr.Anderson,you.are.no.Rod.Serling…
R RR Anderson December 28, 2010
I’m no Rod Sterling, but i’m stuck in the twilight zone ever time I read one of your comments.
P Point.Dexter December 28, 2010
What.Im.getting.at.is.that.the.possibility.of.flying.saucers,
operated.by.a.crew.of.low.bars(see.comment.16),
would.define.reality.in.terms.such.as.Cosmic.Horror…
R RR Anderson December 28, 2010
My dear sir, I believe we’ve discovered Obama’s coveted COMMON GROUND™
R RR Anderson December 28, 2010
Who are you calling ‘taken seriously’ pilgrim?
P Point.Dexter December 28, 2010
Yet,if.there.were.such.a.thing.as.a.
cosmic.road.apple,would.it.ponder.
the.mystery.of.Tacoma?
P Point.Dexter December 28, 2010
In.that.case.we.may.have.Santas.reindeer.
to.blame.for.perennially.seeding.the.universe(s).
R RR Anderson December 29, 2010
I remember the heady days when exit133 blog posts would inspire cartoons… M E M O R I E S
R RR Anderson December 30, 2010
i was thinking memories from CATS but whatever.
P Point.Dexter December 30, 2010
Comment.29.is.retro.COTW!
C crenshaw sepulveda December 30, 2010
I hope this youtube is a sign that Daniel Blue will be coming back to his roots lets us just hope this very talented young man doesn’t take up cartooning, he might give you a run for your money, Daniel Blue is truly a renaissance man.
Sorry for this overlong sentence. I was on my iPhone talking to my broker about my huge stock portfolio and responding to this post at the same time. Dang United Fuzz just crashed…I guess my iPhone will be cut off soo…