More detail on how the incident was
reported: ......at hotel in downtown Portland prospector by
the name of Fred Johnson rested his weary bones
after spending weeks tramping around the nagged
crags on the slopes of Oregon's Mt. Adams. He
purchased a newspaper and took it up to his room so
he could catch up on current events. One front page
item snagged his eye instantly, an article about
"flying saucers." He soon learned about the pilot
named Kenneth Arnold that had reported spotting
strange formation of "tailless jets" soarinq down
the length of the Cascades from Mt. Rainier to Mt.
Adams: Mt. Adams? Johnson thought hard, comparing
the date, time, and location, with recent
extraordinary experience of his own unequaled in his
30 years of gold hunting. According to the press
this fellow Arnold was catching hell from critics.
Everyone was finding it hard to believe the Boise
pilot, but Johnson did, and for a very good reason.
The prospector followed the tribulations of Arnold
for awhile until he was moved to post a letter to
the military. Authorities quickly had some men
knocking on Johnson's hotel door.
Johnson told military investigators he had been
working the Mt. Adams area on June 24th, the same
day as the Kenneth Arnold saucer sighting. Poking
around the rocks at the 5,000 foot level tnat
afternoon he stopped to read his watch and noticed
that the compass attached to the timepiece was
twitching for some unexplained reason. Shortly
thereafter a flash of light dazzled his eyes. He
glanced upward. Approaching in the sky was an
unusual object, using a small telescope he always
carried, Johnson peered at the strange shape as it
drew near out of the northwest. He then became aware
of more such objects banking in the sun 1,000 feet
above him near the peak of Mt. Adams. The objects
moved silently and the appearance seemed to be:
"...30 feet in diameter tapering sharply to a point
in the head and in an oval shape, with a bright top
surface." 196.
One of the UFOs looked different resembling:
"...a big hand of clock (this may have been a
cigar-shaped 'mother ship' shifting from side to
side like a big magnet." He said he lost sight of
the objects when, while banking on edge, they
slipped into a cloud. 197.
West Coast Intelligence Headquarters at Hamilton
Field, California, telegraphed Army Air Corps
Headquarters in Washing ton to say: "...your
attention is invited to the similarity of statements
by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Arnold." 198.
Loren Gross, UFOs: A History 194, pgs 48-49 |