Date: Thu, 19 Feb 2015 18:46:16 -0600
To: franridge@nicap.org
From: francis ridge <franridge@nicap.org>
Subject: Aug 13, 1947; Snake River Canyon

August 13, 1947; St. Louis, MO


Teletype report:

ATTENTION: DIRECTOR, FBI
ATTENTION: SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, BUTTE, MONTANA
SUBJECT: FLYING DISCS

These signals led off an alert sent out by FBI agents in the Idaho area after story appeared in the Twin Falls TimesNews concerning "vision" of "saucer-jet." The thing was reported flying "in" a canyon. Could it have been trying to sneak into the U.S. under radar coverage?

The Air Force's official file on the case is faithful to the newspaper account with the exception of being lean-worded:

"...(deleted) had sent his sons to the river for some tops from his boat. As they were overdue he went to look for them, when he noticed some 300 feet away some 75 feet in the air a sky-blue object silhouetted against the steep walls of the (Snake River) canyon on the far side. (The canyon is about 400 feet deep and 1200 feet across at this point.) The object was traveling 75 feet in the air (300 feet below the rim of the canyon) and so was plainly visible. states that the sky-blue color would probably not be noticed against the sky. He states that 'It did not spin like top.' However, he did say that the trees over which it passed almost directly did not just bend with the wind as if plane had gone by but that they 'spun around on top as if they were in vacuum.' (Air Force emphasis).

Keith son, eight years of age said he saw the machine coming down the canyon heading from east to west and following the contours of the ground. Billy, age ten, another son, saw it almost immediately. Both watched it fly out of sight behind tree in matter of moments. 231.

Of special interest, of course, were what the two children said of the pair of apparent smokeless turbine, or red rocket, exhaust flames through which: "...could be seen daylight..." as the craft zoomed by with swishing sound. 232.

The jet-like knots on the UFO's side are depicted as emitting puffs of smoke in the drawing done by an artist on the staff of the Times-News but according to the eyewitnesses, such detail was not apparent during the sighting and the puffs had been penciled in as an explanatory emphasis. 233. 234. One other point that should be touched upon here was the skyblue color. This hue may have been the reflection of the atmosphere off the mirror-like finish, but officially this was not considered.