t e m p o r a l
d o o r w a y
8/13/47, Snake River Canyon, Idaho, A.C. Urie and Sons, 1:00 PM
| Report Summary | "... it was reported by John Brosman in the Twin Falls,
Idaho, Times News of August 15, 1947, and then as it appears in the Project
Sign files: "Just as Magic Valley and the nation were starting to let go of lamp posts after reeling under a welter of flying saucer reports, two more Twin Falls County men revived speculation on the mystery with vivid descriptions of discs they saw. "From A. C. Urie, who operates the Auger Falls Trout Farm six miles west of Blue Lake Ranch in Snake River Canyon, came perhaps the most detailed account of the fast flying object the nation has yet produced. "The flying saucer Urie saw was skimming through Snake River Canyon at a height of about 75 feet at 1 PM Wednesday. At 9:30 A.M. the same day, W. Hawkins, Twin Falls County Commissioner, and former county sheriff from Filer, also saw two circular objects soaring along at a great height near Salmon Dam twenty miles southwest of Twin Falls. "Here is Urie's eyewitness description of the flying disks seen by him and his sons Keith, 8, and Billy, 10, "I obtained a close-up view of the flying saucer as it passed by the trout farm at 1 PM, Aug. 13, down Snake River Canyon at a height of about 75 feet from the canyon floor. I would estimate the speed at about 1,000 miles per hour." Urie explained that the incident occurred while the two boys were coming across the river from the north side in a boat. He had become concerned about what was delaying them and had walked down toward the river to see if they were all right. "I had a side view at a distance of about 300 feet and almost on a level with the thing," Urie continued. "Two of my boys, Keith and Billy, were below me and they also saw it at about a 45-degree angle. They both got a bottom and a side view, and we were all looking at it from the south side of the canyon.... It was all one color, sort of a light sky blue with a red tubular fiery glow at the side of the top, or hood," Urie continued. "The canyon floor is rough at that particular point and it rode up and down over the hills and hollows at a speed indicating some type of control faster than the reflexes of man. It is my opinion that it is guided by instruments and must be powered by atomic energy as it made very little noise, just a s-w-i-s-h as it passed by." Urie described the size as about 20 feet long by 10 feet high and 10 feet wide, giving it an oblong shape. It might be described as looking like an inverted pie plate or a broad-brimmed straw hat that had been compressed from two sides. Pressed for his candid opinion of just what it was, Urie said that he was convinced that there was something to this flying saucer situation. "I know a number of people who have also seen them and I know that they're not just imagining something or trying to get their names in the paper," Urie commented. "I do know that it seared the boys and made me feel pretty uneasy," he added. "Tracing down a rumor that County Commissioner Hawkins had seen an unusual object in the air on the same day as Urie's experience, the Times News called him at his Filer home. "Yes, I did," he replied, without hesitation. "I'll have to admit I've been skeptical all along until I saw it with my own eyes. I can't say what it was but I can say there's something in the air." Hawkins related that while at Salmon Dam Wednesday morning a sound resembling the echo of a motor caused him to look upward and there he saw two circular objects that reflected light. They were traveling at a great speed and higher than most airplanes, according to Hawkins. Aside from this he declined to add details,except to say, "There's some. thing in the air." His general "description, however, corresponded closely to those of hundreds of persons who reported seeing flying saucers. . . . "The Air Force account in Blue Book contains the following: "As the machine went by the Urie place, the trees over which it had almost directly passed (Mormon poplar) did not just bend with the wind as if a plane had gone by but in Urie's words, "spun around on top as if they were in a vacuum." "Keith Urie, eight years of age, said he first saw the machine coming down the canyon, heading from east to west and following the contours of the ground. Billy, ten, saw it almost immediately. Both watched it fly out of sight behind a tree in a matter of moments. They said they ran to their father and learned that he too had seen the machine. "Urie seemed completely sincere about the incident. He said his wife and daughter were in the house at the time and had not seen the machine. He questioned his brother, who also lives in the canyon, but his brother had been eating at the time and had seen nothing. Urie and his two boys maintained that they had never before seen one of the discs. Urie, when interviewed, appeared to be a sober, middle-aged man. John Brosman, the Times News reporter who originally furnished Special Agents with information about the incident, likewise stated that Urie appeared completely sincere about the machine. "No further attempt was made to locate [two other men who repeatedly had seen the object] inasmuch -, who was with - at the time were fishing at Salmon Dam while - was supposed to have been working in Twin Falls [thus is Science robbed of evidence]."[footnote 1] |
| Hynek Classification | CE-II |
| Original Vallee Classification | Type IVa/d |
| Current Vallee Classification | CE2 |
| Minimum Distance | 300' |
| Object Appearance |
Narrow "hat-like" ellipse with red glow on side of crown. Blue in color. Artist's conception (computer rendering):
(Note: The stylized "tree / arrow" shape and the smoke rings shown in the contemporary news article sketch have been omitted, since they are not supported by the witness account). |
| Object Behavior | Flew straight past in canyon, apparently following terrain. |
| Physical Effect | "As the machine went by the Urie place, the trees over which it had almost directly passed (Mormon poplar) did not just bend with the wind as if a plane had gone by but in Urie's words, "spun around on top as if they were in a vacuum." |
| Medical Effect | None |
| Comments / Conclusion | A classic physical effect case. |
Footnotes
1. The Hynek UFO Book, Hynek, ISBN 0-440-19201-3 (italics above are Hynek's writing)