The Lights and the Dark Shape on Presque Isle Beach

The car was stuck in the sand on Beach 6 at Presque Isle State Park when the light came down. It was about 22:25 on 31 July 1966. The party saw a bright light "free-fall", tumbling like a cube or a hexagon, then stop five to ten feet above the beach and settle with a hum while the car vibrated. A ring of lights played over the sand and the trees. When a patrolling police car arrived the lights went out. A teenage youth walked up the beach with the police. In the car a sixteen-year-old girl then saw a dull black shape larger than a man. It lumbered into the bushes when she blew the horn. The Blue Book file names one adult in the party, Anita Haifley, aged 22.

What is on the record

Project Blue Book holds the case as Unknown #10798. Triangular marks in the sand were cast. The Flight Dynamics Laboratory estimated 750 to 1,000 lb for the larger marks but found them asymmetric and unlikely to be landing supports. The soil held urine and lacquer resin, and radioactivity was negative. One investigator suggested a raccoon, another a black bear, a third a possible hoax. Blue Book noted many discrepancies and raised Arcturus for the first "star" the party saw. It found no link between the light, the marks and the creature, and still wrote: "As yet, there is no explanation of the lights that were observed." The case is listed Unidentified.

Blue Book gives 31 July, but a Flight Dynamics memo says 30 July and one investigator's report gives 1 August at 0025Z. The CIA's reading room holds a reprinted magazine account dated 1 August that names the park patrolmen as Ralph E. Clark and Robert Loeb Jr. It is press reporting, not a CIA evaluation. NICAP, Berliner's list of Blue Book Unknowns, Hatch and Johnson carry the case.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. Haifley and the two patrolmen are the identified adults. The two younger witnesses were minors and go unnamed. The archive holds no account from outside the file, and the investigators themselves split between an animal, a hoax and no explanation at all. The grade reflects sourcing, not whether the report is true. What fell onto Beach 6 is not resolved here.