The Sky-blue Craft in the Snake River Canyon

A. C. Urie ran the Auger Falls Trout Farm in the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls, Idaho. At about 13:00 on 13 August 1947 he went down to the river to look for his sons, aged eight and ten. He saw a sky-blue object about 300 ft away. It was some 75 ft above the canyon floor and 300 ft below the rim, silhouetted against the far canyon wall. It was shaped like an inverted pie plate or a broad-brimmed hat, about 20 ft long and 10 ft thick, with a red tubular fiery glow at the side of the top. It flew from east to west at an estimated 1,000 mph, riding up and down over the hills and hollows with a swishing sound. The poplars it passed over "spun around on top as if they were in a vacuum". The two boys saw it come down the canyon following the contours of the ground and vanish behind trees.

What is on the record

Two records released by the Department of War carry it. One is a memo of 20 August 1947 from the FBI's Special Agent in Charge at Butte, in the bureau's flying-disc file 62-HQ-83894. The other is the check-list for Incident 75 in the 1947 incident summaries. The agent found Urie "completely sincere" and sober. The file keeps a copy of the Twin Falls Times-News of 15 August 1947.

The papers differ in places. An FBI teletype of 15 August says "down Salmon River" and nine miles north-west of Twin Falls. The interview and the check-list say Snake River Canyon, about six miles west of Blue Lakes Ranch. The check-list gives the size as 20 ft long and 10 ft thick, while the newspaper has it 10 ft high and 10 ft wide. The incident is listed among the unidentified without a conclusion. NICAP lists it from Sparks as a Blue Book unknown, and Hatch, Eberhart, Johnson, Magonia and Overmeire carry it too.

Why it sits where it does

L4 · OFFICIAL RECORD — a released government record names who saw it. Urie is the identified adult witness. His sons were children and are not named here. No account from outside the two records reaches the archive. The grade says how the case is documented, not what flew. What came down the canyon is not resolved here.