◆ CASE FILEThe facts, corroborated
The Wanaque Reservoir Light
In January 1966 a bright white light was reported diving and hovering over the Wanaque Reservoir in New Jersey for several nights, watched by police, a civil defence director and crowds that jammed the roads. The FBI's file holds the story only as newspaper clippings reprinted in a flying-saucer club's convention programme. This is the record of what was reported, not a verdict on what was over the water.
◆ THE SHORT VERSION
- The Wanaque Reservoir Light is a reported UAP case in Wanaque Reservoir, Passaic County, New Jersey, USA, 11-14 January 1966.
- A bright white disk "two feet in diameter" was reported diving almost into the Wanaque Reservoir and making "neat right angles as if it were using the sky as a chalk board", according to the Herald-News.
- The paper says police saw it too from their patrol cars, and that it almost came to rest on top of the Raymond Dam before leaving at 4.15 a.m.
- Crowds ringing the reservoir caused what old-timers called the borough's first traffic jam, the Paterson News reported.
- The Air Force first called it a helicopter with a strong beacon and later possible views of Venus and Jupiter; the FBI file holds only the press clippings.
- For this case Fractured Realities holds 2 distinct sources and 4 distinct claimants on its resolved list.
- The archive grades it L3 · MULTI-SOURCE — multiple independent sources attest to it.
Counts are resolved totals of what sources say, computed 2026-10-03; the reported details above are claims in the record, not findings. A record of reports, not a verdict on what happened.
EVENT DATE
11-14 January 1966
LOCATION
Wanaque Reservoir, Passaic County, New Jersey · USA
COORDS
41.07°N 74.30°W
INDEPENDENCE
L3 · MULTI-SOURCE
SOURCES
2 distinct
CLAIMANTS
4
STATUS
Known from released government records
NUMBERS COMPUTED 2026-10-03 · RESOLVED COUNTS, NOT A VERDICT
