UFOS | Marin City

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 17 October 1973 in 

UFOs Sighted Over Ohio, Bay Area

Dozens of unidentified flying objects were reported by citizens and police officers in southern and central Ohio last night.

The objects, mostly described as oranged in color, were reported in several areas including Columbus, Coshocton in east central Ohio, and in the southwestern part of the state at Middletown and Greenfield.

Two police officers in Greenfield, Ohio, chased seperate unidentified objects more than five miles.

"I never believed in UFO until tonight," Sergeant Hugh Oyer said. "Some guy tried to tell me it was a star, but no star I've ever seen made a humming sound or jumped up and down in direction like that or was so near the ground."

In the Bay Area hundreds of residents saw a strange bright orange light streaking through the skies last night at about 10:20 p.m.

There were guesses as to what it was, but no definite confirmations.

Among many calls received by the Marin county sheriff's office were reports from two deputies. Sergeant Ken Froberg saw the streak from his station in Marin City and Deputy John Brunslik saw it from Point Reyes.

San Francisco police also received more than a dozen calls.

A spokesman at Vandenberg Air Force Base said no rockets were fired from the huge Southern California base last night, but he added there had been several newsmen in the Los Angeles area, where the strange light also was observed.

There were many reports along the Peninsula, around the airport.

Early yesterday morning, a rash of reported UFO sightings swept Mississippi and southeastern Louisiana. Those sightings brought appeals for a federal investigation.

A Gulfport. Miss., taxi driver reported a blue-colored space craft stalled his cab and that a creature with crab-like claws tapped on his windshield as he crouched on the seat early yesterday.

Other sightings were reported along the Gulf Coast and at Meridian, Miss.

Publicly, Mysterious SF says: Interesting--they were all orange lights. 

UFOS | Mission Street Mystery

Thusday's supposed to be a nice day, so in honor of that, a post that occured on "a bright midsummer" day.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle, 16 July 1952

Mission's Flying Mystery

8 Isosceles, Some Cops, A Reporter

A bright midsummer sun shimmered yesterday in the periwinkle skies and anyone could plainly see tht it was a perfect day for a flying saucer story.

Happily, we have one for you-every cogent fact documented by a Chronicle reporter who was off with flying coattails to the Mission Police Station the moment the news of the mysterious find crackled over the phone wires.

The first bulletin came through a few minutes after noon:

"Here," he said, 'is the background. i'll start it chronologically. This thing--call it The Thing if you want to--was found by John Sneddon, of 3451 26th street.

"Sneddon is a janitor at Horace Mann High School (sic), at Valencia and 23d streets. He was coming to work at 7 a.m. when he found The Thing in the boys' courtyard at Horace Mann.

"He sayd he usually gets in early to raise the Flag, but now he forgot all about the Flag, and picked up the The Thing and took it down to the boiler room. It looks like a silver tent, kind of like a kite, you might describe it. Nobody knows what it is.

"About 8 a.m. the head janitor came in. He is John F. Connelly of 44 Peralta avenue. he took one look and he said: "My gawd, it looks like a flying saucer."

"Connelly called the supervising janitor of the Board of Education. He is Stanley Laevell, and he said, 'Call the police.'

"By this time it was 11:45 a.m. the cop who got the call as Patrolman Allan Rosenbaum of Mission Station. That's also at Valencia and 23d streets.

"Patrolman Rosenbaum sent Patrolman Herbert Jackson over to investigate and make a report. By that time The Thing was up in the principal's office-will get his name later.

"Now they're taking it across the street to the police station. The janitors are not going with the patrolman. I'll call you back."

The next bulletin crackled through with further details of The Thing:

"Patrolman Jackson is an Air Force veteran. He says, and you can quote this, 'I never saw anything like it But it looks like a radar detection kite. Don't let that influence you, though. Because there's another Air Force man here from one of the other papers, he's gone out now to call for a photographer, and he says it's like what they use in lifeboats. But I've got one better than that. Wait a minute. They're getting the armed forces in on this."

The next call:

"Patrolman Jackson has called the Armed Services Police. They're on the way. Now this other fellow says this could be a flying saucer, but it's got markings on it. Sure I can read them. No. Sorry. They're not in Russian. But you never know. Some of those guys speak English.
"The markings say ML 307 C dash AP. That's the marking. Hold on now, here's the Armed Services.

Then, five minutes later:

"The armed services man is Machinist's Mate First Class William Hale. He's stumped. He can't make anything out of it. Completely mystified. So he's going through channels. Hold on a minute.
"Now Machinist's Mate First Class Hale has called Captain J.L. Austin. The captain has ordered a detail to come down and investigate. Soon's I'm through with this call, I'll check the captain further.

"The Thing seems to be made out of water-repellant plastic, a kind of aluminum stuff. it was a four-sided figure on it, made out of eight isosceles triangles, all equal sided. They're isosceles all right. There are eight fellows standing around me now, and they all agree that's what they are, een if the are all equal sided. I'd better call Captain Austin."

Then:

"Well, I called Captain Austin, and he won't give. he says he refers all calls to the Public Information Officer, Sixth Army, the Presidio. I called them and they don't know anything about it. Hey. Here comes the detail. Call you back."

"Well, the detail arrived. Two men in civillian clothes. One tall, thin, and dark. The other short, blond, and medium-sized. Very mysterious. They showed their CID cards to Patrolman Robert Ferroggiaro. CID-Criminal Investigation Division. Both men are unsmiling and unspoken. They've got The Thing now. Taking it out to their car. "I'll call you back."

And finally:

"The CID men took The Thing off in their car. They are Robert Boyles and Robert Middlemass of the 60th CID Detachment, Presidio, San Francisco. they don't talk. They whisper.

"Looks like that's about all out here for now. Ask the desk shall I come in."

Addendum:

"Memo to desk: Rod Ireland, a PIO at the Presidio, says the Army called the Air Force and the Air Force says the Army can take it home and use it for a toy. Army doesn't know what it is, and CID agents haven't turned it in and Air Force won't talk. Ireland says as far as Provost marshal is concerned the case is officially closed, but he'll check around further and call us tomorrow. Ireland says maybe it's a weather kite. Anyhow, not a real flying saucer. At least so far as he knows.

Ah, mid-summer.

Ah, balmy dog days.

Publicly, Mysterious SF says: Curious, after all those years, what the object was. "ML 307 C" stumps even mighty Google. I expected to get even just one hit out of that one. 

Privately, Mysterious SF says: This one really does sound like a weather balloon...or kite for that matter. 

Bigfoot in Half Moon Bay

Many years ago, Mysterious SF stopped by the offices of the Bigfoot Research Project. Founded by explorer, conservationist, and bigfoot investigator Peter Byrne, the BRP was based in Hood River, Oregon. They were probably the most professional of all the "research groups" that have attempted to work on the bigfoot mystery. The BRP shut down in 1999. 

The BRP, as it was called, was featured in newspaper articles worldwide. It collected sightings via walk-ins, field interviews, and a national 800 number, 1-800-BIGFOOT. The BRP probably got forty phone calls a day on this number. Predictably, most were crank calls by teenagers.

But some were not. For each claimed bigfoot sighting, the BRP filled out a standardized questionnaire booklet. The booklets were fascinating reading, and included many eyewitness sketches of Bigfoot. People with no artistic training drawing pictures + bigfoot = fun times. 

Mysterious SF rooted through the files and made note of sighting reports that intrigued him. This one in particular struck him. 

[Note: some details of this report have been redacted--in particular, the names and contact information of the eyewitnesses.]

Bigfoot Research Project

[witness #1]

Half Moon Bay, California Sighting

Category B Sighting Rating

[witness 1# name]

[witness 1# street address]

[witness 1# address city, state, zip]

E. Palo Alto, CA 94303

Sighting in Summer of 1976

Notes from Bigfoot Research Project Communications Log

Name: [witness 1#]

Reporting: Sighting

Date: 1976 (Summer)

Location: Half Moon Bay Airport, near the radar station, an open field

Notes taken 2/7/94 @ 1510 Hrs.

Incident #1043

2588- Mapped

Eyewitness was:

-In car

-Dog barking viciously.

-Bigfoot leaped/stepped over barbed fence; moved quickly; ran w/arms down—long strides down hill; 1 week after sighting area closed to everyone; well built but slender, larger upper shoulder, ape like, right on const. (?), swing arms.

Returned in day—could not find footprints; large holes (3’-4’) deep scattered around field where it had crossed. 

Comments (by interviewer) Mr. [witness #1] presented as a very honest and simple man, probably not capable of fabricating such detail. Recall of incident was very good.

How did you hear of us? Via Bigfoot Research Project #800 number.

What publication/contact? A & E Television Special "Bigfoot"

Interview BY PHONE

Initials: [phone interviewer].

Incident Report

Date: 2/7/94

Name: [witness 1# name]

Address: [witness 1# street address]

City/State/Zip: [witness 1# address city, state, zip]

Telephone #: [redacted]

Occupation: x-roofer, injured

Age: 40

Sex: Male

Additional witnesses: w/girlfriend, [witness 2# name], South City, CA

General oudoor experience: hunter, camp

Incident Date: Summer 1976

Time: 0100

Incident Location: Half Moon Bay Airport

Activity @ Time of Incident: parking, star gazing

Weather: Bright moon; hot

Temp: 70 degrees F.

Vegetation: fields; cabbage, spinach, fruit farms

Wind: 0 mph

Sighting Report

Duration: 10 minutes

Distance; 150’

# Creatures: 1

Gender: ?

Color: Dark brown/black

Hair Condition: straight 3”long all over

Body Shape: well built but slender

Head Shape: cone; gorilla-like, not as hair-covered

Face: Light color—no other features

Neck: Shoulder even w/ear—hunched

Stride: Walked over barb wired fence; long leaping stride w/arms and legs travelling very fast toward bush cover

Smell Report

Describe: Dirt-like smell; musty; left in woods too long

Duration: Simultaneous w/sighting

Source: Creature

Sensation: Mildly unpleasant. 

Publicly, Mysterious SF says: It's obvious to everyone why Bigfoot *shouldn't* be sighted around Half Moon Bay. But why would he be? Well, for one, there's plenty of food there in the fields, especially in the summertime. Further, it's only a short distance from the largely rocky shoreline of the Half Moon Bay area. It's much easier to forage for food in rocks and tidepools than it is at the beach. Third, there are isolated houses and ranches out in that area that are easier to approach with the intent of raiding garbage cans.

Privately, Mysterious SF says: Mysterious SF has a saying he invented himself. It is: "Bigfoot is seen everywhere Bigfoot has business." 

The Water Horse of San Francisco Bay

Mysterious SF does not go to a lot of parties, but the ones he does go to are interesting. Several years ago, at a party MSF met David, who claims his friends have seen sea serpents in San Francisco Bay.

Mysterious SF asked David exactly what his friends saw. David started to describe the head, but before he could get anything out, MSF asked him, Head like a horse, right? David looked at your area blogger funny and said, Yeah, exactly. 

Several years ago, Mysterious SF was sitting on someone else’s toilet, flipping through a copy of Outdoor Life Magazine. He read a letter from an woman who claimed to have seen a sea serpent while on a boat off the Farallone Islands in the 1960s. The creature, seen from the neck up, had large eyes, a mane of long hair, and generally looked much like a horse. After observing it for a period of five minutes, the creature slowly slipped underneath the waves, never to be seen again. 

Soon after she saw the creature, the eyewitness spoke to another man who claimed to have seen an identical creature ten years earlier and hundreds of miles south off the Santa Catalina islands. The accompanying illustration, done by the magazine's cartoonist, was of a smiling cross between a horse and a whale. 

In August of 1997 Mysterious SF attended a lecture by Prof. Paul LeBlond of the University of British Columbia on the subject of cadborosaurus willsi, or "Caddy", a sea serpent-type species that has allegedly been seen several times in and around Cadboro Bay, British Columbia, for so long the local Native Americans have record of it. LeBlond thinks that Caddy is not only a zoologically sound species, but that it actually exists. 

According to LeBlond, eyewitnesses report Cadborosaurus' head looks like--you guessed it--a horse. 

Mysterious SF grilled David rather thoroughly about what his friends had told him. David related  the following:  

1. The creature is long and serpentlike, with the head of a horse. On both occasions the creature was estimated to be at least 30 feet long. 

2. The creature is seen in the very early morning, usually around 5 or 6 am. I didn't find out where in the bay, exactly, and it was implied that the persons who allegedly saw such a creature were on a boat.

3. These two individuals have seen the creature at least two times, in 1960s and 70s.

4. There are allegedly "a lot" of people who have seen the creature over the years. 

5. The two individuals were writing a paper on their experiences, and claim to have photographs of the creature.

I decided to dig a little deeper into the subject. Benard Heuvelmans, a zoologist who wrote the 1965 book, In The Wake of The Sea Serpents, mentioned not only a Caddy-like creature, but also of a creature seen off Santa Catalina island numerous times by sport fishermen. Heuvelmans repeats a passage from the book Tight Lines, authored by veteran California fisherman Ralph Bandini. In the 1930s, Bandini had been secretary of the elite southern California big game fishing club The Tuna Club, and in his book wrote of sighting the creature while fishing for marlin. 

All of a sudden I saw something dark and big heave up. I seized my glasses. What I saw brought me up straight!

A great columnar neck and head, I guess that is what it was, lifting a good 10 feet. It must have been five or six feet thick. Something that appeared to be a kind of mane of coarse hair, almost like a fine seaweed, hung darkly. But the eyesthose were what held me! Huge, seemingly bulging, round at least a foot in diameter!

We swung toward it. Then, even as I watched through the glasses, the Thing sank. There was no swirl, no fuss Just a leisurely, majestic sinking and it disappeared, about a quarter of a mile away. 

The time of the sighting is recorded as eight a.m. Most Caddy sightings take place in the early morning or dusk. And as David reported, the San Francisco Bay serpent had only been seen in the early morning or at dusk. 

Comparing sightings of Caddy, the Santa Catalina monster, and the creature seen in San Francisco Bay, further parallels emerge. Firstly, they are generally described as having horse or camel-shaped heads. A mane is always mentioned, as are large eyes. Most eyewitnesses describe a critter between five and fifteen yards long (although as noted Bandini says he only saw a ten foot long neck.) Finally, the creature's preferred means of escape from the view of humans is not to spectacularly dive underneath the surface like a whale, but instead to gradually sink out of view. 

Publicly, Mysterious SF says:  Points #4 & 5 are usually the last one ever hears from someone who claims sightings and the evidence to back them up. Usually the hoaxer, realizing that he has painted himself into a corner, slowly sinks from view, never to be seen again. Just like the water horse. 

Mysterious SF is all for this creature existing. The correlations of physical characteristics and behavior could have a common point of origin. Furthermore, he's all for it existing outside of San Francisco Bay. (More on that later.) And occasionally, some such animal may enter the bay following the seasonal fish migrations--anchovies, herring, salmon, striped bass, halibut, etc. But he has an awfully hard time picturing this thing as a permanent resident. 

Privately, Mysterious SF says: I have this sinking feeling these things are smarter than most people think. 

Mount Davidson, Again.

From the San Francisco Chronicle, April 8, 1950.

3 Batches of Saucers Turn Up

Flying saucers may be piloted by little greeen men from Mars, but don't worry about them. They're obviously fun-loving little creatures.



Of three batches of saucers reportedly seen yesterday, only one V-shaped formation of three was sticking to business.



The rest were playing tag.



About 8 a.m. Mrs. Gordon J. Grey, wife of an insurance salesman, spotted two saucers coming toward her Mission street home at an "incredible speed" from the direction of Mt. Davidson.



And then, while she listened to a 15-minute radio program and gazed out the window, the disks rose vertically, swooped, and hovered in a game of tag that looked like loads of fun.



Over at Terra Bella in the San Joaquin Valley, a little later, Ralph Burke, a rancher, spotted the second batch of saucers while he was irrigating a field.



He said they were accompanied by a flight of airplanes, but were much faster-a distinct edge in a game of tag. Like Mrs. Grey's disks, they circled, dipped and rose vertically. But unlike hers, they let out spurts of nasty black smoke as they climbed.



Two 15-year old high school students spotted the third batch of "things" while riding on the Big Dipper at Playland-at-the-Beach.

While Bob Jones, of 628 25th avenue, and George Elkington, of 763 47th avenue, rose vertically and dipped on the roller coaster ride, they saw the formation of three saucers whizz over from the direction of the Golden Gate Bridge and out toward the Farallones.



"They were very high," said Jones, "looked about the size of a dime and were a dirty gray color."



Meanwhile, the saucers, disks, and "things" received whimsical attention from San Francisco's representatives in the Assembly at Sacramento.



Assemblyman Edward M. Gaffney, taking note of Mayor Robinson's "frantic trip to Washington to seek succor for civillians in his city," asked Assemblyman Thomas Maloney to give the Mayor "his plan for transporting the Southern California smog to San Francisco to aid in the blackout if such a measure is necessary."



Two pilot members of the Assembly were asked to scour the California skies and bring back a saucer for the inspection of Mayor Robinson and Assemblyman John B. Cook, a submarine veteran, was asked to "lay aside his cigar and forthwith bring in the mysterious subs that are prowling the Pacific."

The last sentence is interesting. Few people remember this, and it isn't widely known, but at the time there were numerous scares about "mystery submarines" prowling the western coast of the United States. The implied source of these submarines was the Soviet Union, doing everything from preparing to interdict shipping at the start of World War III to landing communist agents meant to infiltrate American society. Some believe that these "mystery submarines" were actually UFOs, which have a long history of being seen entering and leaving bodies of water.

Publicly, Mysterious SF says: Mt. Davidson, again. This is probably less significant than it sounds, as Mt. Davidson is a prominent reference point for people describing things in the sky. Mysterious SF doubts there are any secret UFO bases there.

Privately, Mysterious SF says: UFOs that rose vertically, spewed out nasty black smoke, and were accompanied by regular airplanes. You don't say?