PROJECT 10073 RECORD CARD — Frenchman's Bayou, Arkansas, 17 December 1954

This document details a Project 10073 record card and associated correspondence regarding a reported sighting in Frenchman's Bayou, Arkansas, on December 17, 1954. A local farmer contacted authorities in Joiner, Arkansas, at 23:40 hours, claiming that a meteorite had landed on his property and was still smoking. The report was escalated through military channels, involving Colonel Norman Rogers at the Memphis Depot and Colonel O'Hern. Subsequently, the 4602d Detachment at Grandview AFB, Missouri, was tasked with investigating the incident. Sergeant Drepperd received a report from Captain Bellowvant, the Flight Commander of the 4602d Detachment, following an inspection of the site. The investigation revealed that the farmer owned a 1,600-acre property used for rice and cotton cultivation. The site of the alleged meteorite impact was a dike constructed from a large number of logs separating a rice field from a cotton field. Upon close inspection, the investigators determined that the smoldering was not caused by an extraterrestrial object or meteorite, but rather by spontaneous combustion within the tightly packed logs of the dike. The report notes that the logs appeared to have been burning for some time before the owner noticed them, creating a path that resembled an impact site. The official conclusion reached by the military investigators was that the incident was a case of spontaneous combustion, and the case was subsequently closed.