Project 10073 Record Card and Unidentified Flying Object Report — North Dakota, October 1957

This document consists of a Project 10073 record card and an associated Unidentified Flying Object report regarding a sighting that occurred on October 25, 1957, south of Bismarck, North Dakota. The sighting was reported by a Ground Observer Corps (GOC) observer and another individual near Ft. Rice. The witnesses described a pencil-shaped, red object, approximately the size of a basketball, which was observed moving fast and climbing slowly in a southerly direction for a duration of 20 minutes. The object was noted to have a flame at one end, similar to a gas flare, and eventually turned black before disappearing. The report includes detailed meteorological data for the area, including cloud cover at 1000-1500 feet and wind conditions. The official conclusion reached by the investigating officer, a 1st Lieutenant from the 786th ACWRON at Minot Air Force Station, was that the object was a weather balloon launched by the Bismarck AWS at 0000Z. Despite the witnesses' estimation that the object was 14 feet thick and 1/4 mile long, the report explicitly states that the weather balloon was, without doubt, the object sighted. The documentation includes the original teletype transmission sent to various Air Force intelligence and defense commands, including the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.