PROJECT 10073 RECORD 1. DATE TIME GROUP Mid Har ch 66 SOt1'J:'IU:RN MICHIDAN 10. CONCLUSION MUlt i ple-Civilians Ot.her (MARSH GAS) "-HUMBER OF OBJECTS 5. LEHGlli OF OBSERVATION 11. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS 6. TYPE OF OBSERVAtiON 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE SEE CASE FU.E Multiple Witnesses D.:t:-oit, )larch 2:>-Dr . .Jay and interviewing of more than .\iln n~ntk. scit>nlific adviser I 100 witnesses, a d~Juge or re j,J) lne ~ir force on extraordi ports came from r.rnine to the In ;r; aPrial phenomena, today nockies, describing liFO's lun- ~.l IHlt1 on '*i.Ja1'1JlfUUti pllnilu idumiriorl flyinJ nlljt" t, I lu lllll 1 r"pnrt:; of "cxtra-lerreslial by night and day. Hundreds of ;,~:v::~:.,;.lp si~;hting:;" by resi-l such reports were made to po- cirnt.~ of tius area. . ice, at county oficials, and I The r.llr' nr. a rP.~i'f'{'ted SCI new~papers. 1 r::o;t j'nhiJdy li!'t-clcd such F.nn Dr. II~ nck, ncting lnr' , it!:: :i~ t's at r.':!htfali as a r Coree Pro)l'rt Blue fl'tt!.., n ato:-; ;: so f!.::dv denounct>d phnroc; -i:.-. ~ Jrir' by pollee- tne pla'1t!t \ .... 'IS on :\larch li. Runi rt'cls ?our In Lrampi.:lg r.roun~l~ for Ill\ t''ti::.11iou 1 a hlankrl sl<~f<'rntnf lo C'll\('r 1 he tnt irl' I ' F'O ph"nornrna O\W the las t :!0 n.:.~rs I "If only onr pt?son rl'pnrt!t srring somthm!! it mi.cht br discounltd. but if 10 or 20 rr- I port set' ill~ similar nhjrot; it I th.~n is f!l'llllllrls fur sc1,.ntifrc 1 in\'cSt ignt inn." and :;ir fn;cc ... r:.l.lnt-; worknd . H:ntk sa1d. invnhf'd <.waupy rns wi1C'l'\! Jj ~hts nr \ ll'iflrl co~lors \\'l'rc watchNI for hours . .\l I!illsidf'. ,\lich. . l;l C'lll"l'i al the local cnllcge :~nd a num- !xr of adults ob:w:, l't! lhe glowing object. Al Dexter, 1\Iich .. 60 miles away, a farrn~::;l reported he saw a similar light. Rare Phenomenon "In each case swamps were ill\'ulv'-"1. TIWI!Il arfl n mot~l 1111 lrl,ely place to attract visitors from outt>r space. They are nol places for helicopter prac- tice or wht>re a ~undle:;s tie- dee would be te~ted," the aslrCinomer \\oTOle in his rr.pllrl. such g:~st>s arc r:tre: 1 h;lvc orn~r see n:~ny m~ 5clf. Ilul I C'\CI}'OOe who OhSel"\cd 1)aW II ~hts. not shapes, and no move- ' menl away from the swamps." he con tin u e d. "The spring could have r ele:1sed I gases formed hy decompnsillon o( orgonic material. Tltis is kiiO\\ll lo glow under Ct>rtain conditions . 1 Dr. Hynek did Ml ridicule nnv wilne:-st>S ht' ntenie\\l!fl. lie :;:1 i1l h! rt>adUy und.>r~lOI)(I rhc rhsm:~y "of those who sin- :~nd a c c u r a t e I y de- wha t lhey saw. " c; :\ Prank Ht! a1so indicated that pt . n:-s by studenls may have b1 n l:t voh"d in the llills1de ntaf.r. SPnral burned-out flare !<lllds \\ rrc> folmd near the ~ ic~P dorn<.tor ies where co-eu!> nad be-~n \\'atclling . kro.<:s the count.,P', howe' er. the " rationa l expJa,;aLion of Hynek and the otl~er inqu1rers was ignored. ~len and women saw "spaceships in formation," some said "lights chas<'d their u to m o h i I e ~. others that l ''shapcs lighted 10 red. green, blue, and yello o C'ross highways at eye-levels.' Tllcre were so manv such re- Lhat Hl'p. (; .. ralcl R. Ford I ;\lich.l, HPpublican fln11r lead cr. proposed :1 " full blown ht'aring hy n committee from houses to ~el to the facts whe r e th~ same girls were intervi ewed. They were most cooperative and Miss Jo Wilson drew the ~ttached picture, ( Figure #4) . Both girl s told me that attentio~ ~as first called by a casua l glance out o f the window which lead t o t:he :-e='e.:-k oy one of them "there's no house down there, is there?" or words t v ~ha~ ~ffect. A fairly bright red light and two yellowish lights, reseffioli~g Ct:-~st~as ~=-ee l i ghts, according to the girls, were close t o the ground i n the sh erea, v here, they obviously knew there was no house. Theyrepo:-~ed ~o ~a,gible objec~. The y di d rc~rk, although there vas much ~or:fusi~:;. serer~l of t:he gir!.s had seen a very bright light swee p past tr~ ~i~cc~ ~;:-~efore :he ~ain s: i~g. I could ge t no consistent co,sis~ent description r.o tne .:~re :;un.)unded by ct ~lov Yhich r ose It a-oces--:: -:..:. -;:r.o.lgh 1 L .1ished tc a ro i d t he period i c svee~ o~ ~ r.ear~y ~ i~plane b~acor.. s~e~ed that h i s :irst : mpressio n o f tr.e ligo~s vere that the y w-ere zars h lig.."'lts, othe rwise knmm qs !' ~x l i ;3hts etc. He told me that he was abou~ ~c s a y ~hat this \laS what they ac~ually Ye r e , but JUst aQput the time he cu3nt he ha d t he solu~ion, the rei light on ~he right a nd the whit e light e n the left (a loca~ion of these lights did not ~gree vi t h : he g i r l s description) started to ge t mo r e brilli ant. I t was ~t this time that the lights appear e d to rise. Tne lights made their ascent and descent s ome four times between 1130 pm, 21 March and 145 am, 22 March. hought that between the t~o ligh~s he could see a mass and thought it was convex shaped. The girls, however, had described only a red light at that position. The arrows on the sketch indicate, according to the girls, the extent of the horiz al and vertical motion of the lights. clearly the best observer as far as technical bec~ground was concerned, yet his knowledge of physics is not good. After I had gotten back to Ann Arbor we had a few more phone talks, and at one time he called ~e rather late at home to inform ce that he vas seeing li& s :~ :ne s~y near t~e horizon --and that through binoculars ~he li s we~e 1e :cal lines, green o n ~op, yellow in the middle, and red on the bot~cm. ~e :~iled to recognize ~his as the effects of atmospheric re- fract.:.cr: o: .. :n~o a small snec~rum. also struck me as a man who bec ..... r::~s e'.a.::~ .!":::: ,;ith a:1 :.dea and ':ends t o lose objectively i n favor of t.he id.ea. ~o ride e nobby horse, as was i ndicated ~nen he marshalled ~ater da~e t.o se~ ~ut to prove the marsh gas hypothesis I am ~ot repcr~ing at this ~ime t.he numerous side investigations, such as a trip -:o the ho4':1e of a young chap who had reported to Van Horn that he had p~o~ograph o f a UFO. I visited this chap at Hillsdale and discovered that, as fa:-as ! ..res concerned, he had photographed a blimp. I did give him $2 for a pri~-:, jus~ for the record, which I never received. I will not also report at tti3 time the many peripheral conversations I had with individual policemen fro m ~he office of the Sheriff of Washtenaw County at Ann Arbor, Michigan (Sheriff Harvey, and a number of his deputies), members of the Chelsea Police Department (Chief John Palmer, Clyde Myers and Charles Sharpe and a number of his othe r men), and the police in Dexter Michigan (Captain Taylor and his men, notably Officer Hunnawill), nor will I describe the fairly long discussion I had with Colonel Miller, civilian Defense Chief in Ann Arbor, who appears to be a very practical and blunt man who told me, in a nutshell, that he took no stoc k in ~y of the reports that had been going around. I might point out, that all t ugh the investigation I made discreet inquiries relative t o character reference and general reliability of other witnesses, and came away with the general imp~ession that I had not been dealing with seasoned and careful investiga~ors, but rather with men untutored in reporting matters outside their normal line o~ reporting (license plates, accidents, etc, but not angular rates, angular cis~ances in the sky, brightnesses, and in general, t ime motion nces ) . I a s ~orced, therefore, to take into account, and regard as facts, onl y such tnings which had bee~ reported fairly consistently by several witnesses. ~e icu:: case upon certai n witnesses by other wi tnesses d i d not insp ire :~ ~e a feeli~g of confidence as to the quality and reliability of t he a, I ~as ob l:ge~ ~o use fro~ which to draw my conclusions. I therefore felt tha~ ~he ~nly expedient thing to do was to concentrate on the consistent aspects of the s t or ies ~rom Dexter and Hillsdal e and place into another category the hos t of the individual and generally mutally conflicting bits o f testimony offered by the many individuaJ.s I talked to during my three day stay . I therefore decided to look at the common pattern which seemed to be devel=~ing in the Dexter and Hillsdale cases. These had many interesting pci~ts i n commonj first, the lights in both cases were associated with swamp areas. While it was true that various individuals reported lights traveling in the sky at about those times and in those general vicinities, I could form no consistent picture whatever of these alleged events. On the other hand, I could form a consistent picture of what apparently vas observed over the swamp at Dexter and at Hillsdale. In both cases a distinctive reddish yellov, and green li3hts were reported, plus a general yellow glow. The spectacular lights, when repc~ed, were stated to be of limited area. One of the girls at Hillsdale agreed but stated that a yellowish glow surrounding and enveloped the discreet lights. The sim1larity between the Dexter lights and the Hillsdale lights was striking. Not only as to color and intesity, but motion as well. The motion was described in both cases as smooth and slow, with a tendency to disappear rather suddenly and reappear elsewhere. Most observers described a smoothhorizontal motion and Vhile other girls from Hillsdale said the lights seemed to ge't excited and moved erratically when car lights and flashlights ar.cd s lo,.;. vicinity, the major behaviour was described as persistent, smoot h I had hoped t.o be able to gather more data and, vith the help of s ome of my Northwest.e~ s:a~f who vere lling t o come to the area with me and help in the inter~ogation and so to b~ able t o examine many of the i ndividual r eports not associated directly with t.be swamps, but funds were not available for bringing ~ any of my associates, who are excellent interogators in this field, and further, since the interest and excitement generate~ in these cases ~s mounting to fever pitch, it seemed expedient, in fact mandatory, to hold a press c onference and make a progress report. Until the evening before I vas to ~a~e such a statement, I vas still puzzled as to a natural explanation for even the consistent sightings. Fortunately, I have a number of friends in the ~demic world in Ann Arbor and whose invaluable aid I enlisted. I would like to give credit to the scientists I talked with until very late into the night but they prefer to remain anonymous. I am sure, however, that should their testimony be officially required, rather than for the press, their cooperation could very easily be obtained. It was from these academic gentlemen that I obtained the information on marsh gas d ~e lights frequently associated with it. To s ummarize, it appears that ~tting vegetation in the swamps produces methane, CH4, and hydrogen sulfide, H2S, in ample quanti ties under certain condi tiona. Methane is oderless, B2S is not but since it is present in relatively small quantities one does not smell it unless one overturns a shovel full of swamp material. I am t old that this would then release a distinct odor. In addition, phosphine PH3 is produced by the reduction of phosphorous compounds in the marsh material. These three gases ordinarily do not spontaneously ignite, but I am told, a small impurity i~ the PH3, namely P2H4, is highly flamable and when exposed t o air spontar.eously igni~es. This then apparently can serve to ignite t he other gases. The phenomenon of swamp lights is apparently quite well known, and references to it are ~le in the literature. Even in non-technical literature these lights, variously known as willow-of-the-wisp, ignus fatus, f ox lights, etc., have ~ad many stories wove~ around them, including stories of these lights being the s ouls of the departed as well as elemental mythological entities. Technically, t.hey are treatedin two books to \lhich I bad immediate access, Light B.:ld Colour in the Open Sky, by Minnaert and Chemist:-, by Sienko and Plane. Here tbe lights are described even into their colors, red, yellow, white and green, ~h~s matching the colors described by the majority of the witnesses. It is stated in these books that the lights are a form of low temperature chemical luminescence which does not char or burn grass, etc . The lights generally are are evanescent, burning here for a momment or so, going out, and appearing some feet or yards away as another plume of gas spontaneously ignites. This sporadic lighting is generally soundless, although sometimes a "popping" noise is heard (this may be the origin of the "ricochet sound" Mr. Manner reported) . ~e illusion of motion can easily be given by the sporadic appear- ance of a wisp of light here, and then there. The ligh~s have never been described as truly bright. They would be visible best to dark-adapted eyes on a clear dark night and also on a night which there was no high wind (which would quickly dissipate the gas as it bubbled up from underneath). It appears to me that many of the conditions for the appearance of swamp lights were satisfied at both Dexter and Hillsdale. I can't state with any certainty that this is the correct solution to the problem; merely that it is the most likely cause. I would of course, appreciate learning of other possible natural causes should ~hey be forthcoming. We can, I believe, completely eliminate any solu~ion based on aircraft, balloons, birds, meteors, stars, etc, because they si~ly do not fit the consistent data reported to me. In pu~ting forth the swamp gas explanation of the major Michigan sightings I am aware ~het it is open to several objects: we do not know whether swamp lights ever appear at the near freezing temperatures that obtained in those areas at the time. If these were swamp lights, one may well ask why they have not :ee~ seen in those localities before. One may also ask why not at other s"'-amp areas in Mcihigan instead of just these two? I am also concerned that the Michigan sightings bear a slight resemblance to other UFO aightings in which swamp areas do not figure. I am a1 s:> concerned that I had to neglect the peripheral evidence of the few people who said that they thought an object had been present. On the other hand, no convincing or coherent evidence was presented that any object had been seen either to enter or to leave the s~amp areas. And ~hy swamp areas in both cases7 The case for swamp gas is by no means conclusive, and is unprovable, but still remains in =Y mind as a logical explanation for the majority opinion as to What was sighted. I therefore presented this likely explanation at the requested press conference, at ~hich I pointed ou~ in no uncertain terms that the swamp gas hypothesis ~as just that and that "I couldn't prove it in a court of law" I wish tha~ a press conference had not been necessary, or, if necessary that it had been handled more expertly and adriotly. I have little to say that is compl~entary about the public relations office at Selfridge Field. It ~as amateurish L~ ~he extreme, and displayed no kno~ledge of ho~ a press conference should be handled. The er.~ire ma~ter of a full dress press conference ~as most distasteful ~v me becaase I ould rather present carefully weighed and consistent evidence conclusions, w~th due time allo~ed, to a body of scientific colleagues than be su~ject at a moment's notice to a roaring pack of ne~s hounds whose chief interest appears to be in getting a ~ick story. I recommend once again, as I have of~en in the past, in my capacity as scien~ific consultant, that the UFO phenomenon which has no~ plagued us for a score of years, and has been responsible for countless words in ne~sprint during tha~ ~ime, should be recognized as a scientific and soc1ologic~1 problem of our es and studied as such by competent men in various fields. Further, since the firs~ requisite for any scientific investigation is concern for the quality of the basic data, much more attention should be paid to the jmmediate gathering and processing of such data. ;jy ;J;. L~ftJ~t 0N THE ~STIGATIOW/0;/THE DEX'l'ER, ~UJCHIGAN SIG!ffliNG OF ~ MAReYAND THE QgjJ:SDALE, MibmAN,. SIGHTINct--0-F-21 MARCH_J.96E{ {Jr(MC . ..Vj sightings at Dexter and Hillsdale, respectively, may be called the crucial sightings which became the focal point of local a~teHtion (and later of naticnw~de~and had associated with them a veritable barrage of other reports wit2 LD clear-cut association with the two principal events under dis- cussion here. It is possible that many of these were the result of the general l e xcitement surrounding these events and of suggestibility on the part of those who reported t oem. However, there were reports of odd sightings, particularly in the Milan area, a few night s previous to the sighting~dicussed. It would have taken an army of investigators to have e xhaustively looked into all of these. In the course of 'J1']' t:: ree days of investigation, I talked with the following people at some le~gth and with a host of others in passing. County 3r.eriff ~rvey -Washtenaw County Deput~; Sta;le~r McFadden Deput.r Javij ?:. tzpatrick Patrolrr~ ~unnawill Colonel ~e~ald G. ~tiller Chief ':'a:lor of Y!ich, Astronomr Dept ( 11 members) Faculty members :iag , Red