At The Fort  - - Strange Object

This article was published in the Omineca Express newspaper on August 4th, 1999. It was under the heading: "A Look At The Past - from Bill Silver's Nechako Chronicle Files".
The town described is Fort St. James.

July 23, 1959 -- A motorist passing through our town the last few days would have wondered just what sort of a place he had come to.

To explain: On Saturday afternoon young Johnny Shepperd spotted an object in the sky and pointed it out to Cyril Hlal, who in turn reported it to Doug Heavenor, regional supervisor for the Ground Observer Corp, Civil Defence. The object, thought to be a weather balloon, remained in the sky in approximately the same spot from Saturday afternoon until at least Monday evening.

Observed through field glasses, telescopes and binoculars, it took on a variety of shapes and sizes all the way from a triangular shaped metallic object to a perfectly round balloon.

The thing that puzzled most people here was that it remained in the same position regardless of the wind, etc. Rumor has it that the air force are sending up a jet to observe it but no jet has shown itself as yet, and as far as I know the object has now disappeared.

RETURN TO FIFTIES INDEX