OCT 2  1967

4123 178th Place SW
Lynnwood, Washington
28 September 1967

Dr, Norman Levine
202 Woodbury Hall
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Dear Dr. Levine:

Enclosed is clipping of 10 August issue of North Vancouver, B.C. Citizen. Tried to call both boys' residences and speak with the parents, and apparently no one is at home either place at the moment, but we will keep trying and advise.

I did have a very interesting conversation with the gentleman who wrote the article, however, and following is some of the information he kindly provided me:

The boys had come into the newspaper office (a weekly paper) and shown the photos (4 of them) to the staff. They appeared to the reporter (Hugh Dickson) to be excited, enthused and very interested in what they had to offer. Dickson said he looked at the photos, as did others at the newspaper, but no analysis, per se, was done by any of his staff. He says he checked with the local logging companies to determine whether or not the "objects" might have been balloons which apparently are sent aloft fairly often by the logging companies, and was told that no such balloons were up in that area at that time. He further commented that the original photos, which he viewed, seemed to show metallic objects, which while they did not reflect anything in particular, did show a “grayish tone on one side, with blurred edges”... and it was his opinion that something was obviously photographed by the boys - but wouldn't venture a guess as to what that "something" was. He said he had asked the boys repeatedly about the possibility of balloons prior to his checking with the logging companies, and the boys had insisted that they had seen the balloons before and that these "objects" were smaller than the balloons in question.

When asked if any other local residents had reported any visual sightings to substantiate the boys' story and pictures, Dickson said that he knew of no other reports from there, although there had been repeated reports from One Hundred Mile House, B.C. (about 300 miles north of Vancouver) about the same time (i.e. dates - the sightings from One Hundred Mile House, as best Dickson could remember, took place mostly at night and were “funny colored lights in the sky”. I asked him if he didn't consider it unusual that any UFO might remain in view long enough for 6 photos to be taken and yet not seen visually by any other residents of the area, and he went to great length to explain that the area of the sighting reported by the boys was wooded although built up with streets and houses, however unless one had been looking up at just the right time, it might very well have been missed completely. He said that he had been out to the site of the photo area, and told me that the boys were in the back yard, which is “mostly bush and goes into a mountain - sort of - up above,” He said there were woods all around the residences.

He also mentioned that the “one thing that 'got' me was that one of the boys had a raft of flying saucer material at home, including books and magazines”, though this may not necessarily discredit the source. He referred the boys to Herb Clark's Vancouver Flying Saucer Club, which, Dickson says, obtained prints of the photos and to the best of his own knowledge, that was the end of it all.

He (Dickson) did not know of NICAP (so I explained NICAP to him, and our Washington State Subcommittee) and he had NO knowledge at all of the U. of Colorado Project, so I went into detail about that, too, explaining the importance of any photographic evidence which might be subjected to expert analysis from a scientific standpoint. I admitted to him that we (NICAP) would like very much to obtain the negatives for our own analysis purposes, as well, but that all of our material was submitted to the Colorado Project office, and frankly, since he was Canadian, not familiar with anything other than the Pentagon interest in UFOs, and appeared genuine in his interest and in his desire to assist us, I thought it best to emphasize the Colorado Project, the US government interest, and NICAP's efforts to assist, rather than to push for NICAP alone getting the negatives. Incidentally, at the beginning of the conversation, I made it crystal clear that I was a representative of the Washington State NICAP Subcommittee and unofficially requested information for the Colorado Project as well, in an effort to cooperate. He asked for more information re NICAP (which I am delighted to send him, I can assure you!), and said he would be glad to help us further on this case if we need it. It's difficult to know, based on a half hour conversation with him, but I do feel that he is sincere, and may well prove to be an excellent connection in that area for us in the future. I assured him that we would keep in touch via letter, and he was very pleasant about it and extremely interested but would NOT commit himself re what he thought the boys had photographed!

Another thing which impressed me very favorably is that although it is a small paper, he made no effort to obtain specific names, nor did he at any time show signs of taking notes for a story of any sort about my call. I had made it very clear that my call was NOT for publicity purposes, but that we (NICAP) chose to work quietly behind the scenes and obtain the data on reports for further evaluation. He then compared our attitude with those of some of what he called the “religious” groups interested in "flying saucers”, and for this reason, I took his address, but did not volunteer the address of the NICAP Subcommittee or main office at this time. Since we'll be in touch with him again anyway, I thought it might appear pushy or as though we were soliciting publicity to give him addresses at this stage. (Having spoken with many newspapermen about cases in the past, I can usually tell when they are trying to build some sort of story around the call and I am impressed with this man's interest in assisting us rather than using us to make copy - hope my evaluation is correct!)

Hugh Dickson may be reached at the CITIZEN office (604) 985-1331. The boys may be reached at their homes (I checked with Vancouver information), Robert McNicol (father's initials are R.T.) at (604) 985-2606, and Doug Miller (father's initials are Edward A.) at (604) 985-2337. I have already referred this information to Morris Knouse, who handles some of our investigations, and he will be in touch with the families this evening, hopefully to make an appointment to see the photos and obtain the negatives (probably will have to leave them a receipt for same, on a "loan" basis, a la Salem, Oregon Baker case), so we'll keep you up to date as soon as we have more to report. Meanwhile, at the risk of being a pest, I did feel that you should know at once, and thus left word with the secretary this afternoon.

Hope this material is of some interest. I also hope it isn't a false alarm, but based on what Dickson told me, it may not be. We'll have to see.

Best wishes,

Mrs. June Larson
NICAP