While Kenneth Arnold’s “saucer-like aircraft” sighting near Mount Rainier, the Maury Island Incident and the Roswell Incident all took place nearly eight decades ago during the “Summer of the Saucers” in 1947, the legacy of all three events to the modern UFOlogy movement is still debated today.
In fact, this past weekend, the significance of all three events and which was most influential was officially debated on Friday, Oct. 10, in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.
Representing Team Washington was the United Festivals of UFOs, or UFO-UFO, composed of Chehalis Flying Saucer Party organizers Lewis County Historical Museum Executive Director Jason Mattson and Pacific NorthWEIRD podcast co-host Vince Ynzunza, together with Steve Edmiston, researcher and organizer of the annual Men In Black Birthday Bash (MIBBB) in Des Moines.
They faced off against Team Roswell, which included Roswell Daily Record investigative reporter Toby Martinez and Paul Semones, forensic engineer and Roswell investigator.
For approximately two hours, the two teams traded jabs and made their cases, arguing over which area’s events were the true catalyst for the “Summer of the Saucers” and modern UFOlogy.
The debate was held at the Truth or Consequences Brewing Company and live-streamed by South King Media.
The first event — chronologically — was The Maury Island Incident, which occurred on June 21, 1947.
During the incident, Tacoma resident Harold Dahl and his son were out on Puget Sound Harbor salvaging logs with two unnamed dock workers and their dog, Sparky. Suddenly, six donut-shaped craft appeared near Maury Island, with one appearing to be in distress as it was flying lower than the others, eventually spewing molten metal slag onto Dahl’s boat. Sparky was burned so badly, he died, according to Edmiston.
The next morning, an unidentified man wearing a black suit showed up at Dahl’s door, and after talking to Dahl about what he saw the day before, threatened him to keep quiet about it. This is the first reported account of a visit from the “Men in Black,” which the MIBBB celebrates.
A sample of the molten slag material was also taken by the U.S. Air Force officials, but the plane transferring it mysteriously caught fire and crashed after take-off, prompting an FBI investigation into the crash.
While history has written off Dahl’s story as a hoax as he later claimed it was, Edmiston discovered through public records requests that Dahl told FBI investigators he planned to publicly say he fabricated the story, as Dahl would rather “be known as a liar as opposed to a crazy person that saw a UFO,” Edmiston said.
It was just two days after the man in black visited Dahl that Arnold took off from Chehalis on June 24, 1947, headed toward Yakima. Arnold was looking for the wreckage of a crashed military transport, which there was a reward for.
While over the skies near Mineral flying toward Mount Rainier, he claimed to see nine metallic crescent-shaped objects flying in an echelon formation headed south past Mount Rainier toward Mount Adams, according to Ynzunza.
“Arnold used the two mountains as markers to determine their speed, which he estimated at a whopping 1,200 mph,” Mattson added.
Known aircraft had yet to break the sound barrier, and wouldn’t do so until later that year. Initially, Arnold suspected he might have seen secret Soviet Russian technology and reported what he saw when he landed in Yakima. Then, he took off to fly to Pendleton, Oregon, and by the time he landed, the press had gotten word of his claim.
After describing what he saw to the East Oregonian as “erratic, like a saucer skipping over water," according to Mattson, the term “flying saucer” was born, and the Chehalis Flying Saucer Party celebrates this.
“We’re here to set the record straight,” Mattson said.
“And remind the world where it all began,” Ynzunza added.
Less than two weeks later, W.W. “Mac” Brazel made headlines when he discovered debris near his Corona, New Mexico, ranch over the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 1947.
Brazel’s discovery made worldwide headlines on July 8, 1947, when U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant Walter Haut, public information officer for the 509th Bomb Group from the nearby Roswell Army Air Field, put out a press release officially stating the Army had visited Brazel’s ranch and recovered “flying disc” debris.
This press release was retracted the next day as Army officials tried to claim the debris was from a weather balloon, but the incident further cemented what is now known as the Roswell Incident into history as the first major UFO coverup by the U.S. government.
The coverup included the famous photos published with the July 9 press release, where an Army official poses with the metallic material supposedly recovered.
“For 78 years these pictures have confused the world. You’re supposed to look at them and believe that’s all there is to it,” Semones said.
It turns out, the photos included with that press release were not even taken in New Mexico, but at a base in Fort Worth, Texas, where the Army claims to have taken the debris for examination.
“And that’s the reason we’re all here, because of Roswell,” Martinez added.
Both Martinez and Semones did have a point, as Roswell has become synonymous with anything UFO or extraterrestrial related and the multiple times the government has changed the official story now have only added to its lore.
Points were also made that Arnold’s sighting fueled a flurry of sightings which were indeed hoaxes, making investigating actual sightings even harder, and that Roswell’s dominance in the cultural zeitgeist had led to events like Arnold’s sighting and the Maury Island Incident being forgotten about.
But, given the chronological timeline, both Arnold’s sighting and the Maury Island Incident were crucial to starting the “Summer of the Saucers.”
At least, that’s what all the debaters agreed to at the end, when they signed the “accords” acknowledging the historical significance of all three events to modern UFOlogy.
The accords had five articles, which each debate participant read.
“Article one, shared legacy. That the events in 1947 at Maury Island, Mount Rainier and Roswell, shall each be remembered as vital threads in the tapestry of UFO history which awakened the common human to a phenomenon that we must understand,” Mattson said.
“Article two, cultural impact. That Roswell may rightfully claim the crown of ‘UFO capital,’ while Washington may proudly claim the title of ‘Birthplace of the flying saucers and the Men in Black,’” Ynzunza said.
“Article three, government obfuscation. That the flying saucers are something real, not visions or fictitious. Whether labeled as ‘Project Mogul,’ ‘Hoax,’ or ‘Nothing to see here,’ the government is hiding truths about UFOs,” Edmiston said.
“Article four, tourism and research. That both states have fueled curiosity, scholarship and a thriving UFO culture whether through museums, tourist festivals or beer-fueled debates at Truth or Consequences Brewing Company, the ‘Summer of the Saucers’ is relevant today,” Semones said.
“(Article five), we want to believe. That the Men in Black have a look that will never go out of style, that it’s no coincidence that Reynolds Wrap was invented in 1947, that Sparky the dog shall be remembered as a hero of his species, and that Kenneth Arnold’s sighting ignited the public’s fascination with UFOs. Also, the aliens weren’t green,” Martinez said.
The accords are now on display at the New Mexico brewery.
To watch the full debate, visit South King Media’s YouTube page at https://tinyurl.com/ywh3fcf5.
First held in 2019, the Flying Saucer Party returns to downtown Chehalis every September.
To learn more, visit its website at https://www.flyingsaucerparty.org/.
The MIBBB began as a private party organized by Edmiston and his neighbors first held in 2012 in Des Moines just across the Puget Sound from Maury Island. For more information, visit https://mibbbfest.squarespace.com/.
First held in 1996, the Roswell UFO Festival is held annually in Roswell, New Mexico. To learn more about the festival, visit https://ufofestival.com/.
