- Twin Falls Times News By John Brosnan August
15th, 1947
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- Flying Saucer Reported Flashing Down Canyon At 100 Miles
Per Hour - Two Others Seen
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- Just as Magic Valley and the nation were starting to
let go of lampposts after reeling under a weiter of flying saucer reports,
two more Twin Falls county men revived speculation on the mystery with
vivid descriptions of discs they saw.
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- From A. C. Urie, who operates the Auger Falls Trout Farm,
six miles west of Blue Lakes Ranch to Snake River Canyon, came perhaps
the most detailed account of any of the fast flying objects the nation
has yet produced.
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- The flying saucer Urie saw was skimming along through
Snake River Canyon at a height of about 75 feet at 1:00 pm Wednesday. At
9:30 am the same day, L. W. Hawkins, Twin Falls county commissioner and
former county sheriff, also saw two circular objects soaring along at great
speeds near Salmon Dam 40 miles south west of Twin Falls.
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- Here is Urie's eye-witness description of the flying
discs, seen by him and his son, Keith, 8, and Billy,10:
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- "I obtained a close-up view of the flying saucer
as it passed the trout farm at 1:00pm August 13th going down Snake River
Canyon at a height of about 75 feet from the canyon floor. I would estimate
the speed about a 100 miles per hour."
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- Urie explained that the incident occurred while the two
boys were coming across the river from the north side in a boat. He had
become concerned about what was delaying them, and walked toward the river
to see if they were all right.
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- "I had a side view of a distance of about 300 feet
and almost was level with the thing," he continued. "Two of my
boys, Keith and Billy were below me and they also saw it at about a right
angle. They both a lower and a side view, and we and we were staring at
it from the north side of the facing toward the north. The boys saw it
coming from about a half a mile up the canyon, and we all lost site of
it in less then a mile."
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- While the the impression was still vivid in their minds,
the three all got together and made rough sketches of what they had seen.
These inturn were the basis of the artist conception of the strange affair
by Vic Goertson of Twin Falls for the Times-News.
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- <paragraph illegible>
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- "The canyon floor underneath at that particular
point was that it rode up and down over the hills and hollows at a speed
indicating some type of control faster then the reflexes of man. It is
my opinion it is guided by some type of instruments and must be powered
by atomic energy, as it made very little noise-just a s-w-i-s-h when it
passed by."
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- Urie described the size as about 20 feet long by 10 feet
high and 10 feet wide, giving it an oblong shape. It might be described
as looking at an inverted pie-plate, or broad-brimmed straw hat that been
compressed from two sides.
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- Pressed for his opinion of just what it was, he said
he was convinced there was something to this "flying saucer"
situation. "I know a number of people who have also seen them, and
I know now that they're not just imagining seeing these things or trying
to get their names in the paper.
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- "I do know that it scared the boys, and made me
feel uneasy," he added.
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- Tracing down a rumor that county commissioner Hawkins
had seen an unusual object in the air on the same day as Urie's experience,
the Times-News called him at his Filer home.
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- "Yes I did," he replied without hesitation.
"I'll have to admit, I've been skeptical all along until I saw it
with my own eyes.I can't say what it was, but I can say there is something
in the air."
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- Hawkins related that while at Salmon dam Wednesday morning,
a sound resembling that of an echo of a motor caused him to look upward,
and there he saw to circular objects that reflected light. They were traveling
at a great speed, and higher then most airplanes, according to Hawkins.
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- Aside from this, he declined to add details, except to
say, "there's something in the air."
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- His general description however, corresponded closely
to hundreds of persons who reported seeing "flying saucers" after
Kenneth Arnold, Boise business man, touched a deluge by telling of coming
upon nine disc-like objects while he was flying in his private plane in
Washington.
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- Thereafter the nation became increasingly "flying
saucer" conscious creating a state of mind for four teen age Twin
Falls boys to cause a mild sensation when they built a model flying disc
and tossed in a local yard July 10th. The was subsequently revealed as
a hoax, following the investigation by the army and the FBI.
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- There after the saucer reports tapered off into a few
scattered incidents until the question was revived by this weeks occurrences.
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- Speculation has ranged from mention that the discs could
be army navy guided missile experiments, or they could be experiments by
some foreign country, to something out of this world.
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- What ever they are, alot of people have seen something.
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