'The thing in the woods' still puzzles Moncton-area family after 55 years

ETA Mystery solved at the bottom link.

In 1962 woodsman David McPherson Sr. found himself deep in the forest of Lutes Mountain, some 15 kilometres west of Moncton, N.B., staring upwards at a 181-kilogram white box with cameras and hanging from a tree by a deteriorated parachute.

So he ended up contacting the RCMP and they basically ignored it. He went back into the woods with some friends and built a makeshift road to haul the thing back to his barn.

They didn't want to open the box fearing explosives, and apparently a large antenna was rigged to a blasting cap in order to extend it.



When McPherson Sr. was gone the military showed up and tried to take the thing, but his wife apparently chased them off and later opened the box. She claims inside she found two cameras, and about a dozen bottles of clear liquid surrounding the lenses. The also found writing that wasn't English.

"But it wasn't in the English alphabet, she thought maybe Russian, but she didn't tell dad she'd opened it that day," McPherson said.

The next day the military came back to the McPherson farm, this time with a different strategy.

"They took it with promises of, 'You'll be there when it's opened' and, 'We'll let you know what it was and who owns it,'" said McPherson.

"But once it was on the truck, that was all gone. And so was the thing. They took it away."

That was the last time the family heard from the military on the issue, despite two rejected access to information requests to the Department of Defence in the years that followed.

So what was it? Some kind of surveillance balloon? I figure someone here will have a good idea. What were the clear bottles? Why wouldn't the RCMP be more interested?

Link

HA! Looked into it more and the mystery was solved. CIA.

Link

Declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency in the United States reveal the origins of the white 181-kilogram box found hanging from a rotting parachute in a tree near Moncton in 1962.

It turns out it was a high-altitude balloon-mounted spy camera developed in part by the CIA to secretly photograph Soviet Russia.

I don't have anything to add that isn't obvious- don't trust the government.

Which is simply an extension of don't trust anyone you can't personally retaliate against.

Don't trust anyone who has nothing to lose from screwing you.

Someday I'll find the perfect way of wording this.

I wish I knew what was in that box.

a reply to: lordcomac

I edited the post, they did figure it out. CIA surveillance balloon.

a reply to: Domo1

I would love to take credit for IDing this, but honestly I just stole the answer from the comments on the article

www.designation-systems.net...

originally posted by: Domo1
a reply to: lordcomac

I edited the post, they did figure it out. CIA surveillance balloon.

Dang, I wasted my time reading all those comments for nothing!

a reply to: anotheramethyst

I should have figured the answer was in the comments!

a reply to: anotheramethyst

My bad

Not over.....

If the writing wasn't in English....Russians doin the North America tour from above....as they should, should be expected, not in an aggressive way on Russia's part

Was there any mention on what the bottles of liquid were?

a reply to: RainyState

I didn't see any, I'd like to know too.

a reply to: Domo1

What an interesting story. I wonder if the CIA used foreign writing on the device for the plausible deniability angle. Then again, why have any writing at all?

The bottles may well have been something to do with the temperatures at altitude. Lenses could frost up or get condensation at high altitude so the liquids could have been some way of moderating the humidity and/or temperature in the (presumably sealed) box. It's a stretch!

Its design certainly lends the lie to popular claims of super secret advanced tech being decades ahead of normal goods. It looks 50s.

a reply to: Domo1

I grew up 2 miles away from their farm and went to school with their kids . I had never heard of this story ..thanks for posting .

a reply to: Kandinsky

What an interesting story. I wonder if the CIA used foreign writing on the device for the plausible deniability angle. Then again, why have any writing at all?

Could be Instructions for 'allies' to launch and or retrieve the spy cam.

The bottles may well have been something to do with the temperatures at altitude.

Or ballast.

a reply to: intrptr

I suppose anything's possible. There used to be rewards in the US for returning various types of balloons to local military bases.

a reply to: Kandinsky

At the bottom of page 74 (linked here), project Genentrix is revealed as early alternative versions to spying on Russia without U2 overflights.

a reply to: intrptr

Or vodka in case the Russians got it.

originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: Kandinsky

At the bottom of page 74 (linked here), project Genentrix is revealed as early alternative versions to spying on Russia without U2 overflights.

Yes, I knew that. I mentioned rewards in relation to your comment about it containing a note for allies.

originally posted by: Blastoff
a reply to: intrptr

Or vodka in case the Russians got it.

They would have gone blind from that brand of alcohol, used as ballast to adjust altitude because it doesn't freeze.

a reply to: intrptr

The bottles were indeed ballast. Domo's phrasing left me with the impression the bottles were *inside* the box/gondola when they were actually hanging below it.

Good key words for searches ITEK, BUPRL, Perkin-Elmer.
Russian ELINT operations at Arecibo began in the early 60's.

There were some conversations about the CIA "useful idiots" floating around in 1962.
All part of the food chain to fund future tech, satellites, cell phones etc.
What was that James bond movie "from Russia with love" about in 1964 ?