Maury Island incident

Maury Island: What really Happened?
Deep in the summer of 1947, something happened in an east bay off Maury Island, Washington. It had all the ear marks of a trace UFO case, years before any other trace case and was in the same time frame of the most famous case of all. Roswell. Many UFO researchers have looked into it and most think it was a hoax, mainly for money and fame. At a time when I had a lot of time to investigate, and I live in the same area, I decided to tried to cover all the bases, to find out the truth.
As with most history, the truth lies buried between the lines.
The stories
The Coming of the Saucers
To start off right on this case we must start at the beginning. The original story. So here it is word for word from Arnolds book “The Coming of the Saucers."

“On June 21, 1947 in the afternoon about two o’clock I was patrolling the East Bay of Maury Island close in to the shore. This practically uninhabited island lies directly opposite Tacoma about three miles from mainland. This day the sea was rather rough and there were numerous low hanging clouds. I, as captain, was steering my patrol boat close to the shore of a bay on Maury Island. On board were two crewmen, my fifteen-year-old son and his dog.
As I looked up from the wheel on my boat I noticed six very large doughnut-shaped aircraft. I would judge they were at about 2,000 feet the water and almost directly overhead. At first glance I thought them to be balloons as they seemed to be stationary. However, upon further observance, five of these strange aircraft were circling very slowly around the sixth one which was stationary in the center of the formation. It appeared to me that the center aircraft was in some kind of trouble as it was losing altitude fairly rapidly. The other aircraft stayed at a distance of about two hundred feet above the center one as if they were following the center one down. The center aircraft came to rest almost directly overhead at about five hundred feet above the water.
All on board our boat were watching these aircraft with a great deal of interest as they apparently had no motors, propellers , or any visible signs of propulsion, and to the best of our hearing they made no sound. In describing the aircraft I would say they were at least one hundred feet in diameter. Each had a hole in the center, approximately twenty-five feet in diameter. They were all a sort shell-like gold and silver color. Their surface seemed of metal and appeared to be burled because when the light shone on them through the clouds they were brilliant, not all one brilliance, but many brilliance’s, something like a Buick dashboard. All of the aircraft seemed to have large portholes equally spaced around the outside of their doughnut exterior. These portholes were from five to six feet in diameter and were round. They also appeared to have a dark, circular, continuous window on the inside and bottom of their doughnut shape as though it were an observation window.
All of us aboard the boat were afraid this center balloon was going to crash in the bay, and just a little while before it stopped lowering, we had pulled our boat over to the beach and got out with our harbor patrol camera. I took three or four photographs of these balloons.
The center balloon-like aircraft remained stationary at about five hundred feet from the water while the other five aircraft kept circling over it. After about five or six minutes one of the aircraft from the circling formation left its place in the formation and lowered itself down right next to the stationary aircraft. In fact, it appeared to touch it and stayed stationary next to the center aircraft as if it were giving some kind of assistance for about three or four minutes.

It was then we heard a dull thud, like an underground explosion or a thud similar to a man stamping his heel on damp ground. Immediately following this sound the center aircraft began spewing forth what seemed like thousands of newspapers from somewhere on the inside of its center. These newspapers, which turned out to be a white type of very light metal, fluttered to earth, most of them lighting in the bay. Then it seemed to hail on us, in the bay and over the beach, black or darker type of metal which looked similar to lava rock. We did not know if this metal was coming from the aircraft but assumed it was, as it fell at the same time the white type metal was falling. However, since these fragments were of a darker color, we did not observe them until they started hitting the beach and the bay. All of these latter fragments seemed hot, almost molten. When they hit the bay, steam rose from the water.
We ran for shelter under a cliff on the beach and behind logs to protect ourselves from the falling debris. In spite of our protection, my son’s arm was injured by one of the falling fragments and our dog was hit and killed. We buried the dog at sea on our return trip to Tacoma.
After this rain of metal seemed over, all of these strange aircraft lifted slowly and drifted out to the westward, which is out to sea. They rose and disappeared at a tremendous height. The center aircraft, which had spewed the debris, did not seem to be hindered in its flight and still remained in the center of the formation as they all rose and disappeared out to sea.
We tried to pick up several pieces of the metal or fragments and found them very hot -- in fact, I almost burned my fingers -- but after some of them had cooled we loaded a considerable number of the pieces aboard the boat. We also picked up some of the metal which had looked like falling newspapers.
My crew and I discussed this observance for awhile and I attempted to radio from my patrol boat back to my base. The static was so great it was impossible for me to reach my radio station. This I attributed to the presence of these aircraft, as my radio had been in perfect operating order and the weather would not have caused this amount of interference.
The wheelhouse on our boat had been hit by falling debris and damaged. We immediately started our engines and went directly to Tacoma, where my boy was given first aid at the hospital there. Upon reaching the dock I had to tell my superior officer how the boat had been damaged and why the dog had not returned with us. I related our experience to Fred L. Crisman, my superior officer. I could plainly see that he did not believe it and I guess I don’t blame him, but we gave him the camera with its film and fragments of metal we had loaded aboard as proof of our story. Fred L. Crisman decided he would at least go and investigate the beach where I judged at least twenty tons of debris had fallen.
I might add that these strange aircraft appeared completely round, but seemed a little squashed on the top and on the bottom as if you placed a large board on an inner tube and squashed it slightly. The film from our camera, developed showed these strange aircraft, but the negatives were covered with spots similar to a negative that has been close to an X-ray room before it was exposed except that the spots printed white instead of black as in the usual case.

This was the story that Harold A. Dahl related to me (Arnold) the evening of July 29, 1947 in Room 502 in the Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma, Washington.”

I find the Aurora, TX incident to be far more interesting. At least there you have hard evidence. Here, it's just a story, unfortunately.

Suppsedly it happened 13 days b4 roswell.i was reading an article where this guy thought the craft that was in trouble is the one that crashed at roswell13 days later.

This is the first I recall hearing of this sighting.

"I judged at least twenty tons of debris had fallen."

Seems like there was a wonderful opportunity for real evidence to be collected for years. Guess none was found.



[edit on 3/29/2007 by roadgravel]

Originally posted by roadgravel
This is the first I recall hearing of this sighting.

"I judged at least twenty tons of debris had fallen."

Seems like there was a wonderful opportunity for real evidence to be collected for years. Guess none was found.

The Air Force sent two pilots in a B25 to investigate the Maury Island incident. Lieutenant Frank M Brown and Captain William Lee Davidson spent time interviewing Dahl, Fred Crisman and Kenneth Arnold. They also collected samples of the substance that Dahl claimed fell from the machine. Unfortunately, on their return flight to their base the B25 crashed killing both Brown and Davidson.

[edit on 29-3-2007 by torsion]

A B-25? A huge lumbering, noisy, slow, bomber? They sent a bomber to investigate a UFO? How many ways can I ask the question to avoid a one-liner?

[edit on 29-3-2007 by MrPenny]

So that was the end?

I don't believe the B52 wasn't flying in 1947. Why would a high end bomber be used to ferry interviewers anyway.

EDIT My error here. I read 52 not 25. Did anyone continue investigating?





[edit on 3/29/2007 by roadgravel]

Originally posted by MrPenny
A B-25? A huge lumbering, noisy, slow, bomber? They sent a bomber to investigate a UFO?

The incident itself was over. It wasn't sent in pursuit of a ufo, it was simply transport for the military personel. It was flight #1316. When it was reported in the Tacoma Times it was postulated that sabotage may be involved. The full story of the Maury Island incident is quite fascinating... but was a ufo there at all?!

Definitve book on the event - Maury Island UFO - The Crisman Conspiracy by Kenn Thomas

I didn't picture it actually chasing a UFO. Seems to be an odd detail. If the incident was over...why not drive? Would be cheaper than flying two people in a bomber. Unless it was a scheduled training flight and they were simply asked to check around.

Here's a contemporary newspaper clipping reporting the fatal crash...
sorry you can't read the text

The tragic Maury Island 1947 UFO hoax????

Havent studied this case at all but when i did a search today i came upon this.Any confirmation?

Link goes to another site hope i m not braking any regulation. cheers

Hello,

Always though this was an interesting case and have never been quite sure what to make of it... the 'slag' is just strange...

If there is any interest, Kenn Thomas, the researcher mentioned in a post above, who is quite dedicated to this case, recently wrote a relatively brief piece pleading for follow up work to be carried out...

It is called Excavate Kelso!

Pretty interesting...

Peace.

They are going to make a movie about this now...



Tfw.

The movie is being released this week

www.mauryislandincident.com...

Sorry, released is wrong word, previewed

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