Early Contactee and a 1957 Sighting

In summer of 1952 a California man was working on a construction project near Norman Mesa, Nevada along Highway 91.  In the cool of the night he was searching a nearby hill, said to have been the site of ancient ocean and where sea shells could sometimes be found, when he fell asleep. He woke to the sound of mumbling outside his truck and the presence of 8-10 small men (4 foot 8 inches to 5 feet tall) who had come from an object that was saucer shaped, looked as if made from burnished stanless steel (300 feet diameter; 3 foot rim with beveled edge).  The date was July 26 or 27, 1952.

After meeting the occupants, their lovely female captain, and learning about their planet, Clarion, a new "Contactee" , Truman Bethurum (1898-1969), was born.  The story was recounted to various newspapers, in lectures and through the first of several books, Aboard a Flying Saucer (1954).   For more about Truman Bethurum

As fascinating as "contactee" stories can be, I feel that they represent something outside of UFO research. Such individuals have always been in human society and only the form of their visions/encounters changes with time ( going from angels, demons, flying dragons, saints, deities or flying saucers and "Space Brothers"). They are a phenomena but of a different source and expression than most UFO sightings or abduction encounters. So, why this mention?

In the Project Blue Book files for a sighting by a Lt. Long , a trained military pilot, in November of 1957 a copy of a photo of Truman Bethurum and pages from his work, Aboard  A Flying Saucer (1954) and instructions they were to be considered "permanent records" in the Nov.23, 1957 sighting account of an incident 35 miles west of Las Vegas.  A notation claimed the events had occurred in almost the exact same locations and the tone is rich with an unspoken, "Ah-Ha!" or "Gotcha!"

Is that accurate? Did the earlier event influence the sighting reported in 1957? Was there hoaxing involved in the report as the notations and other aspects of the file charge?  Was it all really just "psychological" due to an extreme case of road hypnosis - as the record claims and the case is designated?

The location of sightings were, in fact, no where close to each other.  The similarity was only that they happened on or near roadways heading into Las Vegas.  The file for 1957 is labeled "Between Tenapah and Las Vegas."  The observer, Lt. Long, was returning from an intensive survival training school in  Reno at Stead AFB and had reached to withing 35 miles west outside of Las Vegas when his event occurred.  The 1952 Bethurum event occurred on old HWY 91, a north and south road, near to where Morman Flats sits in the Valley of Fire State Park, some 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas. So the two events occurred in totally different areas.  The ONLY common factor - the factor that was no doubt of chief concern to the military investigators - was BOTH were close to the area that would one day be known as AREA 51. 

To the north of the 1957 sighting and to the west of the 1952 event were the vast acres of the Ellis AFB, Nellis AF Range,  the old Indian Springs Air Field, and a little spot in the nowhere of the desert called "Groom Lake".  These, today, take up most of NYE county, and significant portions of CLARK and LINCOLN counties in Nevada.

The Indian Springs site was an early air field (1941-1947) and was reactivated in 1948 where it was home to research and development and some of the most advanced aircraft and weaponry development and testing. Nellis AFB grew from smaller airfields to become Nellis in 1950.  With the testing and development associated with the so-called Area 51 at Groom Lake it is obvious the two military complexes shared some mission goals and supported the individual work of each other.

One thing that comes through sharply while reading the 1957 report is hectic fear. The investigation team was under active duress from higher ups in Washington D.C. and not politicians. The level of action represented there is the type seen only when subordinates are responding to orders from their superiors. The lead investigator was one Col. Gregory and he tore a strip off those who had investigated the event for not following AFR concerning the steps to be taken in conducting a UFO investigation. They had failed in doing the most obvious first steps of checking to see if any experimental craft had been at work in the area at the time of the sighting, they had failed to acquire the most rudimentary data related to activities that might have been going on at the time that might have been "misidentified" by a witness.

They had a psychologist on their radar as a possible consultant - just in case - and were rabid with frustration when he seemed uninterested to respond to repeated attempts to contact the man at the University of Ohio. What was that extreme situation?  The witness - observer - was no slack jawed yokel - but one of their own. A Military Pilot trained to be highly observant, knowledgeable, and able to use a keen intelligence.

There was the smell of fear in those pages as memos were exchanged with debates on what explanation would best suffice, least negatively impact the military and best fit the facts as they would be presented.

Dr. Allen J. Hynek addresses this case in his work, The Hynek UFO Report. He includes his own files, kept separate from those created or maintained in PBB to address the case.  He notes the obvious intelligence of the Lt., the lack involved in the "road hypnosis" theory and other elements. Indeed, the narrative report of the interview with the main witness in the files presents an impressive young military man with obvious intelligence and sincerity.  He ably addressed every objection with well reasoned replies and could report he himself, as a victim of road hypnosis mind you, had took the time to check out the landing site, rule out this theory and that all at the time of the sighting.


So, what was the underlying cause of the high anxiety that leaks through the pages of that 1957 case, so much that they felt they had to make a permanent part of it, photocopies that mention the 1952 "Space Brothers" episode and falsely infer it had happened in nearly the same location?

Was it some new extreme test craft from Indian Springs or Nellis?

I do not think so and I offer that because one simple fact - this was not the only strange and explainable reports that came in for the year 1957.  Hynek claims the Air Force had a tunnel vision belief that the underlying possibilities of UFO's could simply not be and as such "they were not." In this November case from Nevada we see the tension when the desire to not see the truth is pressured by the truth demanding to be noticed. Something that the Air Force could not accept or world not accept occurred in the desert.

Other secrets from those early experimental craft days are common knowledge or buried in boring records for any archive nerd to locate - yet - no such craft as repeatedly seen by reputable witnesses had ever surfaced.  I wonder why that is the case, but I suspect that the answer has already been presented