Shall We Gather At the River: The Red River and the Temple, Ok UFO Sightings

 

23 March 1966 - Temple, Oklahoma and the Red River Bridge area.  

Civil Service employee at Shepherd Aird Base in Wichita Falls, Texas traveled to and from his job regularly. Eight miles south of Temple, Oklahoma on US 70 he observed a strange object at the side of the road. He described it as fish shaped, 75 feet long, metallic, with "TL-4768" written vertically on its side.

At the same time, a truck driver, C.W. Anderson of Mangum, had that same morning looked in his rearview mirror and seen something with intense lights and red lights along its sides seem to follow for a time.

A woman from Texas, traveling into Oklahoma from Texas at the Red River bridge in the area felt her car buffeted by an object large, bright, and with red lights. 

LIGHTS AND LIGHTS: Safety Lights on Aircraft

Colors red, green and white are standard colors used to increase safety while flying and help anyone on the ground know what they are looking at.  These are the configurations most people can easily identify as "normal" objects expected to be in the skies.  They tend to fly straight lines, or wide gentle arcs, but can made a sharp turn on occasion or seem to do so.  They tend to fly low enough to see the lights clearly if watched. Higher up, the colors may not be as discernible, and the object will be flying somewhat faster. A satellite may be seen traveling a steady course at a slower speed but may seem brighter due to reflection.

What then, is NOT normal?  Shades of all red, red-yellow or red-white together, yellow, purple, or blue. 

FAMILIAR SHAPES : Mystery Airships or Marvelous New Inventions?

The early airship designs can bear a striking resemblance to a description that is very familiar.  As these two images reveal - the profile bears similarity to more modern early 20th century witness statements about "saucers" (flat ovoid's) and cigars (longer flattened ovoid's).  The earliest truly unique sightings of objects doing movements, speeds, etc. beyond the ability of technology in that time are often described by associating their appearance with something common in life: as silver washtub turned upside down, a large serving platter, a cigar and the like.

While one or two of the early airship sightings have aspects that are little odd too many of the stories appear around April 1 and the timing is suspect.

Newspapers of the late 1880's are filled with inventors hawking their real or imagined inventions. Early science was dreaming Jules Verne sized concepts of flight, space and time travel. It was a wonderful time really, filled with an awesome sense of a world being discovered, catalogued, examined, and explained by a host of brand new scientific fields and passionate amateurs and professional's.

The Gifford Airship in the London Science Musuem dates to 1852. Notice the elongated ovoid (cigar or dirigible) shape.  The overall profile matches many early sightings of the "mystery airships" of the 1896-1897 period.

The bottom image is another familiar shape -as if two saucers were fitted together rim to rim. It is the navigable balloon developed by Henri Dupuy de Lôme in 1872. Again, a craft bearing resemblance to later mystery airships.

Newspapers of the time of the mystery airships reveal that the attitude toward the idea of flying about - controlled or otherwise- was simply "mad".   Men in asylums talked such nonsense. With a potential for millions to be made developing the fully functioning airborne craft able to be controlled, steered, loaded with paying passengers or cargo - the minds of many turned toward overcoming the problems. The Europeans paid more respectful attention to the possibilities than did the North American United States. 

The image seen last is from a Nov. 1896 issue of the San Francisco Call of a mysterious airship seen in that community.

Even past the Wright Brother's work, when we entered WWI the Germans had been developing a strong air corps in 1910 while most in the U.S. were still merely barnstorming for pennies to curious small-town crowds. The US Army Air Corps was not founded until 1917 with entry into WW1. 

Many of those early mysterious airships were reported to carry men in seaman-like uniforms, to be heard speaking a strange language, etc. It was possible that the skills from European inventors - published in papers across the U.S.- might have been imported by wealthy investors or inventors to work on the air-flight issue.

It is something to think about as research into older stories comes to light - due to massive digital projects that are placing early and harder to locate resources - online. 

The UFO/UAP researcher has to realize that there will always be a certain portion of objects seen that are a) misinterpretations of contemporary known technology, and b) misinterpretations of natural phenomena. That is how people work. There will also, usually, always be a portion that are sightings of the truly unusual. Researchers have to be able to know the difference. 

A good overview of the topic, with locale specific information is found here. 

The Airship Flap of 1897: Early UFO's or Ongoing Aviation Research?

" 8 October 1883: The first airship powered by an electric motor was flown by brothers Albert-Charles Tissandier (1839–1906) and Gaston Tissandier (1843–1899) at at Auteuil, a suburb of Paris, France." Source: Airship Archives at Airship Archives - This Day in Aviation

The hot air balloon emerged from creative minds early - sketches and accounts to the 1700's- and was used to gather troop movements in the Civil War in the U.S. The balloon, often called an airship, would develop in the late 1880's in tandem with the "aeroplane."  One concept using hot air to elevate a balloon and access movement via winds aloft anchored by either a ground tether or a sandbags and anchors. Little tweaks added the new bicycle pedaling idea for generating the hot hair and moving the craft through airspace, adding canvas "wings" (yes some did flap) and others were getting a glimmer of a fixed wing's lift potential.

The GREAT AIRSHIP FLAP of 1897 is well known in studies of UFO's and seems to have begun in California, spread across the nation and ended primarily in Chicago. Theories abound, however, digging into the subject to see what Oklahoma newspapers reported (since I am situated in Oklahoma and have written about Oklahoma UFO's and other strange events), 

In Vinita (eastern Oklahoma) newspaper called, INDIAN CHIEFTAIN of January 20, 1887 (pg.2) under "News and Notes" was an interesting piece. A Fort Smith paper, The Tribune, reported a man named Killibrew, "the prisoner in the US Jail, who is deranged, says that he is cured and should be turned out of jail so that he can complete his airship that he imagines he has invented. Were there no other evidence of his insanity his airship theory alone would prove it."

The NORMAN TRANSCRIPT of late 1890 carried a piece out of Chicago and an inventor named E.J. Pennington who had shared about his invention to a meeting og the Aeronautics Navigation Company. The stock of the company was, apparently, "$20,000,000 paid up and will be used in building airships."

Early 1892 numerous papers carried multiple times a brief statement that a "Walter Mercer, Indianapolis, is building an airship. First public trials will be June 1893."

As 1892 wound down, the El Reno, Oklahoma paper OKLAHOMA HERALD, shared how a cobbler and part time inventor had created a working model of another airship. The model used a design involving fans, motors, propellers, flyworks, ropes above a cigar shaped aluminum body.

Oddly, that summer 1893 target trial date coincides with the Columbia World's Fair (aka Chicago World's Fair) of 1893. The OKLAHOMA HERALD (El Reno, Ok) carried a note about the "World's Fair in Chicago" and how "thousands gathered around to see the huge airship make its initial trip."  Only fifteen would be able to go aboard at a time.  Scanning dozens of images of the fair, reading about its major exhibits and history, there is no major mentions of any aerial craft (balloon or otherwise).  One image purporting to be of the fair shows a large dark hot air balloon aloft but it may not be as presented. 

As that year was winding down, the GUTHRIE DAILY LEADER mentioned an interesting bit of news "if Senator Cochrell's bill becomes a law genius will begin to struggle for that $100,000 to be given for the best regulated airship."

Late in 1894, the ENID WEEKLY WAVE carried "A New Airship" byline New York and told of "Oscar F. Lewis of Saratoga, New York" had devised a prototype crafted of a 50 foot silk balloon, bicycle mechanisms, an aluminum frame and regulators to adjust elevation. He claimed to have made successful circuits over Saratoga when the weather was calm.

About this time there begins to be a merger in the news articles where use of the term "airship" and "aeroplane" begin to converge. Illustrations of "airships" will be the familiar early pre-Wright Brothers fabrications for the flying machine or airplane. Airships will also continue to be equally free as a label for a  hot-air balloon and the early dirigible type motorized crafts. Indeed, one article of an American inventor in London discusses a kite design that reflects a man addressing the potential of a fixed wing and lifting capabilities. His sketch if brown oval (cigar shape) with canvas wings.

The GREAT FLAP of 1897 is plagued by other problems that prevent me from including them entirely in the realm of the UFO, or the now used UAP, as has been frequently done.  One, the route of most of the major stories far too closely follows the line of major railroads. The trains were THE conveyors of news and newsmakers in the time. Reporters would hop on and off to telegraph stories found "on the rails" and "in local hotels." This often was largely gossip and rumor. The trains also carried newspapers brought into isolated or distant locations to compete or supplement local newspapers. So, generating a reall "good" story (i.e., one that sells the papers) was crucial. Evidence abounds that at least one sighting story related to the airships was a fabrication (Russel, Kansas).  A story among newspaper historians is that there was a competition between publishers and/or editors about who could generate the most outlandish tales to sell papers.  The Airships are alleged to be part of one such competition. Also, the fact that these tales emerge just as hundreds, if not thousands, of inventors are working on the problem of flight, and the reality of just how far some early inventors reached with their bizarre crafts, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that someone or a group of people achieved some flight capability in an early concept dirigible like craft.  The costumes, languages and behaviors reported, if not fabrications, really support that idea with some elegance. 

Did some things really strange travel the skies long before the Wright Brothers? Yes, they probably did because some stories contain aspects that are so extraordinary as to speed, maneuvers, etc. that they have to be seriously considered. Just not all those in the GREAT FLAP should be viewed as non-manmade.

M.A.H.

OKLAHOM PIONEER UFO INVESTIGATOR: HAYDEN COOPER HEWES

[See note below]

Hayden Cooper Hewes (1943-2017) was a pioneer in Oklahoma in the desire to link science with a new phenomenon and an avid supporter of the need for information to be gathered and then openly shared among researchers.  

His letters and reports can be found sprinkled throughout the files of Project Blue Book and the notable publications of the day covering the broad field of things outside the realm of accepted reality.  His interest began early and while still in high school, Hewes had already shown a vivid intellect and a keen enthusiasm as a self-starter.  A graduate of Oklahoma City’s Northwest Classen in 1962, he was a long-time employee of TG&Y and Office Depot and an entrepreneurial businessman.

Widely known for his interest in UFOs and the paranormal, Hewes was well respected for his commitment to the study of the subjects, and his willingness to do hands on and in-depth research. As a result, he published several books and magazine articles on the subject. He was a popular speaker in person, on TV, and via the radio. 

In 1965, the then 22 year old Hewes was head of a loose amalgamation of scientists, reporters, and interested people exploring the idea of Unidentified Flying Saucers (UFO’s) through the “Intergalactic Investigations of Oklahoma Unidentified Flying Objects” or IIOUFO. This was a group that was his brainchild in 1957 while attending the University of Oklahoma and studying aerospace engineering.

Always curious, he maintained involvement in numerous subjects. He was popular speaker on a host of topics. Later in life he switched some hats and in later life was a local talent agent and taught classes on modeling and the paranormal. He was the owner of The Hayden C. Hewes Agency, Inc., in Oklahoma City.  

He was clearly from an early age avidly interested not only in the unexplained but it the processes needed to verify and explain those very things.  This became evident when he became more widely known during and after the 1965 UFO Flap.

In the newspapers and journals, he was listed as founder and Director of the Interplanetary (some sources say Intergalactic) Investigations of Unidentified Flying Objects (or IIUFO in 1965), a group headquartered in Oklahoma City but with 5,000 members in some 42 states and 28 countries. The 1965-66 issues of the journal of this group use the "interplanetary." 

He was also founder and director of the International Unidentified Flying Object Bureau (IUFOB). He also headed up The International Association for Investigation of the Unexplained (IAIU) which may have developed around 1966, The Sasquatch Investigations of Mid-America, (SIMA) since 1976. He later served as Vice president for the New Age Center for Psychic Research, (NACPR) 1968-1978 and the Institute of Parenting Stress Index, (IPSI), 1975-1977.

His writings on the subject of UFO include his well-respected publication, Interplanetary Intelligence Report, the official publication of the IIUFO.  His “The Truth About Flying Saucers”, Interplanetary intelligence Report, September 1965 (1:3) is a sought after but rare text.  With well-known author Brad Stiger he wrote Inside Heaven’s Gate: The UFO Cult Leaders Tell Their Story (1997) and the UFO Missionaries Extraordinary (1976), and his articles appeared in the Official UFO Magazine (December 1966) and many other publications.

He attended the University of Oklahoma and explored there aeronautical engineering. He returned to the campus in the early 1970's as a guest presenter and speaker on the subject of UFO's. In the early seventies he visualized a UFO Conference in Oklahoma City to which research stars came to shine. The guest speakers and panelists included eyewitnesses, local researchers and notables that included nuclear physicist Stanton T. Friedman. 

Nuclear Physicist-Lecturer Stanton T. Friedman received his BSc. and MSc. Degrees in physics from the University of Chicago in 1955 and 1956. He was employed for 14 years as a nuclear physicist by such companies as GE, GM, Westinghouse, TRW Systems, Aerojet General Nucleonics, and McDonnell Douglas working in such highly advanced, classified, eventually cancelled programs as nuclear aircraft, fission and fusion rockets, and various compact nuclear powerplants for space and terrestrial applications. Guest speakers of both substance and qualifications added to these events. 

An active and inquiring mind, he was constantly finding new ways to explore new and old issues, facing a multitude of challenging tasks and questions with fervor.

In addition, Hewes served as advisor to several Roger Hight Productions, (1976-1978, 20-20 segment, 1974). Talent coordinator Real People, (1975), That's Incredible, (1976), Unsolved Mysteries, (1992) and served as a Co-host to a television series on Station KAUT-43, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In addition, Hewes has been listed as a noteworthy Research association administrator by Marquis Who's Who and had memberships in the Authors Guild and the Authors League of America.

No work attempting to discuss unidentified flying objects in Oklahoma could ignore the contributions of this unique individual. His drive, vision, flexibility of imagination, courage, and commitment to discovering and applying scientific processes to the study of the unknown are significant and should be lauded.

---- compiled by Marilyn A. Hudson

Note: Obituary : Hayden Cooper Hewes - Oklahoma City Cremation  .Photo of Hewes alone is credited to the following sources, and used here under fair use for educational purposes, Wood, Tony. [Photograph 2012.201.B0258.0175], photograph, July 24, 1965;  (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc371448/: accessed December 14, 2021), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society. https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc371448/m1/1/med_res/

The IUFOB: The first (?) UFO organization in Oklahoma

The brain child of the inquiring young mind of Heydon Hewes,  who first organized the group in 1957 under another name soon became the International UFO Bureau organized in the mid 1960's. The IUFOB hosted a meeting in Oklahoma in February 1971 where one guest was Dr. Stanton T. Friedman. IUFOB was headquartered in Oklahoma City where Hewes lived.  Hewes was prominent in collecting and sharing UFO news and research. 

Balloon Launches and UFO's in 1952 - UPDATED

 The map shown here was part of a government report attempting to correlate balloon launches with sightings of "UFO's".   There are several things to note in the visual. Note the direction of movements of the balloons said to have been launched between July10, 11, 12, 22, 25 and Sept. 1, 1952. This time frame is very notable: the notorious weather inversion of Washington D.C. that conveniently occurred on two subsequent weekends falls between July 12 and 29, 1952.  Also notable was the July 2 Tremonton, Utah film of UFO's, a sighting by a HWY Patrol Officer SSE of Norman, OK of three disc's at about 8 p.m. July 5, 1952. A sighting by Canadian air crew in Korean airspace. A "visual" at Annapolis, Maryland that appears to contradict the weather inversion theory. Plus others ...

The 1961 Project Blue Book file that contained this map did not clearly associate the launches with specific sightings. A downside to the files is that once a report was labeled "solved" it disappeared from the files as if it had never existed. It did not matter if the label was accurate, either, as several of the files deemed natural phenomena, airplanes, balloons, that were known to be removed were duplicated in other sources and the first-hand testimonies and troubling 'do not fit the narrative' statements were still there to raise questions.  

Often the records have these highly technical looking bits of evidence used, apparently, to convince politicians, upper administration, etc., that science proved it all benign. The map, without a corresponding list of reports (in total), actually proves nothing. From day one, it has been acknowledged that some sightings referred to known and natural objects misidentified or not understood. That was the starting point and by continuing to hone in on those identifiables the data could, and was, slanted to present a false narrative. 

1952 Balloon Tracks Map (found in an October 1962 PBB file)

There are nine trails designated on this map.

January 8, 1 day

January 10, Southwest region, 2 days aloft and then lost

January 25, 1952 in the far Pacific NW, balloon aloft for 5 hrs. 

July 1, Canada, north of Idaho, 5 days 

July 10, El Paso area of Texas, east -west, 12 hours

July 11, off the coast of Georgia, north then west, 4 days

July 12, Wyoming to west, 10 days aloft

July 22, Michigan - Nebraska region, 2 days

Sept 1, Gulf Coast (TX, LA), 3 days

The maps lines appear to overlap and connect to other lines in odd ways the map does not clarify. The lack of directional information is also a problem. 

In numerous other sources a listing of events for 1952 can be constructed. 

Jan. 20 - Spokane, Washington, Two USAF personnel observed a large blue-white sphere of light going from the east to the west, high and very, very fast, flight was smooth and silent, left a blue tinged trail.

March - Missouri and Japan. A TWA flight from Chicago to Kansas City was over Kirkville, MO a silvery metallic object pacing them at about 1500 feet at 2:30 p.m. Pilots assumed balloon and changed course and flight movements to prove it was just a balloon. Object did not respond as a balloon. March 29, Pilot of a F-4 Thunderjet over Japan saw a small silvery metallic object that did not behave normally.

June 24 - Wonson, Korea. Pilots first thought the orange glowing round object was a meteor. Then they noted it did not respond to gravity but stayed level in flight. The crew of the B-29 watched amazed as the object slowed down, stopped, hovered. As it hovered the orange fireball turned green. It then reversed and shot off over the horizon.  That same day over Arizona another (or same?) object was reported with nearly the same descriptions of action and appearance. 

July 2 - The famous Tremonton films taken in Utah. These films had continued to puzzle experts since the first days they were being examined. Several objects were captured on a film at an outdoor ball game. Also caught in the film - and serving to provide great comparisons - were a couple of jets. Some early debunking shared only that section of the film and ignored the UFO's captured. 

July 10 - Miami, OK. Above a B.F. Goodrich rubber planet employees observed a round object with a central rim that rotated and had smoke escaping from it as they took a break at the plant. It then rose and zipped off leaving witnesses convinced they had seen proof that UFO's were real.

July 13 - Beginning in Indianapolis, Indiana and spreading out over several other cities, strange objects were traced on radar.

July 14 - Indiana. TWA pilots Nash and Fortenberry were flying out of Virginia when too observed a strange silvery object making odd and un-natural moves in their skies.

July 19, 29 - Washington D.C. and surrounding regions reports of both pilots and radar operators of unknown objects. From this will emerge a popular explanation for UFO's that the AF will use repeatedly. "Temperature Inversions" are a rare weather condition that can impact a specific area or region if temperature, moisture, and other factors all converge in the right manner. It can produce a condition similar to a mirage. In 1965, a temperature inversion was used to try and explain the vast sightings up and down the central United States. A temperature inversion was in place in localized areas but by 1965 the quality of local radar operators, weather forecasters, and others with applicable expertise had risen greatly from the level of public knowledge and awareness under Project Sign.  They quickly spot up to wag fingers at what were clearly grasping attempts to explain away the unexplainable.

July 24 - Sierra Nevada's (Calif to Nevada)

Sept. 13 - North Atlantic (air and sea)

Sept. 10 - Yorkshire, England. While meteor watching a silvery disc was seen by witnesses.

Sept 20-  U.S.S. Franklin D. Roosevelt, crew witnessed a silvery disc fly over the carrier.

Sept 21-24 - Sea (several US navy ships). One or more shiny spheres moving fast, chased and observed over a wide area by more than one crew. 

Dec. 6 - Gulf of Mexico (TX and LA coastline regions) Numerous blips on a onboard radar for a plane coming into the land of the Gulf near LA. Moving very fast they divided and group and regrouped. None could explain the mystery blips. Radar will be blamed for many "false positives" and even after the "corrections" are made in the coming years, the radar experts, will show time and again that their scopes captured something they could not define.

In my research into sightings in Oklahoma from 1947 to 1969, I found that most objects sighted made a North or south trajectory, a next group was NW.  That last group could be explained by the jet stream heading NW over the region. The straight north and straight south could - could - be explained in many cases as aircraft heading along an almost straight line from Texas SAC bases, to stops in Oklahoma and into Kansas and Nebraska. Not all sightings could be explained that way due to other factors in the reports (the object was stationary, broke apart with the parts flying off in opposite directions, and moving against prevailing winds). 

Tracking reports related the dates of these launchings might help to clarify some reported events that might remain in the file.