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The Maury Island incident refers to claims made by
Fred Crisman Fred Lee Crisman (July 22, 1919 – December 10, 1975) was a fighter pilot and later educator from Tacoma, Washington known for claims of paranormal events and ties to 20th century conspiracies. In 1946, Crisman claimed to have battled with non- ...
and Harold Dahl of falling debris and threats by
men in black In popular culture and UFO conspiracy theories, men in black (MIB) are purported men dressed in black suits who claim to be quasi-government agents, who harass, threaten, or sometimes even assassinate unidentified flying object (UFO) witnesses t ...
following sightings of
unidentified flying object An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
s in the sky over
Maury Island Maury Island is a tied island in Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is connected to Vashon Island by an isthmus built by local homeowners in 1913. Before construction of the isthmus, the island was connected to Vashon only during l ...
in Puget Sound. The pair would later claim the events had occurred on June 21, 1947.


Background

On June 24, 1947, private pilot
Kenneth Arnold Kenneth Albert Arnold (March 29, 1915 – January 16, 1984) was an American aviator, businessman, and politician. He is best known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported modern unidentified flying object sighting in ...
claimed that he saw a string of nine, shiny
unidentified flying objects An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are id ...
flying past
Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...
at speeds that Arnold estimated at a minimum of 1,200 miles an hour (1,932 km/hr). Arnold's report garnered nationwide news coverage and his description of the objects also led to the press quickly coining the terms ''
flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...
'' and ''flying disc'' as popular descriptive terms for UFOs. Ten days later, Capt. E.J. Smith, his co-pilot, and a stewardess reported witnessesing unidentified objects in the Pacific Northwest. After his story was publicized, Arnold was contacted by
Raymond A. Palmer Raymond Arthur Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American author and editor, best known as editor of ''Amazing Stories'' from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit '' Fate Magazine'', and eve ...
, editor of fringe/sci-fi magazine ''
Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...
''. Palmer relayed to Arnold the story of two harbor patrolmen in Tacoma who reportedly possessed fragments of a "flying saucer".Arnold "The Coming of the Saucers" (1952) Palmer requested that Arnold fly to Tacoma to investigate, and on July 28, Palmer wired $200 to Arnold to fund the investigation.


Initial story

On July 29, Arnold interviewed Harold Dahl, who reported:
"On June 21, 1947 in the afternoon about two o'clock, I was patrolling the east bay of Maury Island ..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 "
Dahl further claimed that one of the objects "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 weight metal, fluttered to earth". Dahl reported that a substance resembling lava rocks fell onto their boat, breaking a worker's arm and killing a dog. Dahl said his superior officer, Fred Crisman, investigated. Dahl also claimed he was later approached by a man in a dark suit and told not to talk about the incident. Crisman, when interviewed, reported having recovered debris from Maury Island and having witnessed an unusual craft.


Further investigation

Arnold first recruited Captain E.J. Smith of
United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. (commonly referred to as United), is a major American airline headquartered at the Willis Tower in Chicago, Illinois.
, who had reported witnessing a flying disc on July 4. Crisman showed "white metal" debris to Arnold and Smith, who interpreted it as mundane and inconsistent with Dahl's description. Arnold then decided to contact Lt. Frank Brown of Military Intelligence,
Fourth Air Force The Fourth Air Force (4 AF) is a numbered air force of the Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC). It is headquartered at March Air Reserve Base, California. 4 AF directs the activities and supervises the training of more than 30,000 Air Force Reser ...
, Hamilton Field, California. Brown arrived at Arnold's hotel in Tacoma along with Captain William L. Davidson. Davidson and Brown conducted interviews, collected fragments, and prepared for the return flight out of McChord. In the early hours of August 1, the two officers died when the
B-25 The North American B-25 Mitchell is an American medium bomber that was introduced in 1941 and named in honor of Major General William "Billy" Mitchell, a pioneer of U.S. military aviation. Used by many Allied air forces, the B-25 served in e ...
Bomber they were piloting crashed outside of
Kelso, Washington Kelso is a city in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Washington and is the county seat of Cowlitz County. At the 2020 census, the population was 12,720. Kelso is part of the Longview, Washington Metropolitan statistical area, which h ...
on their way back to California. The
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
then proceeded to investigate this case, and concluded that Crisman and Dahl's sightings were a hoax. In their files, they noted that Dahl stated that "if questioned by the authorities he was going to say it was a hoax because he did not want any further trouble over the matter." The files also detail a few alternate stories communicated by Crisman and Dahl to local newspapers and other media outlets, and conclude that they had contacted a variety of publications "in the hope of building up their story through publicity to a point where they could make a profitable deal with ''Fantasy Magazine'',
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
,
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
." An FBI report concluded that the "Tacoma Harbor Patrol" was the name of a privately owned for-profit business enterprise seeking to charge owners of vacation homes on the island for keeping an eye out on their properties during the owner's absence.


Legacy

Writing in 1956, Air Force officer
Edward J. Ruppelt Edward James Ruppelt (July 17, 1923 – September 15, 1960) was a United States Air Force officer probably best known for his involvement in Project Blue Book, a formal governmental study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs). He is generally ...
concluded "The whole Maury Island Mystery was a hoax. The first, possibly the second-best, and the dirtiest hoax in the UFO history." Ruppelt observed:
The majority of the writers of saucer lore have played this sighting to the hilt, pointing out as their main premise the fact that the story must be true because the government never openly exposed or prosecuted either of the two hoaxers. This is a logical premise, but a false one. The reason for the thorough investigation of the Maury Island Hoax was that the government had thought seriously of prosecuting the men. At the last minute it was decided, after talking to the two men, that the hoax was a harmless joke that had mushroomed, and that the loss of two lives and a B-25 could not be directly blamed on the two men.
According to skeptical writer
Joe Nickell Joe Nickell (born December 1, 1944) is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell is senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and writes regularly for their journal, ''Skeptical Inquirer''. He is als ...
, publisher Raymond A. Palmer, who is often credited with inventing the concept of the UFO, hired a "credulous" Kenneth Arnold to investigate "what is now known as the Maury Island Hoax". The story was later retold in
Gray Barker Gray Barker (May 2, 1925 – December 6, 1984) was an American writer best known for his books about UFOs and other paranormal phenomena. His 1956 book ''They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers'' introduced the notion of the Men in Black to UFOLOG ...
's 1956 book ''
They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers ''They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers'' is a 1956 book by paranormal author Gray Barker. It was the first book to allege that "Men in Black" were covering up the existence of flying saucers. Background In the summer of 1947, pilot Kenneth ...
'', which helped to popularize the image of "Men In Black" in mainstream culture. An account also appeared in the debunked
Majestic 12 Majestic 12, also known as MJ-12 for short, is a purported organization that appears in UFO conspiracy theories. The organization is claimed to be the code name of an alleged secret committee of scientists, military leaders, and government officia ...
documents, which claim that the metal fragments were part of a nuclear reactor and that they were subsequently turned over to the CIA. Craig Glenday also cited the Maury Island Incident, along with the Arnold sightings, in his 1999 book ''The UFO Investigator's Handbook'' as a notable UFO incident surrounding Mount Rainier, which he described as a "UFO laborator " Dahl's story was told in the 2014 short film ''The Maury Island Incident.'' In 2017, the
Washington State Senate The Washington State Senate is the upper house of the Washington State Legislature. The body consists of 49 members, each representing a district with a population of nearly 160,000. The State Senate meets at the Legislative Building in Olympi ...
passed a resolution acknowledging the 70th anniversary of the incident.


See also

*
Kenneth Arnold Kenneth Albert Arnold (March 29, 1915 – January 16, 1984) was an American aviator, businessman, and politician. He is best known for making what is generally considered the first widely reported modern unidentified flying object sighting in ...
*
Raymond A. Palmer Raymond Arthur Palmer (August 1, 1910 – August 15, 1977) was an American author and editor, best known as editor of ''Amazing Stories'' from 1938 through 1949, when he left publisher Ziff-Davis to publish and edit '' Fate Magazine'', and eve ...
*
List of UFO sightings This is a partial list by date of sightings of alleged unidentified flying objects (UFOs), including reports of close encounters and alien abductions. Second millennium BCE Classical antiquity 8th century 16th–17th centuries 19th c ...
*
List of UFO-related hoaxes Many hoaxes related to the study of unidentified flying objects have been perpetrated. Airship hoaxes * For April Fool's Day 1897, two practical jokers in Omaha, Nebraska set aloft a helium balloon with a burning wicker basket suspended beneath i ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maury Island Incident 1947 hoaxes Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1947 June 1947 events in the United States UFO sightings in the United States Hoaxes in the United States 1947 in Washington (state) UFO hoaxes * 1947 flying disc craze