Incident · 4 July 1947 · Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington
Portland police and harbor patrol disk sightings
Also known as Portland 1947, Portland Fourth of July 1947, Oaks Park disks
In the early afternoon of 4 July 1947, after the Portland police received a score of calls about disks overhead, officers in at least two prowl cars, the harbor patrol and private citizens reported fast, flashing objects over the city, and sheriff's deputies across the river in Vancouver, Washington, saw a group of 20 to 30. Several of the police witnesses were World War II veterans and civilian pilots. That evening a United Air Lines crew reported disks near Boise.
The reports went into the Air Force's files. Its analyst found no astronomical explanation and offered no definite hypothesis, mentioning foil dropped during Independence Day celebrations only as an unlikely possibility. Names of witnesses are blacked out in the Blue Book copy; those above come from the newspaper report it preserves.
Sources: Project Blue Book case file (U.S. National Archives) · Oregon Journal, 5 July 1947
Facts and claims
- documented The Oregon Journal of 5 July 1947, preserved in the Blue Book file, reports that the alert went out over Portland police radio at 1:06 p.m. on 4 July; within seconds two prowl cars reported the objects. Patrolmen Walter Lissy and Robert Ellis, both World War II veterans and civilian pilots, saw three objects at great height and speed over Oaks Park, heard no engine noise and saw flashes; harbor patrolmen saw them going south at terrific speed, and in Vancouver, Washington, three sheriff's deputies saw 20 to 30 objects “like a flight of geese”. Source: Project Blue Book case file: Portland, Oregon, and the Northwest, July 1947 (incidents of 4 July)
- documented The analyst's evaluation in the file: “There is no astronomical explanation for this incident, nor for numerous others… which occurred in and near Portland on the Fourth of July, 1947”, with in common a round shape, speed, abrupt tactics and quick disappearance. He suggests, “only as a possibility”, aluminium foil dropped from a plane during Independence Day celebrations, “not to be regarded as a very likely explanation”. Source: Project Blue Book case file: Portland, Oregon, and the Northwest, July 1947 (incidents of 4 July)
Connected files
Documents
- Project Blue Book case file: Portland, Oregon, and the Northwest, July 1947 (incidents of 4 July) (documented in)
Events
- The 1947 flying disc wave (part of) — Portland police and harbor patrol reported disks on 4 July 1947
Programs
- Project Blue Book (investigated by) — The Blue Book file holds the reports and an analyst's evaluation
Mentioned in this file
- National Archives and Records Administration (Organization)