1957.11.02
One or more giant, glowing, egg-shaped UFOs seemed to be playing games with motorists on the outskirts of town. During a 2½-hour period, duty officer AJ Fowler, at the Levelland Police Department, would receive fifteen telephone calls, seven of which correlate remarkably well.
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
UFOs were seen within a radius of twenty miles (30 km) around Levelland, Canadian and Midland in Texas, and at Clovis, New Mexico, within a space of two and a half hours…
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
In three hours either side of midnight, up to twenty separate close encounters were reported to police from within a ten-mile radius of the town of Levelland, Texas. Witnesses included drivers of cars, fire fighters and two police patrols, who all described the same thing… Almost every vehicle involved lost all power – which mysteriously returned when the huge glowing egg had vanished. One frightened witness described how the object was pulsing in rhythm with his car headlights!
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
[The Levelland case] came as a series of independent events that occurred between 10.40 pm on 2 November and 1.30 early the following morning… As many as twenty sightings occurred within a ten-mile radius of the border town of Levelland…
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
Fifteen witnesses (including police) observed a large (200-foot), luminous object which blocked roads and interfered with auto ignition and electrical systems before departing. One of the most important electro-magnetic effects cases.
(temporaldoorway.com)
(All reports made to police:)…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
22.40
Possibly the most spectacular vehicle interference report is the multiple-witness case that occurred at Levelland, Texas, during the great UFO wave of 1957. Shortly before midnight on 2 November, Pedro Saucedo, who combined work as a farmhand with a career as a part-time barber, was driving with a friend [Joe Salaz] along Route 116, about four miles to the west of the town, when he saw a flash of light in a nearby field.
(Borderlands, Dash)
“I saw a big flame, to my right front… I thought it was lightning.” [Saucedo]
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
“(It) started towards us, picking up speed. When it got nearer the lights of my truck went out and the motor died. I jumped out and hit the deck as the thing passed directly over the truck with a great sound and rush of wind. It sounded like thunder and my truck rocked from the blast. I felt a lot of heat.” [Saucedo]
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
I called to Joe but he didn’t get out. [Saucedo]
(roswellbooks.com)
“It also had colors – yellow white – and it looked like a torpedo, about 200 feet long, moving about 600 – 800 miles an hour.” [Saucedo]
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
Then the object shot into the sky…
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
“As the UFO moved into the distance, the truck lights… came on by themselves… and [the] truck started easily.” (Saucedo)
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
In a semi-hysterical state the two men drove into the nearby town of Whiteface and called the sheriff’s office at Levelland.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
22.40c
At about the same time that Saucedo reported his sighting, four adults driving down a farm road several miles away saw a brilliant bolt of lightning in the sky; their car headlights and radio died for between one and three seconds.
(Borderlands, Dash)
22.55c
Officer Fowler did not know what to make of the report when Saucedo called in. Perhaps a drunk, the patrolman thought.
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
23.55c
Then, about one hour [after Saucedo’s call], Fowler received a second call, from another motorist, later identified as Jim Wheeler, who had just experienced something similar. Wheeler was driving on route 116, about four miles east of Levelland – ie the same general direction in which the UFO was headed when last seen by Saucedo…
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
[Wheeler] came upon a brilliantly lit, egg-shaped object, about 200 feet long, sitting in the middle of the road. As [he] approached it, his car engine failed, and the headlights went out… The object was lit up like a large neon light and cast a bright glare over the entire area.
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
Wheeler got out of his car to check it, saw an oval-shaped object, and got back in his car. As he described it to the Air Force, “the size of the object was that of a baseball at arm’s length.” He estimated the object was 75 to 100 feet (23 to 30 metres) at its longest dimension. “[It] was white in color, with a greenish tint, possibly caused by the tinted windshield of [the] car.” Wheeler continued to watch the UFO for four or five minutes. It then rose straight up into the sky and flew out of sight.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
At an altitude of about 200 feet, the object’s light… blinked out completely. [Wheeler] then had no trouble starting his car.
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
As the strange, glowing oval rose into the sky and blinked out, his headlights came back on.
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
1957.11.03
00.00
By midnight there had been several [calls to the police].
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
00.00c
The next call [after Wheeler’s] came from José Alvarez, who was driving on Route 51, about eleven miles north of town. It was the same story again: he saw a glowing, oval object sitting on the road in front of him…
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
As [Alvarez] approached it… his car engine stopped, and his headlights went out. But when the object left shortly thereafter, all was again well…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
00.05
The local police received [a similar report to those of Saucedo and Wheeler] from… Newell Wright, ten miles to the east…
(Borderlands, Dash)
At 12.05 am… a nineteen-year-old freshman from Texas Tech, driving roughly nine miles east of Levelland, found that his car engine began to sputter, the ammeter on the dash jumped to discharge then back to normal, and the motor started “cutting out like it was out of gas”. The car rolled to a stop; then the headlights dimmed, and several seconds later went out…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
Wright… had noticed how his ammeter jumped to “discharge”, as if suddenly overloaded, then fell back to normal, taking with it all the car’s power and lighting. Real, hard, scientific evidence about the [UFOs’] power source was being gathered at last.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
Closing the hood (after checking the engine)… he noticed… an oval-shaped object, flat on the bottom, sitting on the road ahead. He estimated it to be about 125 feet long, glowing with a bluish-green light… The object appeared to be made of an aluminium-like material, but no markings or other details were apparent… (He) tried frantically but in vain to restart the car… Resigned, he sat and watched the object… for several minutes… The UFO finally rose into the air “almost straight up” and disappeared “in a split instant”… The car was again fully operable.
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
00.15c
By this time, Fowler had notified Sheriff Weir Clem, who began searching the area for the object (or objects) to see for himself.
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
By now Sheriff Weir Clem had set off with two deputies to find the intruder…
As each case was radioed through, Sheriff Clem sped off to the location to try to find the UFO.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
00.15
At 12.15 Frank Williams, driving near Witharall, saw a yellow-red ball dead ahead and felt the power drain from his engine and lights. The object pulsated in rhythmic fashion… Williams’s car headlights faded in and out. Then there was a terrific roar and the object shot skyward. The car now worked perfectly once more.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
Frank Williams… encountered a similar object on route 51, close to where Alvarez had his experience… Williams said that the [object rose] into the air with a noise like thunder.
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
Some nine miles north of Levelland… [Williams found] the glowing object… sitting on a dirt road… When it reached an altitude of about 300 feet, its lights went off, and it disappeared… At this point the car lights came back on and the car was started with no difficulty…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
00.45
The time of the next sighting was 00.45. Truckdriver Ronald Martin [was] driving along route 116 just west of Levelland…
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
[Martin] spotted what looked like a big orange ball of fire at a distance of more than a mile. The ball then came closer and landed… on the highway about a quarter-mile in front of the observer…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
[Martin] saw his headlights go out and felt his engine die “when a big ball of fire dropped on the highway.” Martin noted that the object changed color from red-orange to blue-green as it landed…
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
The object sat on the road ahead of him, glowing bright enough to light up the cab of his truck. In about a minute… it made a vertical ascent (and the vehicle could operate normally again)… When the UFO landed, it changed from its original red-orange color to a bluish green, but… when it rose it changed back to red orange…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
01.15
The local police received [a similar report to those of Saucedo and Wheeler] from… James Long, some way to the north…
(Borderlands, Dash)
The seventh witness to call the Levelland Police Department with a detailed report was James Long, a truckdriver from Waco, Texas…
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
[Long’s] engine and headlights suddenly failed as he approached within 200 feet of a brilliant, glowing, egg-shaped object… It glowed intermittently, like a neon sign… about 200 feet long… As he got out of the truck, the UFO quickly shot straight up with a roar and streaked away… The truck engine and lights worked perfectly when the object left…
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
01.30
Between 1.15 and 1.30 am, two policeman, despatched to search for the object Saucedo had seen, separately reported strange lights in the sky. One of them also experienced engine problems.
(Borderlands, Dash)
At 1.30 am, driving along the Oklahoma Flat Road, [Sheriff Clem and Deputy Pat McCulloch]… spotted an oval-shaped light “looking like a brilliant red sunset across the highway” a good 300 – 400 yards south of their patrol car. “It lit up the whole pavement in front of us for about two seconds.”… [Two other officers] several miles behind… “saw a strange-looking flash, which looked to be down the roadway approximately a mile to a mile and a half. The flash went from east to west and appeared to be close to the ground…” (A constable saw the object briefly…)
(The UFO Experience, Hynek)
At about 1.30 am, Sheriff Weir Clem saw brilliant red oval lights flash across the road ahead of him.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
[Clem] failed, until at 1.30 he reached the spot where a few minutes before truck driver James Long had become the latest victim of the power-sucking UFO. Here Clem found a “brilliant red sunset” across the highway. He drove towards it but could not catch up, and the police car suffered no interference. The object just ahead of him creating the glow was “like a huge [American] football”, Clem reports, and shot away at great speed.
At the time Clem was in a convoy of three vehicles. Another police car with his deputies inside was behind him and saw the whole thing; they too suffered no ill effects. Ahead of Clem was fire marshal Ray James, whose truck suffered partial loss of power and lighting but quickly returned to normal as the object streaked away. These were to be the final encounters of the night…
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
[Click image to clarify and enlarge]
‘OBJECT’ ALARMS HOCKLEY AREA; SOLON ASKS PENTAGON FOR REPORT
Levelland ‘Flaming Thing’ Brings World Knocking At City’s Door
By BILL WICKERSON
Avalanche Staff Writer
LEVELLAND, Nov. 3 – While a curious world pounded at the door seeking information, Levelland residents today were pondering the strange, fiery “thing” seen by numerous people Saturday night as it flashed through the skies and landed on nearby highways.
By late today seven persons said they saw the object at close range, many others reported seeing it from a distance and reports still were coming in.
The object was described by most observers as being a 200-foot long, egg-shaped ball of fire that moved at great speed.
It was reportedly sighted during a 2½-hour period at points 4 to 10 miles from Levelland to the east, north and west.
Officer A. J. Fowler of the Levelland police department, who received most of the telephone reports, quickly alerted area officers when the first report was received at 10:50 p.m. Saturday.
Fowler called Lubbock police and Reese AFB was notified, in the belief that the low-flying object might have been an airplane in distress.
For an hour, the area was quiet as patrolmen searched for the “thing.” Meanwhile, RAFB reported none of its planes were in the air and CAA officials at Lubbock said they knew of no planes in the vicinity.
Then four reports were received in the next 90 minutes and by 1:30 a.m. today dozens of officers were combing Hockley County for a trace of the “fireball.”
Spotted By Officers
The last report sent officers to an area about 4 miles northwest of Levelland where several patrolmen spotted the object from a distance.
Hockley County Sheriff Weir Clem said he saw a streak of fire flash across the highway in front of his car as he was driving south toward Levelland.
Highway Patrolmen Lee Hargrove and Floyd Cavin of Littlefield, who also were driving south several miles behind Clem, said they saw the flash of fire.
Fowler said he questioned the units he sent out to the area, and each man reported seeing the object from a distance at least once.
The series of sightings literally “swamped” the Hockley sheriff’s office and the police station here with telephone calls today.
“All I’ve done all day is answer my telephone,” Clem said.
See FIERY THING Page 10
SHERIFF WEIR CLEM
Saw Streak Of Fire
PEDRO SAUCEDO
Truck Lights Went Out
RONALD MARTIN
Too Astounded To Move
After the local media reported the matter, the sheriff’s office received over a hundred calls from local residents who had seen the object during that three-hour spell.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
1957.11.05
Project Blue Book sent an investigator to the town three days later. He spoke with only two witnesses and quickly decided that because it had rained on the night after the events the UFO was sheet lightning exaggerated by hysteria.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
[The] investigator… spent less than one day in the area and hastily dismissed the sightings as “ball lightning”…
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
Sadly, had anyone even checked the weather records – as Dr James McDonald, atmospheric physicist at the University of Arizona, did – they would have found that there was no storm nor any possibility of lightning anywhere near Levelland that night. Indeed, the conditions were mild and “completely antithetical to conductive activity and lightning of any sort”.
Sheriff Clem says his investigation did what Blue Book failed to do and asked a local meteorologist about the lightning theory. The weatherman said it was ludicrous. Of course, in 1957 Blue Book were aiming to debunk: they just needed an answer to this case that could superficially fool the public, not one that had any proper scientific credibility.
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
Controversy still rages about the extent and the cause of the Levelland incidents. A US Air Force investigation suggested that only three witnesses – Saucedo and his friend, and Newell Wright – had seen a UFO. It concluded that the glowing object was probably ball lightning or St Elmo’s fire, and that the engine difficulties were coincidental and caused by wet circuits. Ufologists have countered by pointing to inaccuracies in the Air Force report and adding that neither natural phenomenon is known to behave in the strange way the witnesses describe.
(Borderlands, Dash)
Most witnesses reported streaks of light, which USAF investigators attributed to lightning.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
Lightning… avoids cars due to a physical law called the Faraday Cage effect…
(The Complete Book of UFOs, Hough and Randles)
No thunderstorm was in the area, but officially this case was passed off as “ball lightning” – a rare electrical phenomenon. Yet scientists researching this topic do not think ball lightning can appear so many times in different places – nor do they think it can attack cars or drain power as this UFO did.
(UFOs and How to See Them, Randles)
The Levelland account was only 60 words long. (The Air Intelligence information report was nineteen pages long.) There were none of the details in the original case files and none of the reasons behind the Air Force’s conclusions – just a flat statement as to the cause.
(UFO: The Government Files, Brookesmith)
J Allen Hynek, a scientific consultant to the Air Force at the time, agreed, and debunker Donald Menzel echoed this explanation in his book The World of Flying Saucers published in 1963. Hynek, however, has since had second thoughts on the matter, as expressed in his more recent book, The UFO Experience (1972). Hynek writes:
“Captain Gregory, then head of Blue Book, did call me by phone, but at that time, as the person directly responsible for the tracking of the new Russian satellite, I was on a virtual around-the-clock duty and was unable to give it any attention whatever. I am not proud today that I hastily concurred in Captain Gregory’s evaluation as ‘ball lightning’ on the basis of information that an electrical storm had been in progress in the Levelland area at the time. That was shown not to be the case. Observers reported overcast and mist but no lightning. Besides, had I given it any thought whatsoever, I would have soon recognized the absence of any evidence that ball lightning can stop cars and put out headlights.”
Nor is ball lightning known to have a preference for landing on dirt roads and paved highways, as these “objects” reportedly did.
We must also consider the enormous size (around 200 feet across) of most of the objects reported, a factor which, again, seems to rule out the phenomenon of ball lightning, which is not known to attain such gargantuan proportions.
(UFOs and the Limits of Science, Story)
At first [the ball lightning] theory was supported by Allen Hynek, who later said he was ashamed of doing so – adding that, had he made any investigation, he would have discovered that specialists in this field knew that car stoppages do not result from ball lightning, and that this phenomenon is always isolated and extreme, never repeating on a regular basis…
It is scandalous that the University of Colorado team completely ignored the Levelland events in their two-year study project of 1967 – 9.