Captured Flying Saucers: Saybrook, IL, July 26, 1947

In Captured Flying Saucers: July 7, 1947, The Disk that Slipped by the FBI, we looked at how J. Edgar Hoover was upset that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was cut out of a UFO investigation. Along with previous disappointments dealing with the military, that caused the FBI to want nothing to do with flying saucers. Later the same month, the policy, if not the attitude, changed.

(Document on the FBI site: BUREAU BULLETIN No. 42)

The Bureau, at the request of the Army Air Forces Intelligence, has agreed to cooperate in the investigation of flying discs...

7-30-47
BUREAU BULLETIN No. 42
Series 1947

You should investigate each instance which is brought to your attention of a sighting of a flying disc in order to ascertain whether or not it is a bona fide sighting, an imaginary one or a prank. You should also bear in mind that individuals might report seeing flying discs for various reasons. It is conceivable that an individual might be desirous of seeking personal publicity, causing hysteria, or playing a prank.

The Bureau should be notified immediately by teletype of all reported sightings and the results of your inquiries. In instances where the report appears to have merit, the teletype should be followed by a letter to the Bureau containing in detail the results of your inquiries. The Army Air Forces have assured the Bureau complete cooperating in these matters and in any instances where they fail to make information available to you or make the recovered discs available for your examination, it should promptly be brought to the attention of the Bureau.

Any information you develop in connection with these discs should be promptly brought to the attention of the Army through your usual liaison channels.

They also noted that there was the potential for UFO hoaxes to be used to breed fear:

"The Army Air Forces Intelligence has also indicated some concern that the reported sightings might have been made by subversive individuals for the purpose of creating a mass hysteria."

The Springfield FBI Memo

One of the USA's greatest concerns about flying saucers were that they were a new weapon of some sort by the Soviet Union, therefore, investigating UFOs was a matter of national security. As a result, saucer sightings were taken seriously, and many FBI agents' reports were written in grave tones, though few cases were of genuine importance.

Shortly after the FBI saucer directive, a report came in from Illinois. Someone had recovered a small disc. The memorandum to headquarters for FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover:

TO: Director, FBI DATE: August 20, 1947

FROM: SAC, Springfield

SUBJECT: FLYING DISC 

Reference is made to Bureau Bulletin No. 42, Series 1947, dated 

July 30, 1947 re the above. 

For the Bureau's information a Mrs. xxxxxxxxxxxxx of Saybrook,  

Illinois reported to this office the finding of a flying disc 

in her front yard at 6:00 A.M. on July 26, 1947. 

It appears from investigation conducted by an Agent of this 

office that the stability of xxxxxxxxxxxxx is questionable. How- 

ever the alleged flying disc was obtained and it is apparently 

the concoction of some of the juveniles in the area. It is an

old wooden platter, which has assembled on it a silver plate, a 

spark plug, a timer, and some old brass tubing. Photographs 

were taken of the same and there are six views enclosed herewith. 

No doubt this was someone's idea of a prank. 

The disc is presently being retained by the Springfield Office and 

will be retained pending receipt of Bureau advice relative to its

destruction. The thought in retaining it was that perhaps the 

Bureau might desire to have it transmitted to Washington for any 

novel value it might have. 

JBP:hg 

62-0-1445 

Enc. (6) 

To view the FBI file on this case: 62-0-1445: Saybrook, Illinois, July 26, 1947

On Sept. 5, 1947, FBI headquarters replied: Nah, if the military doesn't want it, get rid of it.

The FBI site has a page on their site about the “Unusual Phenomena” files collection, “The FBI and UFOs: Flying Flapjacks, Saucers, and Saw Blades.” It featured a brief recap of the Saybrook saucer case and displayed two clear pictures of it:

The FBI and UFOs: Flying Flapjacks, Saucers, and Saw Blades

The FBI report failed to mention that the flying disc carried the brand of its purported country of origin: Russia. With the "timer, and some old brass tubing," it looked a bit like a bomb. Had the "Russia" label been published in the media, it might have led to just the kind of mass hysteria the authorities feared, hoax or not.

The Saybrook citizen's report seems to have gone directly to the local FBI, and was not covered by the newspapers like so many other flying saucers stories around the same time. Since the FBI's investigation was conclusive, nothing was passed on to the Air Force, therefore this incident is not found in the files of Project Blue Book. In a sense, the case is unsolved. Once the FBI decided it was just a prank by some kids, they were done with it. We'll never know who made the phony soviet saucer or just why.

The FBI was only in the UFO business for a short while. According to their site, a July 1950 FBI statement said that “the jurisdiction and responsibility for investigating flying saucers have been assumed by the United States Air Force... the FBI does not attempt to investigate these reports..."
There were a few exceptions though, but those generally were focused on saucer swindlers, not actual reported UFO sightings.

There were many other early cases of hoaxed captured flying saucers, and the FBI was involved in several of them. See our previous STTF articles, including: Captured Flying Saucers: The North Hollywood Disc, July 10, 1947

FBI UFO Files, 1947: The Harbinger Letter

The FBI got into the UFO business in 1947, but they wanted nothing to do with it. In many cases, the FBI was stuck doing the legwork for low-level cases, chasing down rumors and hoaxes for the Air Force. They continued to do so up until 1950, but after that they were still occasionally involved mostly in investigating the people involved in UFO cases, most often Contactees or frauds - or both.

FBI files contain many documents on UFO- related cases, often without any context. We’ve written about two such cases before. The most famous FBI document is the Hottel Memo:
Scientist Predicts ET Contact / FBI Crashed UFO Document. Another stir was caused by "A Memorandum of Importance" dated July 8, 1947 which seemed to show the FBI knew quite a bit about the nature of the saucers and the aliens who flew them:

1946, Before Saucers, Kareeta: UFO Contact in California

The problem comes from the FBI material not clearly identifying the source, and worse, by failing to note the solution. We recently discovered another case that follows this pattern, but with a bit of research have matched it to newspaper reports to resolve the mystery.

A Strange Flying Saucer Letter

July 11, 1947, less than a month after Kenneth Arnold’s newsmaking saucer sighting, people across the USA were receiving strange letters suggesting that the UFOs could be “harbingers of a better day,” and that “one of these startling discs is on its way to you.”

Many of the people who received the letter wrote to their local newspaper, and at least one citizen forwarded a copy to the FBI to see what they could make of it.

The mysterious letter itself, postmarked New York City:

Have you seen one of the mysterious "Saucers?" 

What did it look like? 

Do you think these strange celestial manifestations are harbingers of a better day? 

Do you believe it means a new and revolutionary advance is coming? 

Will it make your life brighter, happier, more useful? 

We believe one of these startling discs is on its way to you. Then the secret will be out. 

(Signed) The Combined and Amalgamated Committee of Sky-scanners, Disc Decipherers and New-Product Introducers. 

FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover replied to the informant, but merely offered thanks, not an explanation, and no clarification is contained in the files.  

The original FBI files

The Silver Disc Appears

Below is a simulation of the follow-up to the mysterious letter, and the newspaper clippings that clarify the mystery.

The Decatur Herald, (Decatur, IL) July 18, 1947, The Call Leader, (Elwood, IN) July 16, 1947

It was an advertising stunt for Eversharp CA, perhaps the first major company to exploit the flying saucer craze. They were the biggest, but not the first. Many smaller local businesses had beat them to it by commercializing saucers to promote anything from radio stations to hamburger stands.

Here’s a look at the Eversharp CA, a pioneer in the ball point pen business. More on the company can be found in the article at Eversharp CA Ballpoint 1945-1947 at PenHero.com.

There are more FBI flying saucer cases, from the serious to the silly and we’ll continue to look at them here at STTF. We’ll also keep looking at other examples in the never-ending saga of saucer exploitation

What Stopped the First UFO Convention?

There was no Ufology as we know it in 1949. There were not yet any UFO non-fiction books, newsletters, clubs or organizations, and therefore, no saucer celebrities. Yet it was a pivotal year in UFO history, transforming flying saucers from a novelty newspaper topic into a legitimate scientific mystery. The flying saucer fever that began with Kenneth Arnold in 1947 nearly died out several times in the following two years, but sightings or manufactured publicity kept stoking the flames. On April 27, 1949, the second-biggest saucer story to hit newspaper headlines was generated by a press release. The U.S. military’s Office of Public Information published a 22-page statement from the Air Force, “a digest of preliminary studies made… on ‘Flying Saucers.’" It emphasized that while the majority of sightings reported were caused by misidentifying planes, stars, birds, balloons, etc., not all reports could be explained, “there are still question marks in the ‘Saucer Story.’" The press seized on it and quoted out of context that, “The ‘saucers’ are not a joke.”

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 27, 1949

That sets the stage for what happened a few months later in Alexandria, Louisiana

 

The Flying Saucer City

Alexandria sits in the center of the state of Louisiana, and in 1949, the city had a growing population of about 34,000. On July 5, two witnesses reported a flying saucer sighting, the city’s first of many.  

Mrs. Edward Wolf and her sister, Mrs. V. Dardeau, were sitting outside July 5 at 9:30 p.m. when they saw an object fly by, lower and somewhat slower than a plane would go. Mrs. Wolf told the Air Force investigator that she spotted a disc-like object the size of auto tire, gray with luminous amber center. She observed it for about 30 seconds as it flew or drifted like a balloon, then it was lost from sight by trees. 

The Town Talk, July 6, 1949

The second sighting was reported in The Town Talk, July 8, 1949.

Saucer Takes Peek at City

Five persons today reported another mysterious flying saucer took a peep at Alexandria at 9 o’clock last night. Mrs. G. S. Hart, who made the discovery, said she had no idea how big it was. She said she and four others watched it almost five minutes.

“At first, I thought it was a falling star,” she said. “It was all lit up. Then it stopped or changed course and drifted toward the east, then it moved toward the west and changed its course once more and disappeared in the east.”

Mrs. Hart, who lives at 1414 Military highway, Pineville, was visiting Mrs, S. E. Pool 1823 Warshauer street. They were sitting on the lawn with Mrs. Georgie Smith, 1822 Warshauer street, when the object first appeared. Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Hart’s niece, was the first to dub it a flying saucer and the other agreed. They went across the street and called Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Phillips, 1819 Warshauer street and they also saw the object.

“It grew brighter as it came down,” Mrs. Hart said, “Then it began drifting. I couldn’t give you any guess as to how high it was. No, we did not hear any noise.”

Mrs. Phillips confirmed the report. She said the most puzzling thing about it all was the fact the object disappeared behind the trees, then apparently made a 180-degeree turn and came back.

This sighting was also investigated, and a report was filed by Troy R. Sherman, S/A, of Barksdale AFB, 7/15/49.

The National I-Have-Seen-A Flying-Saucer Convention

At this time, Adras Paul LaBorde was 34, and wrote for the Alexandira newspaper. During World War II, LaBorde served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps, and wrote the 1944 book, Roger Wilco: ABC of Radio for Flyers. LaBorde started with The Town Talk in 1945 and wrote the column, "The Talk of the Town," also working as a reporter, and later the editor.

The Town Talk, March 17, 1958

LaBorde was president of Alexandria’s Young Men’s Business Club, which was formed in 1947 to “encourage the advancement of material prosperity and progress” of the city. The club hosted luncheons, talks, tours, and other civic-minded events, mostly with the underlying purpose of stimulating the town’s economy. LaBorde and many of the other YMBC members had served in the military during WW II, and they were comfortable cooperating with government officials and agencies.

The Town Talk, Nov. 11, 1949

From his newspaper job, Laborde saw the huge public excitement over the local flying saucer sighting reports. Almost on a lark, he was inspired to suggest idea of the YMBC holding a convention, a national conference for flying saucer witnesses. The story ran in the local papers, then it was picked up and spread nationwide. 

The Town Talk, July 8, 1949

A “deluge” of letters from interested parties started to arrive, from sincere witnesses, and also jokers and crackpots. The YMBC replied, inviting the witnesses to attend. Meanwhile, more people in Alexandria were reporting UFO sightings. Two separate reports, an hour apart: Mr. C. S. DuPree. Also, Miss Bobbie Owens (14) Witnesses eight & nine. 

The Town Talk, July 9, 1949

The Times (Shreveport LA) July 15, 1949, reported that, “Delegates are coming from New York, California, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Delaware, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Kansas and Louisiana.” It also reported that, “at least two government agencies will have official observers to hear stories and take notes.”

Alexandria has a smaller neighboring town, Pineville, which sits just across the Red River. The Pineville News, July 15, 1949, reported details of two recent saucer sightings in the area, and concluded, "It's becoming harder and harder to be skeptical about these mysterious discs." When the Air Force investigated, three newspaper employees confessed to concocting the story “purely as fun.”

On July 17, Mrs. Andrew Rino, her husband, and two neighbors reported seeing a stationary object too bright to be a star, stationary for about ten minutes total before it disappeared.

The Town Talk, July 18, 1949

By late July, the YMBC the had organized a committee, with “Earl Bordelon chairman of the flying saucer witness conference.” The date was set for Saturday and Sunday Dec. 10-11, 1949, at the Hotel Bentley. 

The FBI, The Army and the Air Force were Watching

With all the media attention, the local interest from sightings, and especially the volume of mail received, the YMBC’s prospects of bringing witnesses together looked good. The CNS article of July 22, 1949, stated, "It may have been a big joke when it started, but it’s serious business now, this business of a convention for flying saucer witnesses." Government files show that the flying saucer convention was a matter of some concern.

YMBC officer A.M. D’Angelo invited FBI Special agent Walter E. Moehle to the convention and told him about their many letters from potential attendees. The info was forwarded to headquarters, and the FBI was concerned about potential fraud. The FBI document stated: “This information is being furnished the Bureau, as it is possible such an enterprise may cause people to falsify that they have seen flying discs or flying saucers. Such falsifications might be made so that they might attend such a convention or become official delegates thereto.”

FBI Memo, July 21, 1949

The FBI also got a tip from the Army. Someone from Military Intelligence in the G-2, Fourth Army alerted the FBI’s SAC of San Antionio, Texas, on July 15, 1949, that he’d seen a newspaper (AP) story on the YMBC’s convention plans. The information was forwarded to the FBI director.

FBI Memo, July 26, 1949

In mid-July, an investigators from Barksdale Air Force Base were in town interviewing local witnesses and preparing case reports. Apparently, one also talked to A.M. D’Angelo of the YMBC, who briefed him on the convention’s progress. The YMBC wanted to include officials and investigators from the U.S. government and planned to invite representatives from the FBI, the Air Force (Office of Special Investigations), the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Army, and investigators from Wright-Patterson AFB. A memo dated Aug. 9, 1949, from Major Edward R. Ford of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, revealed, “A representative of the 9^th OSI District will attend the convention.” The information was passed up to the brass, classified under “Subversive Activity.”

Air Force document, Aug. 9, 1949

The Air Force and FBI may have regarded the convention as trouble since it would spotlight witnesses as celebrities. To be included in the events and publicity, attention-seekers might make false flying saucer reports. A reservation was made for Lt. Col. John C. McClendon to attend. He was from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, Barksdale AFB.

As the convention date approached, more witnesses surfaced. The Town Talk reported that Abel E. Dauzat, Albert Vanderlick, and Albert Traver had each seen a flying saucer in late August. On Sept 2, 1949, Mrs. John M. Sherill saw a fiery UFO, and the report was investigated by the Air Force. Also, the same month about 40 miles away in Tullos, J. E. Smith, sr. and Emery Watson had a sighting. For the next few months, sightings intermittently continued in the area.

 The Associated Press and news agencies continued to report on the convention plans and that the YMBC had been “deluged with mail from most states and Great Britain.” They had replied, reportedly inviting 50 witnesses across the USA to attend. The convention got some additional free publicity via a series of advertisements from the American Bank of Carlsbad, Ohio.

Carlsbad Current Argus, Oct. 3, 1949

 

The Last Month before the Convention

In mid-November, the Associated Press reported the “Club officials said invitations have gone out to more than 50 persons in a dozen states who have reported they saw the mysterious flying objects.” However, the YMBC had only received one confirmed registration from out of state. It came from Mrs. Eliza Taylor of Valdosta, Georgia, whose sighting had been reported in The Atlanta Journal, July 15, 1949. Her case had also been investigatedby the Air Force. 

The Tuscaloosa News, Nov. 17, 1949 

Preston McGraw’s interview of  LaBorde was a widely published United Press article. Here’s how it appeared in The Daily Herald, (Provo, Utah) Nov. 18, 1949:

Flying Saucer Witnesses Hard to Find

Alexandria, La. Nov. 18 (UP) - A young businessman who wants to find out whether flying saucers are fact or mirage said today he is having a hard time getting 10 witnesses together for a convention. Adras Laborde got the idea of a ‘flying saucer witness’ enclave last Summer and began writing letters to people who say they saw the peculiar objects flitting across the sky. Laborde set December 10 for the meeting here and said he would hold the convention if he could get 10 people to come. So far he has only two reservations.

“My idea is to get as many witnesses as I can together, compare their stories and try to determine whether flying saucers are facts or mirages,” Laborde said. But the way things look now, he may have to postpone the meeting and work up more saucer enthusiasts.

Laborde said that he is getting a show of interest from air force intelligence. One of the reservations is from Lt. Col. John C. McClendon of the air force training command at Barksdale Field, La. The air force made McLendon’s reservation, Laborde said, “so it appears that G-2 (intelligence) is just as anxious as we are to find out what people are seeing.”

The other reservation came from Mrs. Eliza Taylor of Valdosta, Ga. Laborde said Mrs. Taylor just wrote and told him she would be glad to compare notes with other observers. Otherwise, Laborde said, the biggest response has been from middle-aged widows. They seem interested but don’t see how they can get here for the meeting. One widowed letter-writer said she would come if Laborde would pay her expenses. He said he couldn’t do that.

Most witnesses are serious, Laborde said. “They are convinced they saw mysterious flying objects and what they want to learn all they can about them. There is a chance that many of them will attend.” Two of the less serious witnesses who wrote that they could not come were Charles and Greta Carpenter of Wilmington, Ohio. But they did send Laborde good wishes, along with a paper plate equipped with wings which could be used to decorate the convention hall.

Laborde admitted that his interest is not entirely in flying saucers. He is president of the Young Men’s Business Club, here and secondarily, he said, he hopes to get publicity for the club. Just on the chance that 10 witnesses won’t appear, Laborde is also organizing a “witnesses club” which limits the expenditure to the price of a postage stamp for an application. So far he has received membership applications from 2 states and the United Kingdom.

Failure to Launch

The Town Talk, Dec. 1, 1949, carried news for the YMBC meeting: “President Adras LaBorde told the club that Life Magazine was interested in covering the proposed convention of flying saucer witnesses. But, he said, the convention may be postponed because of lack of advance reservations.”

The YMBC was co-sponsor of a big annual event for fisherman, the Garfish Rodeo held Aug. 8-14. We can only speculate, but it’s reasonable to think that planning and promoting the flying saucer convention wasn’t given their entire attention that summer. Their model for events was to invite people to show up, hosting gatherings like dinners, award ceremonies, competitions, and so on. There had never been a flying saucer convention before, so the YMBC didn’t have a model to follow. All they announced was that witnesses would exchange and compare stories. There was nothing said about any programming, speakers, presentations, entertainment or attractions. Guest were being asked to travel at their own expense for hundreds of miles south, then provide the program themselves. 

Maybe the plan for the convention was doomed from the start, anyway. They intended to be exclusive, inviting only witnesses and investigators, not the general public. That’s just not how show business is done. The convention was officially called off on Dec. 7, 1949. 

The Town Talk, Dec. 7, 1949

The next week, Alexandria’s Young Men’s Business Club hosted their annual banquet and for them, life went on without flying saucers.

The Town Talk, Dec. 19, 1949

Bad timing? Maybe in more ways than one. Scheduling the convention in December two weeks before Christmas was a poor choice to attract people with families. Maybe the YMBC was just too early. Just a few weeks later in December, True magazine published an explosive bestselling article that turned the UFO topic into an enduring enterprise, “The Flying Saucers are Real,” by Donald E. Keyhoe.

In 1949, the YMBC helped launch the ship, yet somehow missed the boat themselves.

Noah Clubb and the UFO Crash Retrieval Case

There’s a UFO crash retrieval case that’s been forgotten. In April 1949, newspapers reported that fragments from a flying saucer had been recovered, and were being examined by the Air Force. 

The story begins like another you may have heard, with a rancher finding some strange metal debris from the crash of an unidentified flying object. While riding on horseback in late April 1946, rancher Noah L. Clubb was in an open, rocky treeless terrain 6 miles south-southwest of Delta Colorado when he made a discovery, but it wasn’t made public until three years later. Clubb was 55 years old at the time, a respected citizen and family man, not prone to foolishness. After seeing the constant news coverage about flying saucers, he came forward with what he’d found, and dutifully reported it to the authorities. The story as disclosed in the United Press article from April 7, 1949: 

Flying Disc Segments Recovered in Colorado 

MONTROSE, Colo. (UP) Air force intelligence men have recovered two segments of what may have been one of the flying discs that caused widespread speculation during the summer of 1947, and have supposedly been seen during the last few days. One of the segments was in the possession of Noah L. Clubb of Montrose, until he was requested Tuesday to turn it over to the intelligence men. The intelligence men were reported to have spent two days scouring a mile square section of rugged country about 15 miles west of Delta, where a second and longer segment was reported found. Pieced together the segments evidently were part of a wheel-shaped instrument about four feet in diameter, the rim being of aluminum construction. It was slightly less than two inches across and one inch thick. On the inner edge of the wheel, at intervals of about three inches, were tube-like wicks about two inches long and of brass construction. Each wick, which witnesses said might have been fuel feeders, bore an even number.

 Another version from the Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 7, 1949.

It seems too close in time for it to be coincidence, but the same month, the FBI was also being questioned about the recovery of a flying saucer, one said to be made in Japan.

Believe It or Not!

Robert Ripley was the creator of the famous Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, then brought the franchise to radio, then as an NBC television show in March 1949. 

On April 13, 1949, Ripley sent a Western Union telegram to radio commentator Walter Winchell: 

“Have the only authentic Japanese flying saucer ever recovered in this country. … Would like very much to have you join me on the Believe it or Not television show next Tuesday April 19th NBC network 9:30 to 10:00 PM and give your comments on the flying disc and your exclusive knowledge…”

Winchell forwarded the telegram to the FBI with the handwritten note:

“To J. Edgar Hoover – True?” 

FBI files contain an Office Memorandum. Subject: Flying Discs. To: Mr. [Redacted], From: [Redacted] 26 May 49. An FBI agent consulted Colonel [Redacted] of USAF Office of Special Investigations (OSI) about a recovered saucer. For whatever reason, the results were negative:

“He advised he would check with the authorities at right field to determine if any information is available concerning the recovery of a Japanese flying saucer. Colonel [Redacted] has now advised that there is no information available in any arm of the Air Force to the effect that any flying saucers of any kind have been recovered in the United States.”

FBI “Unexplained Phenomenon” files pages 26 and 27 of, “UFO Part 6”
https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%206%20of%2016/view#document/p26
https://vault.fbi.gov/UFO/UFO%20Part%206%20of%2016/view#document/p27

Robert Ripley died weeks later of a heart attack at the age of 59, on May 27, 1949. We found no mention elsewhere of Ripley presenting a Japanese flying saucer anywhere, so apparently his plans did not come together. Read on to see how his claims may have been connected to the UFO parts discovered by Noah Clubb.

Back to the Saucer Debris Investigation

Like with the Roswell flying disc story, the mystery of Clubb’s saucer was solved in one day. 

Project Blue Book file: 4 April 1949, X Delta, Colorado 

From page 5 of the April 8, 1949, Phoenix, Arizona Republic:

Relic Is Identified As Jap War Gadget 

DENVER, Apr. 7 (AP) That "whazzit" found in Southwestern Colorado wasn't a forerunner of a new war. It was a relic of the old one part of a Japanese incendiary balloon. So said Maj. Lester J. Seibert of the Lowry Air Force Base office of special investigation Thursday. Noah Clubb found the curved, hollow piece of metal near Montrose Wednesday. Knobs protruded from the inside of what looked like a small portion of a wagon wheel.

As is often the case, the hype gets the newspaper front page, but the disappointing correction that follows gets lost deep inside. Far more people saw the initial story than the news it was solved.

Project Blue Book files state that the Air Force investigators recovered about half of the device and shipped them to Wright Field to be photographed and examined. The fragments were determined to be: “Definitely identified as ballast ring from a Japanese incendiary balloon.” 

Noah Clubb was named, but his discovery was discussed in “Something in the Sky,” for Daniel Lang's “A Reporter at Large” column for the Sept. 6, 1952, New Yorker Magazine. (Later collected in his 1954 book, The Man in the Thick Lead Suit.)

For a time in the spring of 1949, it looked as though a Colorado rancher had been harboring a piece of a flying saucer for three years. Back in April, 1946, the rancher, riding his horse on a high, rocky mesa, had come across a bit of tattered rigging attached to a steel ring. He took it back to his house, tossed it into a closet, and forgot about it. Then, belatedly reflecting on the wave of saucer sightings, he recalled the contraption in his closet. He showed it to two friends, one of whom, an omniscient type, stated definitely that it was part of a flying saucer. ‘I've seen too many saucers not to know one when I'm holding one in my own hand,'’ he said. The rancher forwarded his find to Wright Field, where it was identified as a remnant of one of the incendiary balloons the hopeful Japanese dispatched across the Pacific during the war in an effort to start forest fires.

The Pre-Saucer US Government Cover-Up

In 1944-5, over 9,000 incendiary balloons were launched from Japan’s island of Honshu. The balloons travelled at a high-altitude across the over the Pacific Ocean carried by the high-speed currents of the jet stream. Fu-go: The Curious History of Japan's Balloon Bomb Attack on America by Ross Coen provides more information. The balloons were fusen bakudan (balloon bombs), but the Japanese Imperial Army gave them the code name fu-go. 

“Measuring over 30 feet in diameter and filled with hydrogen… Each balloon carried four incendiary bombs and one thirty-pound high explosive bomb, all designed to drop in a timed sequence once the vehicle had completed its transoceanic voyage…” 

These balloon flights resemble later UFO events in a few ways. There was a government policy of secrecy, and it had two goals, prevent the Japanese military from getting valuable targeting information, and to avoid a public panic. Western Air Command held meetings with civilian pilots who were asked to report sightings to the military while remaining silent to the general public. Many confirmed sightings were reported, but there were also many false ones, the most common cause for which was the planet Venus. One report not made public at the time, was from a credible witness reported a relatively incredible thing. A woman in Selawik, Alaska claimed to have seen a balloon in the middle of the night from which “Little Men came down a ladder to the earth.” The local Alaska Territory Guard searched the area but found nothing.

Of the thousands of fu-gos launched, only about 300 were known to make it to North America, most in the U.S., some seen or discovered in Canada and Mexico. Most of them caused no harm, with one notable exception. On May 5, 1945, Bly, Oregon, minister Archie Mitchell, his pregnant wife Elsie, and five children from their Sunday school class were on a morning picnic. As Mitchell parked the car, the others found a strange balloon on the ground. The bomb it carried exploding and all six people were killed. The site of the tragedy is now marked by the Mitchell Monument to honor the only Americans killed by enemy action during World War II in the continental United States. 

Noah’s discovery has been forgotten for the most part by ufologists, but Rick Hilberg included a partial account of his story in “Saucer Fragments” in Flying Saucer Digest, Fall 1970.

As far as we can tell, Noah Clubb lived a full life thereafter away from the flying saucer business. He died on the morning of Nov. 15, 1970, at the age of 76.

. . .

Months after Noah Clubb's discovery, a few miles south of Baltimore, Maryland, the Air Force was called out to investigate the remains of  flying saucer discovered in a barn.

The OTHER Air Force Captured Flying Saucer Retraction