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Published - Sunday, October 10, 2004
57 years later, BRF's flying saucer mystery revealed as hoax
By AUTUMN GROOMS
La Crosse Tribune
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — Nearly six decades later, Bob Huntley is still reluctant to talk about the extraterrestrial prank he pulled in 1947 on the people of Black River Falls.
He was just trying to create a little summertime excitement, he explained last week in a telephone interview from his home in Lexington, Va.
It wasn't supposed to turn into a federal case.
But when a remarkably realistic-looking flying saucer landed on a field on the day of a big game, that's just what it became.
The Civil Air Patrol flew in an inspector from Milwaukee.
The FBI showed up.
"That was when I really freaked out,'' said Huntley, 76, after initially declining to be interviewed by the La Crosse Tribune.
His cover was blown recently when a cohort sent a letter to the newspaper detailing the events of
See hoax, A-6
July 10, 1947.
"Of course it was a hoax, but its perpetrators have remained anonymous for some 57 years,'' wrote La Crosse attorney John McDonald. "I thought it best to clear up the mystery, to give credit where credit is due before those who created the saucer all pass into the great beyond from whence the saucer came.''
So though he'd rather let the whole ordeal fade into the oblivion of time, Huntley shared his recollections of the flying saucer story.
He was 17 at the time. He spent the early part of the month working after-hours at his grandfather's woodworking and sign-painting shop in Black River Falls.
The outside of the saucer was made of sign board, and the inside of balsa wood, with an engine made of old motor and engine parts, and a photo-electric bulb from an old motion picture player.
With help from three buddies — Bud Bowler and cousins John and Dan McDonald — Huntley "crash-landed" the saucer in a location that was sure to be noticed. The saucer measured 15.5 inches in diameter, 4 inches in height and weighed a pound and a half.
It was the late Sigurd Hanson, who was Black River Falls' city electrician, who discovered the saucer in the grass at the Jackson County fairgrounds as he, George Dickie and Aleck Gunderson installed lighting on the baseball diamond, according to an old edition of the Tribune.
The night before, Huntley and the group of young men had used shovels to dig up a landing strip for the saucer.
"We had to pick a place where we knew the disc would be found, and we knew there was a ballgame scheduled the next evening," Huntley said.
"Then it turned out Sig Hanson had to do some kind of work (at the park).
"He was a fine gentleman, and I am very sorry for whatever awkwardness I must have created," Huntley added. "A 17-year-old kid doesn't think on those terms."
While the town wondered about the flying saucer, rumors flourished. The Tribune published an Extra edition about the discovery on July 11, 1947, proclaiming, "Flying Saucer Found on Black River Grounds."
McDonald said it was "fear, in capital letters and put it in quotes," that led him to remain quiet about the incident for all these years.
Huntley agreed. "I had no desire to be arrested by the FBI or to be incarcerated by the army or anything."
McDonald said the idea to confess came about when he was cleaning his garage and came across some memorabilia. Among the items was a Sunday, July 13, 1997, edition of the Tribune with a headline that read, "BRF boasts own 50-year ‘mystery.'"
The story told how the saucer was a hoax that no one had owned up to. There was speculation as to who was behind the hoax, and names including Sig Hanson and his son, Jim, who was studying electrical engineering at UCLA and was home for the summer at the time of the flying saucer's discovery, were bantered about.
"I thought (Huntley) should really get credit for it," McDonald said last week.
The reason for the hoax?
"It was just a way to bring excitement into a small town," Huntley said. "I originally thought kids would find it the next day."
Huntley said the saucer was taken to the University of Minnesota, where it was flown in a wind tunnel and proved to have excellent aerodynamic characteristics.
But officials no doubt discovered quickly that it was not from outer space, Huntley said. "You're not going to find an RCA bulb in a spacecraft."
The balsa wood might have also been a clue.
"The last I heard," he said, "it ended up in an Army proving grounds someplace in Nebraska, maybe Omaha. That was the last I heard of it."
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2004/10/10/news/00lead.txt
Published - Sunday, October 10, 2004
Re: An Ill-fated Flight
By JOHN R. McDONALD
A letter to the La Crosse Tribune
Gentlemen:
Not many of your readers will remember the flying saucer that "landed" in Black River Falls early on the morning of July 10, 1947. However, I and a few other former residents of Black River Falls remember the incident as though it were yesterday as should your editors who published a Special Edition to mark the event and published a 50th anniversary article about the spaceship in its Sunday edition July 17, 1997.
Of course, it was a hoax but its perpetrators have remained anonymous some 57 years.
I thought it best to clear up the mystery, to give credit where credit is due before those who created the saucer all pass into the great beyond from whence the saucer came.
The idea for the saucer was conceived at an afternoon poker game in the home of my cousin, Dan McDonald, about July 5th or 6th, 1947. The group was comprised of Dan, Bob Huntley, Bud Bowler and myself. The idea for the saucer was really the "brain child" of Bob Huntley, but we all contributed to the overall plan. We figured that since many flying saucers had been sighted in and around the country in 1946 and 1947, there was no reason why Black River Falls shouldn't have one. We naturally assumed they were all hoaxes anyway and one more or less wouldn't hurt anyone.
The plan developed as follows:
1. The saucer was to be built in Bob Huntley's grandfather's carpenter shop in the basement of Bob Flagstad's Red and White in Black River.
2. We determined that since the city electricians were installing new lights on the baseball field at the county fair grounds, that should be the landing site. We felt that if the head city electrician, Sig Hanson, found the saucer, he would at least bring it downtown and claim it to be a fake. We thought that at best we would get local coverage in the Banner Journal, our local newspaper.
3. The landing site, of course, needed preparation. We determined that once the saucer "crash landed" it should skid to a stop in about fifty to seventy-five yards. The landing site had to be built at night after midnight when the ballpark would be dark, unoccupied and unpatrolled by local police.
4. When Bob and his grandfather, Ben Huntley, finished the saucer it was about 15 inches in diameter and 4 inches tall. It was later reported that the saucer was powered by a photo electric cell. However, that was not the case. While it had a photo cell, it also had flashlight batteries and an electric clock motor all connected together by carefully soldered electric wiring. It was constructed of cardboard and balsa wood painted with aluminum paint. It was beautiful, but hardly alien quality.
5. Since the saucer was supposed to crash land, we beat up a part of a leading edge to simulate damage incurred in the impact of the crash.
6. In the wee morning hours of July 10, 1947, we assembled, took the saucer to the fair grounds, dug up a landing strip with shovels and sank the damaged leading edge of the craft into the ground near one of the light poles on which the city electricians would be working within the next day or two.
The next day we assembled at Ben Huntley's shop to await the news of discovery. It was a long wait until mid-afternoon when the news broke in the local coffee shops. A flying saucer had been found. And what's more, Sig Hanson, the chief city electrician, proclaimed it to be authentic. (He later denied this.)
Within hours there was an explosion of events. The saucer was taken to the City Hall and put on public view at 25 cents per person. The U.S. Army was notified. Sig Hanson was heralded as a hero. His nephew, Jim Hanson, a college student majoring in electrical engineering at UCLA was home for the summer, and upon examining the saucer affirmed its authenticity. The saucer was locked in the Jackson County Bank vault for safekeeping until the army could arrive.
Needless to say, the inventors and perpetrators took an oath of secrecy and went underground scared to death.
The next day the Tribune published a Special Edition on the saucer. A day or two later the army flew in a plane load of officers, picked up the saucer, and it was never seen again.
When Bob, Dan, Bud and myself got together a day or two later we decided out of fear of reform school that it would be best to keep the saucer a secret. We also feared a lawsuit from Sig Hanson and his nephew, Jim, whose father, incidentally, was the circuit judge in Black River.
After several years, the Saturday Evening Post in an article on flying saucers noted that the Black River saucer was a hoax. And so it was! But it's the stuff from which wonderful memories are made.
Thanks Bob, Dan and Bud, it was great fun.
Sincerely,
JOHN R. McDONALD, S.C.
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2004/10/10/news/01letter.txt
