Selman Graves and the Paradise Valley crash claim
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🗓️ Event
Contents 3
| Date | October 1947 |
|---|---|
| Topics | Crashes & retrievals (topic), Beings & bodies (topic), Military encounters (topic) |
| People | Selman Graves, Timothy Good, Frank Scully |
| Testimony | Shellenberger testimony, p. 39 |
| Year | 1947 in UFO history |
| Timeline | 1947 on the UAP Timeline |
| Sources | 5 |
Selman Graves and the Paradise Valley crash claim — Pilot Selman Graves says he saw a crashed craft and two humanoid bodies recovered in Paradise Valley, Arizona.
Selman Graves was a pilot who, according to British author Timothy Good, described seeing part of a crash recovery while rabbit hunting with friends north of Phoenix, Arizona, in October 1947. Good interviewed him in 1987 and included his account in his books. Graves said he saw a damaged disc-shaped craft and two small humanoid bodies being removed by military personnel near Paradise Valley.
The story is linked to a long-running local legend that a saucer crashed at the foot of Squaw Peak (now Piestewa Peak) and was buried under the Dreamy Draw Dam. The dam, however, was built for flood control in 1973, a quarter-century later. Paradise Valley also features in Frank Scully's 1950 bestseller Behind the Flying Saucers, which said a disc came down there in 1947. Scully's informants, Silas Newton and Leo GeBauer, were later exposed as confidence men, which damaged the credibility of the whole family of stories.
Graves's account rests on a single interview given 40 years after the fact, with no documents or named corroborating witnesses. UFO researcher Alejandro Rojas, interviewed by local TV, noted that the key witness behind the story had died before he could be questioned, and that the case relies heavily on anecdote. It remains an unverified claim.
People and topics
- Selman Graves — Pilot who told author Timothy Good he saw a crash recovery near Paradise Valley, Arizona, in October 1947.
- Timothy Good — British author of books on UFO secrecy including Above Top Secret and Need to Know.
- Crash retrieval — The alleged recovery of crashed non-human craft by governments.
- Frank Scully — Variety columnist whose 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers told of crashed saucers and dead aliens.
- Unidentified flying object — An object in the sky that can't be identified; the older term for UAP.
On the Timeline
- Hillenkoetter letter of 24 September 1947 (24 September 1947) — A letter attributed to the CIA director allegedly names Air Force and Navy intelligence units as leads on recovered objects.
- Mexican mystery missile (1947) (October 1947) — An unknown missile allegedly crashes in Mexico and the State Department is said to seek the wreckage.
See every 1947 event on the UAP Timeline →
References
- Alleged UFO crash site at Dreamy Draw — Phoenix New Times · phoenixnewtimes.com · archived copy
- Did a UFO crash in the Valley? — FOX 10 Phoenix · fox10phoenix.com · archived copy
- Newsday, 6 July 1997 (on crash claims) — Patrick Gross · ufology.patrickgross.org · archived copy
- 10 claims of recovered extraterrestrial craft — Listverse · listverse.com · archived copy
- archive.org · archive.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 29 October 2026. Articles are written in our own words from the sources listed under References; disputed claims are attributed to the people who made them.
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