Twin Falls saucer hoax
From the UAP Encyclopedia, the open encyclopedia of UFO and UAP history · 🛸 Case
Contents 5
| Type | Case |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Twin Falls hoax |
The Twin Falls saucer hoax was a fake flying disc found in a yard in Twin Falls, Idaho, on the morning of 11 July 1947, at the height of the first American flying-saucer wave. The FBI and Army officers investigated it before four teenage boys admitted that they had built it as a prank.[1][2]
Background
Kenneth Arnold's sighting of 24 June 1947 set off a wave of disc reports across the United States. In early July the local Times-News reported a string of sightings around Twin Falls. They included eight to ten discs in a V formation reported by a forest ranger near Galena Summit, and 35 discs said to have been seen by a group of 60 picnickers on 5 July.[1] On 8 July the Army at Roswell, New Mexico, announced that it had recovered a "flying disc", which was explained the next day as a weather balloon.[1]
The disc
A neighbour of a Mrs Thompson reported hearing a thud at about 2:30 a.m. and in the morning found a disc about 30 inches (76 cm) across lying in her yard. Police took the object, and the matter was passed to the FBI and military intelligence.[1][2] Officers flew in from Fort Douglas in Utah, and photographs of the object were at first confiscated.[1] Press reports described the disc as having a Plexiglas dome on one side and a metal dome on the other. Inside were radio tubes, wires and a coil, and the sides were painted gold and silver.[1][2]
Confession
The FBI's special agent in charge, Guy Banister, reported that the object had been handed over to the Army. On 12 July it was reported across the country as a hoax. Four teenage boys confessed that they had built the disc over several days and planted it in the yard the previous evening.[1][2] Photographs were then released.[1]
Significance
A widely printed photograph of a bemused Army officer holding the homemade disc has been called the final blow to press coverage of the 1947 saucer craze, and newspaper reports fell off quickly afterwards.[1] Similar stories followed, including the Maury Island incident in Washington later that month and the 1949 crashed-saucer tale behind the Aztec hoax.[1] Banister was later named by Jim Garrison in his Kennedy assassination investigation. Some conspiracy writers have since linked the Twin Falls and Maury Island cases to both UFO and Kennedy theories.[1]
References
- Twin Falls saucer hoax — Wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org · archived copy
- "July 11, 1947: Twin Falls UFO Hoax", Museum of Hoaxes · hoaxes.org · archived copy
This page was last edited on 31 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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