Springfield area UFO sightings as reported in historic county newspapers

MISSOURI — The following excerpts are pulled from Springfield-area newspapers during the mid-20th century, with some descriptions and allusions are unidentified flying objects (UFOs). This is the first installment in an ongoing series of historic glimpses at UFOs in the Ozarks.

Springfield Leader and Press

Jan. 24, 1967

They were first observed in the southwestern part of the state, around Joplin, and swept across to the southeastern corner, changing colors, shape and size, along with speed, during the course of their arc.

Sometimes seen as nothing more than a "glob of light," and at other times equipped with a tail and antenna, sometimes silent and sometimes making a "humming" sound, it was inevitable, according to the association theory, they would visit this part of the Ozarks. 

In their swift wake, they left conflicting theories, amusement, embarrassment, much skepticism and a little awe. 

"They" are flying saucers, unidentified flying objects, or maybe objects. 

According to the "suggestion" theory, one report of a UFO will bring on others, spreading the sightings like ripples from a disturbance on a placid pond. 

The rash of flying saucer reports is seen by another source as the cultural impact of television. … Numerous recent reports of UFOS in the Ozarks also has been credited to television, specifically a new program called “The Invaders.” ….

Sgt. Marvin Taylor, of the state patrol Troop D headquarters in Springfield, who reported seeing a “glob of light” Sunday night, is sorry he ever mentioned it, according to fellow officers.

They said he took home an “unidentified flying object” found suspended over his desk on wires, and “probably buried it in his backyard.”

“Sgt. Taylor said he was tired of hearing about flying saucers,” an officer said today.

“He’s sorry he reported it,” another said. 

“He said he wouldn’t report another one if it landed at his front door,” a third added.

Sgt. Taylor has been working nights and so missed the television program.

“Weather balloons,” Don McInnes said this morning. McInnes teaches astronomy at Southwest Missouri State College. 

“Stars close to the horizon change colors,” he said. 

Pinned down, the astronomer said he wouldn’t categorically say flying saucers don’t exist, but he has spent a lot of time observing the heavens and has never seen one. 

 The astronomy club students are always peering through telescopes, and they’ve never reported seeing a saucer either.

McInnes is home between semesters watching a new baby, his first child, and finds he has no time to look for UFOS. 

High on the list of things to do after sighting a flying saucer is to call a newspaper office.

A woman who called this morning wanted to know “what they’re doing about these flying saucers?” 

“I think they should be investigated or something before they do us more harm,” she said. 

“They’ve got a lot of people — particularly the old people — scared to death,” she added. 

Then, with her final sentence, the lady caller joined the vast majority of people in her reactions to possible flying saucers.

“Personally,” she said, “I don’t believe it till I see one.”

El Dorado Springs Sun

Oct. 30, 1952

An object described as a flying saucer was sighted last week by a man who lives four miles west of El Dorado Springs. Accompanied by his son, the man was driving toward El Dorado Springs when they sighted the object about two miles west of town, and they pulled over on the highway shoulder, stopped the car, and watched the strange aircraft.

Flying at a high altitude in a southeasterly direction the "thing" was of bright aluminum color and perfectly round, the man said. Requesting that his name not be used because of the belief he would be scoffed at, he is a reliable citizen and spent some time in aviation circles.

Springfield News-Leader 

Aug. 15, 1952

An old-fashioned type of flying saucer was investigated by the police yesterday. 

Officers called to check on a disturbance at a home in the 2200 block North Grant were told by a housewife that her 82-year-old husband attempted to choke her with a dish rag. 

She added that she struck her husband over t he head with a plate. 

Her husband told police he had previously been the target of his wife’s flying saucers and other dishes.

“I couldn’t get along with anybody if they just wouldn’t keep hitting me over the head with dishes,” he said plaintively.

Officers took no action after both agreed they could straighten the fuss out peacefully.

Springfield Leader and Press 

Jan. 29, 1950 

A “flying saucer” visited Springfield Friday afternoon, according to a 75-year-old man who claims he and his wife saw the disc whiz through the air. 

Jacob O. Cruts, of 1707 West Lombard, reported late yesterday that he and his wife, Arena, 65, were driving west on Van Buren at about 2 o’clock Friday when a gleaming round object attracted their attention. 

“My wife saw it first,” Cruts recalled. “She said, ‘Look, there’s one of them flying saucers everybody’s talking about.’”

Cruts looked up at the sky and saw the disc flying southwest straight ahead of them, he said. Both of them could see it plainly — “a blind man could have seen it — and watched its flight for about two or three minutes. It finally disappeared behind some trees, Cruts said. 

The couple went on to a store on Scenic Drive and never thought much more about the incident until yesterday afternoon when they learned that a Joplin woman had reported seeing a “saucer.”

“I thought maybe it was the same flying saucer that was seen over in Joplin,” he said. 

The disc was described by Cruts — who said his eyesight and that of his wife are both ‘very good’ — as a “round thing,” about as big as a “dishpan.”

It was a wingless object and “As bright as could be.” It traveled “pretty fast” and was about as high as an airplane usually flies, he recalled. No noise was heard by either of the couple, Cruts reported.

The Journal-Gazette (Howell County)

May 22, 1950

Flying saucers — three of them — were sighted near West Plains Friday by at least five different persons, scattered in different parts of the town.

First to report seeing the flying saucers were Mrs. Walter Svedarsky and her two sons, David and Dan. The Svedarskys live on a farm located on Highway A south of West Plains. 

The Svedarskys saw the saucers about 10:15 Friday morning just before the storm struck in this community. They stated the saucers flew about a quarter of a mile north of their home, and were flying very slow at an altitude of about 100 feet. 

The objects created no sound, and seemed to be about the size of dishpans, although the first saucer, which led the formation, was a little larger. The saucers seemed to be composed of many tiny discs about the size of silver dollars, each of which was also turning, creating a “bubbling” effect. 

Each of the saucers had a tail about 30 feet long trailing behind it in a whip-like action. The tails, too, were covered with the moving discs. The objects were silver all over, they said. They were moving in an easterly direction, coming from the west, and seemed to be going at an angle into the storm clouds which were approaching at the time. 

The objects were described as being too small for a human to operate. Mr. Svedarsky, in telling the story to a Journal-Gazette reporter, said that two other persons, located in different sections of West Plains, also stated that they had seen the flying saucers Friday morning, and each also mentioned the “tails” on the objects.

The Springfield News-Leader 

July 8, 1947 

A flying saucer was spotted over Springfield yesterday by three observers at the Rogers airport, a city policeman reported last night.

The officer, Frank Walker, who flies a plane in his spare time, said he took off from the Rogers airport yesterday morning, bound on a short pleasure cruise toward Ozark and back. 

Walker said his trip was uneventful, and he didn’t sight any of the shiny discs personally, but when he returned to the airport later three friends who had watched his takeoff told of seeing an object “Tailing” him for some distance.

“They said it was flat-shaped and tiny,” Walker said, “and that it appeared to have some sort of fins on it. The fellow who first saw it thought I was towing a target of some kind. Altogether, three persons saw it, I believe.”

Walker said the men told him the object appeared to be rolling over steadily. He said the observers reported that the discs followed him for some distance toward Republic, then broke away toward the northeast and vanished as Walker’s plane turned toward the southwest.