Within Oregon UFOs
Why Did Blue Book Leave Redmond Unidentified?
The 1959 Redmond case combined police testimony, aviation witnesses and reported radar contacts yet still remained officially unidentified.
On this page
- The police report and airport response
- Radar claims, rapid movement and proposed explanations
- What unidentified meant in Project Blue Book
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Introduction
On 24 September 1959, a Redmond police officer reported a brilliant object descending before dawn, stopping low over the ground and later moving towards the municipal airport. Federal Aviation Agency personnel then watched an unusual light through binoculars, aviation authorities alerted the Air Force, and interceptor aircraft searched central Oregon. A military radar station was also following a return in the wider area.
That combination of police testimony, trained aviation observers, radar activity and an armed-forces response makes Redmond one of Oregon’s most substantial official UFO cases. Yet it is not a cleanly documented radar-visual encounter in which every witness and instrument followed the same object. The Air Force eventually treated the visual observation and the radar return as separate events, proposed Venus and atmospheric refraction for the light, and attributed the radar contact to a fixed installation on a mountain. The surviving Project Blue Book record nevertheless carries an “unidentified” or insufficient-data outcome rather than a secure positive identification.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
The police report and airport response
Redmond police officer Robert Dickerson was on duty shortly before 5am when he saw what first resembled a falling star or an exceptionally bright landing light. Instead of continuing to the horizon, he said, it stopped abruptly. In a later interview conducted by atmospheric physicist James McDonald, Dickerson estimated that the light had halted perhaps 200 feet above the ground and no more than about a quarter of a mile away, illuminating juniper trees and the surrounding terrain. He described a bright, horizontally elongated glow rather than a clearly visible solid structure.[NICAP]nicap.orgoregon1…
Distance and height estimates made at night are notoriously uncertain, especially when a witness cannot see a known object beside the light. Even so, Dickerson’s account was more detailed than a fleeting report from an anonymous member of the public. He watched for several minutes, drove towards the object and then went to Roberts Field, now Redmond Municipal Airport, to ask whether aviation personnel had also seen anything unusual.
The airport log recorded Dickerson’s arrival at the flight-service station at 4:59am. Flight service specialist Laverne Wertz, who had reportedly completed a weather observation only minutes earlier without noticing anything abnormal, went outside with him. Wertz, Dickerson and possibly other airport personnel examined an oval or flattened light through binoculars. Accounts based on the station logs describe it as hovering east or north-east of the airport, making small apparent movements and producing irregular red, yellow and green extensions likened to tongues of flame.[NICAP]nicap.orgAviation Personnel See UFO At RedmondAviation Personnel See UFO At Redmond…
At 5:10am, the Redmond station contacted the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center. The report was passed into the air-defence system, and military aircraft were directed towards central Oregon. The surviving case reconstruction describes six F-102 interceptors, an F-89, a helicopter and a civilian Tri-Pacer eventually participating in searches or related operations. None obtained a confirmed visual or airborne-radar identification of the reported object. A later flight carrying a Geiger counter found no unusual radiation.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
The most dramatic moment in the airport account came as a fast aircraft approached the area. The Redmond log stated that the luminous object appeared to take on a mushroom-like shape, showed a long yellow and red glow beneath it, rose rapidly and disappeared through scattered cloud. Dickerson, who had left the airport and was driving east to obtain a closer view, separately recalled a sudden upward departure that briefly illuminated the cloud layer.[NICAP]nicap.orgAviation Personnel See UFO At RedmondAviation Personnel See UFO At Redmond…
These descriptions are the strongest part of the case, but they are not identical. Dickerson’s earliest close observation, the later airport observation and the reported ascent occurred from different positions and were partly reconstructed through logs, correspondence and an interview conducted seven years later. The exact duration is also disputed. Some retellings describe an observation lasting more than an hour, while NICAP, the civilian UFO organisation that challenged the Air Force’s conclusions, noted that the critical visual portion recorded in the FAA material may have lasted only about ten minutes.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
Were the radar and the light the same object?
The Redmond case is frequently summarised as a UFO that was simultaneously watched from the ground, tracked by radar and chased by fighters. The surviving record supports a more complicated interpretation.
The Seattle centre contacted the 827th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron near Keno, south of Klamath Falls, and was told that the military radar site had a target in the region. FAA log material later quoted by NICAP referred to a radar contact south of Redmond and included apparent altitude figures ranging as high as 52,000 or 54,000 feet. This created the impression that radar had confirmed the object’s rapid climb and subsequent movements.[NICAP]nicap.orgUFO ReportUFO Report…
The Air Force rejected that interpretation. Four senior radar controllers reportedly concluded that the return, designated track JB-129, was an echo from a “gap-filler” radar antenna situated on a mountain at roughly 8,010 feet. A gap-filler installation extended radar coverage into areas shielded by terrain. Under particular atmospheric conditions, signals associated with such a fixed structure could apparently appear on another radar display. The Air Force maintained that JB-129 did not move and had appeared under similar conditions before and after the Redmond event.[govweird.com]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
If that finding was correct, the radar return could not have been the manoeuvring light reported by the witnesses. The Air Force therefore divided Redmond into two coincident episodes: a visual sighting near the airport and an unrelated fixed radar echo.
That distinction substantially weakens the popular “confirmed on radar” version. There is no surviving pilot report establishing that an interceptor saw the light, locked on to it or was outmanoeuvred by it. The aircraft searches produced negative results, and the available Air Force summary says neither onboard radar nor visual observation confirmed the target.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
There are still reasons for caution about accepting the radar explanation as fully demonstrated. Contemporary FAA wording apparently associated the radar information with the reported UFO, and some quoted altitude entries are difficult to reconcile with a completely stationary mountain echo. More importantly, the detailed air-defence records that could have shown the original track’s plotted position and behaviour were no longer available when a fuller military review was assembled several months later. According to a historical reconstruction of the file, recorder logs and interception reports had been routinely destroyed after about three months.[NICAP]nicap.orgRadar-Visual at Redmond, ORRadar-Visual at Redmond, OR…
This leaves an evidential gap rather than a decisive radar mystery. The Air Force explanation is technically plausible and was attributed to controllers familiar with the equipment, but outsiders cannot now independently reconstruct JB-129 from the original scope recordings. Claims that radar proved extraordinary speed or altitude therefore go beyond what the surviving record can securely establish.
Could the witnesses have been watching Venus?
The visual explanation also changed as the case developed. An early Air Force response suggested that a balloon was probable, citing the object’s apparent persistence and the wind. NICAP challenged this by obtaining weather information that it said showed light south-easterly winds, inconsistent with the reported direction of travel, and by finding no local balloon release that matched the event. The balloon proposal was subsequently abandoned.[NICAP]nicap.orgRadar-Visual at Redmond, ORRadar-Visual at Redmond, OR…
The more durable official suggestion was that the witnesses saw Venus, possibly distorted by atmospheric refraction. The Blue Book record card referred to refraction involving Venus and the bright star Regulus, both close to or below the horizon at the relevant time. The case-file summary says Venus was exceptionally bright in the eastern sky and that unstable layers of air near the horizon might have made it seem to shimmer, change colour or move relative to terrestrial reference points.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
This is not an absurd explanation. Bright planets viewed near the horizon can appear reddish, elongated, unsteady or mobile, particularly through broken cloud or temperature layers. Apparent motion can also arise through the autokinetic effect, in which an isolated point of light seems to wander when there is no stable visual reference.
Venus does not, however, account neatly for every part of the testimony. Dickerson described an initial downward motion, an abrupt stop, illumination of nearby terrain and a later angled departure. Airport witnesses reported irregular coloured extensions and a rapid ascent through cloud. Dickerson also told McDonald that he and Wertz deliberately looked for Venus the following morning and found it in a different direction from where they believed the object had appeared.[NICAP]nicap.orgRadar-Visual at Redmond, ORRadar-Visual at Redmond, OR…
Those objections depend heavily on the accuracy of human estimates made in darkness and, in Dickerson’s case, recollections recorded years later. The claim that trees were illuminated is especially important but difficult to test: there are no photographs, instrument readings or independent measurements showing how bright the light was or how far away it stood. An object believed to be close can actually be a distant astronomical source, and once a witness interprets it as nearby, apparent movements and size estimates may become misleading.
A potentially useful independent check also failed to resolve the matter. Investigators hoped that an International Geophysical Year sky camera operating near Redmond might have photographed the phenomenon. Examination reportedly showed Venus, the Moon and clouds but nothing unusual. The camera was not necessarily sensitive enough to record every relevant light, so the negative result does not disprove the sighting; it simply provides no physical confirmation.[NICAP]nicap.orgoregon1…
Why did Blue Book leave Redmond unidentified?
The wording attached to Redmond has caused lasting confusion because several official descriptions coexist. The reproduced Blue Book file is catalogued as “unidentified”, while correspondence from 1960 described the finding as “insufficient data”. The record card also noted a possible astronomical explanation, and later Air Force material promoted refraction from Venus.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
These labels are not necessarily contradictory. Within Project Blue Book, “unidentified” did not mean that investigators had confirmed an advanced vehicle, still less an extraterrestrial craft. It meant that the available material had not supported a sufficiently definite identification under the project’s filing system. “Insufficient data” similarly indicated that no conclusive evaluation could be made. A suspected explanation could be recorded without being strong enough to close the file as positively identified.
The National Archives states that Blue Book collected 12,618 reports between 1947 and 1969, of which 701 remained unidentified. The Air Force’s final position was that none of those unidentified cases demonstrated a national-security threat, technology beyond contemporary scientific knowledge or extraterrestrial vehicles.[National Archives]archives.govNational Archives Project BLUE BOOKNational ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National Archives…
Redmond illustrates why an unresolved classification should not be treated as proof of an extraordinary craft. The file contained substantial paperwork and multiple official participants, but its most impressive evidence fractured under examination:
- the ground witnesses reported an unusual moving light, but produced no photograph or physical trace;
- the radar station followed a return, but military controllers identified it as a stationary installation echo;
- fighters were dispatched, but no pilot confirmed an interception;
- a radiation search was performed, but obtained a negative result;
- Venus was in a potentially relevant part of the sky, but the witness descriptions did not fit it comfortably enough to settle the matter.
The unresolved status therefore reflects a mismatch between evidence and explanation. There was enough information to show that a genuine report prompted a serious aviation and military response, but not enough reliable, mutually consistent data to establish what the witnesses saw.
What later reporting strengthened—and exaggerated
Later investigation strengthened the case in one important respect: it established that the response was real. Redmond was not merely a newspaper anecdote later inflated into an Air Force story. The surviving file contains dozens of pages of reports and correspondence, and the National Archives identifies Blue Book’s chronological case files as official Air Force records now open to research.[National Archives]archives.govNational Archives Project BLUE BOOKNational ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National Archives…
The documentation confirms a police report, FAA involvement, contact with the air-defence network, interceptor activity and continued official discussion. That makes Redmond considerably better sourced than most Oregon sighting stories.
At the same time, some later UFO literature embellished the episode. NICAP director Donald Keyhoe eventually described fighters nearly colliding with the object, encountering its turbulent wake and pursuing it under secret orders to capture the craft and any occupants. A later historical review noted that these dramatic claims did not appear in NICAP’s earliest accounts and were not supported by cited pilot reports.[NICAP]nicap.orgoregon1…
The Geiger-counter flight is a useful example of the difference between confirmation and interpretation. Official material supports that a civilian aircraft searched the area with radiation-detection equipment and found nothing. It does not show that the Air Force had detected nuclear propulsion or possessed evidence of an alien machine. What later writers presented as evidence of hidden military alarm may instead have been a precaution taken during an uncertain air-defence event.[govweird]govweird.comredmond or september 1959Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird…
The case’s place in Oregon UFO history
Redmond remains one of Oregon’s strongest official UFO cases, but “strongest” needs qualification. Its importance lies less in proof of an exotic object than in the unusually visible chain of response: a police witness went directly to aviation professionals, the report entered official communications channels, military radar personnel became involved, aircraft were dispatched and Project Blue Book generated an extensive file.
The best sceptical reading is that Venus or another bright astronomical source was misperceived under difficult pre-dawn conditions, while an unrelated radar echo triggered or complicated the military response. That explanation accounts for the Air Force’s decision to separate the visual and radar components, although it does not reproduce every reported movement or lighting effect.
The best case for continued uncertainty is that several witnesses familiar with aircraft watched the light through binoculars, described behaviour they considered unlike Venus and reported its apparent departure as aircraft approached. Because the original radar records, photographs and quantitative visual measurements are absent, neither interpretation can now be demonstrated conclusively.
Redmond was therefore unresolved in the practical Blue Book sense: not a confirmed extraordinary vehicle, but a report whose surviving evidence never aligned cleanly enough for a secure identification. That distinction—between an unexplained file and proof of an extraordinary event—is what gives the encounter its enduring value within Oregon’s UFO history.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: govweird.com
Title: redmond or september 1959
Link:https://www.govweird.com/topics/ufo/project-blue-book/redmond-or-september-1959
Source snippet
Project Blue Book: Redmond, Oregon, September 1959 · govweird...
Published: september 1959
2.
Source: archives.gov
Title: National Archives Project BLUE BOOK
Link:https://www.archives.gov/research/military/air-force/ufos
Source snippet
National ArchivesProject BLUE BOOK - Unidentified Flying Objects | National Archives...
3.
Source: nicap.org
Link:https://www.nicap.org/reports/oregon1.htm
Source snippet
oregon1...
4.
Source: nicap.org
Title: Aviation Personnel See UFO At Redmond
Link:https://www.nicap.org/reports/oregon4.htm
Source snippet
Aviation Personnel See UFO At Redmond...
5.
Source: nicap.org
Title: Radar-Visual at Redmond, OR
Link:https://www.nicap.org/reports/oregon3.htm
Source snippet
Radar-Visual at Redmond, OR...
6.
Source: nicap.org
Title: UFO Report
Link:https://www.nicap.org/590924redmond_dir.htm
Source snippet
UFO Report...
7.
Source: nicap.org
Link:https://www.nicap.org/chronos/1959fullrep.htm
8.
Source: nicap.org
Title: 590924redmond docs
Link:https://www.nicap.org/docs/590924redmond_docs.pdf
9.
Source: archives.gov
Title: project blue book 50th anniversary
Link:https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/project-blue-book-50th-anniversary
10.
Source: history.com
Title: ufo dogfight gorman us plane fargo
Link:https://www.history.com/articles/ufo-dogfight-gorman-us-plane-fargo
11.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Project Blue Book
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book
Source snippet
Project Blue BookProject Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) by the United Stat...
12.
Source: cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Link:https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/briefing-guide-12-07-12.pdf
Additional References
13.
Source: youtube.com
Title: James E. Mc Donald: The UFO Scientist Who Wouldn’t Back Down
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gwQqhSS4tk
Source snippet
Redmond Airport UFO 1959 Fighter jets scrambled to intercept UFO; police & other witnesses, radar confirmation, Redmond, 1959 Eyes On Cinema...
14.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fu6iunUYRrM
Source snippet
Police officer Robert Dickerson on witnessing a UFO in Redmond, Oregon, September 24, 1959...
Published: September 24, 1959
15.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: [Mc Minnville]({{ ‘mc-minnville/’ | relative_url }}) UFO photographs
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMinnville_UFO_photographs
Source snippet
McMinnville UFO photographsThe McMinnville UFO photographs were taken on a farm near McMinnville, Oregon, United States, in 1950. The...
16.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Dr. James E. Mc Donald
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzCQvC0cTKI
Source snippet
James E. McDonald: The UFO Scientist Who Wouldn’t Back Down...
Published: September 24, 1968
17.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Police officer Robert Dickerson on witnessing a UFO in Redmond, Oregon,
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtAkwo2GC3o
Source snippet
Police officer UFO Sighting, Redmond 1959...
Published: September 24, 1959
18.
Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy571Syq3HA
Source snippet
Dr. James E. McDonald September 24, 1968 lecture, UFOs: A Case Study in Public Mis-information...
Published: September 24, 1968
19.
Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/RedmondMuseum/posts/at-the-historical-society-we-like-to-live-on-the-edgeredmondmuseumorg/1562830079132211/
20.
Source: ufocasebook.com
Link:https://www.ufocasebook.com/mushroomufo.html
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Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/KGWTV8/videos/archive-1959-ufo-over-redmond-oregon/536107850298970/
22.
Source: gutenberg.org
Link:https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/17346/pg17346-images.html