Seattle and Washington as a whole have always been a little bit wacky. But did you know that in 1947 the modern phenomenon of UFOs was born right here in our state? Maybe Fremont really does have a reason to call itself the center of the universe…

On June 24th, 1947 pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted something unusual. He saw nine shiny objects gliding over the crests of the Cascades. The way he described them was “like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water.” Of course, people were enthralled and the news of Arnold’s sighting drew national attention, sparking tons of flying saucer sightings.

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Only two weeks later, the Seattle PI published the first known photo of a UFO, which was taken as the object hovered over Lake City. To make things weirder, on July 9th the U.S. Army stated and retracted news that it had found the wreckage of a crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico. See where all that Area 51 hype came from?

But that’s actually not where Washington’s involvement stops. Because after all the hype, two Tacoma loggers approached Amazing Stories magazine with their very own story of a “giant flying donut”. They supposedly watched it explode over Maury Island on June 21st, 1947. To go the extra mile they claimed to have slag-like fragments to prove it, but of course, a “man in a black suit” showed up and spoiled their photos. Do we have Washington to thank for Men In Black too?

The logger’s statement freaked out the army who sent in two investigators, they conveniently died in a plane crash while returning to base. And that folks, is how basically every single modern alien and UFO conspiracy has started. Washington is really out here doing the most.

Curiocity Staff

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