Oklahoma Journeys

Week of July 26, 2008

Tulsa UFO Picture August 2, 1965

It’s a story that’s out of this world this week on Oklahoma Journeys. UFO sightings in the United States and Oklahoma skyrocketed, so to speak, in the early 1950s peaking in the mid-70s. One of the most convincing photos of an extra-terrestrial craft came from a newspaper boy in Tulsa, and that’s the story on this week’s Oklahoma Journeys from the Oklahoma History Center.

From the Oklahoma History Center, this is Oklahoma Journeys. I’m Michael Dean.

From the time of first recorded history people from all over the world have observed strange objects in the sky. The notion of mysterious men from outer space is no stranger to Oklahoma’s citizens. Reports of UFOs across the state have been officially documented since 1924, but reports of sighting occurred much earlier in the state’s history. Historians, anthropologists, and others have noted that cultures undergoing severe levels of stress or fear will often experience higher than usual number of UFO sightings.

While not a proven phenomena, the cultural stress-UFO connection seems to correlate with Oklahoma’s history. Between 1920 and 1950 there were a total of three known UFO sightings in the state. After 1950, however, the number of sightings increased astronomically. It was at this time, oddly enough, that the state as well as the rest of the country perceived itself as a possible victim of the Red Menace. People within the state and country lived daily with the threat of nuclear war and possible global annihilation. The cold war was in high gear, and UFO sightings increased with the escalation in state, national and global fear and tension. Between 1950 and 1960 there were over twenty known UFO sightings in Oklahoma. Residents in Midwest City, Laverne, Edmond, Oklahoma City, Seminole, Bethany, Durant, Madill, Ada, Altus, and Stillwater all reported seeing objects in the sky. The number increased in the 1960s, and between 1960 and 1965 there were several dozen reports coming in from all corners of the state, including one report of a UFO almost colliding with a car in route to Ponca City.

It was in this week of 1965 on August 2nd that one of the most interesting UFO sightings in the history of Oklahoma occurred. It was on that date a fourteen-year old paperboy in Tulsa was able to take the second known photograph of a UFO in Oklahoma. The craft’s oval shape and tri-color design can clearly be seen in the photograph. According to eyewitnesses the craft slowly changed colors from three distinct hues to an overall shade of blue-green.The photograph was studied and analyzed by various UFO communities and NASA with no reports of a fake manipulation. The basic evaluation of the photograph indicates that it is indeed “a large object seen against the background of the sky.” The Tulsa photo was reprinted in Life Magazine and remains to this day one of the best-known photographs of an Unidentified Flying Object.

You can find your own UFO connection in the newspaper archives of the Research Center at the Oklahoma History Center. The research library is open from 9 am to 4:45 p.m. Monday thru Saturdays at the Oklahoma History Center, located on NE 23rd Street just east of the state capitol in Oklahoma City. Oklahoma Journeys is a production of the Oklahoma History Center, dedicated to the collection, preservation and sharing of our state’s past. I’m Michael Dean.