The Maury Island Fragments

What the file holds

The story of Maury Island survives in the FBI’s file 62-HQ-83894, “Flying Discs”, in the first PURSUE release. Nearly all of it dates from August and September 1947: teletypes and letters from the FBI offices in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Butte and Chicago, the Director’s own message to Seattle, a memorandum to him from D. M. Ladd, a report by the intelligence office (A-2) of the Fourth Air Force with eight inclosures, a statement signed by the two men at the centre of the story, and a sworn affidavit by an airline pilot who heard it told. Two later documents, a letter of 1948 and a newspaper clipping of 1950, show how it was retold.

None of these pages is redacted, and most of them are not about the sighting at all. They are about a box of rock, a B-25 that crashed near Kelso, and anonymous telephone calls to newspapermen in Tacoma.

The story, as others told it

The first written version in the file is a letter of 22 July 1947 from Raymond A. Palmer of the Venture Press in Evanston, Illinois, to Kenneth Arnold, offering to pay his expenses for a trip to Tacoma: “Dahl, and two other seamen, on a patrol near Murry Island, off Taocma, saw six discs, one in trouble, witnessed an explosion, saw falling stuff which smashed their wheelhouse and searchlight and landed on the beach. They sent me samples which Chicago U has failed to analyze.” He went on: “And I want somebody who’ll get the truth, to find out if these boys are on the up and up.”

Every later version comes through someone else. Ernie Vogel, the Associated Press wireman in Tacoma, told the FBI that “in the early part of June, 1947” the Seattle Post Intelligencer had asked him to check a story said to have come “from the Fire Chief at Harper, Washington”: “DAHL, while patrolling in his boat near Maury Island, saw five or six flying discs, one of which fluttered toward the ground and finally disintegrated.” Captain Emil J. Smith of United Air Lines, whom Arnold called to Tacoma on 31 July, set down Dahl’s story in a sworn affidavit. The A-2 officer of the Fourth Air Force had it from Arnold and Smith by way of Major George Sander, public information officer at McChord Field. Arnold gave his own version to the FBI in Boise on 19 August; in it, Dahl said that “FRED TRICKMAN [sic], his superior officer, had told him to send the fragments to RAYMOND PALMER at Chicago”.

In these retellings Dahl also spoke of what followed. Smith heard that “four or five days subsequent to his sighting the flying discs, a man called at his home and had a conversation with him the course of which DAHL was warned to” forget it; in Arnold’s version the man said: “I know what you saw at Mauri Island and I’m telling you in a nice way to forget about it and keep your mouth shut.” Dahl said he had photographed the discs, “but that the printed films were marred with white spots”; when Smith asked for the negatives, “a search of the instant glove compartment was fruitless.”

Fred L. Crisman, who in Smith’s affidavit “owns the Harbor Patrol in Tacoma”, said he went to the island afterwards, found fragments and saw a disc himself. The affidavit: “Mr. Crismon also stated that while he was over there investigating on Maury Island, he also saw a disk.”

Six days in Tacoma

Kenneth Arnold took room 502 at the Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma “from July 30 at 7:43 P. M.”. The A-2 report opens: “On 31 July 47, Mr. Arnold, Aviation Editor of the Idaho Daily Statesman [sic], telephoned Lt. Brown requesting he return to Tacoma because Arnold believed he had some very vital information on the flying disc.” Lieutenant Frank M. Brown and Captain William L. Davidson of the Fourth Air Force flew to McChord Field that afternoon. “They changed from their uniforms to civilian clothing in the aircraft and, on being queried by Operations as to why they desired transportation to Tacoma, they replied they were to make a speech.”

That night they heard Dahl and Crisman in Arnold’s room, with Arnold and Smith present. The interview, says the A-2 report, “was completed about midnight on 31 July/1 August”, and “If notes were taken of this conversation, they were destroyed in the aircraft accident.” Smith recorded that Brown said he and Davidson “were of the opinion that there might be some truth in the current flying disc stories”, but that their superiors, presumably at Hamilton Field, did not agree. Outside the hotel, in Smith’s account, Crisman “took from his trunk a box of the alleged flying disc fragments picked up on Maury Island. He offered them to BROWN and DAVIDSON and when the Army car arrived from McChord Field the box of fragments was placed in the car with the officers.”

Brown and Davidson were dead a few hours later. Over the next three days, the FBI in Seattle reported, “SMITH RELATES THAT HE AND ARNOLD MADE SUBSEQUEST ATTEMPTS TO GO OUT TO MAURI ISLAND WITH CRISMAN AND DAHL ON FRIDAY, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, AUGUST FIRST, SECOND AND THIRD, BUT WERE PUT OFF BY CHRISMAN AND DAHL FOR VARIOUS REASONS.” On Sunday 3 August, in Smith’s account, Dahl said “that if he was ever contacted by the Army or the authorities he was going to deny ever having seen anything and claim to be ‘the biggest liar that ever lived’”. That day Smith called Major Sander, who looked at the fragments still in the room and suggested a drive to a smelter near Tacoma, where “the slag was noted to be definitely similar to the fragments which CRISMAN and DAHL had left in the Hotel room.” Arnold told the FBI that Sander called them “nothing but slag from the copper mill” and “gathered up every fragment in the room”. What became of them, no document says.

The B-25

The B-25 left McChord Field for Hamilton Field, California, in the early hours of 1 August 1947 and crashed near Kelso, Washington. Davidson and Brown were killed. The documents give different times, and we leave them as they stand:

• Leaving the hotel: “approximately 12:45 A.M.” (Smith’s affidavit).
• Leaving McChord Field, or Tacoma: “0212 PST” (the rescue report); “approximately 0200 hours” (the A-2 report); “about 2:00 A. M.” (the Seattle letter); “ABOUT TWO THIRTY A. M.” (the Seattle teletype of 7 August) and “about 2:30 A.M.” (the blind memorandum of 14 August).
• The crash: “about 0236 PST”, the time given by the Kelso chief of police (the rescue report); “approximately 0230 hours” (the A-2 report); “APPROXIMATELY TWO FIFTY A. M.” (the Seattle teletype of 6 August); “approximately 2:50 A. M.” (the Seattle letter).

The rescue report of Detachment 8 of the Air Rescue Service at McChord Field, dated 4 August and filed as the eighth inclosure to the A-2 report, records that “B-25 #1316 had departed McCHORD FIELD at 0212 PST for HAMILTON FIELD, California” and that “the plane carried three (3) additional persons”. The two survivors, a passenger and the crew chief, “stated that they believed neither the pilot nor co-pilot has parachuted from the plane”, and the ground party found “that two (2) bodies were in the wreckage”. The report also records: “At 0930 PST, a message from Sq B informed that top secret material was in the navigators kit and to request Commanding Officer McCHORD FIELD to expedite all available information to Commanding Officer HAMILTON FIELD.” And: “They were relieved of responsibility of all recovered documents by a CIC agent who had arrived about 1800 PST.” The rescue report does not mention a box, a carton or any fragments.

The cause, as the intelligence officers at McChord Field gave it to the FBI: “THE LEFT ENGINE BURNED OUT AN EXHAUST STACK WHICH CAUSED THE WING TO BURN AND BREAK OFF.” They added that “THERE IS NO QUESTION OF THE CRASH OF THE B- TWENTYFIVE AT KELSO, WN. APPROXIMATELY TWO FIFTY A. M., AUGUST ONE LAST HAVING BEEN CAUSED BY ANY SABOTAGE.” Captain R. G. Bjorning, A-2 officer at McChord Field, told the FBI that “their investigation reflected no indication of any sabotage whatever.” In Washington, a Colonel Martin told the FBI on 6 August “that it was his belief that no flying saucers have been recovered but that it was merely an attempt to reinterview an individual who previously had reported seeing one of the flying saucers.”

Whether the box went aboard is not established. The Seattle teletype of 12 August says Crisman gave the officers “A BOX OF THE ALLEGED FRAGMENTS WHICH THEY APPARENTLY TOOK WITH THEM ON THEIR FATAL FLIGHT”. The crew chief told the A-2 officer that “he placed a heavy cardboard carton in the rear compartment of the B-25 that crashed. He did not look in the box nor hear any comments from Lt Brown or Capt Davidson as to its contents.”

Two FBI documents carry an error. The Seattle teletype of 7 August says: “THE CREW CHIEF AND EACH OFFICER PARACHUTED TO SAFETY.” The blind memorandum attached to Ladd’s memorandum of 14 August repeats it: “The crew chief and each officer parachuted to safety.” The rescue report contradicts both: the survivors were the crew chief and a passenger, and two bodies were found in the wreckage. The Seattle teletype of 6 August and the Seattle letter also record that Davidson and Brown were killed.

The crash gave the story a second life. “Five anonymous calls were received by a reporter, Tacoma Times, and the United Press Wireman, Tacoma, between 11:30 A. M., July 31, 1947 and 5:30 P. M., August 2, 1947.” In the last of them “the caller stated the B-25 was shot down from the air with a 20 m.m. cannon”. According to the Seattle letter, the Tacoma Times “printed this story on August 2, 1947 and carried several articles thereafter inferring that the B-25 had been shot down or sabotaged because of the fact that it was carrying disc fragments.” The claim is listed with this case in the claim ledger.

What is explained, and on what grounds

The status of this case is “explained”. It rests on the fragments and on the letter to Palmer, not on the sighting.

The fragments. In a statement signed for the FBI on 7 August 1947, Dahl and Crisman said: “In the early part of June 1947 we picked up some strange rock formations from a gravel pit on Maury Island, Washington.” Palmer, they said, told them “he would pay for an exclusive story if the fragments could be from a flying disc”, and “One of us told him the fragments could have been from a flying disc.” They ended: “The above is the entire and true story as regards our connection with the flying disc stories etc. which originated over the ore samples which we sent to be analyzed.” On 3 August, in Smith’s account, the slag at a smelter near Tacoma “was noted to be definitely similar to the fragments”. The A-2 officer boarded the boat in Tacoma harbor on 6 August and wrote: “It is this officer’s opinion that if any of the objects presented by Dahl as samples of the material dropped by the flying disc had hit this boat, it would have certainly been necessary to replace the foredeck and the cabin roof.” He also checked the press: “A check was made of the newspapers on and after 21 June and no mention could be found of a mysterious object appearing over the Tacoma harbor.”

The Seattle letter adds, “For the information of the Bureau”, that the public relations officer at McChord Field had been asked by telephone from Army Air Forces Headquarters “to obtain a signed statement from DAHL and CRISMAN which could be published and thus publicly close the matter”. The statement in the file was taken by an FBI agent; no document says whether the two are connected.

The letter to Palmer. The Seattle teletype of 7 August: “DAHL STATES HE WROTE PALMER A LETTER IN WHICH HE STATED THE MATERIAL WAS PART OF A FLYING DISK. DAHL AND CHRISMAN ADMIT THIS STATEMENT WAS ENTIRELY FALSE.”

What contradicts it, or stays open.

• Replying to the Director on 14 August, the Seattle office wrote: “DAHL DID NOT ADMIT TO SMITH THAT HIS STORY WAS A HOAX BUT ONLY STATED THAT IF QUESTIONED BY AUTHORITIES HE WAS GOING TO SAY IT WAS A HOAX BECAUSE HE DID NOT WANT ANY FURTHER TROUBLE OVER THE MATTER.”
• To Arnold, according to the FBI in Butte, Dahl “immediately replied that his story was not false or phoney, but that what he had seen and what had happened to him was so unusual and fantastic that he wanted to forget about the disc fragments.”
• The Director wanted the point settled: “THIS MATTER SHOULD BE CLEARED UP UPON REINTERVIEW WITH DAHL AND CHRISMAN.” Seattle answered that “DAHL AND CHRISMAN WILL NOT BE REINTERVIEWED UNLESS ADVISED TO THE CONTRARY BY THE BUREAU.” No reinterview is in the release.

The sighting itself. No one who said they had seen the discs signed an account of them, and the statement of 7 August does not mention a sighting at all. Every version is second-hand, and the versions part:

The date. 21 June (the A-2 report; Arnold to the FBI in Butte); “on or about June 23 or 24” (Smith, in the Seattle letter); “On June 24 (this date to be checked later)” (Smith’s affidavit). Vogel was asked to check the story “in the early part of June, 1947”, and the statement puts the gravel pit in “the early part of June 1947”.

The place. “near Murry Island, off Taocma” [sic] (Palmer); “near Maury Island” (Vogel); “cruising around Maury Island” and “fairly close to shore of Maury Island” (the affidavit); “south of Maury Island” (the A-2 report); “near a cove on the east side of Mauri Island” (Arnold, in the Butte memorandum).

The objects. “six discs” (Palmer); “five or six flying discs” (Vogel); “four or five objects” (the affidavit); “Five flying discs” (the A-2 report); “six round circular grey objects” (Butte).

The height. “approximately 1500 feet” (the affidavit); “an estimated elevation of 500 feet” (the A-2 report); “about 1,000 feet” (Butte). Palmer and Vogel give none.

Who was aboard. “Dahl, and two other seamen” (Palmer); “Mr. Dahl, a Mr. Knight, and Mr. Dahl’s son age 16” (the affidavit); “his boy, dog, and two seamen” (Butte). None of them was interviewed in the release.

The damage. “smashed their wheelhouse and searchlight” (Palmer); “broke in the wheelhouse of the boat, the spotlight, and the klaxon” (the affidavit); “knocking off the handrail, horn, and generally damaging the boat to the extent of $200.00” (the A-2 report); “the wheel mount on his harbor patrol boat had been struck by disc fragments” (Butte). Vogel’s version, the affidavit, the A-2 report and the Butte memorandum all have Dahl’s dog killed.

Crisman’s own disc. “the following day” (the Seattle letter); “the next day” (the affidavit); “on July 23, 1947” [sic] (Butte, where Dahl’s sighting is dated 21 June).

What the FBI decided. Formally, only the question of sabotage. D. M. Ladd to the Director, 14 August 1947: “Investigation by the Bureau has reflected that this plane was definitely not carrying parts of a disc and there appears to be no substantiation of a sabotage charge.” On the anonymous calls the Seattle office wrote only that they “were possibly made by FRED CRISMAN”, adding: “No facts have been developed which would definitely prove that CRISMAN made these calls.” The Director’s message of the same day had pointed elsewhere: “IT WOULD APPEAR EITHER SMITH OR ARNOLD MADE THE ANONYMOUS PHONE CALLS”. The A-2 officer wrote: “The anonymous mystery caller in Tacoma could possibly be Mr. Crisman.”

How the story grew by 1950

On Sunday 3 August 1947 the Chicago Times had its own version. The FBI in Chicago, summarising the article that Richard Shaver showed its agents, recorded that “on June 24, 1947, on Murray Island, off the Washington Coast, there had occurred a mysterious explosion which was believed to have been caused by a guided missile or rocket”; that at a conference in Tacoma “authorities brought samples of a lava oxide metal”; and that “the plane crashed near Hamilton Field, California”.

In March 1948 Norman G. Markham, writing to the Chief Signal Officer, set the story beside the chase in which Lieutenant Mantell was killed: “Also, in this connection, it may not be amiss to mention the deaths of two military officers who were said to have been bringing back material evidence from ‘flying discs’ one of which was said to have met with some kind of accident over Maury Island, Puget Sound, around June, 1947.”

On 26 March 1950 the Sunday Graphic in London, in a clipping kept in the FBI file, had: “First report of these strange craft came on June 25, 1947, when a Mr. Dahl of Tacoma, Washington, noticed a circular flying machine, like a silver doughnut, cutting capers over his back-yard.” And: “The centre craft then began to shed metallic rain. Most of it fell seawards, but one piece landed in Mr. Dahl’s yard.”

The 1947 file has a boat off Maury Island, not a back-yard; 21, 23 or 24 June, not 25 June; and, in the two men’s signed statement, rock from a gravel pit.

Where it was

The documents place the boat south of Maury Island, close to its shore or at a cove on its east side; the gravel pit is “on Maury Island” in the signed statement. None of them gives a position. The pin on the map is OpenStreetMap’s point for Maury Island (place=island), rounded by us to 47.38° N, 122.43° W. It marks the island, not the boat or the pit.

Why this scores where it does

Witnesses: 1. The sighting exists only as others retold it, and the only document Dahl signed speaks of rock from a gravel pit. The people named as aboard, his son, “a Mr. Knight” and “two other seamen”, were not interviewed in the release.

Radar and optics: 0. No instrument recorded anything. Dahl’s photographs, “marred with white spots”, and their negatives were never produced; the five Army photographs show the fragments, not an object in the sky.

Physical trace: 1. The material existed, and the Army photographed it in 1947. But the men who handed it over said it came from a gravel pit, an Army Air Forces officer compared it with smelter slag, no analysis is in the release, and the A-2 officer found no damage on the boat of the kind described.

Multi-channel: 1. Every version leads back to Dahl and Crisman, and the A-2 officer found no newspaper report of an object over Tacoma harbor on or after 21 June.

Documentation: 4. A dense 1947 paper trail: FBI offices in five cities, the Director, Ladd, an A-2 report with eight inclosures, a rescue report, a signed statement and a sworn affidavit, all within weeks. Against that, the date and the details of the sighting differ from one document to the next.

Anomaly: 0. Once the signed statement, the inspection of the boat and the slag comparison are taken into account, nothing anomalous remains to be measured. The deaths are explained in the documents by a fire in the left engine.

Data today: 2. The paper trail and the photographs of the material can be read and cross-checked today. The material itself, Dahl’s photographs and any analysis are not in the release.

The overall is 1.1: class D, testimony only.

What would settle it

• An analysis of the material Crisman handed to the officers, or of the samples sent to Palmer.
• Dahl’s photographs, or their negatives.
• The report of the investigation of the B-25 wreck.
• The reinterview of Dahl and Crisman that the Director asked for.
• Interviews of the others named as aboard the boat.
• The record of calls from room 502, which the Seattle letter says was being “retained as an exhibit in the Seattle Office”, and the photographs listed as the inclosure to the rescue report.