Brush Creek Flying Saucer Ambush

In 1953, John B. Black, a miner aged 48, and his partner John J. Van Allen were working unregistered diggings where Marble Creek meets Jordan Creek, near Brush Creek in Plumas National Forest, Butte County, California. They had dug there for three summers without filing a claim.

Black later told the sheriff that both men had seen saucers seven times: four times in the air and twice on the ground.

May 20, 1953. About 6 p.m. Black saw the saucer hovering above a sandbar, roughly 45 metres away. It rose, headed east, then descended into the creek with a whistling noise. Afterwards he found the remains of a campfire and footprints 12.5 cm long. The needle of his compass went crazy.

June 20. About 6:30 p.m. Black saw what he took for a boy fishing, a small figure leaning above the water. It was a man. Midget sized, broad shouldered, sturdy, with a stiff, muscular walk. "He looked like someone who had never been out in the sun much," Black said. One account dresses him in green trousers, a jacket and a tie, with a green cap over black hair, and shoes so flexible they seemed part of his feet.

He was filling a round, flat bottomed pail that looked like aluminium. When he noticed Black, he hurried back, climbed a tubular ladder into an opening under the craft, and drew his legs inside. The saucer was two convex metallic plates fastened together, shining and silvery, about 2.5 metres across, with a side window and retractable legs. It oscillated in the air for a few seconds. Then it took off at a 45 degree angle, whistling.

June 24, 1953. Black asked Captain Fred Preston of the Butte County Sheriff's Office whether he knew of saucer reports in the area. Preston said no. "Well, I've seen one," Black replied. The two miners wanted permission to shoot at a midget-manned flying saucer that kept invading their diggings. Preston refused.

The visits had come on the 20th of the month, so July 20 became the date to watch. Over 200 people came by one count, though far fewer reached the landing site. Newsreel cameramen. George T. Wolfer with a Bolex camera modified for 3-D colour. Radio station KXOC with a tape recorder. An archer with blunted arrows. Two telepaths hoping to talk to the visitor. The saucer did not come back. Barker's correspondent Paul Spade camped with the miners and reported only a strange gleam.

Project Blue Book opened file 24-180. On July 20, Air Force representatives from Travis AFB interviewed four officials, and their report went to the Air Technical Intelligence Center. Captain Albert L. Christensen said the men's background "could not be determined." Sergeant Walter Johnson of the California Highway Patrol found them consistent about the sightings, but "vague and conflicting" about the footprints and markings. On August 4, 1953, Colonel Paul A. Hurst approved the verdict. Hoax.

Newspapers generally ridiculed the story. Researcher Patrick Gross rates it a hoax with high certainty, citing the witnesses' unclear background, the inconsistent traces, and no photographs despite all those cameras. Gray Barker felt otherwise. "To me the story somehow smacked of truth," he wrote. Coral Lorenzen noted the visits fell on the same date each month.

The case travelled through The Saucerian, Barker's They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, Charles Bowen's The Humanoids and Jacques Vallée's Passport to Magonia. Along the way, the little man changed clothes. Martin Kottmeyer noticed the tie had vanished. The jacket became a parka, then tweedlike cloth.