What happened
From March 15 to 18, 1950, the local newspaper, the “Farmington Daily Times,” collected reports of dozens, even hundreds, of silvery discs flying over the town. Most of the sightings came on March 17, when, according to the paper, most residents of the small town – then home to a few thousand people – were watching the sky. Witnesses described objects flying at tremendous speed, circling and weaving around one another; one was said to be red and larger than the rest. Among the observers were businessmen, police officers, and a pilot. Despite the scale of the phenomenon, no clear photographs were taken. The event was covered by the press nationwide, which called it an “armada of flying saucers.”
Witnesses
Hundreds of Farmington residents, including local officials, police officers, and reporters from the local newspaper.
Explanations and hypotheses
The most frequently proposed explanation is the breakup of a large Project Skyhook stratospheric balloon, whose fragments glinted in the sunlight as they drifted on the wind. Others pointed to seeds or spider silk floating through the air and to mass suggestion fueled by the newspaper. Since no photographs or precise data have survived, the case is difficult to assess definitively today.
Disputed A likely explanation exists, but some of the facts are still disputed.