The U.S. Air Force once paid CU Boulder to study UFOs. Here’s what it found.

In 1966, the U.S. Air Force funded a study at the University of Colorado Boulder to determine whether unidentified flying objects (UFOs) were extraterrestrial. CU astrophysicist Dr. Edward U. Condon studied reports of flying saucers and other mysterious airborne objects and declared them largely unfounded. A few years later, Boulder resident and social psychologist Richard Sigismond refuted Condon’s conclusions. 

UFOs now are called unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). They face new scrutiny by the U.S. Department of Defense, as well as the general public. Now is a good time to look up — and look back — to see how Boulder fits into this “twilight zone” mystery. 

For centuries, people have questioned unidentified objects seen in the sky. Nearly a century ago, in 1938, announcer Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic when he breathlessly interrupted his own radio show with descriptions of creatures emerging from an alien spacecraft on a farm in New Jersey. Although he prefaced his show with a statement that the following program was science fiction, his “War of the Worlds” episode caused panic among many listeners who believed that alien invaders had even taken over the streets of New York City.

It wasn’t until July 8, 1947, however, that the Daily Camera published multiple reports of “mysterious flying discs” in Boulder County. The objects were said to have been very bright and to move erratically. Some had pulsating red lights.

Prompting the reports was a questionable (and later refuted) report that personnel from the Roswell Army Airfield, in Roswell, New Mexico, had captured a “flying saucer” on a local ranch. Like Welles’ radio show, the “news” was splashed all over the country.

The day of the “capture” in Roswell, a Boulder newspaper writer stated, “The first report of a ‘flying disc’ over Boulder was made today. Mrs. Ernestine Pettengill, of 1354 Arapahoe, and a friend, Mrs. Ruth Bradley of Los Angeles, were walking near 15th and Grove streets at 10:30 Monday night when they saw one of the mysterious objects which have aroused nationwide curiosity.”

According to Mrs. Pettengill’s description, the object was “blue in the center and white around the edge. It was round, flat, and quite bright.” She then added, “I had been very skeptical of the talk about flying discs until I saw one myself.” 

The local press, for years, continued to publish similar accounts. In 1960, Boulder County resident Ray Hawks was driving a tractor in Left Hand Canyon and watched a “flying saucer” hover for about 15 minutes. Hawks claimed that his tractor suddenly didn’t work, and the “saucer” made an “off-beat humming noise and exuded a kind of bluish smoke.”

He then told a newspaper writer, “I thought the reports of these strange aircraft were a lot of hogwash. I know better now. I was really shaken by this experience.”

In 1966, the U.S. Air Force commissioned a formal investigation headed by astrophysicist Dr. Edward U. Condon at the University of Colorado, in Boulder. The study’s purpose was to produce an unbiased scientific investigation into the possibility that unidentified flying objects may be of extraterrestrial origin.  

Look magazine came out with two articles critical of Condon’s research. The first writer, in 1967, stated, “The UFO conflict long since has escalated into a religious war, with ‘believers’ on one side and ‘nonbelievers’ on the other, and Heaven help the agnostics like Dr. Condon, who say they don’t know what to believe and try to find out through logic and inquiry.”

Condon’s $500,000 “Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects” was released in 1968. “Our general conclusion,” he stated, “is that nothing has come from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years that has added to science knowledge.” Another Look magazine article in 1968 called the study a “fiasco” and claimed that it was not objective.

Watching Condon’s study unfold was Boulder resident Richard Sigismond, who stated in a 1985 interview with the Daily Camera that he was a social scientist, a ufologist, and a senior investigator with CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies). He explained that his job was to “seek intelligent life — elsewhere.” He traveled (at his own expense) to sighting locations and often hypnotized individuals who claimed to have been abducted by aliens. 

Sigismond said he had examined cattle mutilations, listened to traumatized witnesses and personally experienced two “close encounters,” but he had never met an extraterrestrial. Of that possibility, he told his interviewer, “I cannot help but feel that I would be in awe of them, respectful of their advances in physics that we haven’t quite yet dreamed of.” He died in 2018 at the age of 89.

Today, the controversy continues, with new sightings still being reported, and “little green men” perpetuated in pop culture. Perhaps a new generation of “believers” and “nonbelievers” will come up with some answers. Some would say that the answer is still up in the air.