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Case · C-108

Tremonton 1952: the film by a Navy photographer and the seagull hypothesis

U.S. Highway 30, about 7 miles north of Tremonton, Utah · United States · Jul 2, 1952

In flight Mixed witness types Video

Disputed explanation

What happened
On July 2, 1952, Delbert C. Newhouse, a Navy petty officer and photographer traveling with his wife and children, filmed in color about a dozen luminous points moving as a group toward the west, about 7 miles from Tremonton. The Navy's photo-interpretation laboratory devoted about a thousand man-hours to the analysis and concluded that they were not birds, balloons or aircraft; according to Ruppelt the Air Force's first analyses also did not lead to an identification, while a 1956 Air Force memo states that its laboratory had immediately indicated seagulls as a strong possibility. In January 1953 the film was the centerpiece examined by the Robertson panel; the Blue Book case file was republished in 2026 in the PURSUE series.
Proposed explanation
The Project Blue Book case card gives “Birds” as the conclusion, and in June 1956 the Air Force wrote that the concordant evaluations left little room for doubt that they were seagulls. The Robertson panel (1953) had not accepted the Navy laboratory's conclusion that the objects were “self-luminous” and held that the film strongly suggested birds; the Condon report tentatively identified them as birds, probably seagulls. Ruppelt wrote that he could not accept the seagull hypothesis, though he later noted a strong resemblance when observing seagulls flying on a thermal. The witness stated years later that he had seen disc-shaped objects before filming; according to the Condon report this description does not appear in the first statements and is incompatible with the film.
Official investigation
U.S. Air Force (Project Blue Book); Navy photographic interpretation laboratory; Robertson Panel convened by the CIA (1953); University of Colorado (Condon Report, case 49)
Words of the document
The objects are thus provisionally identified as birds

Official documents

  1. Project Blue Book File on Tremonton Film, Utah, 1952 (DOW-UAP-D102) · U.S. Air Force – Project Blue Book (released by PURSUE in 2026, The Black Vault copy) · 1952
  2. Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects (rapporto Condon), sezione IV, caso 49: Tremonton, Utah – Movie Film · University of Colorado for the U.S. Air Force (full text, NCAS copy) · 1968
  3. Report of the Scientific Advisory Panel on Unidentified Flying Objects (panel Robertson, CIA-UAP-002) · CIA – Office of Scientific Intelligence (released by PURSUE in 2026, The Black Vault copy) · Jan 17, 1953

Sources

  1. Edward J. Ruppelt, “The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects” (1956), chapter on the Great Falls and Tremonton films (text reproduced by Patrick Gross) (book)
  2. High To Kolob, “Tremonton's UFO (1952)” (other)
  3. Patrick Gross, dossier on the Tremonton film (analysis, pro-disclosure)

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