The Maury Island UFO Case

Maury Island
A majority of the incidents surrounding UFO's deal with a fairly simple premise. Someone, somewhere reports a sighting of unknown origin. A brief investigation is made and under "normal" circumstances, the story fades away.

In June, 1947, off Puget Sound, a mystery began to unravel that boggles the senses, so complex, so surreal and so unnerving.

In 1947, two men operated a boat in Puget Sound. On June 21st, one of the men, "Harold A. Dahl" took with him two crew members, his son and his son's dog and they began a water tour around Maury Island. At approximately 2:00 PM, out of nowhere, they spotted six large objects above them. All six were identical, round with a hole in the center. The most unusual sight was the fact that five of the six were going in circles around the sixth object. The latter one seemed to be experiencing difficulty remaining aloft.

"Mr. Dahl" aimed the boat for shore, and began taking photographs. Shortly thereafter, one of the objects began to lower itself and touched the sinking object. Immediately after the "touch" the men reported hearing a loud noise, a THUD. The next thing the men knew, material was ejected from the ailing object and hot debris began to rain down. So hot was this material that the boat was damaged, Mr. Dahl's son was burned on the arm, and the dog was killed by the falling debris.

Once all the material stopped falling, the sixth object rejoined the other crafts and all six disappeared out to sea. Being in shock, "Mr. Dahl" returned to Tacoma, took his son for treatment, and reported this incident to his boss, "Mr. Fred L. Crisman". From then on, "Harold Dahl's" life was never to be the same, again.

The next day, "Dahl" was visited by a man, knocking on his door. This man, described as "imposing, six foot two and 200 pounds, wearing a black suit." He and "Dahl" had breakfast, and talked about what had occurred the previous day. It seems this "imposing" man knew all about the incident and told Dahl NOT to discuss any details about what he had seen or heard. In fact, you could almost consider this a warning or a threat. "Dahl" had the photographs developed and found that they were totally of no use. It's as if the film had been damaged in some way, foggy... almost as if touched by radiation.

The same day this stranger walked into "Dahl's life, Dahl's" partner, "Fred Crisman" took it upon himself to check out, as best he could, the story his friend had relayed to him. Near Maury Island, "Crisman" found the beach was covered with an estimated 20 tons of slag. During this time, another round shaped object appeared, the first sighting by "Crisman".

For some reason, known only to both men, they did not notify any authorities until the following month. That July, both men wrote to the editor of "AMAZING STORIES" magazine, giving details of what had been witnessed in June. The editor, "Ray Palmer" then contacted "Kenneth Arnold" about this unusual situation. Together, they decided to further this investigation and "Mr. Arnold" then flew to Washington, in his private plane.

"Arnold" met with a hesitant "Dahl" and a reluctant "Crisman". It was then that strange circumstances began, the gist of which was that the local media started to contact "Arnold," even though "Arnold" had not informed anyone other than these three people that he was even in Tacoma, "Dahl, Crisman" and a good friend, "Lt. Frank M. Brown," an Air Force Intelligence Officer, located at the time, in California. How did anyone else know he was there? Brown contacted another Air Force Officer, "Capt. William Davidson." It was decided by "Brown" and "Davidson" they should travel to Washington State. Out of the blue, a UP reporter, "Ted Morello" contacted "Arnold" to inquire what he was investigating.

On July 31, 1947, several of the aforementioned gentleman, excluding "Dahl" met at the "Winthrop Hotel." In view of what appeared to be serious leaks to the press and the fact that the boat owned by "Dahl" and "Crisman" was old and worn out, "Arnold" began to doubt that anything out of the ordinary had happened at all. It became clear to Arnold that this was a hoax and total waste of his time and energy. However, before leaving, "Crisman" gave "Brown" and "Davidson" a carton, presumably containing fragments of the slag that was found from the round objects at Maury Island. Shortly thereafter, the B-25 containing "Brown" and "Davidson" crashed, twenty minutes after takeoff. They were both killed in the crash near Kelso, WA Other members of the crew survived.

Two weeks later, "Paul Lance," a reporter who had covered the Maury Island sighting and the crash of the B-25, who had seemed to be in good health, died of meningitis. The slag and metal was analyzed and it was determined that the content was actually aircraft alloy, with one puzzling detail hard to fathom. One of the pieces examined clearly exhibited the fact that it had been riveted. Not so unusual you say? The rivet was SQUARE, and according to all who are in the know, AIRCRAFT RIVETS are ROUND. And, to top that, the slag was also radioactive.

Now we have a square rivet, 20 tons of radioactive slag, a son with a burned arm, a dead dog, threats to keep quiet "or else" two dead Air Force men, and a stranger who came out of nowhere to threaten "Harold Dahl." We have no answers. We have no explanation. What we do have is an unusual set of circumstances that make us wonder and ask, Why? Are the actual facts about these six "crafts" so horrible and so Alien, that perhaps, our government thinks we can not handle the truth?

Somewhere, even now, almost 52 years later, someone knows the details. Secrets are just that... secret. What we would give to know what happened that 21st day of June 1947 on Puget Sound, near Maury Island.