Two "flying saucer" photographs from Oak Ridge sent to the FBI (July 1947)
Serial 153 of the FBI's main flying-disc file, 62-HQ-83894, is the Knoxville office's forwarding of two photographs of "reputed" flying saucers seen at Oak Ridge in July 1947. Oak Ridge was then home to the Manhattan Project's uranium enrichment plants. The serial also includes a Knoxville News-Sentinel clipping. The clipping says a Mr. Presley used the last frame on a roll, after photographing his family and house at 218 Illinois Avenue, to take a picture of the mountain, and found the object on the print. The paper called it the first flying saucer photographed over Oak Ridge. The Knoxville office filed the matter as "Internal Security - X". Both prints show the same view: houses, a utility pole and the ridge. In one, a bright round or oval spot is visible in the sky to the right of the pole. No other analysis is in the file. *Method note: war.gov blocks this server. The serial was read from the original PDF on the ufotransparency.com mirror. Page 2 has a poor text layer; the clipping (p. 4) and the photographs (pp. 6 and 8) were read from rendered page images at low resolution. Pages 5, 7 and 9 carry only file numbers.*
Evidence, in date order (1)
- Jul 1947FBI Knoxville officeofficialForwarded the photographs to headquarters as an internal security matter 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_153 original file, via mirror
How plausible · Moderate
A named civilian's photograph went into the FBI flying-disc file; only one print shows a spot and nobody else saw it.
- ●●No gain sought Nothing sold.
- ●●Checkable details check out FBI file 62-HQ-83894.
- ●○Access He took the photo.
- ●○Character record Named.
- ●○Fits the documented skeleton The FBI collected flying-disc reports in 1947.
- ●○Physical traces or official reaction One print shows a spot.
- −Lone source, no corroboration Only he saw it.
Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.
On the record
- "Two photographs of reputedly "flying saucers" seen at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during July 1947." (65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_153, p. 2; OCR slips in the text layer corrected) (Knoxville file 65-11, "INTERNAL SECURITY - X")
- "snapped several pictures of his family and his house at 218 Illinois Avenue, Oak Ridge, the other afternoon and, noticing he had one film left on the roll, he turned and snapped it for a picture of the mountain." (65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_153, p. 4; read from the page image) (Knoxville News-Sentinel clipping, July 1947)
- "He had the roll developed, and look what he got on that last shot!" (65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_153, p. 4; read from the page image)
- "however, is the first time that one has ever been photographed over Oak Ridge. Mr. Presley says this picture has all of Oak Ridge talking." (65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_153, p. 4; read from the page image)
- The two prints (pp. 6 and 8) show the same street scene from the same viewpoint. The print on p. 8 shows a bright, round-to-oval spot in the sky right of the utility pole. On p. 6 no object could be picked out at the resolution viewed. (read from the page images)