Possibly a similar thing re. Farmington, 1950. The local newspaper reported "Crafts Seen by Hu[n]dreds", up to 500 UFOs at a time, over a three-day period. And recorded that
three people contacted the local newspaper. (My views in
post #66, "Major UFO experiences are specific to the observer" thread).
We have a handful of accounts, one from a man who worked for the Farmington Times and who
might have penned the newspaper story, who saw up to 500 craft. He estimated the UFOs altitude, but couldn't estimate their size or speed- so how did he estimate altitude?
Other witnesses gave significantly different estimates of speed and altitude and accounts of numbers seen.
A man who was 8 years old at the time claims he saw UFOs from "horizon to horizon", "too many to count" - in daylight, during school hours- but he was at Aztec Elementary School, Aztec, NM, 11.5 miles (18.5 km) from Farmington- where no-one else appears to have seen
anything.
His account might be dramatic, but it must be unreliable: The fact that this account is repeated by UFO enthusiasts might be evidence that there aren't many reliable accounts from the supposed hundreds of witnesses who were actually in/ near Farmington.
And despite sometimes hundreds of UFOs, putting on a display over three days, not a single photo. No evidence that there was any attempt to contact state or federal authorities, not even on the second or third day. No arrivals of out-of-town reporters or camera crews.
No evidence whatsoever that anything other than normal life continued.
I think I've read that the local Sherriff thought some people were seeing windborne cotton seeds, but can't find a source for this.
