Project Blue Book investigated UFO reports from 1947 until it closed in December 1969. Its files were transferred to the National Archives and are available for public review, according to the National Archives. The Baltimore Banner reports that the program recorded more than 12,000 encounters and left fewer than 6% classified as unidentifiable.
The Air Force’s Loch Raven investigation did not identify the reported object. The Banner’s account of declassified military records says 2nd Lt. Bert R. Staples transcribed Phillip Small’s account on November 13, 1958. Investigators ruled out weather, considered the object too low to have been an aircraft, and rejected natural fluorescent gases as an explanation because they did not account for the reported noise.
The NICAP case file recounts that Small and Alvin Cohen reported seeing an egg-shaped object above the Loch Raven bridge on October 26, 1958. It estimates the object’s height at about 100 to 150 feet; The Banner gives an estimate of 75 to 100 feet. According to the file, the men said their car’s electrical system failed, then described a flashing white light, a thunder-like sound and the object’s departure. These details document the witnesses’ account, not an independent identification of the object.
NICAP’s file says Small and Cohen later contacted police, reported a burning sensation on their skin and went to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where they were examined and released. The Banner reports that other people connected with Peerce’s Plantation described a double boom that night; Robert Hargraves and John Lomax reported seeing a glowing light the following day. These additional accounts are reported by The Banner from the records.
The Banner reports that NICAP investigators interviewed Small and Cohen, measured their burns and examined white spots on Small’s car; the group’s tests were inconclusive. NICAP’s case file says Project Blue Book found no earthly cause. The records establish the investigation’s limit, not the object’s identity: the Air Force left the report classified as unidentified.
Loch Raven’s role in the water system
Today, Baltimore City identifies Loch Raven as a 2,400-acre terminal reservoir on Gunpowder Falls. The Baltimore City Department of Public Works says water from the reservoir flows by gravity through a 12-foot tunnel to the Montebello filtration plants.
