FBI UFO file: Oak Ridge flying saucer photos, 1947
Official file: 65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_Serial_153
Published · Updated
Key facts
- Document type
- Document
- Agency
- FBI
- Released in
- R01 · 2026-05-08
- Incident date
- not indicated
- Incident location
- N/A
- Pages legible
- 2/9
- VIRIN
- 260508-O-D0360-1014
Official description
Included here is the complete case file with several newly declassified pages and only minor redactions.
About this type of document
The FBI's 62-HQ-83894 case file includes investigative records, eyewitness testimonies, and public reports concerning Unidentified Flying Objects and flying discs documented between June 1947 and July 1968. The records include high-profile incident accounts, photographic evidence from sites like Oak Ridge, TN, and technical proposals regarding potential propulsion systems. Additional topics include convention programs, researcher accounts, and extensive media coverage from the period. This file is partially posted on FBI vault with more redactions and some pages missing.
See the glossary →✦ AI summary
FBI Central Records Center file 62-HQ-83894, Serial 153, a 9-page item. Its only typed text is a cover note headed "Knoxville File #65-11 RE: 'Flying Saucers' observed over Oak Ridge area, Internal Security - X", listing the enclosures sent to the Bureau: two photographs of reputedly "flying saucers" seen at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during July 1947, and a photostatic copy of a Knoxville News-Sentinel clipping about them. The clipping (July 1947) says that R. Presley had snapped several pictures of his family and house at 218 Illinois Avenue, Oak Ridge, and, noticing one exposure left on the roll, turned and snapped a picture "off the mountain"; when the roll was developed the last shot showed what the paper calls a flying saucer, the first one ever photographed over Oak Ridge, and Presley says the picture has all of Oak Ridge talking. The two photograph prints are described as showing a residential street with a utility pole, single-story housing and distant hills: one has a faint curved white streak in the sky, the other a bright round disc-shaped object at upper right. The other pages are a blank first page, an enclosure folder and the blank backs of the prints. No FBI findings or conclusions appear.
Generated with AI from the official file — may contain errors.
Places mentioned in the document
Other places the document refers to, besides its official location.
- Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USASighting · 1947
TO BUREAU: Two photographs of reputedly "flying saucers" seen at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during July 1947. Photostatic copy of newspaper
▸Transcript(2 of 9 pages legible)
[PAGE 1] [no legible text — blank or heavily redacted scan] [PAGE 2] KNOXVILLE FILE #65-11 RE: “FLYING SAUCERS" OBSERVED OVER OAK RIDGE AREA INTERNAL SECURITY - xX ENCLOSURES TO BUREAU: Two photographs of reputedly "flying saucers" seen at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, during July 1947. Photostatic copy of newspaper clipping appearing in the Knoxville News-Sentinel concerning these "flying saucers." [PAGE 3] [Diagram: blank kraft-paper enclosure folder with diagonal fold creases and a faint illegible pencil mark near the center fold; handwritten file number "62-83891-153" and a stamp reading "ENCLOSURE" near the bottom.][PAGE 4] KNOXVILLE WEWwsesey {NEL JULY 1947 ae Sere eter cine LYING SAUCER’ - OTOGRAPHED AT OAK RIDGE VV R. PRESLEY’ -24 snapped several pictures of his family and his house a’ 218 Illinois Avenue, Oak Ridge, the other after- 4 noon and, noticing he had ong film “left on the roll, he tu | and snapped it for a picture off the mountain. He had the roll developed, and look what he got on that las shot! Now don’t start trying t explain it off. Just go ahead anc say what it looks like. Sure Sure. You're right. It is a Flying Saucer. A lot of folks have re- ported seeing the things. This. 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. [PAGE 5] [Diagram: blank reverse side of a photograph print, creased and cracked with age; handwritten file number "62-83894-153" near the bottom.][PAGE 6] [Diagram: black-and-white photograph of a residential street at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with single-story wartime housing, a utility pole, and distant hills; a faint curved white streak is visible in the sky above the house at right -- the reputed "flying saucer" referenced in the accompanying FBI report. Print heavily creased and scratched.][PAGE 7] [Diagram: blank reverse side of a photograph print, lightly creased; handwritten file number "62-83894-153" near the bottom.][PAGE 8] [Diagram: black-and-white photograph of the same Oak Ridge, Tennessee residential street (utility pole, single-story housing, hills beyond), with a bright round disc-shaped object clearly visible in the sky at upper right -- the reputed "flying saucer" referenced in the accompanying FBI report. Print heavily creased and scratched.][PAGE 9] [Diagram: blank reverse side of a photograph print, lightly creased; handwritten file number "62-83894-153" near the bottom.]
Generated with AI from the official file — may contain errors.
Source: U.S. Department of War / AARO — public domain · war.gov/ufo