Wednesday, October 17, 2007

The X-Files in Orange County

Earlier generations just had tales of ghosts and goblins to tell at Halloween. But somewhere along the line, space aliens also joined our cultural roster of "things that go bump in the night."

Hoax or not, this 1965 photo is one of the most famous "UFO" images ever taken. Taken near the 5 Fwy and Myford Rd. (now Jamboree Rd.) by traffic engineer Rex Heflin, this photo, along with a couple others, was published in the Santa Ana Register on Sept. 20, 1965. You can see a panorama of three of Heflin's photos stitched together at this site. (You have to squint hard to make out the words, "Marie Callender Pies" on the bottom of the craft.)

OCThen.com is also keeping an eye on the "little green men from Mars." Check out their recent thread about UFOs over Orange County.

Thanks to everyone who showed up for my talk at the Old Courthouse today. I really enjoyed the event and hope you did too. Thanks also to the Old Courthouse Museum Society for inviting me and to Carey Baughman for handling the A/V under difficult circumstances.

3 comments:

Chris Merritt said...

Sorry I missed your talk on Googie! I would've loved to hear it...

Chris Jepsen said...

Jim Sleeper's 2nd Orange County Almanac notes that the UFO photos in this post were Polaroids, shot near Myford Rd. and the Santa Ana Freeway.

P.S. - Thanks, Chris. Maybe next time.

Anonymous said...

Here's a link to a picture of an UFO sighting in Yorba Linda, 1967.

http://ufologie.patrickgross.org/htm/yorba.htm