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Several weeks after Kenneth Arnold had his
historic UFO encounter in June of 1947,
he investigated a sighting in Washington state 
that would prove to be just as influential in UFO lore.
The principal witness claimed to see a group of 
circular UFOs from his patrol boat in Puget Sound,
and the next day, he was visited by what ufologists
would now refer to as a "man in black."
Many researchers have concluded
that the sighting was a hoax,
but the media coverage - especially after a fatal
plane crash carrying two army investigators -
convinced the world that the US government was hiding
the truth on UFOs, and would kill to keep it secret.
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Harold Dahl worked as a boat patrolman
in the waters around a logging operation
in the Puget Sound area of Washington state.
On June 21, 1947, just four days before the
beginning of the "flying saucer frenzy,"
Dahl claimed he was patrolling the eastern shore of 
Maury Island in a small, partially-enclosed inboard boat
with his fifteen-year-old son, Charles; his family dog;
and two unidentified co-workers.
Around 2 p.m., the men spotted
six circular, shiny metal objects
flying in formation between 
3 and 600m above the water.
Dahl estimated that each of the objects was about
30m in diameter, with a 6 - 7m hole in the centre.
There were portholes around the outside of the craft,
and a dark ring around the bottom
and inside of the doughnut.
Five of the objects circled around 
and above a central, stationary one
before it dropped to 250m altitude, 
and hovered overtop of Dahl's boat.
A few minutes later, another craft broke formation
and moved in beside the first.
After a loud banging noise, the first craft
began releasing a silvery, metallic debris
that looked like shreds of newspaper, 
and later, a heavier, dark substance like metal slag.
This slag-like substance was scalding hot:
it damaged the boat, burned Charles' arm, 
and killed the Dahl family dog before it stopped falling.
The crew escaped to shore, where they estimated 
bout 20 tons of the metal debris had accumulated.
Dahl took a few pictures of the UFOs as the two 
nearer ones rejoined the formation hovering nearby,
then all six of the objects flew westward out of sight.
Dahl took samples of both types of debris
and loaded them onto the boat,
then took his son to a hospital in Tacoma.
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Dahl hadn't told anyone about the 
sighting when, the day after the incident,
he was visited by a man in a black suit.
The man was driving a brand new Buick Sedan, 
also black, and though he gave no identification,
Dahl assumed he worked with the government.
Remarkably, the man seemed to
know all about Dahl's encounter,
and brought him to a diner in Tacoma to discuss it.
At the end of their discussion, the man cautioned
Dahl not to speak of the incident to anyone,
making veiled threats to his safety,
and the safety of his family.
In spite of the warning, 
Dahl called the owner of the lumber mill,
and possible business partner, Fred Lee Crisman,
telling him all about the previous day's encounter
and turning over the photos and debris.
Immediately, Crisman took the boat to Maury Island,
and saw the debris for himself.
He also claimed to have seen one of 
the same circular craft in the distance.
He later had Dahl's photos developed, 
but said they all turned out spotty and blurred.
However, Crisman never turned these photos over
to the public, and it's not clear they ever existed.
In mid July, several weeks after Arnold's own 
UFO sighting, Crisman contacted Ray Palmer,
editor of Amazing Stories and soon-to-be
editor and publisher of Fate Magazine.
Palmer was intrigued by the story, 
and contacted pilot and businessman,
Kenneth Arnold, who had recently begun 
investigating UFO sightings on his own time.
Arnold flew to Tacoma while Palmer had the 
metal debris analysed at the University of Chicago.
The results were inconclusive, and Palmer later claimed
that the remaining debris was stolen from his office.
Arnold called an airline pilot, Captain Emil J. Smith,
who had also seen a UFO a few days prior,
and arranged to meet him in Tacoma
to interview the witnesses.
In one of the many bizarre episodes of the case, 
Arnold had a second UFO sighting on the flight over,
spotting 20-25 brass-coloured objects
flying less than 400m from his plane.
What's more, he arrived at the Winthrop Hotel in Tacoma
to find a room already checked out in his name.
He and Smith interviewed Dahl and Crisman
in this room on the afternoon of July 30th.
Dahl complained of a streak of bad luck since 
the incident, which he attributed to the sighting:
His son went into a dissociative fugue,
things were breaking on his boat,
and his wife had become suddenly ill.
Dahl and Crisman produced samples of the metal debris
they'd allegedly taken from the crash site,
but Arnold found them unconvincing.
Suspecting a hoax, Arnold contacted
US Army Counter-intelligence,
and the next day, counter-intelligence officers,
Lt. Frank Brown and Cpt. William Davidson
joined the men at the Winthrop Hotel.
Brown and Davidson interviewed Dahl and
Crisman once more in the same room.
During this meeting, a local reporter
began receiving anonymous calls
describing the interview in detail, 
and naming all the individuals present.
No one has ever determined who the informant was,
but he made four more calls in the following days.
Crisman gave a box of debris samples to Brown 
and Davidson, who returned to McChord Air Base.
They flew out the next morning, 
but soon after, their engine caught fire.
They crashed their plane and died 
about 130 kilometres south of Tacoma.
The newly-formed Air Force launched 
an investigation into the entire episode,
concluding that the sighting was a hoax,
that the plane crash was an accident,
and that the debris was ordinary slag
from a nearby aluminum smelter,
though they found none of it in the wreckage.
Once again, an anonymous informant
began calling the local papers
within minutes of the crash site being found,
and even named the victims 12 hours before
their identities had been publicly revealed.
The informant claimed that the plane had
been shot down with a 20mm cannon,
and that similar attempts had been made
on the lives of Arnold and Smith.
Dahl and Crisman immediately began
back-peddling on their stories,
and denied that the samples were 
connected with their UFO sightings.
Two days after the crash, Dahl claimed
the whole sighting was a hoax,
and stopped pursuing the case completely,
although he later said he only did this
because he feared for his safety.
Arnold claimed that on his flight back from Tacoma,
he had to crash land his private plane after 
discovering that the fuel valve had been shut off.
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After the anonymous leaks, the Maury Island
story broke out in the regional news,
and reporters speculated that the B-52 crash may have
been related to the alleged "saucer" debris in its cargo.
The story went to press already imbedded 
with elements of conspiracy and cover-up.
However, the Air Force and the FBI launched
independent investigations, both concluding
that Dahl and Crisman had lied about the UFO sightings,
and produced the "alien" debris from local scrap dumps.
Arnold published his version of the story
in Fate Magazine in March 1948,
and expanded on this narrative with Ray Palmer
in the book, Coming of the Saucers, in 1952.
Arnold suspected a hoax, 
but he also suspected secret, government involvement.
As several researchers have pointed out,
there are many reasons to believe that
the Maury Island sighting was a hoax.
First, it was not reported until after Arnold's 
sighting had already made UFOs national news,
even though it allegedly happened before.
Dahl's own wife accused him of lying,
and his two children have both since
said that the event never happened.
Neither of the other two crewman who allegedly 
saw the saucers were interviewed, or even named.
Crisman had previously sent a letter to Ray Palmer
claiming that he was shot with a ray gun
in a cave in Burma during World War II,
but didn't disclose this to Arnold.
Furthermore, he was widely thought
to be a conman or a CIA agent.
He was later subpoenaed in the JFK assassination
for his relationship to one of the suspects.
The fact that he contacted Palmer first makes it seem
as though he was seeking publicity, or compensation.
Arnold, Smith, and Air Force investigators
all inspected Dahl's boat,
and determined that the damage 
was not consistent with the story.
Finally, no one other than the principle
witnesses found debris on the beach,
even though Dahl and Crisman both said 
that there had been 20 tons of it present.
But even if Dahl and Crisman lied, someone
still had to book Arnold's room in his name,
and leak precise details of the hotel room
conversations and the plane crash.
Some have speculated that the government's
involvement in the Maury Island incident
was a counter-intelligence operation, 
with the possible collaboration of Crisman.
A government agent may have 
tapped the room at the Winthrop
and booked it in Arnold's name to make sure he used it.
Another agent could have listened in from outside
and relayed the content of the meetings to the press,
spinning a story of government cover-up.
Why government intelligence would have wanted to 
propagate such a conspiracy theory is unclear, however.
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Whether the sighting was a hoax or not,
it's had a seminal influence on the 
subsequent evolution of UFO culture.
The involvement of the government,
as well as the fatal plane crash,
have led people to believe 
there was a conspiracy at play.
The case also contains the first known reference to
what is now referred to as a "Man in Black," or MIB,
which have appeared in many UFO encounters since.
When Gray Barker popularized the concept
of the MIB in his influential book,
They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers, in 1956,
he used the Maury Island sighting
as a key piece of evidence.
The MIB are thought to be either secret, 
government agents, or disguised alien henchmen,
though their function and identity
are shrouded in mystery.
The Maury Island UFO sighting and the
string of bizarre events that followed
may not have been as well publicized
as Arnold's sighting on June 24,
but they had no less a powerful 
impact on the public imagination.
Liars or not, Dahl and Crisman introduced
the world to the Men in Black,
and infused the burgeoning UFO culture
with a taste for conspiracy.
(Sources are listed in the video description.)
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