Status: Explained — officially attributed to swamp gas, an explanation that was widely ridiculed and is still debated.
Credit: U.S. Air Force, Project Blue Book (1966) · Licence: Public domain (U.S. government work) · Source
In March 1966, southern Michigan was in the middle of a wave of UFO reports. On the night of March 20, farmer Frank Mannor, his wife and son reported a football-shaped object with blinking lights hovering over a marsh near their farm northwest of Dexter. Two sheriff's deputies went into the swamp to investigate. Altogether, about 60 people, including a dozen law enforcement officers, were said to have seen something.
The next night, around 87 residents of a Hillsdale College dormitory watched flashing lights over the campus arboretum for more than three hours, took notes, and called the local civil defense director, who also observed the lights through binoculars.
The Air Force sent J. Allen Hynek, its civilian scientific consultant. At a Detroit press conference on March 25, he said “marsh gas” could account for the Dexter and Hillsdale sightings. The explanation was widely mocked, and Michigan congressman Gerald Ford, then the House minority leader, called for a congressional investigation. The controversy added to pressure for a formal scientific review of the UFO question. Hynek went on to become one of the field's most prominent researchers.
Sources: Wikipedia: Michigan “swamp gas” UFO reports
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