Dozens of flying saucer reports have resulted in the creation of a Canadian flying saucer observatory.
John C. Ross
May, 1954 FATE Magazine
In a tiny building only 12 feet square at Shirley’s Bay, 10 miles north of Ottawa, is housed one of the most unusual collection of instruments ever crammed into so small a space. It is the world’s first flying saucer observatory.
The sighting station went into operation with little fanfare. At first Canadian Government officials were inclined to dismiss the very existence of the station as a figment of the imagination. On the day before it opened, Dr. C. M. Solandt, chairman of the Defense Research Board, professed complete ignorance of the project. “Nothing to do with the Defense Research Board,” he said.
True enough, it turned out. The station was constructed by the National Research Council and officially announced by the Hon. Lionel Chevrier, Minister of Transport. Mr. Chevrier did not explain the denial of the project by Dr. Solandt, who was quick to modify his statement, explaining only that his board was not involved in the project.
“However, we are continuing to study new reports (of flying saucers),” he admitted, “and are alert to the possibilities of discoveries of that nature.”
Meanwhile, reports of new saucer sightings
have been coming in from all over Canada.
In North Bay, Ont., the Daily Nugget has a file of 16 persons who have reported sighting orange-colored discs. The newspaper says that all the accounts check closely in size, color, speed and flying behavior.
One North Bay citizen late in October told of a dozen night sightings of a “funny orange globe” which came out of the northeastern skies, wandered back and forth across the horizon, then vanished.
In the fall of 1951, three persons reported a day-time sighting over Lake Nipissing. Each saw it from a different shore and did not know of the other reports. And each reported a silver, round-shaped star going through strange maneuvers.
Orange-red discs have appeared over the Royal Canadian Air Force Jet Base on North Bay several times. Once such an object circled, dived and zig-zagged over the field for eight minutes. Another time a disc approached from the southwest, stopped, hovered over the field, reversed direction, and disappeared in a climbing turn.
It is dozens of such reports that have resulted in creation of Canada’s flying saucer observatory- some call it a “dish watching” station. Management of the station is under the Canadian saucer project, called “Project Magnet.” Project Magnet was given formal recognition three years ago by the Department of Transport on an understanding that it be combined to the broadcast and measurement section of the tele-communications division of the department and that no appropriation of public funds be required for its support. Actually, Project Magnet was created to investigate the possibility of discs powered by magnetic propulsion.
Tremendously complex and expensive equipment has gone into the tiny building at Shirley’s Bay. The equipment is designed to detect gamma rays, magnetic fluctuations, radio noises and gravity or mass changes in the atmosphere.