Mariana UFO Incident: Great Falls’ Visiting Voyagers
Aerial View of the ACM Smelter, Baseball Field, and Golf Couse in Great Falls Montana, Unknown Photographer. [2003.080.0065]
Great Falls Evening Leader, August 15, 1950:
Could it be that even baseballs now come home to roost?
Nick Mariana, general manager for the Selectrics, was asking himself that question this morning. Two objects – for all the world like the “long gone” ball slugged out of the Twin Falls ball park last night by Lou Briganti and Joe Nally – sailed across the sky at Legion Park this morning.
At least so the troubled brewers’ general manager reported today – even while admitting he could have been seeing things. Only he hopes to have photographic proof for skeptics.
It all happened at 11:30 a. m. while Mariana was out taking a look around the reserved seat section at Legion Park – and there sailing smoothly above the smelter stack at the ACM plant were two spherical silvery objects at a height he estimated at 5,000 feet. After a quick double take and a minute lost while he brushed the cobwebs from his eyes, he called his secretary as a witness.
Very opportunely he remembered his movie camera and shot the movies he hopes will verify what he hopes isn’t failing eyesight.
No report is available on possible weather balloons floating in the atmosphere today – but it is feared that the high-flying baseball version may be more acceptable to Great Falls residents than “flying saucers.”
Nick Mariana’s tale of flying discs over Great Falls was one of many in 1950, but his experience had something that the others did not: 16mm of filmed proof.
This video includes the segments of the film relating to Nick Mariana's UFO footage filmed in 16mm on August 15th, 1950, in Great Falls, Montana. Included in this video is a rehearsed but accurate interview with Nick Mariana regarding the filming as well as some breakdown analysis of the footage. It is from the 1956 film: Unidentified Flying Objects: The True Story of Flying Saucers.
Beginning in the late 1940’s, unidentified flying object reports were received and tracked by the United States Air Force. This became known as Project Blue Book. From 1947-1969, the United State Air Force investigated these reports, basing out of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio. The interview in the video above, was conducted by officers involved with the project.
Today, copies of Nick Mariana’s film are held in the U.S. National Archives along with the rest of Project Blue Book:
Snapshot of players on the Great Falls Baseball Field facing home plate, about 1935 - 1955. [2021.052.0019]
Great Falls has had over 100 reported UFO sightings, making it one of the most active locations for UFOs in North America. To honor that unusual designation, the minor league baseball team that Mariana had once managed was renamed in 2008 to the Great Falls Voyagers.
Below are a few clippings of articles from the Great Falls Tribune regarding the Mariana Incident and other UFO sightings. For more information on the incident, a vertical file on the topic is kept in The History Museum Archives.
Articles:
Flying Saucer Viewed Near Raynesford… November 6, 1950
Flying Saucer Movies to be Shown Here… September 11, 1950
Flying Disc Pictures Will Be Studied by Air Force… October 5, 1950
Jerry Officer Recalls Sight of Sky Object… November 7, 1950
Mystery Objects Seen Here Shown in Documentary Film… April 24, 1956
Nothing There, Says USAF of “Saucer” Film… October 11, 1950
Object in Sky Spurs Report… January 12, 1951
Flying Disc Film Entangled…. October 6, 1950