Huron, South Dakota: Airport staff watch lighted object for hours, tracked briefly by theodolite
Late on November 26, 1950, Weather Bureau observer Gene Fowler, CAA staffer Winfield Henry and Western Airlines ground personnel watched a 'mysterious lighted object' flashing red, white and green above Huron Regional Airport, South Dakota; Fowler tracked it with a theodolite for 8 minutes, and it reappeared from 1:30 to 3:00 a.m.
Background
At 11:50 p.m. on November 26, 1950, a 'mysterious lighted object' flashing red, white, and green lights was seen above Huron Regional Airport in South Dakota. Weather Bureau observer Gene Fowler, Winfield Henry of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, and Gordon Moore and Chet Fuqua, ground personnel at Western Airlines, went up to the roof of the airport administration building for a better look. Fowler watched it through a theodolite used for weather balloons for 8 minutes; the azimuth reading changed from 147 to 161 degrees and the elevation rose seven degrees. The Rapid City weather bureau and Aberdeen CAA estimated the object to be 40–50 miles northwest of Bismarck, North Dakota. It reappeared at 1:30 a.m., was visible and sometimes hovering until 3:00 a.m., then disappeared to the northwest; in Aberdeen, CAA aircraft communicator William B. Hiller watched a star-like object changing between white, green and red for 90 minutes from 2:00 a.m. The entry cites the Rapid City Journal of November 27, 1950, and Loren E. Gross's history for 1950. The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.