Les Écureuils, Quebec: Fiery object falls into St. Lawrence River, piece recovered
On the afternoon of June 12, 1960, after a sonic boom, a fiery object fell into the St. Lawrence River near Les Écureuils, Quebec, and split into two pieces; one was picked up by the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment.
Background
Around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m., following a sonic boom, a fiery object fell from an altitude of 1,000–2,000 feet and split into two pieces that landed in the St. Lawrence River near Les Écureuils, about 20 miles upriver from Quebec City. A beachcomber sold the smaller piece (800 pounds) to a scrap-metal dealer, while the other was picked up by the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment (CARDE), whose analysis reportedly found a high-manganese alloy identified as foundry slag with semi-molten scrap, likely from Sorel Iron Foundries. Wilbert B. Smith's Ottawa Flying Saucer Club rejected that finding, tested a chunk it retrieved from the river around July 1, and in November 1961 Smith speculated that it was part of a large device that had been in space a long time. In June 1968 Roy Craig of the Colorado project took a piece but did not analyze it, seeing no UFO connection and judging it foundry slag; a metallurgist engaged by Ronald Anstee of the Montreal UFO Society found a composition matching no known commercial manganese steel, while in 1969 Peter Millman of the National Research Council concluded it was ordinary manganese steel from the Sorel plant. 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.