Hawkins and Brown sighting, Salmon Dam, Idaho

County Commissioner L. W. Hawkins of Twin Falls and J. H. Brown reported seeing two objects at great height on Wednesday, 13 August 1947, near Salmon Dam, about 40 miles southwest of Twin Falls. An FBI Butte teletype to the Director dated 15 August said the two men, fishing in a river at about 9:30 a.m., saw two objects that appeared to be discs and heard a roar like a motor truck. The same teletype said each object appeared to be about six feet in diameter.

The Twin Falls Times-News of 15 August carried the story alongside a report by A. C. Urie of a separate object seen in Snake River canyon that afternoon. The paper said Hawkins saw two circular objects that reflected light, heard a sound like the echo of a motor, and judged them to be higher than most airplanes. Hawkins told the paper he could not say what they were. The article also said four teenage boys had built a model disc in July, which was later revealed as a hoax after army and FBI investigation. It did not link that hoax to the Salmon Dam sighting.

An FBI agent did not locate Hawkins but interviewed Brown. The report said Brown's name had been kept from the newspaper because the two men were fishing at Salmon dam when Brown was supposed to be working in Twin Falls. Brown said they heard a roar, looked up and saw two objects that he thought were between 4,000 and 6,000 feet up. He had no idea of their size and said they might have been several miles away. He said he and Hawkins were very doubtful that they had seen two planes.

The Air Force compilation logged the event as Incident 76. Its check-list recorded two objects, circular, at great speed, with time in sight, direction, size and manner of disappearance not stated and no sketches or photographs. A second copy of the summaries gave the same agent and newspaper account. None of the pages gave a conclusion about what the men saw.