Eagle River encounter

Background

By 1961, American popular culture was filled with tales of alien spaceships and government coverups, and Joe Simonton had been exposed to such theories before his reported encounter. Since the 1947 flying disc craze, reports of unidentified aircraft had led to speculation about secret, possibly extraterrestrial, technology. After a 1952 nationwide spate of sightings culminating in mass UFO reports over Washington, D.C., a CIA study concluded that continued public interest might pose grave risks to national security, recommending a public education debunking campaign and monitoring of civilian UFO groups.

By 1955, amateur investigator Donald Keyhoe's book The Flying Saucer Conspiracy accused a silence group within the government of covering up evidence. In 1956, Keyhoe founded the National Investigations Committee On Aerial Phenomena (NICAP), which grew to become the largest civilian UFO group. In 1961, NICAP board member and former CIA director Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter publicly claimed that high-ranking Air Force officers were concerned about UFOs but that official secrecy and ridicule led citizens to believe the objects were nonsense.

House leader John W. McCormack called for hearings, and Keyhoe stated that President Kennedy was on record that the UFO subject was important. Eagle River magistrate Frank Wellington Carter, a NICAP member and longtime believer in a government coverup, gave public talks on flying saucers and led a local UFO study group; Joe Simonton attended one of Carter's presentations.

Initial reports

On April 23, 1961, newspapers nationwide carried a wire-service story about Joe Simonton, an Eagle River plumber who reported seeing a silver saucer on Tuesday, April 18, around 11 AM. Simonton said three men aboard the craft handed him a jug, which he filled with water and returned; in exchange, he received cakes about three inches in diameter that tasted like cardboard. He described the men as clean-shaven, looking like ordinary human beings, short in stature and of Italian descent, wearing black shirts and trousers; one had a red stripe on his trousers.

The craft made humming sounds like a generator, had exhaust pipes along one edge, and took off after about five minutes with a blast of air that affected nearby pine trees. Simonton turned the cakes over to local judge Frank Carter. The district attorney said Simonton had a good reputation and told a straightforward story, and the town's newspaper editor described him as trustworthy.

Reactions

A local insurance agent claimed to have seen the saucer around the same time as Simonton's report, and two local youths and their family reported seeing a saucer the following day. The US Air Force dispatched investigator J. Allen Hynek, who noted that local judge Frank Carter, a NICAP member, was hostile to the Air Force; Hynek concluded Simonton suffered from a hallucination followed by a delusion. Simonton was flooded with inquiries and visitors; by May 3, he complained about loss of work due to publicity and said if it happened again he would not tell anyone.

His chickens became ill after the encounter, with many dying. On May 4, a local supermarket offered the public a chance to meet Simonton as part of a promotional sale of Aunt Jemima Pancakes. A local politician lampooned the story as related to John F. Kennedy's Pie in the Sky, while another suggested the occupants ate local foods like members of the Peace Corps. Local press suggested Flying Saucers as a theme for July festivities and nominated Simonton as parade king.

On June 22, papers announced that government analysis revealed the pancake contained ordinary ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, and cooked in oil. The Aerial Phenomena Research Organization called it one of the most controversial cases they had ever investigated.

The case led UFO researcher Jacques Vallée to reject the extraterrestrial hypothesis, connecting the encounter to folklore of fairies offering bread. Judge Carter sent a cake to NICAP, but NICAP declined involvement, expressing skepticism and stating they did not wish further publicity for an unproven, fantastic claim. NICAP's newsletter speculated the story would be used by the Air Force for added ridicule of serious UFO reports.

Later publicity

In 1962, Simonton went to a Space Age convention in Chicago and was asked to speak at a Space-O-Rama event during Seattle's World's Fair. The San Francisco Examiner covered his account. The following year, he was scheduled to address another Space Age convention. By 1965, writer Howard Margolis had brought up the case in discussions of UFO conspiracy theories, and Project Blue Book chief Hector Quintanilla compared it to the 1964 Lonnie Zamora incident, showing a pancake to reporters and the public.

Television reports on the story continued into 1966. On May 9, 1968, BBC1 aired a 75-minute documentary featuring an interview with Simonton, along with the Zamora and Betty and Barney Hill cases. Simonton's house burned down in 1969. He was born on February 5, 1901, in Potomac, Illinois, and died on August 21, 1971.

A 1952 newspaper ad promoted his plumbing business, and he lost a 1959 election for Constable. In 1978, the TV series Project U.F.O. adapted his story, with aliens trading a strange loaf for water. As of 2023, a fragment of one pancake remains at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

Did You Know?

• A 1952 newspaper featured an ad for Simonton's plumbing services.
• In 2020, Reason magazine's Jesse Walker observed that the UFO literature is filled with stories told by people who might be pranking or might sincerely believe what they are saying.