the bulletin

VOL. 29 TUCSON, ARIZONA NO. 7

UFO OVER COPPER SMELTER

On the evening of October 23rd, 1980, one of the
most well-witnessed UFO sightings in history took
place in the little mining town of Morenci, Arizona .
Located on US 666, it is about 20 miles northeast of
Safford, Arizona, which is . on Interstate 10 in
southeastern Arizona. Morenci is a typical Arizona
copper mining town and the site of two huge copper
smelters which are owned and operated by
Phelps-Dodge Corporation.
APRO's investigator on this case was Jim McCoy
who did in-depth interviews with five of the witnesses .
There were a host of other witnesses and hopefully
they can be interviewed at a later date . However ,
inasmuch as the five men observed the object at
relatively close range, their testimony is central to the
CO,.,POSITE CONl'IG U"l'l"flO~ facts in the case.
Randell Rogers and Larry Mortensen, both
FIG- . 3 employees at Phelps-Dodge, left their work area at
8:55 p.m. to proceed to the lunch area for the evening
"break." They entered an open type of vehicle (no
cab) and enroute to the lunch area they stopped and
picked up Joe Nevarez , Kent David and James Best .
(Please see illustrations which accompany theis text.)
OR OR UFO? After starting the vehicle up again, they noticed an
object approaching from the north at an altitude of
experience of approximately 1500 to 2000 feet and Nevarez
s on an August exclaimed, " Hey , you guys, look at the flying saucer !"
sighting occurred One or two of the others remarked that " it" was just
ex-wife and I were an airplane and laughed. Nevarez then demanded that
fino Idaho. A radio the vehicle be stopped so that he could get a better
as interrupted to nnounce the appearance look at the object.
eteor over Boise I o, stating that several When the vehicle was brought to a stop and the men
had seen it and he time. Within minutes, looked up, they were amazed to see a boomerang-
four), another b etin stated that the meteor shaped object approaching the north smoke stack of
all Idaho . This indicated that the smelter area at a very low speed which they later
e told Mr. McCoy that they estimated to be about five
miles per hour. When it arrived at a position directly
e over the north stack, it stopped and hovered for a
minute or so, then came straight down vertically to an
estimated altitude of about 700 to 1,000 feet , not far
above the stack . After a brief period of time a brillant
a meteor. light erupted from the forward apex of the boomerang
In about six minutes we sighted what a configuration and shone directly down into the interior
be a self-luminous object on the proper fli of the north smelter stack. The witnesses described
the meteor described. Range may have b~~"" this light as brighter than a search light or that of an
(See UFO? - Page Four) (See Smelter - Page Two)
THE A.P.R.O. BULLETIN VOL. 29, NO. 7

Physics .................. Gerhard H. Wolter, Ph.D.

Physics .................... Robert M. Wood, Ph.D.
Plasma Research ........... Peter A. Sturrock, Ph.D.
Seismology .................... John S. Derr, Ph.D.
Social Sciences
History .................... David M. Jacobs, Ph.D.
Philosophy ................ Robert F. Creegan, Ph.D.
Philosophy ............ Emerson W. Schideler, Ph.D.
Psychology ................... Ronald Neman, Ph.D.
Psychology .................. R. Leo Sprinkle, Ph.D.
Sociology ..................... Ron Westrum, Ph.D .

•••••
Smelter
(continued from Page One)
arc welder.
Approximately 10 seconds later, the brilliant beam
went out and the object began moving south at the
same apparent altitude and then stopped directly over
the south smelter stack. Again the brilliant beam came
on and shone into the interior of the south stack.
Shortly thereafter the light beam turned off again
and the object moved slowly (estimated at 5-10 miles
per hour) to the south. Then "in less than the blink of
an eye" it accelerated to a speed which the witnes,es
were not able to estimate, in the direction of Safford,
Arizona.

y
.:, Object' a rll,ht path

i.D.
i.D.
i.D.
i.D.

LD.
i.D.
LD.
LD.
LD.

l.E. TOP VI!W OP PLAHT SITE

i.D. Plirur• 2

1.D.
1.D. At that juncture, when the object had the
i.D. appearance of being "one foot in size", Joe Nevarez
l.D. stated that he wished that the thing would come back
i.D. so he could get a better look at it. Immediately,
t.D. almost as if in response to an unspoken command, the
:.D. object performed an instant reversal from its position
i.D. over Safford, to over the slag dump area of the smelter
t.D. at Morenci. McCoy reports that it should be noted
.,_-' l

VOL. 29, NO. 7 THE A.P.R.O. BULLETIN PAGE 3

that by instant reversal, the witnesses meant that the Another sighting of what was either the same or a
object did not tum, climb, dive or take any -radius similar object was made by Joe Nevarez and James
turn, but just instantly reversed and was back over Best at 9 p.m. This object approached from the north
the smelter area where it accelerated out of sight in the but at a higher altitude (about 6,000 feet), hovered,
north, the direction from which it had come. and traveled slowly about the area for about 5 to 10
While the object was in the smelter area it was minutes, This sighting was corroborated by a law
observed by all five witnesses and the following is a enforcement official (who wishes to remain anonymous)
composite narrative of the description of the object: located five miles to the west, observing with the aid
It was in a boomerang configuration with a forward of 10 power binoculars. He stated that while the object
apex of the wing of approximately 120 degrees, and was stationary one small red light descended vertically
one ''wing'' appeared to be shorter than the other with down from it and left at a very high rate of speed in
a distance from tip to tip of the ''wings'' appearing to the direction of Silver City, New Mexico (slightly
be about 1/4 mile. The object was dull black in color, south of due east of Morenci). Another red light
resembling 1/2" steel plate, and did not reflect light. dropped and went north in the direction of the San
There were no seams, rivets or other surface markings Carlos Indian reservation. After 1 or 2 minutes, these
noted. The large beam of light which was directed into objects returned and merged with the boomerang
the interior of the stacks was located near the forward shape which in tum departed at a very high rate of
center of the apex. The witnesses stated that they speed into the north and out of sight.
:\ <·<- ( APRO was alerted concerning the Morenci sighting
.;.
~ on January 10 by Mr. Samuel Player, the editor of the
DIMENSIONS COURTESY PKELPS-
DOt>GE CORPORATION Eastern Arizona Courier of Safford, Arizona, and some
v of the above information was carried in the press. In
X~(-<-f-{(< ~~ ~~~ ~~~~
addition to the five smelter workers, who were
S(-- "almost" under the object, Greenlee County Sheriff
Ralph Gomez, several Morenci businessmen among
others, witnessed the passage of the huge object. One
hundred (100) members of the Morenci High School
band and thP. director were among the host of
- - 3'1'1 1
C;To<.:. individuals who watched.
!OC..:; "'ISiWR.S.
·>··· - . : p
.,;~!'";-:.. ,~:.,:.. There are indications that this object was witnessed
on at least one and possibly more occasions and the
Bulletin will follow up on this case if further details
come to hand.
(Editor's note: The boomerang-shape is not totally
unfamiliar in UFO lore, but then it is not as widely
1st sighting ?-100-?1 lO p.m. M.S.T.
2nd sighting 8145-9100 p.m. M.S.T. seen as the discs or cigar-shapes either. The
Pull Moon - no reflections
Wind light from N. to s. searchlight shining down from the object is another
Arrows indicate object's path
characteristic of some UFOs seen often enough that it
2) Octooer 1980-Morenci, Arii.ona
is not tremendously outstanding. The one mind·
boggling characteristic about the object in this
could look at this light without any ill effect and it
instance is its apparent ability to reverse course
compared with the glow of a full moon.
without banking or executing any of the other
On each "wing" there were 8 bright reddish lights,
manuevers generally associated with a change in
four on each leading edge and 4 on each trailing edge.
trajectory. In a report handled by this office in the
These lights seemed to be about 75 feet apart and were
middle 1960s involving policemen who observed a
interconnected by a white tube of light (like a
fluorescent bulb but much larger). All lights on the cigar-shaped object which hovered over a field, it
approached them with lightning speed, then "snapped
object remained steady at all times and did not blink,
back" to its original position without changing flight
rotate, flash or otherwise change in any manner except
when shown into the interior of the smelter stacks. It attitude. We have not researched this case to get the
exact date, but mention it here for comparison
made no sound at any time, and was observed with
the aid of a full- moon which had just risen. purposes.) • • • *•
There are no lights on the smelter stacks for aircraft
warning or otherwise, and no lights in the area reflect Please!
upward. The weather was clear with no clouds,
lightning, precipitation or other atmospheric pheno·
Send OLD and NEW
mena present. The winds were light and variable from
the north. A small amount of smoke was being emitted
Zip Codes
from each of the smelter stacks. with Address Changes.