Anomaly•Registry
AR-0165

The Socorro Landing

Unsolved
Date 24 April 1964
Location A gully about 1.6 kilometres south of the county courthouse, Socorro, New Mexico, United States
Coordinates 34.0514, -106.8883
Category Sky and Atmospheric

Summary

On 24 April 1964 a Socorro police officer, Lonnie Zamora, reported an egg-shaped object on legs in a gully south of the town, two small figures in white beside it, and a roaring flame as it left. Project Blue Book never identified it, and the student hoax later alleged has never been shown.

The description of the object rests on one witness. The scorched brush and four impressions at the site were seen by several. Sixty-two years on, every explanation offered rests on inference, a secondhand remark or an anonymous source.

how long after 24 April 1964 each later explanation appeared the sighting, 1964 Colgate's reply balloon idea Surveyor idea Colgate's emails anonymous source 1968 1996 2001 2012 2017 names no student untested the range log shows morning tests "A candle in a balloon" cannot say how it was done EACH CAME 4 TO 53 YEARS AFTER THE SIGHTING none places a person, balloon or vehicle at the site. Blue Book, which investigated in 1964, left it unidentified.
Figure Drawn by Anomaly Registry from Paul Harden's 2008 account, David E. Thomas's Surveyor article and Robert Sheaffer's reports of the Colgate letter and emails. Bars show how many years after 24 April 1964 each explanation appeared, from Colgate's 1968 reply to an anonymous source in 2017, with what each rests on.

What is documented

The sighting. Shortly before 6 pm on Friday 24 April 1964, Zamora was chasing a speeding car when he heard a roar and saw a flame in the sky, according to the account of Paul Harden, a Socorro historian. In Zamora's own words, as quoted by David E. Thomas, the flame was "bluish and sort of orange". Thinking a building used to store explosives had blown up, he left the chase and drove up a rocky track towards it. He saw "a shiny type object...oval in shape", with "two people in white coveralls" near it, and what appeared to be two legs "slanted outwards" to the ground. Harden's account adds a red insignia on the craft. When the roar began again, Zamora dropped to the ground and covered his face with an arm, fearing an explosion. According to Harden, the object rose about 20 feet, flew low towards the west for about two miles, then climbed rapidly and disappeared.

The traces. Sergeant Sam Chavez of the New Mexico State Police and other officers reached the site soon after. They found burned greasewood and seared clumps of green grass, still hot, and four shallow holes, each about a foot long and six inches wide, where the object had apparently stood on its legs. No footprints were found. The military took samples of the burned earth, according to Harden.

The investigation. Captain Richard Holder, the Army's up-range commander at White Sands, made the first reports. J. Allen Hynek, the astronomer who advised Project Blue Book, arrived in Socorro on 29 April. In the words of Blue Book's chief, Major Hector Quintanilla, as quoted by Harden: "There is no doubt that Lonnie Zamora saw an object which left quite an impression on him." He called it "the best-documented case on record" and said the Air Force had been unable "to find the vehicle or other stimulus" (as quoted by Harden and by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). Quintanilla looked into a prototype of the Apollo lunar lander and found that none was operational in April 1964, according to Thomas. Of the 12,618 reports Blue Book received from 1947 to 1969, 701 remain "Unidentified", in the National Archives' words; Harden counts Socorro among them.

Other witnesses. Harden records an unidentified tourist on US 85 who told Opal Grinder, the manager of a Whiting Brothers service station, that he had seen a craft just before it landed. The tourist was never identified. Other witnesses have been claimed, but the UFO writer Kevin Randle, quoted by the sceptic Robert Sheaffer, wrote that "no one else saw the landed craft".

The site. In 1966 the Socorro County Chamber of Commerce built a site for visitors. According to Harden, it is about a quarter of a mile from where the object was reported.

The hoax claim. In 1968 the chemist Linus Pauling wrote to Stirling Colgate, the physicist who was then president of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, asking about the case. Colgate's scribbled reply, found in Pauling's papers and published in 2009 by the researcher Anthony Bragalia, reads: "I have a good indication of the student who engineered the hoax. Student has left." He named no one. In 2012 Bragalia reported emails in which Colgate called it a prank and described the object as "A candle in a balloon. Not sophisticated." In 2017 Bragalia said he had spoken to one of the perpetrators, a student in 1964, but could not give names or say exactly how it was done, according to Sheaffer.

Leading explanations

A student hoax (Anthony Bragalia, from 2009, on the strength of Stirling Colgate's 1968 remark and 2012 emails; unproven). It rests on statements made years later. No student has been publicly named in the letter, the emails or the 2017 interview, and Bragalia has said he cannot say exactly how it was done. Sheaffer, who has written about the letter since 2010, asked in 2012 whether it was proof and answered: "Not yet". In 2017 he wrote that attempts to investigate the hoax theory had turned up "plausible rumors and implications, but so far no solid and demonstrable facts."

A hot-air balloon (proposed by the engineer Eugene Robinson in 1996; favoured by Sheaffer in 2017; untested). Sheaffer's own write-up notes the objections raised against balloon explanations: the speed of the departure and the direction of travel relative to the wind.

A Surveyor lander carried by a helicopter (David E. Thomas, 2001; untested, and he calls it "far from conclusive"). A White Sands range log records tests that day in which a helicopter carried a Surveyor test vehicle, but the tests were scheduled for the morning, and the sighting was shortly before 6 pm.

A lunar lander prototype (considered by Blue Book; rejected). Quintanilla found that no prototype was operational in April 1964.

Fabrication by Zamora (raised and then rejected by the UFO writer Kevin Randle). Randle judged it flawed once "all the factors" were added, among them the lack of any motive, according to Sheaffer. The burned brush was still hot when other officers arrived.

A craft of unknown origin (Zamora's account taken at face value; unsupported beyond his testimony and the ground marks). The marks show that something scorched the brush and pressed into the ground. They do not show what it was.

What the popular version gets wrong

"It was a confirmed student hoax." The claim rests on a two-sentence reply written four years later, emails written 48 years later and an anonymous source. None names a student, and Bragalia has said he cannot say exactly how it was done. Sheaffer, a sceptic who has written about the letter since 2010, said in 2012 that it was not yet proof.

"Several witnesses saw the craft land." The case rests on Zamora's account. The tourist's sighting reached the record secondhand, through a service-station manager, and the tourist was never identified. Other officers saw the traces, not the object.

"The marked site is where it landed." The visitor site built in 1966 is about a quarter of a mile from the reported landing place, according to Harden.

Current status

Unsolved. The core of the case is one police officer's account, supported by physical traces that other officers saw soon afterwards, and investigated at the time by the Army, the Air Force and Hynek. Blue Book could not identify it. The alternatives proposed since, a student prank, a balloon and a Surveyor test, all lack evidence tying them to the site at the time.

What would change this entry is a named participant with a checkable account of how the prank was done, or a record placing a specific balloon or test vehicle at the site shortly before 6 pm on 24 April 1964.

Sources

  • Harden, P. (2008). "The 1964 Socorro UFO Incident." El Defensor Chieftain, 2 August 2008. Socorro County Historical Society, socorro-history.org.
  • Thomas, D. E. "A Different Angle on the Socorro UFO of 1964." New Mexicans for Science and Reason, nmsr.org. An edited version of his article in the Skeptical Inquirer, 2001. Quotes Zamora's account and part of a White Sands range log for 24 April 1964.
  • Zamora, L. Account of the sighting, 1964. Known to the registry through the quotations in Thomas.
  • Quintanilla, H. Statement on the Socorro case, as quoted by Harden (2008) and by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, Socorro case directory, nicap.org.
  • National Archives and Records Administration. "Project BLUE BOOK: Unidentified Flying Objects." archives.gov.
  • Colgate, S. Reply to Linus Pauling, 1968, Pauling papers. Known to the registry through Sheaffer (2012).
  • Sheaffer, R. "A Socorro Student Hoax Confirmed?" (12 August 2012); "Socorro 'Student Hoax' Tempest in a Pentagon Teapot (or something)" (1 December 2017); "Socorro Again: Did Zamora Simply Make the Whole Thing Up?" (14 December 2017). Bad UFOs blog, badufos.blogspot.com.

Last reviewed: September 2026. Records are provisional. Where the evidence changes, the entry changes. Found an error? Tell us.

Related records
AR-0102 The Roswell Incident An Army air field announced a captured 'flying disc' in July 1947 and withdrew it the same day. The debris was a classified Mogul balloon train. 1947 Later explained
AR-0137 The Mantell Incident A Guard pilot died chasing an object over Kentucky in 1948. He blacked out without oxygen; the object was probably a secret balloon. 7 January 1948 Later explained
AR-0158 The Westall UFO Pupils and teachers at a Melbourne school reported a silvery object circled by light aircraft in April 1966. No proposed cause has been confirmed. 1966 Unsolved
AR-0015 Hessdalen Lights Recurring luminous phenomena in a Norwegian valley, under active scientific study. Documented since 1981 Partially explained

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