Low Constituents: - Nickel, Lead, Strontium, Chromium Traces – Silver, Tin, Cadmium.
“Nothing of an unusual nature exists in this combination of metals except the unusually high quantity of calcium and titanium. It is interesting to note that titanium, one of the high constituent metals, is now believed to be the key metal in constructing missiles or ships capable of space travel. Also, calcium has an affinity for particles of radium, and the ability to capture them and prevent contamination of surrounding areas.
Analysis of Tacoma Slag Fragments pointed out by Maj. Sanders
1 . The crude sample is magnetic. This indicates the presence of the mineral magnetite (iron oxide, FE3O4), free iron or both. Both appear to be present in this sample.
2 . About 21% of the sample is soluble in hydrochloric acid. This is the iron-iron oxide fraction. The acid insoluble residue is nonmagnetic. Since the acid soluble and insoluble fractions are obviously different chemical individuals, both fractions were analyzed separately.
3. The acid soluble fraction is 49.7% Fe (iron). Qualitative tests showed a small amount of Zn (zinc), a trace of Cd (cadmium) and Mo (molybdenum). No nickel, cobalt, or copper are found in this fraction. The remainder of this sample is largely oxygen.
4. The acid insoluble fraction has the following analysis: %SIO2 49.2
% FE2O3 30.2 %FE 21.2 % C2O BaO 13.1 % Ca & Ba 9.35 % MaO 1.1 %Ma 0.87
_____
93.6
The remainder of the material is aluminum, titanium, magnesium, and alkali oxides together with small amounts of other metals. No cobalt or nickel were found in this fraction.
5. A mineralogical analysis under the petrographic microscope shows that the sample is a very complex mixture of silicates and oxides, typical of an artificial slag.
On the basis of the above five points, the material is slag from the production of steel. The presence of appreciable amounts of iron in the slag suggests that it is slag from an open-hearth furnace. Palmer with the comparison of the initial slag and the later Tacoma samples states Crisman and Dahl’s slag was neither slag nor natural rock.–Palmer, Ray, “The Real UFO Invasion” Greenleaf Classics Pub. 1966. Notes: Arnold’s article in Fate 1948 did not mention titanium in construction of missiles and ships capable of Arnold, Kenneth, Fate, “I Did See the Flying Disks!” Palmer, “The Real UFO invasion”
space travel. Fate, 1948 and He said that he and two companions on board a small boat saw what appeared to be huge silver doughnuts coming down between the clouds.
"I anchored the boat and went ashore and watched the objects through binoculars," Mr. Dahl said. "I saw five objects rotating around a sixth. They were about 200 feet in diameter with a center hole, surrounded by what appeared to be a row of portholes."
The "ships" as Mr. Dahl described them, hung level about 1,500 feet, and then rose rapidly to a height of nearly a mile. At this point, according to Mr. Dahl, the central ship began raining a substance that rained down upon the water and along the shore. Pieces of the "metal rain" smashed a hole in the wheelhouse of his boat and broke a searchlight lens on deck. Some of the substance which, he said, was picked up on the beach was sent along to back up his story. -- Reuter.
We did not take any samples of the smelter slag….I was thinking that it was odd how Major Sander knew just the right side of the road to take out at the smelter and he stopped only where there were pieces of slag that closely resembled the pieces we hadCOS p.79
From Seattle FBI Files: “Palmer wrote them saying that he had been unable to analyze the rocks and ordered additional samples. ... A few days after the flying disk stories started in the latter part of June, Palmer contacted them saying he would pay for an exclusive story if the parts were fragments of a disk.”
Reporter Vogel would state he visited Dahl “Sunday evening” a few days after disks started appearing in papers in the early part of June. (The date would have likely been Sun. June 1, 8th or 15th).
Note: Vogel’s time frame clearly indicates the slag or black lava type “rock” was in possession of Crisman and Dahl weeks before any UFO sighting and indicates a monetary reason for salvaging the rocks, perhaps in the same manner as salvaging logs.
The slag in the above photo does appear to have a thickness of about an inch with rough liquid flow lines on one side.
Piece of Slag donated by Elmer Frombach.
Taken from Maury Island beach 1965.
Maury Island Slag
In 2010 a gentleman by the name of
Elmer Frombach donated to the
Northwest Museum of Legends and
Lore a piece of metal, he had picked
up on the beach of Maury Island in
1965. Assay records prove his family
owned a farm just North of Pembroke cove and the gravel pits. Frombach recalls how his dad had found a meteor and he also wanted a piece of something unusual so one day when his father was in conversation with a friend on the beach he came across this piece of metal looking “rock”. He would keep this metal in his bedroom forgetting about it for years until he read an account of the Maury Island mystery.
Although yet to be analyzed, the metal fragment is not radioactive and does bear marking of flow lines similar to the slag analyzed by Sprenger in 1947.
Today the area on Maury Island has greatly changed. Maury Island in the area of Pembroke cove, the area most likely where Dahl would claim to have his sighting has been a public park since 2010 called Dockton Forest and Glacier Park, stewarded by Vashon Maury Island Land Trust.
Vashon Island’s park Paradise Ridge confirms the area’s history with the military as it was the site of a Nike missile -now a 43-acre equestrian park located in the center of Vashon Island.
Additional Details from the Air Force Report According to a letter dated Aug. 7, 1947 Robert Grafton T. Sgt, Sq. “A” 314th AAF McChord Field that the pilot Capt. Davidson arrived at McChord from Hamilton on July 31st 1947 at 19:29. The pilot was granted two hundred gallons of gasoline by the Operations Officer and put into the plane.
The crew chief was checking over the exhaust stacks and the pilot and co-pilot were changing into civilian clothes. “We asked what time they wished to take off and were told between 22:00 and 23:00. They later called and said takeoff time would be near 24:00. However, the time of takeoff was near 2:00 am Aug. 1st 1947.
“We couldn’t see anything wrong with the plane. It landed here in what seemed to be a good condition.
It appears Capt. Davidson stayed with the plane until the very end and 1st Lieutenant Frank Brown very likely was thrown from the wreckage. With close to 200 gallons of fuel on fire at impact, the crash scene was likely a small inferno.
The statements from Hamilton Field appeared to one of the few indications of the officer’s mission from the Air Force. Statement from Maj. George B. Felton:
A statement letter labeled “Restricted” from HQ Fourth Air Force Hamilton Field Subject: Operations Order to Officers Concerned stating Capt. William L. Davidson and 1st Lt. Frank M. Brown “will proceed o/a 31 July 1947 via military aircraft to McChord Field, Washington on business pertaining to investigating duties for A-2 Section, Headquarters Fourth Air Force. Upon completion of mission, officers will return to proper station.
By command of Major General Hale: Signed George B. Felton Major. Air Corps
Asst Chief Opn & Tng”
The weather at 1:30am was clear with visibility at ten miles. Temperature was 53 degrees; wind North 3mph and shallow ground fog south.
FBI Hoover Letter
The following letter indicates that the FBI themselves did not know who was doing the wiretapping, an aspect that regardless of the origins of the slag should have caused a great deal of concern in the agency. Note: (parenthesis indicates likely person in redacted field)
Federal Bureau of Investigation United States Department of Justice To: Communications Section SAC, Seattle, August 14, 1947, URGENT
Transmit the following message to:
; Reutel August Twelve. It is noted from interrogation of (Arnold) claims that during the conference on July thirty one that (Dahl) and (Crisman) apparently repeated their false story about the material being fragments of a flying disc and only on Saturday night, August second did (Dahl) admit that the story was a hoax. If such is the case it would appear either (Dahl) or (Crisman) made the anonymous phone calls since they would have been under the impression at that time that the material furnished to Captain Davidson and Lieutenant Brown was actually parts of a flying disc. It would also appear that (Dahl) and (Crisman) did not admit the hoax to the Army Intelligence officers because if they had done so the officers probably would not have taken the alleged fragments with them on their fatal flight. This matter should be cleared up upon re-interview with (Dahl) and (Crisman) when this point clarified no further investigation necessary. Hoover
RGF: mjp
Newspaper Articles
Wrecked Bomber Carried Disc Secret
Mon. - Aug. 4, 1947
Army Says Data Was On Plane
By Paul Lantz
The army air forces Monday confirmed reports the B-25 bomber, which crashed at Kelso Friday carrying classified secret material pertaining to discs.
According to a United Press report Monday, Brig. Gen. Ned Schramm, chief of staff of the Fourth Air Force at San Francisco, confirmed a story carried exclusively in the Tacoma Times Saturday that the planes had been on a disc mission. The Times, which was the first newspaper to break the story, had been informed by an anonymous tipster that the fallen plane carried disc data at the time of the crash. Still unconfirmed is the tipster’s statement that the crash was caused by sabotage. It was revealed Monday that specimens obtained on Maury Island by two Tacoma businessmen are of a substance unknown to the University of Chicago metallurgists.
H.A. Dahl in the newsroom of The Tacoma Times told reports that fragments picked up at the island by himself and partner prior to the first sighting of the discs, were still unclassified by University of Chicago technicians.
IN GRAVEL PIT
He said that he first saw the fragments in a gravel pit on the south end of the island while exploring the pit with his son. He said that he informed his partner, Fred Crisman of the find. Crisman, thinking they might have a mineralogical value, went to the island and secured several of the fragments. The fragments were sent to a friend at the Chicago institution but technicians in the laboratory there were unable to identify their metallic content. Shortly after the first of the flying discs were sighted, Dahl said, he received a query from the Trans-Ocean Press, a wire service, asking information on his “flying disc fragments.” FLAT FRAGMENTS The fragments which were picked up in the Maury island pit were flat, approximately one inch in thickness of heavy, coppery color on one side, the other side being covered with a heavy, hard substance which resembled melted tar but which is heat resistant. The pieces, he said, had been examined by Kenneth Arnold and Capt. Emil Smith.
Arnold and Smith are considered the most reliable observers of the mysterious disc phenomenon. Brigadier General Ned Schramm, fourth air force chief of staff, Monday confirmed a story carried exclusively in The Times Saturday. Arnold and Capt. Smith were visited by Capt. William. Davidson and First Lt. Frank M. Brown, the ill-fated army intelligence men from Hamilton field who perished on the return trip while taking back material to Hamilton field headquarters. Capt. Smith and Arnold checked out of Hotel Winthrop Sunday and closeted all afternoon with McChord field intelligence officers. When interviewed by a Tacoma Times reporter Sunday night at the home of friends on Lake Washington, Capt. Smith said all information he and Arnold had gathered was turned over to the army. He also took the occasion to deny a story printed in Boise and Chicago papers quoting him as saying he had turned over six pieces of flying disc material from Maury island to Davidson and Brown. REPORT ON CRASH.
Army officers meanwhile said that the mystery surrounding a bomber, which crashed near Kelso, Wash., while reportedly carrying “disc fragments,” would be cleared up “by midweek.”
Major George Sanders, public relations officer at McChord field, the departure point for the ill-fated plane, said “testimony of one more person” was all that was needed before the army could make a complete public report. He denied that the plane was carrying saucer fragments.
INTERESTED IN MESSAGES As the mystery of “flying discs” deepened, army authorities were reported interested in the anonymous phone messages received by The Tacoma Times and the United Press in Tacoma. The mysterious caller, who has maintained a high batting average for accuracy, reported late Saturday that he was leaving the city that night but would return Tuesday.
At that time, he emphatically insisted that the bomber carrying disc data had been shot down “by a 20-millimeter cannon.”
He further predicted that Capt. Smith would be called to Wright field [now called Wright-Patterson AFB] by the army Tuesday.
ACCURACY SCORE So far, the mysterious caller has been accurate on the following scores:
“1. He correctly named the two pilots killed in the crash at Kelso and correctly identified them as army intelligence officers 12 full hours before the army released the information.
2. He was correct in saying that the plane was carrying disc information at the time of the crash.”
Still to be verified are his statements that the crash was caused by sabotage and that the plane was actually carrying parts of a flying disc. The “disc mystery” was resurrected from the Limbo of forgotten news stories in an atmosphere of cloak-and-dagger secrecy as profound as any in an Oppenheim thriller.
Events started Thursday afternoon with the first of a series of phone calls to the Tacoma Times and the United Press.
At that time the informant, who has remained anonymous, informed a reporter that Kenneth Arnold and army intelligence officer had met in room 502, Hotel Winthrop, for an investigation of flying disc data.
ASKS FOR REPORTER
The informant hung up abruptly and was not heard from again until the following day – Friday, when again the rich, baritone voice asked for a Times reporter. Asked why he hung up so abruptly, the mystery caller said he was a switchboard operator and had had to answer another call. He then said that army intelligence officers were meeting with Arnold and Capt. Smith in the hotel room; that flying disc material was in the plane, which crashed at Kelso, and that McChord field officials believed the plane had been either sabotaged or shot down. That was the last call to The Times office.
NO STATEMENT
A Times reporter, checking on the information, discovered Smith and Arnold in conference with two other men in the hotel room. Both, at that time, refused to make a statement.
Meanwhile, United Press Correspondent Ted Morello received a call from an unknown man who, speaking in muffled, obviously disguised tones, identified the pilots killed in the Kelso crash as Capt. William L. Davidson and First Lt. Frank M. Brown.
This was 12 hours before the army formally announced the names of the dead. It was information unknown to anyone outside the army. Saturday evening the mysterious caller phoned the United Press again. At that time, he stated positively that the plane had been shot down by 20-millimeter cannon fire and that fragments of the flying disc were aboard.
Meanwhile, in Boise, Ida, and Chicago Ill., newspapers reported: 1. That Smith and Arnold had loaded disc fragments aboard the lost plane.
2. That there had been a tremendous explosion at sea prior to the first sighting of the flying saucers.
Plane Crash Near Kelso Kills Man, Tacoma Times, Aug. 1. 1947 2 Parachute From B-25 Which Left McChord Field
McChord Field – (UP) The body of one army flier was found in the wreckage of a B-25 bomber that crashed into a hill 11 miles east of Kelso, and burned Friday, the fourth air force reported.
A McChord air rescue service ground party, headed by Capt. T H. Forsberg discovered the plane and located the body after tramping through hilly, brushy terrain of the Gobel creek area since early mo
rning.
ONE OFFICER MISSING
Two noncommissioned officers who parachuted from 10,000 feet with only minor injuries, the army said. McChord officials said one officer still was missing.
S/Sgt. Elmer L. Taff, 24, Fort Lawton, reported to Kelso Police chief O.C. Clark he and T/Sgt. Woodrow D. Mathews, 27, the bomber’s crew chief, had bailed out when the plane developed motor trouble. Taff was a passenger aboard the plane. The B-25, stationed at Hamilton field, Cal., took off from here for its home base at 2:12 a.m. today. Clark reported at 2:35a.m. He spotted the plane flying low over Kelso. It appeared to be out of control, he said.
CRASHES AND BURNS
According to Clark, the aircraft proceeded on course for about 11 miles, went into a steep dive, crashed, and burned. He immediately instituted a search but was unable to locate the ship. An air rescue plane from here was unable to spot the wreckage from the air because of an early-morning ground fog. McChord officials had reported earlier that only three men were aboard. They said they had not been aware that Taff was riding as passenger.
FBI Called Into “Disc” Plane Case!
Bomber Wreckage Being Examined for Secret Material
by Paul Lantz Tacoma Times Aug. 6? 1947
A party of high-ranking air force officers from Hamilton Field, Calif., was reported Tuesday to be examining wreckage of the B-25 bomber, which crashed near Kelso, reported to be carrying flying disc data from McChord Field. The “top brass” was said to be interested in determining whether any secret material remained at the scene of the accident, which occurred last Friday, resulting in the death of two army intelligence officers attached to the Hamilton Field base.
….
Disc “Discoverer” Unhurt in Crash
Pendleton, Ore. (UP)
Kenneth Arnold, Boise businessman who started the national epidemic of flying saucer stories, Monday night escaped injury when his light plane crashed here as he was taking off for Boise. CAA said the motor “conked out” after he had climbed to 30 feet. The plane fell to the runway, bending the landing gear and breaking the main spar of the left wing.
The Maury Island UFO Incident: The Story behind the Air Force’s first military plane crash Page 8