August 13, 1965: One of many August UFO sightings of 1965 and 1966

On this day in Duluth in 1965, several people, including an Air Force technical sergeant, reported seeing a UFO in the night sky of the Zenith City. According to Duluth paranormal researcher Mike Flaherty, it was just one of many such reports in August of 1965 and 1966. Flaherty has collected stories of UFO sighting over Duluth and Western Lake Superior on August 3, 5, 13, and 18 in 1965 and August 11, 16, and 17 in 1966. The August 5, 1965, sighting claimed that a “flying saucer” dove into the St. Louis River near the Interstate Bridge. The Duluth News Tribune’s report of the final sighting in August of 1966 claimed that “UFO Terrifies Duluthians,” and described how James Luhn, driving on Lakewood Road near highway 61 with his sister and two nieces as passengers, spotted a “spinning, globe shaped object [that] changed colors hovering several hundred feet above the road.” Luhm said the object was about the “size of a football” and as it approached his vehicle, the car’s windows began to fog up. Many of the other reports from August 1965 and 1966 described a similar object: a globe no more than three feet in diameter that first appeared gold in color but changed hues and made “whirring” sounds as it came nearer. Some reports included a “tail” or “flap” on the back of the object. That report was one of many made throughout Minnesota on that day from communities including Minneapolis, Crystal, Coon Rapids, and Waconia. a Twin Cities radio station received 75 calls reporting the object, and even employees in the control tower of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Bloomington reported seeing an object.