Portland Oregon's July 4, 1947 UFO Flap - Project Blue Book

Shortly after the famous Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting on June 24, 1947 around Mount Rainier, WA Portland, Oregon (And Vancouver, WA) had it's own UFO Flap.

Jefferson Kincaide's talk on 60th Anniversary on July 4, 2007:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuP3YMEg-zY

Mr. Kinkaide isn't the most dynamic of speakers, but there is a lot of good information here. He presents objective information and shows copies of original sources, which is cool. You can basically skip the first ten minutes comfortably and then dig in to see what the local Oregon media was saying at the time of the mass sighting.  Good stuff takes off around 20:20.

One of the best reports about these sightings was from a policeman on duty on 7/4/47 in Downtown Portland, who was very confident in his report of 5 UFOs. The station is about three miles away from the location of the All Saint's Catholic Church and Laurelhurst neighborhood as the crow flies across the River.

From https://www.project1947.com/fig/1947g.htm):

"Officer McDowell stated that at approximately 1305, 4 July 1947 while he was on duty at Precinct #1 and feeding the pigeons in the parking lot back of the station he noticed the pigeons became quite excited over something and fluttered in the air. Officer McDowell in looking around to see what had disturbed them saw 5 large discs in the air east of Portland: two discs flying south and three discs in an easterly direction. He stated he could determine no color to the discs but advised they were dipping in an up and down oscillating motion and were traveling at great speed. He was unable to give an estimate of the speed or altitude of the discs as they were out of sight before any detailed observation could be made. Officer McDowell advised that he notified the Police Radio who immediately broadcast an alert. He saw no indication of any motivating force nor heard any sound coming form the discs and could give no description other than round."

Here's the NICAP report:

Here are the original Blue Book scans, hard to read as always, but have fun:

All Saints Church and Laurelhurst Neighborhood - Part Two, Research Notes and Pregame

It's interesting that the trigger for my interest digging into this particular area of Portland, Oregon was the All Saints Church. Portland is known for being plenty weird, but the history of the Laurelhurst Neighborhood where the Church is located seems to be particularly odd.

The 462-acres of land that the Laurelhurst neighborhood resides on was originally purchased from the Ladd Estate Company in 1909 by the Laurelhurst Company for $2 million. The name referenced a residential development in Seattle that the Laurelhurst Company recently completed. "Laurelhurst" references laurel shrubbery found in Seattle and "hurst", old English denoting a wooded hill. The homes are huge, gorgeous, and historic.

Laurelhurst's neighborhood was designed with a residential development of 144 acres. The City of Portland then purchased 31 acres for $92,000 to construct Laurelhurst Park. We'll get back to the park later. Additionally, Laurelhurst featured prominently in Portland's racist history. Yeah, I said it. Liberal Mecca Portland was racist as hell - still is, depending on who you ask. 

Here's some of the rules that Laurelhurst implemented:

• No sales of alcohol
• No hotels, motels, flats, apartments, stables, or commercial buildings
• No homes to be sold to Chinese, Japanese, or African Americans. 

In 1910 the large stone Arches outlining the neighborhood were built.

The Offices of the Laurelhurst Company is where the first service of the All Saints Church was held in 1917. The exact location of this first ritual is precisely where the Joan of Arc Statue is in Coe Circle. The statue has not been moved since its installation in 1925. The Men's Club from the Church actually helped establish Traffic Control on 39th and Glisan. The streetcar used to pass right next to where the statue is currently before Coe Circle was installed. 

The first Pastor whom founded the church was Rev. William B. Cronin. The first church (a small Tudor gothic Chapel) was dedicated on January 20, 1918. In 1924 an addition was built, doubling its capacity. In 1928 second pastor Mon. Arthur Lane, the first native Oregonian to be ordained Catholic, fought all the way to the Oregon Supreme Court to establish a school on site.

The City Council ordinance limited buildings in the area (see above rules) and stated only educational buildings that were "not detrimental or injurous to the character of the district or the public, health, peace or safety thereof." After the court ruled in the Church's favor in 1932, the school was built in 1936. 

Mon. Lane was succeeded by third Pastor Rev. Thomas J. Tobin. The church's history with Rev. Tobin is where the church really starts to get interesting. Fr. Tobin created a Parish Bulletin, with an anonymous editor (often thought to be the Pastor himself) whom took the time to comment on Soviet Space Technology in a 1957 Essay:

"Note on Sputnik: The new Russian wonder is the talk of the nations. And the talk ranges from sheer panic to foolish optimism. Somewhere in between lies the Christian response: Man-made satellites, though altogether frightful are not final. There is a plan in the heavens far more vast than any data-gathering the moon can pick up."

Pretty interesting for a Church that picks up mysterious signals from SOMETHING a decade or so in the future. 

Additionally, Rev. Tobin also began the use of "dipytchs," written instructions brought to the altar during the mass. This was a lost tradition of the early church where worshippers would inscribe a tablet with names of those for whom prayers were requested. Interesting ritual. 

Here's a photo of Tobin I found online with another brief biography: (https://catholicsentinel.org/MobileContent/News/Local/Article/Labor-Day/2/35/26345)

The most "striking and radical for the times" work that Tobin did according to the History of the church was how Fr. Tobin actually conducted mass itself, anticipating Vatican reforms two decades away - he faced the congregation in something known as The Old Benedictine Arrangement. He also encouraged vocal involvement of parishoners during mass, very liberal for the times where everything was still conducted in Latin and highly secretive to outsiders. 

This was so radical they actually took photos of the arrangement during National Liturgical Week, that was held in... yep, Portland Oregon. The use of six candlesticks and cross upon an otherwise "Versus Populum" altar was thought to be a way that the Priest could connect with parishoners better, with the altar still raised to be dominant.

Old Benedictine Arrangement - Portland, Oregon August 18-21 1947, National Liturgical Week

But... 1947 was a very famous year for UFO activity.

July 24, 1947 - Kenneth Arnold UFO sighting, Mount Rainier, WA
July 4, 1947 - Massive UFO sighting, including ... PORTLAND (three miles away from the Church - stay tuned for that info)
May 1950 - McMinnville, OR UFO sighting

The current church (built in 1966) itself still houses relics from the first buildings, including the present altar that houses the "Greek Crossword Puzzle" showing the words "light" and "Life", the walnut and oak altar table, and the old baldachino hanging over it. The aisle walls of the church are adorned with the shrines from the old Church - Our Lady of Perpetual Help on the left and the Holy Family on the right. The current church is 14,300 square feet and can seat 955 people.

The church on the outside looks plain and box-like, with its beauty a "secret and a surprise" within. The church has 21 stained glass windows that they consider their "greatest treasure," six inch thick pieces of glass set in concrete instead of lead.  ("A Community of Saints" - found here: https://allsaintsportland.org/100th-anniversary)

When the new church was built, the old altar rail was taken down, sawed into sections, and sold - where did wood this end up? Is there any activity related to the wood? (Reminded of Tenney's Realm of the Weird - http://realmoftheweird.com/what-life-would-be-season-3-episode-2/)

The new PA system that received the mysterious messages was installed in the new church. Keel's book came out in 1971, so these transmissions started between 1966 and 1971.

Fr. Tobin continued to push liberal reforms in his church, but one thing he didn't adapt after the Vatican reforms was a reconciliation room for face-to-face confession. Something interesting mentioned was that he created an altar bread program in the 1960s (innovative at the time) and they reported that "many a fuse was blown and the bakers realized that there was a surge in electricity use in the late morning, when the sisters did their laundry and began cooking their noon meal."

So, were there always "technical problems" for lack of a better term on this land? EMF issues?

Other details too numerous for me to summarize, so I'll just post my research copies of two important pages from "A Community of Saints" (lol at my notes, whatever)

Riddles.

Tricks.

Heavenly Hosts.

And like they'd install a window that had a typo like that!!! Telling visitors they AREN'T welcome? What is going on in this church??

Fr. Tobin's successor was Father Willis Whalen, who served from 1970-1972. Then the progressive, beloved congregation took a dark turn, as many Catholic parishes unfortunately have.  Fr. Thomas Laughlin helmed the church and was removed in 1983 after revelations of years of sexual abuse of parishoners. He escaped criminal charges. Dirtbag.

Here's info on the pedophile:
https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2013/03/defrocked_pedophile_priest_tho.html

Unfortunately Father Tobin passed away in 1978 at the Maryville Nursing Home. Father Whalen was assisted by Fr. Gregory Gage, Fr. Anthony Juliano, Fr. William Karath, and Fr. Hodge Sinnot. Are any of these men still alive, and did they ever hear the strange signals from the PA?

*EDITED to add Research
TOBIN Death 11/10/78
WHALEN Death 6/17/92

Whalen assistants:
JULIANO Death 4/22/88
KARATH - another Pedophile! http://www.bishop-accountability.org/news2011/05_06/2011_05_26_Moss_ChurchSettles.htm
SINNOT - Death 11/5/15
GAGE - Death 11/2/07 - He TRIED to warn everyone about dirtbag Laughlin, who is also dead (and defrocked in 1988) http://www.snapnetwork.org/news/otherstates/or_priests_confession.htm

So much for that route.

One last thought about the church, taken again from "A Community of Saints":

"In the middle of our parking lot, to the surprise of some, we have a 2,000-foot-deep well. It was dug in 1884 in an unsuccessful search for an artesian well. The core from that digging is composed of layers of gravel, fossils, and rock, and it provides the curious observer with an excellent picture of the geological history of the Portland Basin."

Wait - they dug a well and LEFT IT since 1884? And built around it?? What the hell is going on there? Can I drop a coin in this well?

What I really have a suspicion about, and a curiosity about... what's the deal with the statue? What's in or under it? It hasn't been moved since 1925 when it was installed.

So other than the church... What else is in the neighborhood that we are going to check out? Why I'm so glad you asked. Laurelhurst Park.(Stay tuned)

All Saints Catholic Church in Portland, Oregon - Laurelhurst Neighborhood - Site of High Weirdness

In continuing to read Keel's "Our Haunted Planet", I came across a strange story about how "in recent years" (published 1971) how certain PA systems in Churches were receiving strange number sequences that couldn't be explained and were thought to be linked to UFOs/High Weirdness. There were two churches listed by name, one being the All Saints Catholic Church in Portland.

Of course I spent plenty of time in Laurelhurst, but don't remember a big church, so I do a google. It's literally right next to Coe Circle where my favorite statue in the whole city of Joan of Arc is. I spent hours reading under that statue. Why was I so attracted to that block, and what's up with this unassuming (as far as Catholic Churches go) Church getting messages? How did I never notice the damn church???

I dig deeper.

I have not yet read the History of All Saints Parish - pdf found here. Tonight's reading:

https://allsaintsportland.org/100th-anniversary

The church is on a random block in a residential neighborhood.

https://allsaintsportland.org/map

If you zoom in, the green circle in the middle is Coe Circle, where my beloved Joan is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc_(Portland,_Oregon)

About Joan:

She had a religious experience (was she a contactee?) and led France into battle, captured, burned at the stake for being a witch at the age of 19, later made a Saint. This particular statue was commissioned in 1924, made from the cast of Emmanuel Fremiet's Jeanne d'Arc (1874) and was dedicated Memorial day in 1925 in honor of the Doughboys of World War I. She's 12 gorgeous feet of bronze on an 8 foot granite base.

Who commissioned her?

Well, that would be Dr. Henry Waldo Coe, who with his wife Dr. Viola Boley Coe founded a Sanitarium called Morningside Hospital, where the dying Mall 205 is on SE Stark and 96th. They specialized in nervous patients from Alaska and whom had been in the Oregon Insane asylum. He was a passionate Republican and had "EXTENSIVE MINING INTERESTS" (Wikipedia) - "Hellier" anyone?.

To make things even stranger Coe was a lifelong friend of Teddy Roosevelt, who had come to him for treatment as a young man, and they remained friends until Roosevelt's death. He visited the White House as guests of Roosevelt and Taft many times. The Coes traveled to Panama to report to Roosevelt on working conditions during the construction of the Panama Canal.

Coe additionally paid for statues of Presidents Lincoln and Washington in Portland, OR as well as two Roosevelt statues in North Dakota.

Coe's later relatives were accused of using hospital funds for personal expenses and using patient labor for home and hospital maintenance, and the facility was closed. However, no criminal charges were filed.

Research continues, as well as a planned trip to Laurelhurst to take a closer look at the neighborhood and church. Also going to  ask John EL Tenney about this, as he's a frigging encyclopedia about all things Keel in particular.