Within Records
Why Some Alberta UFO Cases Survived on Paper
Older Alberta cases often survive because federal agencies kept changing who received, filed and transferred UFO material.
On this page
- Project Magnet, Second Storey and early reporting forms
- The National Research Council collection period
- Library and Archives Canada as the surviving trail
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
Many of Alberta’s older UFO reports survive today not because they were considered especially important at the time, but because they happened to pass through a changing chain of federal record-keeping systems. A sighting reported in rural Alberta in the 1950s, 1960s or 1970s might move from a local witness to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Department of Transport, the National Research Council (NRC), a military office, or several of them in sequence. Decades later, the survival of that case often depends less on the sighting itself than on which federal agency filed it and whether those files were preserved. [Science.gc.ca]science.gc.caManagement of Public Reporting of Unidentified AerialUFO sightings and the Canadian government response to them…. Archived webpages from Library and Archives Canada, Canada's UFOs: The Se…
This matters for Alberta UFO history because some of the province’s best-known incidents remain available to researchers only through federal archives. The surviving paper trail reveals how Canada collected, transferred and eventually archived UFO reports, while also explaining why some Alberta cases can be studied in detail and others have effectively disappeared.
How early federal programmes created the paper trail
Canada’s first official engagement with UFO reports began during the early Cold War. In 1950 the federal government authorised Project Magnet under Transport Canada engineer Wilbert Brockhouse Smith. The project gathered information on reported sightings and explored whether any scientific value could be extracted from the phenomenon. In 1952 the government also created Project Second Storey, an interdepartmental committee of scientists and defence officials that reviewed UFO reports and considered how government should respond to them. [Wikipedia+2Wikipedia]WikipediaProject Magnet (CanadaProject Magnet (Canada
For Alberta cases, the crucial legacy of these programmes was administrative rather than investigative. They encouraged the creation of reporting forms, correspondence files, memoranda and case summaries. Even when officials reached no firm conclusion, paperwork was generated and retained. That documentation later became part of the historical record. [Wikipedia]WikipediaProject Magnet (CanadaProject Magnet (Canada
The significance is easy to overlook. A witness in Alberta may never have heard of Project Magnet or Project Second Storey, yet the existence of those programmes increased the likelihood that unusual reports would be forwarded, copied and stored rather than discarded. In archival terms, that bureaucratic attention often mattered more than whether investigators believed the report.
Why these programmes did not preserve everything
The survival rate was uneven. Project Magnet and Project Second Storey were small operations, and neither functioned as a comprehensive national UFO investigation system. Files were scattered across departments, some reports were duplicated, and others were never forwarded beyond local offices. The result was a fragmented archive rather than a complete national catalogue. [Digital Collections]batadora.trentu.caetd 776From 1950-1995, the Canadian government investigated the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)…Read more…
For Alberta researchers, this means that the absence of a federal file does not prove a sighting never occurred. It may simply indicate that the report entered a channel whose records were not preserved.
The National Research Council era
The most important reason many Alberta UFO cases survived is the role later played by the National Research Council. As federal responsibilities shifted, the NRC became the principal repository for many civilian UFO reports. Through the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics and related offices, reports of what were often termed “non-meteoric sightings” were collected and maintained for decades. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caCollection SearchNon-meteoric sighting reports gathered by the Herzberg…Some reports from the years 1965 to 1981 have been digitized a…
This arrangement was not a dedicated UFO investigation programme in the popular sense. Rather, the NRC served as a central receiving point. Reports from police, military personnel, pilots, observatories and members of the public could eventually find their way into NRC files. Because the Council maintained those records over many years, sightings from Alberta that might otherwise have vanished remained accessible. [Science.gc.ca]science.gc.caManagement of Public Reporting of Unidentified AerialUFO sightings and the Canadian government response to them…. Archived webpages from Library and Archives Canada, Canada's UFOs: The Se…
The importance of this collection becomes clearer when examining long-running Alberta case histories. Researchers investigating older incidents often discover that the most detailed surviving descriptions are not newspaper stories but federal documents preserved in NRC holdings and later transferred to national archives. Witness statements, correspondence and official summaries sometimes survived even when local records did not. [Collection Search]recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.caCollection SearchNon-meteoric sighting reports gathered by the Herzberg…Some reports from the years 1965 to 1981 have been digitized a…
A national archive with provincial value
The NRC’s collection eventually grew into one of Canada’s most significant UFO-related documentary resources. Historical research suggests that federal agencies accumulated thousands of pages of UFO documentation and records relating to thousands of reported sightings across the country. Alberta cases formed part of that broader collection. [Digital Collections]batadora.trentu.caetd 776From 1950-1995, the Canadian government investigated the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)…Read more…
The practical result is that Alberta’s UFO history cannot be understood solely through provincial newspapers or local folklore. Many of the surviving details are embedded in federal files created for entirely administrative reasons.
Why Library and Archives Canada became the key destination
A major turning point came in 1995, when the National Research Council stopped collecting UFO reports. Rather than being destroyed, the accumulated files were transferred to Library and Archives Canada (LAC), where they became part of the national archival record. [Science.gc.ca]science.gc.caManagement of Public Reporting of Unidentified AerialUFO sightings and the Canadian government response to them…. Archived webpages from Library and Archives Canada, Canada's UFOs: The Se…
That transfer is one of the most important preservation events in Canadian UFO history. Without it, researchers would have far less access to older Alberta reports. LAC now holds a large collection of federal UFO documentation, including correspondence, memoranda, reporting procedures and individual sighting records dating from 1947 through the early 1980s. Approximately 9,500 documents have been digitised and made publicly accessible. [Canada]canada.caCanada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — These documents were accumulated between 1947 and the early 1980s and represe…
The archive includes material originating from several federal departments and agencies rather than a single UFO office. This is why Alberta cases often appear alongside files from elsewhere in Canada. The archive reflects the pathways by which reports moved through government, not provincial boundaries. [E-People's Archive]epe.lac-bac.gc.caIntroduction - Canada's UFOs: The Search for the UnknownThe Library and Archives Canada collection of government records on UFOs was acqu…
What researchers can actually find
For Alberta sightings, the surviving records may include:
- Original sighting reports. [Wikipedia]WikipediaProject Second StoreyProject Second StoreyIts main purpose was to collect, catalogue and correlate data from UFO sighting reports…. The committee was di… * Correspondence between federal agencies. [canada.ca]canada.caCanada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — These documents were accumulated between 1947 and the early 1980s and represe…
- Police or military referrals.
- Astronomical assessments.
- Internal memoranda discussing possible explanations.
- Reporting procedures used during different periods. [Canada]canada.caCanada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — These documents were accumulated between 1947 and the early 1980s and represe…
The archive does not transform disputed sightings into proven events. Instead, it preserves evidence of how government officials received, recorded and interpreted reports at the time.
What the survival of a file does—and does not—mean
One of the most common misunderstandings in UFO research is treating the existence of a government file as proof that a sighting was extraordinary. The Canadian archival record does not support that conclusion. A preserved Alberta case usually demonstrates only that a report entered an official channel and was retained. Many files contain unresolved observations, while others point towards aircraft, astronomical objects, meteor activity, balloons or insufficient information. [Science.gc.ca]science.gc.caManagement of Public Reporting of Unidentified AerialUFO sightings and the Canadian government response to them…. Archived webpages from Library and Archives Canada, Canada's UFOs: The Se…
Yet preservation still matters. A documented case can be re-examined, compared with weather records, aviation activity and witness accounts, or reassessed in light of later information. A lost case cannot. The federal archival system therefore shapes what historians, journalists and UFO researchers are able to investigate decades later.
For Alberta, that is the central lesson of the federal archive story. The province’s UFO history survives unevenly, but many of its oldest and most discussed reports remain available because successive federal programmes—Project Magnet, Project Second Storey, the National Research Council and finally Library and Archives Canada—created and preserved a documentary trail long after the original sightings faded from public memory. [Canada+3Wikipedia+3Wikipedia]WikipediaProject Magnet (CanadaProject Magnet (Canada
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Endnotes
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Source: science.gc.ca
Title: Management of Public Reporting of Unidentified Aerial
Link: https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/office-chief-science-advisor/sky-canada-project/management-public-reporting-unidentified-aerial-phenomena-canadaSource snippet
UFO sightings and the Canadian government response to them.... Archived webpages from Library and Archives Canada, Canada's UFOs: The Se...
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Source: Wikipedia
Title: Project Magnet (Canada)
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Magnet_%28Canada%29 -
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Project Second Storey
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Second_StoreySource snippet
Project Second StoreyIts main purpose was to collect, catalogue and correlate data from UFO sighting reports.... The committee was di...
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Source: canada.ca
Title: episode 054
Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/collection/engage-learn/podcasts/discover/episode-054.htmlSource snippet
UFOs at LAC: The Falcon Lake incident, part 229 May 2019 — I visited Library and Archives Canada many times over the course of my UFO res...
Published: May 2019
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Source: canada.ca
Link: https://www.canada.ca/en/library-archives/collection/research-help/science-technology/ufos.htmlSource snippet
Canada's UFOs: The search for the unknown2 Mar 2026 — These documents were accumulated between 1947 and the early 1980s and represe...
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Source: Wikipedia
Title: List of reported UFO sightings
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_reported_UFO_sightingsSource snippet
List of reported UFO sightingsMost commonly reported shapes in UFO sightings gathered in the National UFO Reporting Center (NUFORC) On...
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Source: batadora.trentu.ca
Title: etd 776
Link: https://batadora.trentu.ca/objects/etd-776Source snippet
From 1950-1995, the Canadian government investigated the phenomenon of unidentified flying objects (UFOs)...Read more...
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Source: recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca
Link: https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=FonAndCol&idnumber=134925&resource=folderlistSource snippet
Collection SearchNon-meteoric sighting reports gathered by the Herzberg...Some reports from the years 1965 to 1981 have been digitized a...
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Source: epe.lac-bac.gc.ca
Title: E-People’s Archive
Link: https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/301/new_books/2011/03/databases/ufo/index-e.htmlSource snippet
Introduction - Canada's UFOs: The Search for the UnknownThe Library and Archives Canada collection of government records on UFOs was acqu...
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Source: lac-bac.gc.ca
Title: ARCHIVE D
Link: https://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-100.01-e.phpSource snippet
Archived Content. This archived Web page remains online for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes.Read more...
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Source: lac-bac.gc.ca
Title: ARCHIVE D
Link: https://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=41bt6o0o2fvsbn3l0ot8221112&brws_s=&q4=ON&sk=1116Source snippet
Archived Content. This archived Web page remains online for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes.Read more...
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Source: lac-bac.gc.ca
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Link: https://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-119.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=41bt6o0o2fvsbn3l0ot8221112&interval=&isn_id_nbr=4677&record_id=4677-912-7748Source snippet
Archived Content. This archived Web page remains online for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes.Read more...
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Source: lac-bac.gc.ca
Link: https://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=41bt6o0o2fvsbn3l0ot8221112&brws_s=&q4=AB&sk=501Source snippet
[https://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-110...No](https://www.lac-bac.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-110...No) information is available for this page...
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Title: Item Display
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Archived Content. This archived Web page remains online for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes.Read more...
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Source: collectionscanada.gc.ca
Title: Reports on non-meteoric sightings, unidentified flying
Link: https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/ufo/001057-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=5bkr531bti3qnrj4arr9r6gdmpo009bo3m2qhkhq4uoqnf7gog31&brws_s=&q3=Falcon+lake&sk=136Source snippet
ARCHIVED - Canada's UFOs: The Search for the UnknownCanada's UFOs: The Search for the Unknown - Library and Archives Canada or recordkeep...
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history of canada's ufo investigation, 1950-19957 Apr 2022 — analysis of the National Research Council's archive of fireball reports, a c...
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Source: drdavidclarke.co.uk
Title: canadas ufo files book review
Link: https://drdavidclarke.co.uk/2022/08/04/canadas-ufo-files-book-review/Source snippet
Canada's UFO Files: book review |4 Aug 2022 — During the early part of the Cold War, Canada launched two overlapping UFO investigations...
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Source: reddit.com
Title: 8000 pages of declassified ufo documents from
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/r1jvak/8000_pages_of_declassified_ufo_documents_from/Source snippet
"Canadathis channel covers Canadian UFOs seriously and honestly. More resources: [http://www.canadianuforeport.com/survey/UFOsOverCanada.pd..."](http://www.canadianuforeport.com/survey/UFOsOverCanada.pd...")...
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Source: canadaufohistory.com
Title: Project Magnet
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Library and Archives Canada. December 14, 1954.; Hayes, Matthew. Search for the Unknown: Canada's UFO Files and the...Read more...
Published: December 14, 1954
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Source: documents.theblackvault.com
Title: Canada FOIA Part 29 Pages 8401 8759
Link: https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/ufos/canada/Canada%20-%20FOIA%20Part%2029%20-%20Pages%208401-8759.pdfSource snippet
Report of U.F.o. -. -. Maple Ridge, Carleton County, New Bruns·.d.ck. 1 l-1AY... NRC. Meteor Centre on 4 MAY 72 as per R.C.M.P: Operatio...
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Source: canadashistory.ca
Title: search for the unknown
Link: https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/books/search-for-the-unknownSource snippet
17 Jul 2023 — Canada's UFO investigation files are held at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. When I was a reference archivist there...
Additional References
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Source: reddit.com
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/1ft1s2g/project_magnet/Source snippet
Project Magnet: r/UFOsThe archive is about a program called Project Magnet which was a government program in Canada. Very interesting no...
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Source: sacred-texts.com
Link: https://sacred-texts.com/ufo/canada.htmSource snippet
UFOlogy in Canada... UFO reports, less classified than Project Magnet, but still confidential.... The articles were published in Canadia...
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Source: documentcloud.org
Link: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21273403-canadian-government-releases-20-years-of-ufo-reports/ -
Source: reviewcanada.ca
Link: https://reviewcanada.ca/magazine/2022/07/eyes-like-saucers/Source snippet
Literary Review of CanadaEyes Like SaucersBy virtue of its sponsors, Project Magnet was Canada's first official investigation of the UFO...
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Source: facebook.com
Title: more than 1000 ufo sightings were reported across canada in 2025 according to th
Link: https://www.facebook.com/truecanadalovers/posts/more-than-1000-ufo-sightings-were-reported-across-canada-in-2025-according-to-th/1497323999069198/Source snippet
I Love CanadaMore than 1000 UFO sightings were reported across Canada in 2025, according to the latest Canadian UFO Survey. A total of 10...
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Source: utias.utoronto.ca
Title: 1960s dr gordon patterson establishes the utias ufo project
Link: https://www.utias.utoronto.ca/2018/08/15/1960s-dr-gordon-patterson-establishes-the-utias-ufo-project/Source snippet
Gordon Patterson establishes The UTIAS UFO...Aug 15, 2018 — Canada's official entry into the investigation of this UFO phenomenon starte...
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Source: thewalrus.ca
Title: what ufo fears tell us about government trust
Link: https://thewalrus.ca/what-ufo-fears-tell-us-about-government-trust/Source snippet
What UFO Fears Tell Us about Trust in Government17 Feb 2023 — For scientists like Peter Millman, the NRC astronomer who chaired Project S...
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Source: arcs-atom.uottawa.ca
Title: ca Project Second Story/Storey
Link: https://arcs-atom.uottawa.ca/index.php/project-second-storySource snippet
Second Story/Storey - University of OttawaProject Second Storey was a committee within the Canadian government,… Read more and establishe...
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Source: arcs-atom.uottawa.ca
Title: arthur bray fonds file List
Link: https://arcs-atom.uottawa.ca/downloads/reports/arthur-bray-fonds-fileList.htmlSource snippet
reportArchival description hierarchy; 163, CA ON0034 30-003-S8-F10, UFO sighting reports; 164, CA ON0034 30-003-S8-F11, Letter from Dav...
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Source: lobster-magazine.co.uk
Link: https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/article/issue/34/the-ufo-files-the-canadian-connection-exposed/Source snippet
The UFO Files: The Canadian Connection Exposed - LobsterThe result was 'Project Second Storey', the Canadian equivalent of 'Project Blue...
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