Project Blue Book Case #10798. On the evening of July 31, 1966, multiple witnesses at Presque Isle State Park — a sandy peninsula jutting into Lake Erie near the city of Erie, Pennsylvania — reported a close encounter with a luminous object. The object was observed at low altitude over the beach area, and witnesses reported that it appeared to land or hover just above the ground in a wooded section of the park.
Several beachgoers, including a group that had been stuck in the sand and was waiting for a tow truck, observed the brightly lit object approach and descend into the tree line. Some witnesses reported seeing a dark, featureless figure or silhouette near the landing area. Park police investigated and found what appeared to be impressions in the sand and broken vegetation consistent with something having rested there.
The Presque Isle case became one of the most widely reported incidents of the 1966 wave. The multiple independent witnesses, the physical traces, and the park police investigation gave it credibility that purely visual sightings lacked. The Lake Erie setting — with its dark water backdrop and isolated beach areas — provided an atmospheric stage for the encounter.
Blue Book investigated and classified the case as "Unknown" — one of the program's more dramatic close-encounter cases from the remarkable year of 1966.