Project Blue Book Case #964. On September 6, 1951, an unidentified object was observed over Claremont, California — an academic community at the eastern edge of the Los Angeles Basin, home to the Claremont Colleges. The city's position at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains placed it near the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and within the vast Southern California aerospace corridor.
Claremont in 1951 was surrounded by the most concentrated aerospace industry in the world. North American Aviation, Douglas Aircraft, Lockheed, and Northrop all had facilities within a 40-mile radius. The skies above the Inland Empire were busy with test flights, military operations from March AFB and Norton AFB, and commercial traffic from Ontario International Airport.
The academic community of the Claremont Colleges added a population of educated, analytically minded observers. For residents of this intellectually rigorous community — accustomed to the parade of aircraft types that characterized the LA Basin — to report something unidentifiable was noteworthy.
The case was classified "Unknown."