Project Blue Book Case #1246. On June 1, 1952, an unidentified object was observed near Soap Lake, Washington — a small community in Grant County in the Columbia Basin. Soap Lake sits approximately 80 miles southwest of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, where the plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb was produced and where reactors continued to manufacture plutonium for the expanding nuclear arsenal.
The Columbia Basin of central Washington was dotted with military facilities in 1952. Beyond Hanford, Larson Air Force Base (a SAC installation near Moses Lake) was approximately 20 miles to the east, and the area's vast, flat terrain was used for military training and testing. The region's clear, dry atmosphere provided excellent visibility.
June 1952 was the beginning of the great wave's buildup, and Washington state — the birthplace of the modern UFO era with Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting — continued to be one of the most active states for reports. The proximity of the Soap Lake sighting to Hanford added it to the growing pattern of unknowns near nuclear facilities.
The object could not be identified despite checks with Larson AFB, Hanford security, and civilian aviation. The case was classified "Unknown."