Edward Teller's UFO file
A field trip to Stanford to read some of Professor Teller's non-digitized files.
Sorry for the delay. A stomach bug kept me from writing much lately. Also, with respect to the click-baity headline: There isn’t anything particularly salacious here. So don’t get too riled up but this is a kinda neat and novel historical detour, IMO, while we wait for more current events to unfold.
Background
As part of my previous work, I spent a good deal of time looking into the Manhattan Project-era scientists and their possible connections to UFO stuff. One intriguing potential lead I came across had to do with Edward Teller — “Father of the Hydrogen Bomb.” Teller is an interesting character. I haven’t seen it yet but given his role and personality I can’t imagine he isn’t prominently featured in the current Oppenheimer summer blockbuster. I won’t go into much detail about his background here. The movie may or may not end up doing him justice but I’ll let Christopher Nolan handle that aspect of the storytelling for now.
What caught my eye was this intriguing listing from Stanford’s archives of Professor Teller’s files:
There’s a good chunk of nonsense out there concerning Teller and UFO lore but I couldn’t find any reference to this file. I don’t live that far from Stanford so I decided if I didn’t make an appointment to review this file it would probably drive me even more crazy than I already am.
The trip
The scheduling of the trip and the trip itself were mostly uneventful. I would have to wait almost a month for availability. Construction in the area on campus would make finding the actual reading room slightly challenging but I proved resourceful enough.
Upon arrival I would check in and have my photo taken for my cool new Hoover Library card. Then I would check out the box of files and receive some brief instruction on how to safely handle the materials. After that I was left on my own to explore.
The file
It was like a mini-Christmas in July. I could hardly wait to crack it open.
The file was not substantial. Most of it consisted of correspondence related to space exploration. Of particular interest was discussion of lunar exploration and establishing nuclear reactors on moon bases to power further exploration of other planets (e.g. Mars.) Stuff like that. Nuclear technology seemed to permeate pretty much all discussion of space and UFOs.
The first document specifically related to UFOs in the file is featured below.
Unfortunately this was all that existed concerning the statements said to have been made on this TV program. I, too, am interested in these statements. Oh well. Maybe someday someone with more information will read this and loop me in.
The only other correspondence related to UFOs concerned a curious experience and subsequent interview with a Mr. Laurance F. Olsen of Dixon, California.
The Olsen experience
In early 1960, Mr. Laurance F. Olsen is described as being a serious minded citizen and farmer with considerable land holdings in the Vallejo-Benicia area of Northern California. He was apparently a big enough deal that U.S. Congressman John F. Baldwin of the 6th District of California would intervene on his behalf after an initial direct attempt to contact Professor Teller by mail went unsuccessful.
According to Mr. Olsen, on December 16, 1944 at 7:45 AM, he observed a profound event he described as lasting only two seconds. Mr. Olsen stated it is was different than anything he had ever seen prior and the speed involved was greater than anything (I assume aircraft?) he was aware of that was currently in use. It’s not completely clear from his brief description provided, but he seems to allude to perhaps witnessing this phenomenon five more times. He notes something about distance and atmospheric conditions at the time which suggests this was indeed a UFO of some type, although he doesn’t refer to it as such. He mentions some sort of pattern that follows the use of whatever it was. His account reads like it disturbed the clouds or created some sort of atmospheric residue or other feature of some kind. He seems fixated on whatever the power source was behind it. This experience would take place almost three years prior to the flying saucer/UFO craze of 1947.
Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all we have to go on directly from Mr. Olsen. He states it would take several hours to discuss the phenomenon fully and to go over all the data he has concerning the event(s). He concludes with a meeting request with either Teller or his assistants.
Teller would respond to this letter ten days later. He suggests Olsen meet with Dr. John (Jack) F. Suttle from the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley. Teller indicates that he’ll be away for the rest of the month and that it would not be easy to get someone who doesn’t hold security clearance into the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory where he was the director at the time.
This seems like somewhat of a cop-out to me and Teller was basically pawning Olsen off. I can appreciate not being super enthusiastic about taking the time to talk to a farmer about UFOs and exotic propulsion methods.
Dr. Jack Suttle would earnestly follow-up with Mr. Olsen and eventually meet with him and his son. The letter below details the output of that meeting to Professor Teller.
The letter confirms what Mr. Olsen saw was indeed some sort of UFO. Subsequent correspondence with Mr. Olsen would reveal the “Science in Action” episode the letter above refers was likely one involving Dr. Richard Post. Either Teller or someone else must’ve filled in that detail for Dr. Suttle. Dr. Post’s research seems to have been focused on nuclear fusion and magnetic levitation.
Random 80s TV factoid: Apparently Dr. Post was actress Markie Post’s father. She played Judge Stone’s love interest on Night Court.
I couldn’t find any details about that particular episode but below is another loosely relevant episode of “Science in Action” from 1959 where nuclear propelled space ships are discussed in the context of lunar bases. Seems as though Professor Teller wasn’t the only one with this concept fresh on his mind.
And that is all the relevant information in the file on this experience. There are some investigative angles I still intend to pursue in order to get more details about Mr. Olsen’s experience so be on the lookout for a possible update at some point.
Below are all of the relevant correspondence from the file aggregated into a PDF file.
Thanks for reading!
A fun little outing ...