Within Portage Chase
Did the Buchert photo prove anything?
Mantua police chief Gerald Buchert's disputed photograph shows why the Portage chase has evidence beyond testimony but not enough to settle the case.
On this page
- What Buchert said he photographed
- Why the Air Force dismissed the image
- What a weak UFO photograph can and cannot prove
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
The Portage County police chase is often remembered as a story of officers pursuing a strange light across Ohio and into Pennsylvania. Yet one reason the case remained famous is that it seemed to offer something more than eyewitness testimony. Mantua police chief Gerald Buchert said he saw the same object and photographed it. For supporters of the case, the photograph suggested independent evidence from a separate witness. For sceptics, it demonstrated a recurring problem in UFO history: a photograph can appear important simply because it exists, even when the image itself is too unclear to settle anything.
The Buchert photograph occupies an awkward middle ground. It is not usually dismissed as a complete invention, but neither is it regarded as strong proof of an extraordinary object. Instead, it has become an example of how visual evidence can strengthen a case without resolving it.
What Buchert said he photographed
During the early-morning events of 17 April 1966, reports of an unusual object were spreading through police radio channels in north-eastern Ohio. Gerald Buchert, chief of police in Mantua, later said he observed the object and took photographs of it from near his home. Contemporary and later accounts place his sighting within the same broad time frame as the Portage County chase. [Cleveland Scene]clevescene.comstrangers in the night 1485939Cleveland SceneStrangers in the Night31 Mar 2004 — In 1966, Ohio cops chased a UFO into Pennsylvania. Then the government got involved, a… [medium]medium.comMediumSeeing a UFO ruined Dale Spaur's life | by Ben WolfordHe thought the “UFO buffs” were manipulating politicians and the press to sto… Buchert’s importance to the story comes from the fact that he was not simply repeating what Deputies Dale Spaur and Wilbur Neff had reported. He claimed his own observation. Later retellings describe him saying that the object appeared round when viewed from below and more saucer-like when seen from the side. He also argued that it showed movement relative to fixed landmarks, including telephone wires, which was one reason he rejected later explanations that centred on a distant astronomical object. [Cleveland Scene]clevescene.comstrangers in the night 1485939Cleveland SceneStrangers in the Night31 Mar 2004 — In 1966, Ohio cops chased a UFO into Pennsylvania. Then the government got involved, a…
Only one image from Buchert’s attempt at photography is usually discussed. Reports describe most of the photographs as overexposed or unusable, leaving a single indistinct image that UFO researchers and sceptics have debated ever since. The surviving reproduction generally appears as a blurry bright form against a dark background rather than a detailed picture of a structured craft. [Weird Darkness]weirddarkness.comportage county ufo chase 1966Weird DarknessThe 1966 Portage County UFO Chase: What Five Officers SawMantua Police Chief Gerald Buchert, whose photographs of the craft…
That immediately created a tension familiar in many UFO cases. The existence of a photograph sounds impressive, but the value of a photograph depends on what it actually shows. A blurred light can document that a witness pointed a camera at something. It does not necessarily identify what that thing was.
Why the Air Force dismissed the image
Project Blue Book investigated the broader Portage County incident and ultimately argued that the officers had misinterpreted ordinary objects, principally an Echo communications satellite and the planet Venus. Within that framework, Buchert’s photograph was not treated as independent confirmation of an unknown craft. [documents2.theblackvault.com]documents2.theblackvault.comProjectBlueBook April171966 Ravenna Mantua Ohiop,.-v-cFf,, 7-r'>'· –/f·l·f'Mr. Tom Schley, B~aver County Times, called 0815 hours 18 Apr 66 requesting info on UFO. He mentioned tha… Wikipedia Blue Book director Major Hector Quintanilla reportedly regarded the photograph as too poor in quality to establish anything unusual. Later di [Wikipedia]WikipediaAvvistamento della contea di PortageAvvistamento della contea di Portage scussions of the case describe the Air Force position as being that the image was either uninformative or potentially affected by photographic defects rather than depicting a structured object. Some archival discussions reference processing problems and image artefacts as possible explanations for what appeared on the film. [ufohistoryfiles.com]ufohistoryfiles.comPortage County material - The UFO History GroupUFO• s are probably;, processing defects due· to old.t'ogged film and p~or… [Weird Darkness]weirddarkness.comportage county ufo chase 1966Weird DarknessThe 1966 Portage County UFO Chase: What Five Officers SawMantua Police Chief Gerald Buchert, whose photographs of the craft…
From the Air Force perspective, this was a straightforward evidential issue. If the photograph did not clearly reveal shape, size, distance, speed or identifiable features, then it could not outweigh the official astronomical explanation. A fuzzy image could not demonstrate that the witnesses had observed an advanced craft rather than a bright celestial object seen under unusual viewing conditions. [Wikipedia]WikipediaAvvistamento della contea di PortageAvvistamento della contea di Portage
Critics of Blue Book often found this unsatisfying because they believed the witness testimony deserved greater weight. Yet even many researchers sympathetic to the officers acknowledged that the photograph itself was weak. The dispute therefore shifted away from the image and back towards the credibility of the witnesses.
What a weak UFO photograph can and cannot prove
The Buchert image remains useful because it illustrates a broader problem in evaluating UFO evidence.
A photograph can establish several limited points:
- A witness genuinely attempted to document something.
- The report was not based entirely on memory years later.
- There may have been an observable light or object present at the time.
- Independent witnesses can sometimes produce separate pieces of evidence connected to the same event.
However, a weak photograph usually cannot establish:
- The object’s true distance.
- Its actual size.
- Whether apparent motion was real or perceived.
- Whether the image shows a solid craft, a light source, a reflection or a photographic artefact.
- Whether extraordinary interpretations are more likely than ordinary ones.
The Buchert photograph falls into precisely this category. It is stronger than having no image at all, but it does not provide the kind of detail needed to determine what was photographed. The result is that both believers and sceptics can point to it without decisively winning the argument.
Why the image still matters in the Portage case
The photograph’s historical value is not that it solved the mystery. It did not.
Instead, it matters because it sits between two extremes. The Portage County chase was never supported by radar data, recovered material or a clear series of photographs. At the same time, it was not merely a single witness making an unsupported claim. The case involved multiple officers, radio communications and at least one reported attempt to capture visual evidence. [Cleveland Scene]clevescene.comstrangers in the night 1485939Cleveland SceneStrangers in the Night31 Mar 2004 — In 1966, Ohio cops chased a UFO into Pennsylvania. Then the government got involved, a… [2documents2.theblackvault.com]documents2.theblackvault.comProjectBlueBook April171966 Ravenna Mantua Ohiop,.-v-cFf,, 7-r'>'· –/f·l·f'Mr. Tom Schley, B~aver County Times, called 0815 hours 18 Apr 66 requesting info on UFO. He mentioned tha…
That is why discussions of the chase continue to mention Buchert. His photograph represents the strongest form of physical evidence associated with the event, yet it is also too ambiguous to settle the central question. The image neither proves an extraterrestrial craft nor disproves the officers’ sincerity.
In that sense, the Buchert photograph may be one of the most revealing pieces of evidence in the entire Portage County story. It demonstrates how UFO cases can possess more than testimony while still falling short of proof. The picture gives the incident a tangible artefact that researchers can examine decades later, but it also shows the limits of visual evidence when image quality is poor and independent corroboration is scarce. That unresolved gap between witness confidence and photographic ambiguity remains one of the defining features of the 1966 Ohio chase.
Amazon book picks
Further Reading
Books and field guides related to Did the Buchert photo prove anything?. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.
The Hynek UFO Report
Addresses evidential standards and photographic claims in classic UFO cases.
eBay marketplace picks
Marketplace Samples
Example marketplace items related to this page. Use the search link to explore similar finds on eBay.
Endnotes
-
Source: medium.com
Link: https://medium.com/the-portager/seeing-a-ufo-ruined-dale-spaurs-life-f86bab152368Source snippet
MediumSeeing a UFO ruined Dale Spaur's life | by Ben WolfordHe thought the “UFO buffs” were manipulating politicians and the press to sto...
-
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Avvistamento della contea di Portage
Link: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avvistamento_della_contea_di_Portage -
Source: documents2.theblackvault.com
Title: ProjectBlueBook April171966 Ravenna Mantua Ohio
Link: https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/projectbluebook/ProjectBlueBook-April171966-Ravenna-Mantua-Ohio.pdfSource snippet
p,.-v-cFf,, 7-r'>'· --/f·l·f'Mr. Tom Schley, B~aver County Times, called 0815 hours 18 Apr 66 requesting info on UFO. He mentioned tha...
-
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Project Blue Book
Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Blue_Book -
Source: ufohistoryfiles.com
Link: https://ufohistoryfiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/145C.pdfSource snippet
Portage County material - The UFO History GroupUFO• s are probably;, processing defects due· to old.t'ogged film and p~or...
-
Source: clevescene.com
Title: strangers in the night 1485939
Link: https://www.clevescene.com/news/strangers-in-the-night-1485939/Source snippet
Cleveland SceneStrangers in the Night31 Mar 2004 — In 1966, Ohio cops chased a UFO into Pennsylvania. Then the government got involved, a...
-
Source: weirddarkness.com
Title: portage county ufo chase 1966
Link: https://weirddarkness.com/portage-county-ufo-chase-1966/Source snippet
Weird DarknessThe 1966 Portage County UFO Chase: What Five Officers SawMantua Police Chief Gerald Buchert, whose photographs of the craft...
Additional References
-
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/12117541695/posts/10161336608271696/Source snippet
Police chase cone shaped UFO across state linesThere are several possible explanations: 1) The object was an alien craft. 2) Portage Coun...
-
Source: reddit.com
Title: in 1966 3 police officers chased a ufo for 86
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/nonmurdermysteries/comments/pg6wss/in_1966_3_police_officers_chased_a_ufo_for_86/Source snippet
In 1966, 3 police officers chased a UFO for 86 miles, across...A creepy unsolved and true story of a police officer who chased a ufo for...
-
Source: thislocallife.com
Link: https://www.thislocallife.com/5-ufo-cases-in-ohioSource snippet
ed in our own backyard and several of which involved...Read more...
-
Source: unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov
Title: aliens at the archives
Link: https://unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2017/04/26/aliens-at-the-archives/Source snippet
at the Archives - The Unwritten Record26 Apr 2017 — The report lists unidentifiable occurrences as the least frequent result of a UFO inv...
-
Source: reddit.com
Title: rare photo of ufo from 1966 police chase
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/UFOs/comments/wr5q9m/rare_photo_of_ufo_from_1966_police_chase/Source snippet
Was this a UFO? · Strangers in the Night: "In 1966, Ohio cops chased a UFO into Pennsylvania. · 2/24/17: Drawing mailed to WLFI Reporter...
-
Source: origins.osu.edu
Title: air force investigation ufos
Link: https://origins.osu.edu/read/air-force-investigation-ufosSource snippet
Air Force Investigation into UFOs | Origins22 Dec 2024 — The project had investigated some 12,618 UFO sightings, and of those 701 remain...
-
Source: ohiomysteries.com
Title: 1966 the great ufo chase
Link: https://ohiomysteries.com/ohio%20mysteries/1966-the-great-ufo-chaseSource snippet
1966: The Great UFO Chase28 Oct 2018 — Photo taken by Mantua Police Chief Gerald Buchert in 1966 (lightened). ---. ufochasemap. UFO chase...
-
Source: youtube.com
Title: The Uncover Up Tapes: The Portage UFO Chase
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPKe-Ibw-NISource snippet
Portage County UFO chase 1966 The Portage County Ohio UFO Chase & Police Encounter in 1966 - FindingUFO FindingUFO...
-
Source: youtube.com
Title: The Parajournal: UFO chase from Portage, Ohio, to Conway, Pa
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CImntZnz45YSource snippet
The Portage County Ohio UFO Chase & Police Encounter in 1966 - FindingUFO...
-
Source: youtube.com
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tws_LsIQkkSource snippet
The Portage County UFO Chase April 17 1966...
Topic Tree