Within Local Network
How police calls became Oklahoma UFO files
Hewes mattered because police calls, journalists and civilian follow-up turned short-lived sightings into a lasting Oklahoma UFO record.
On this page
- Why local access mattered before the internet
- How reporters and officers fed sightings to Hewes
- What the network preserved and what it distorted
Page outline Jump by section
Introduction
Hayden Hewes became an important figure in Oklahoma UFO history not because he had official authority, advanced equipment or access to secret government files, but because he built a practical reporting network. During the 1960s, when a strange light in the sky could easily become a forgotten local rumour, Hewes created channels through which police officers, highway patrol personnel, reporters and ordinary witnesses could pass information to a civilian investigator. That network helped preserve reports that might otherwise have vanished. It also helped shape how Oklahoma’s UFO stories were understood, publicised and remembered. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comin '65 Edmond abuzz with UCO sightings11 Sept 2014 — Members of the IIOUFO included scientists, astronomers and others interested in the…
The network mattered most during periods of intense reporting, particularly the 1965 Oklahoma UFO flap. Yet its significance goes beyond any single sighting. It shows how local information moved before the internet: from dispatch rooms and newsroom telephones into filing cabinets, newspaper stories, civilian archives and sometimes even Air Force records. The resulting archive remains useful to historians of Oklahoma’s UFO culture, while also illustrating how informal information networks can preserve evidence and introduce distortions at the same time. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot… [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comin '65 Edmond abuzz with UCO sightings11 Sept 2014 — Members of the IIOUFO included scientists, astronomers and others interested in the…
Why local access mattered before the internet
In the early and mid-1960s there was no online reporting system, no social media feed and no rapid way for witnesses in different towns to compare experiences. Most UFO reports remained highly local. A sighting might be discussed among neighbours, mentioned briefly to a police dispatcher or appear as a short newspaper item before disappearing from public view.
Hewes’ contribution was to create a mechanism that connected those isolated reports. Local accounts describe him as maintaining relationships with police officers and media contacts who alerted him when unusual sightings were reported. The organisation he led, identified in contemporary reporting as the Interplanetary Intelligence of UFOs (IIOUFO) and later associated with the International UFO Bureau, positioned itself as a place where witnesses could be referred for follow-up investigation. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
This gave Oklahoma a more durable civilian UFO record than many states received from scattered newspaper clippings alone. Reports could be collected, compared with other sightings, discussed with journalists and, in some cases, forwarded to larger UFO organisations or government investigators. Archival records indicate that correspondence involving Hewes and the International UFO Bureau survived into the 1970s, demonstrating that the network produced enough material to generate a continuing paper trail. [files.bluebookfiles.org]files.bluebookfiles.orgSmith Finders GuideCorrespondence with Mr. Hayden C. Hewes et al., 1969-1974. 4-21. Keel, John A. Correspondence, 1969-1971. 4-22…
The key point is that Hewes functioned less as a discoverer of UFOs than as a communications hub. His value lay in connecting people who already possessed pieces of information.
How reporters and officers fed sightings to Hewes
Contemporary accounts repeatedly describe police and media contacts as the backbone of the network. Members of Hewes’ organisation reportedly included people interested in scientific or astronomical study, but the crucial operational feature was simpler: officers and journalists knew who to call when reports started arriving. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
The reporting chain often worked in several stages:
- A witness contacted police, a sheriff’s office, a highway patrol post or a local newspaper.
- Dispatchers or reporters recognised the report as unusual.
- Hewes was notified through personal contacts.
- He interviewed witnesses, gathered statements or photographs, and compared reports from different locations.
- Material could then be circulated more widely through newspapers, UFO organisations or official channels. [edmondlifeandleisure.com+2edmondlifeandleisure.com]
The system depended heavily on personal relationships. Oklahoma historian Larry O’Dell later summarised the arrangement by noting that Hewes had friends in law enforcement who informed him when UFO reports came in and that he focused on documenting what people reported seeing. [KOCO]koco.comKOCOOklahoma has decades-long history with UAP sightings1 Oct 2023 — During the Project Blue Book years, an OKC man was on a mission to s…
That arrangement gave Hewes unusually quick access to witnesses. Rather than discovering cases weeks later through newspaper archives, he could sometimes become involved while reports were still arriving.
The 1965 flap as a network test
The late July and early August 1965 wave of sightings provides the clearest example of the referral network operating in real time.
After Wynnewood police officer Lewis Sikes reported an unusual aerial object, Hewes travelled to interview him directly. That response illustrates how the network transformed a single police observation into a documented case. Instead of remaining a brief incident report, the sighting became part of a broader civilian investigation. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
The following evening the communications web expanded. According to later accounts, television newsman Mike Buchanan telephoned Hewes after learning that the Oklahoma Highway Patrol had received numerous UFO reports. Hewes then went to a Highway Patrol communications facility where he listened as additional sightings were relayed over police radio channels. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
What makes this episode historically important is not whether the reported objects were extraordinary. Rather, it shows how multiple institutions became linked:
- Local witnesses generated reports.
- Police agencies received calls.
- Journalists monitored the developing story.
- Hewes collected and compared information.
- Some material later entered wider UFO research networks. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot… [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
The flap therefore demonstrates the practical role of the referral network. It acted as an information pipeline during a period when reports were arriving faster than any single witness or newspaper could track.
Why journalists were as important as police
The media side of the network is sometimes overlooked because UFO history often focuses on witnesses and investigators. Yet reporters played a critical role in determining which cases gained visibility.
Television stations and newspapers received calls from the public, monitored police activity and looked for unusual local stories. When journalists contacted Hewes, they provided more than publicity. They helped identify clusters of reports occurring across different towns and counties. A reporter hearing from several witnesses in one evening could recognise a pattern that no individual observer could see. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
The relationship also worked in the opposite direction. Hewes supplied reporters with interviews, witness statements and interpretations that helped turn isolated sightings into larger news stories. This increased public awareness and encouraged additional witnesses to come forward.
That process created a feedback loop. More coverage generated more reports; more reports generated more coverage. For historians, this is one reason sighting waves must be treated carefully. A genuine increase in reports may reflect unusual events in the sky, but it can also reflect increased public attention and reporting behaviour.
From local reports to wider UFO archives
One reason Hewes remains visible in Oklahoma UFO history is that some of the material gathered through his network moved beyond the state.
Accounts of his work describe photographs, witness reports and investigative material being forwarded to Project Blue Book, the US Air Force’s UFO investigation programme. One Oklahoma photograph collected during the 1965 period was reportedly submitted for official analysis and remained unexplained according to later retellings. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
The International UFO Bureau also maintained correspondence with researchers and organisations outside Oklahoma. Surviving archival references show exchanges involving Hewes during the late 1960s and early 1970s. [files.bluebookfiles.org]files.bluebookfiles.orgSmith Finders GuideCorrespondence with Mr. Hayden C. Hewes et al., 1969-1974. 4-21. Keel, John A. Correspondence, 1969-1971. 4-22…
As a result, local Oklahoma reports did not always remain local. Through the referral network they could enter national UFO discussions, specialist publications and archival collections. Even when later investigators disagreed with Hewes’ conclusions, they often depended on records that survived because someone in the network preserved them.
What the network preserved and what it distorted
The strongest argument in favour of Hewes’ network is preservation.
Without it, many reports from Oklahoma’s UFO waves would likely survive only as brief newspaper references or not at all. Police observations, witness interviews, photographs and correspondence gained a longer historical life because someone made an effort to collect them. For researchers attempting to reconstruct Oklahoma’s UFO history decades later, that preservation is genuinely valuable. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
The network also created opportunities for cross-checking. If multiple reports arrived from different towns through police channels, investigators could compare times, descriptions and locations rather than relying on a single witness account.
At the same time, the same structure introduced potential distortions.
Because the network centred on people already interested in UFOs, ambiguous observations could be interpreted within a UFO framework more readily than they might have been by aviation specialists or astronomers. Media attention could encourage additional reports that were sincere but influenced by publicity. Personal contacts could also create an impression of corroboration even when witnesses were indirectly aware of earlier reports. [edmondlifeandleisure.com]edmondlifeandleisure.comRemembering a man who investigated the unusualoffice in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis…. Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot…
This is why historians generally treat the network as evidence of reporting activity rather than proof of extraordinary craft. It documents what Oklahomans said they saw and how those claims travelled through local institutions. It does not automatically verify the underlying sightings.
Why the referral network still matters in Oklahoma UFO history
Hewes’ lasting significance lies in the mechanics of information rather than in any single dramatic case.
His network linked dispatch rooms, reporters, civilian investigators and larger UFO organisations at a time when no digital infrastructure existed. That helped create one of the more substantial civilian UFO archives associated with Oklahoma. It also explains why certain Oklahoma cases from the 1960s remain visible today while countless others have disappeared.
For modern readers, the network offers a useful reminder that UFO history is not only about objects in the sky. It is also about who recorded reports, who passed them along, who published them and which stories survived long enough to become part of the historical record. In Oklahoma, Hayden Hewes’ police and media referral network was one of the main mechanisms that made that survival possible. [2files.bluebookfiles.org]files.bluebookfiles.orgSmith Finders GuideCorrespondence with Mr. Hayden C. Hewes et al., 1969-1974. 4-21. Keel, John A. Correspondence, 1969-1971. 4-22…
Amazon book picks
Further Reading
Books and field guides related to How police calls became Oklahoma UFO files. Use these as the next step if you want deeper reading beyond the article.
The UFO Experience
Examines witness reporting, classification and investigation processes.
The UFO Evidence
Useful for understanding how case files and report collections were assembled.
The Report on Unidentified Flying Objects
Details procedures for collecting and evaluating reports.
UFOs and Government
Provides context for how civilian and official information networks interacted.
eBay marketplace picks
Marketplace Samples
Example marketplace items related to this page. Use the search link to explore similar finds on eBay.
Endnotes
-
Source: edmondlifeandleisure.com
Link: https://edmondlifeandleisure.com/edmond-underground-in-edmond-abuzz-with-uco-sightings-p10350-87.htmSource snippet
in '65 Edmond abuzz with UCO sightings11 Sept 2014 — Members of the IIOUFO included scientists, astronomers and others interested in the...
-
Source: koco.com
Link: https://www.koco.com/article/oklahoma-ufo-history-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena-sightings/45347432Source snippet
KOCOOklahoma has decades-long history with UAP sightings1 Oct 2023 — During the Project Blue Book years, an OKC man was on a mission to s...
-
Source: edmondlifeandleisure.com
Title: Remembering a man who investigated the unusual
Link: https://edmondlifeandleisure.com/remembering-a-man-who-investigated-the-unusual-p19337-76.htmSource snippet
office in charge of UFO investigations, Project Blue Book, for analysis.... Hewes, people now have a better understanding of UFOs and ot...
-
Source: files.bluebookfiles.org
Title: Smith Finders Guide
Link: https://files.bluebookfiles.org/pdfs/15450.pdfSource snippet
Correspondence with Mr. Hayden C. Hewes et al., 1969-1974. 4-21. Keel, John A. Correspondence, 1969-1971. 4-22...
-
Source: archive.org
Link: https://archive.org/stream/412589424-ufos-and-the-extraterrestrial-contact-movement-v-1/412589424-Ufos-and-the-Extraterrestrial-Contact-Movement-v1_djvu.txtSource snippet
Spaulding. "Inves- tigation of the 1965 Tulsa, Oklahoma UFO Sighting with Computer Photographic Analysis.Read more...
-
Source: ia600600.us.archive.org
Title: 492780987 The UFO Book Encyclopedia of the Extraterrestrial PDFDrive
Link: https://ia600600.us.archive.org/32/items/492780987-the-ufo-book-encyclopedia-of-the-extraterrestrial-pdfdrive/492780987-The-UFO-Book-Encyclopedia-of-the-Extraterrestrial-PDFDrive.pdfSource snippet
UFOs in the Nineteenth Century • UFOs, 1900-1946. University of Colorado UFO Project • Utah Film. V-PAGE 611. Valensole CE2/CE3 • Valenti...
-
Source: ia802901.us.archive.org
Title: Extraordinary Encounters
Link: https://ia802901.us.archive.org/19/items/ExtraordinaryEncounters_201809/Extraordinary%20Encounters.pdfSource snippet
Encounters... In 1896 and 1897, during what today would be called a nationwide wave of unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings. Ameri...
-
Source: internationalufobureau.com
Link: https://www.internationalufobureau.com/pastinvestigations/1965flapSource snippet
The 1965 UFO Sightings: A Historic Event InvestigatedDiscover the astonishing 1965 UFO sightings, spanning 7 states and 3 nights, with th...
-
Source: podfollow.com
Link: https://podfollow.com/mysterious-radio/episode/527b1f8af158ae92cb0662eb23a6c42f54a138de/viewSource snippet
witnesses reporting UFO sightings. Recent Episodes. Media Image. Alien Antichrist The Truth about UFOs and Aliens Antichrist and the End...
Additional References
-
Source: edmondoutlook.com
Link: https://www.edmondoutlook.com/mysterious-edmond/Source snippet
Mysterious EdmondDominantly white and appeared to have a green glow around it,” Hewes stated. “The UFO also seemed to be flashing red, wh...
-
Source: facebook.com
Link: https://www.facebook.com/maitvfiji/posts/tv-guide300419time-tuesday600-am-smile-tv700-am-tv-nz-news-replay800-am-souls-to/2165153133521902/Source snippet
TV Guide 30.04.19 TIME TUESDAY 6:00 AM Smile TV 7...When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, there may be some answers. Repeats Sat...
-
Source: scribd.com
Link: https://www.scribd.com/document/412589424/Ufos-and-the-Extraterrestrial-Contact-Movement-v1Source snippet
Whatever the explanation for UFO sightings, whether alien spacecraft or something more mundane, the fact remains that thousands...Read more...
-
Source: academia.edu
Title: (PDF) UFOs and the extraterrestrial contact movement Hewes, Hayden C
Link: https://www.academia.edu/71337593/UFOs_and_the_extraterrestrial_contact_movement_a_bibliographySource snippet
, James Maney, and William H. Spaulding. "Inves tigation of the 1965 Tulsa, Oklahoma UFO Sighting with Computer photographic Analysis.Rea...
-
Source: search.proquest.com
Link: https://search.proquest.com/openview/af9120206756ee2f11e198673e71067f/1?cbl=18750&pq-origsite=gscholarSource snippet
Rhetoric and the Ritual of Gunpowder Treason in Early...by KQ Doyle · 2013 · Cited by 4 — Moreover, the Gazette and the News-Letter repo...
-
Source: goodpods.com
Title: Interview About The International UFO Bureau Dr
Link: https://goodpods.com/podcasts/forbidden-realms-late-night-show-with-gary-265300/interview-about-the-international-ufo-bureau-dr-gregory-rogers-and-min-108063159Source snippet
leads the modern revival of the organization first established in 1957 by Hayden C.... Her work combines documented histo...
-
Source: reddit.com
Title: in 1973 hayden hewes asked jimmy carter to fill
Link: https://www.reddit.com/r/ufo/comments/1hpuw66/in_1973_hayden_hewes_asked_jimmy_carter_to_fill/Source snippet
In 1973, Hayden Hewes asked Jimmy Carter to fill out a...Jimmy carter's letter addressing potential alien life aboard voyager 1... · 195...
-
Source: podcastufo.com
Title: hayden hewes and the international ufo bureau
Link: https://podcastufo.com/hayden-hewes-and-the-international-ufo-bureau/Source snippet
11 Dec 2022 — Besides his interest in UFOs, Hewes had an interest in Sasquatch and formed an offshoot of the International UFO Bureau cal...
-
Source: scribd.com
Link: https://www.scribd.com/document/803216747/Hewes-Hayden-The-AliensSource snippet
the form and behavior of the 'alien beings 1 associated....Read more...
-
Source: tile.loc.gov
Title: usteledirec00209 djvu.txt
Link: https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/gdc/gdcustel/us/te/le/di/re/c0/02/09/usteledirec00209/usteledirec00209_djvu.txtSource snippet
Police, and Rescue Services In (4^Emergency The City Of Dothan You May... Alien James &Cherie Hwy 123 692-3741 Allen Jerry & Irene 104 V...
Topic Tree