Smith River unidentified-object report — June 11, 1975

The Smith River entry records June 11, 1975, at 6:45 p.m., in Montana. Its entire encounter description associates small men with an unusually large UFO. The NICAP chronology cites NIDS UFO 87. That identifier also appears in Appendix 1 of the NIDS/Wolverton compilation of 1974–1977 Montana UFO, helicopter and animal-mutilation reports, where the same short wording is retained. The row supplies no witness name, observation duration, distance, measured object dimensions or description of the men beyond their relative size. It does not establish the object’s shape, a landing, boarding or a conversation. Neither the number of beings nor a witness count can be recovered from its plural wording. The catalogue category should therefore remain broader than a fully reconstructed close-encounter sequence. The wider compilation documents a regional reporting period, but neighbouring entries concern separate events. Animal injuries, helicopter sightings and military activity elsewhere in its table cannot be attached to Smith River merely because they appear on adjacent lines. The Atlas keeps this source-limited entry with its original date and reference. The accompanying plate is an explicitly interpretive arrangement with indistinct figures and an unresolved object, rather than a detailed claim about unknown witnesses or extraterrestrial anatomy.