Case description
Twelve-year-old John Jacob Swaim reported seeing a small figure while returning from tractor work near Coldwater, Kansas, in September 1954. The ledger dates it September 2 at 8 p.m.; later occupant catalogues also use September 14 at 10 p.m. Contemporary newspaper coverage was already circulating in early September, so these conflicting dates should not be presented as separate encounters.
The boy described a child-sized figure with an unusually long nose and ears. In later summaries it wore shiny clothing and carried two cylinders on its back, appearing to glide or float as it moved over a low rise toward a hovering object. The early newspaper account called the object cucumber-shaped, only about three feet long and high, with lights visible as it departed. Later HUMCAT-based retellings replace this with a fifty-foot disc. The plate follows the earlier elongated craft version and explicitly acknowledges the source differences.
Sheriff Floyd Hadley and others reportedly examined small, odd-shaped footprints the following morning. Reports compared their narrow heels and broad fronts with pear shapes or duck-like tracks. These later observations do not corroborate the boy's detailed view of the figure or establish what produced the marks. No authenticated photograph, recovered equipment or confirmed official identification resolves the case.
