The official sign marking the beginning of the Extraterrestrial Highway in Nevada. It is actually Hwy. 375 which takes you past well known Rachel, NV. The closest town to Area 51.

MYSTERY WIRE — Nevada is known for many things. It is officially the silver state thanks to its massive silver deposits that were mined in the 1800’s. But for many, it’s also ground zero for UFOs’.

This weekend marks the anniversary of one of the most widely witnessed UFO incidents in modern history. The case has faded from memory, but records from the Air Force Project Blue Book show it was a genuine unknown.

April 18, 1962. An unknown object was tracked on radar as it zoomed across the United States, traveling from east to west. In the days following the large sighting, the public was told it was a meteor. But many who saw it and researched it thought differently.

Whatever it was, it exploded in a gigantic fireball seen in Las Vegas and as far away as Reno. Mystery Wire obtained records from Project Blue Book. The resords describe what can only be described as one very strange meteor, since according to the government, it landed in Utah, then took off again.

Walter Butt, seen here in 1989, investigated the fireball in 1962.

The man who led the search for the possible wreckage was Walter Butt. We caught up with him in 1989 when he said, “They thought that it could have been an aircraft or whatever, there were rumors that it was an unidentified object.”

What’s now known as the Las Vegas fireball mystery is just one of many fantastic stories of strange flying objects in the skies above Nevada. Watch the two stories below for more on the fireball along with the story of four hunters terrified by an object that chased them into town.