1962 'thing in the woods' was CIA spy camera
Posted on Wednesday, 26 July, 2017 |
Eisenhower had given the project the go-ahead. Image Credit: Public Domain
A mystery spanning over 55 years has finally been solved thanks to newly released CIA documents.
The incident began when David McPherson Sr. discovered a strange box hanging from a rotting parachute in the woods near Moncton in 1962. The mystery only deepened when, after being transported back to the family's property, the object was promptly confiscated by the military.
Now more than five decades after the 'thing' was discovered, newly declassified documents from the Central Intelligence Agency have revealed that it was actually a high-altitude balloon-mounted spy camera designed to take photographs over Soviet Russia.
"It's hard to put into words," said David McPherson Jr. whose father originally discovered the object. "It's so exciting and it turns out it was a CIA spy camera. There was just too much to it."
"These camera lenses were huge, the secrecy around it. And I guess looking back now, the army probably had no choice - they couldn't tell us what it was."
Entitled 'Project Genetrix', the operation, which had been approved by President Dwight Eisenhower, aimed to learn more about what was occurring in Soviet Russia and Communist China.
For whatever reason, this particular camera had been blown off course and ended up in Canada.
"What I want to know is what was on that camera," said James Rogers who had orginally helped McPherson move it out of the forest. "I would suspect there was film in there, and it would be really interesting to learn what it was taking pictures of."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/thing-in-the-woods-cia-spy-camera-1.4221705