{"type":"documents","slug":"1967-shag-harbour-canadian-government-files","title":"Shag Harbour Canadian Government Files (1967)","url":"https://disclosdex.com/documents/1967-shag-harbour-canadian-government-files","description":"Canadian records preserve RCMP witness origins, DND search orders, and unresolved Shag Harbour UFO documentation.","date":"1967-10-05T00:00:00.000Z","tags":["Case File"],"updated":"2026-05-05T00:00:00.000Z","disclosureRating":8,"connectionCount":0,"content":{"markdown":"The Shag Harbour Canadian government files are the surviving federal paper trail for the October 4, 1967 report that an unidentified object descended into the water near Lower Woods Harbour and Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia. Library and Archives Canada now groups the case as a dedicated Shag Harbour research list, identifying it as Canada's best-known UFO incident and noting RCMP and Canadian Forces involvement.[^1]\n\n## File Provenance\n\nThe core records sit inside Library and Archives Canada's non-meteoric sighting material gathered by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics and the National Research Council. The series description explains that NRC began collecting UFO sighting reports in 1968 and inherited extant Department of National Defence sighting reports dating from 1965.[^2]\n\nThe relevant 1967 file-level catalog record covers September 8 to October 23, 1967, in RG77, volume 310, microfilm reel T-1744, file UAR/N/126-137, part 13. That custody context matters because the Shag Harbour record chain is DND and Canadian Forces operational paperwork preserved through the later NRC/HIA UFO reporting system.[^3]\n\nLibrary and Archives Canada's Shag Harbour list also places the official records beside later books, broadcasts, and memory materials. That list is useful as a modern discovery map, but the evidentiary center remains the contemporary telexes, DND reports, and memoranda.[^1][^2][^3]\n\n## RCMP-Origin Report\n\nThe earliest compact record is the October 5, 1967 Canadian Forces telex titled \"UFO Report.\" It identifies the reporting observer as RCMP Corporal Wercicky of Barrington Passage, with six other witnesses known to the RCMP corporal, and gives the location as outside Lower Woods Harbour, Nova Scotia.[^4]\n\nThe telex records a clear, moonless night; a dark object more than 60 feet across; four white lights spaced horizontally; easterly low-altitude movement; rapid descent to the water; a high whistling sound; a bright flash on contact with the water; and one light remaining on the surface before responders could reach it.[^4]\n\nThe same message says a Coast Guard lifeboat and many small boats searched with nil results, gives the last-sighting position as about 43 30.5 N, 65 45 W, and states that other possible leads, including aircraft and flares, had been checked with nil results. It then notes Coast Guard Cutter 101 proceeding to the area with RCMP aboard for a further search based on the reported datum point.[^4]\n\n## DND Search Handling\n\nThe Department of National Defence follow-up report, dated October 6, repeats the core chronology in administrative form: at 2345 local time on October 4, RCMP Corporal Wercicky and six other witnesses sighted a large flying object that flew down to the water surface, floated, and sank over an interval of roughly five minutes.[^5]\n\nThat DND report describes the object as more than 60 feet in diameter, carrying four white lights spaced horizontally at about 15-foot intervals. It says Maritime Command had been asked on October 5 to investigate and that one officer and a three-man diving team were on scene aided by Coast Guard Cutter 101.[^5]\n\nAn archival-history synthesis drawing on the same Library and Archives Canada reels cites additional DND messages from October 7, 8, and 9: a helicopter airlift of divers and equipment, two days of underwater search producing nil results, and termination of the search after continued negative results.[^7]\n\n## Shelburne-Area Follow-Up\n\nThe official paper trail did not end with the first Shag Harbour splashdown report. A CFB Greenwood memorandum dated October 11, 1967, addressed to the Chief of Defence Staff at Canadian Forces Headquarters, refers to \"recent UFO sightings in the Shelburne area\" while explaining why no separate action had been taken under CFAO 71-6 reporting procedures.[^6]\n\nThat Shelburne memorandum helps explain how the case evolved in later retellings from a coastal search-and-rescue incident into a broader Shelburne-area story. The document supports official awareness of additional regional sightings, but it does not document recovery of a craft, occupants, or physical debris.[^6]\n\nFor this document entry, the important evolution is therefore narrow and auditable: RCMP-origin witness information entered Canadian Forces reporting on October 5, DND and Maritime Command coordinated a water search, and related Shelburne-area correspondence entered the same archival neighborhood within a week.[^4][^5][^6]\n\n## Source Value and Limits\n\nThe files are significant because they use the term \"UFO\" in official headings, name the RCMP source channel, document a defined maritime search, and explicitly record negative checks for ordinary explanations at the first-report stage.[^4][^5]\n\nThey are also limited. The consulted government scans do not show recovered wreckage, a laboratory analysis, or a final identification. The archival synthesis notes that the surviving Shag Harbour documentation is relatively small and comes primarily from DND and NRC files rather than a complete surviving RCMP case file.[^7]\n\nRead carefully, the Shag Harbour Canadian government files establish an official unresolved record chain, not a solved crash-recovery record. Their value is the contemporaneous documentation of who reported the event, how authorities searched, and where the story later expanded beyond the first water-entry report.[^1][^4][^5][^6]\n\n## References\n\n[^1]: [Library and Archives Canada: 1967 Shag Harbour UFO Sighting and Related Research](https://recherche-research.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/public/list/43130)\n\n[^2]: [Library and Archives Canada: Non-meteoric sighting reports gathered by the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics](https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?idnumber=134925&app=fonandcol)\n\n[^3]: [Library and Archives Canada: Hertzberg Institute of Astrophysics - Reports on non-meteoritic sightings, unidentified flying objects, UFO's](https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?idnumber=1765108&app=fonandcol&resource=folderlist)\n\n[^4]: [Library and Archives Canada: Canadian Forces telex \"UFO Report,\" Lower Woods Harbour, October 5, 1967](http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e110/e002749390.jpg)\n\n[^5]: [Library and Archives Canada: Department of National Defence UFO Report, Lower Wood Harbour, October 6, 1967](http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e110/e002749391.jpg)\n\n[^6]: [Library and Archives Canada: CFB Greenwood memorandum on Shelburne-area UFO sightings, October 11, 1967](http://data2.collectionscanada.gc.ca/e/e110/e002749477.jpg)\n\n[^7]: [Matthew Hayes: A History of Canada's UFO Investigation, 1950-1995 (Trent University PDF)](https://digitalcollections.trentu.ca/_flysystem/fedora/2022-04/A_History_of_Canada_s_UFO_Investigation_1950_1995.pdf)","readingTime":"5 min read"},"relatedRecords":[],"citation":{"canonicalUrl":"https://disclosdex.com/documents/1967-shag-harbour-canadian-government-files","title":"Shag Harbour Canadian Government Files (1967)","publisher":"Disclosdex","retrievedFrom":"https://disclosdex.com/api/v1/documents/1967-shag-harbour-canadian-government-files","license":"CC-BY-4.0"}}