Aloha and welcome to another episode of Strange Tides: the Short Board Sessions. Today, we've got another installment in our California Craziness saga and this one really lives up to the name. On a blistering August afternoon in 1955, a quiet citrus-town neighborhood in Riverside, California, became the epicenter of one of UFO history’s most baffling and unsettling encounters. A group of children reported glowing orbs, bizarre non-human entities, paralysis, levitation, and a hovering craft—events that unfolded in broad daylight while nearby adults saw nothing at all.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the Casa Blanca Entities, tracing the story from the initial sightings through the early investigations by the Borderland Sciences Research Association, later analyses by major UFO researchers, and the case’s evolution into a cult classic of high strangeness. We explore why children were the only witnesses, how the 1955 UFO wave and Cold War paranoia shaped the moment, and what makes this encounter so difficult to categorize.

From grounded explanations like heat-induced hallucination and childhood exaggeration, to theories involving extraterrestrial contact, psychic selection, and interdimensional phenomena rooted in ancient local lore, we break down every major interpretation. Decades later, the Casa Blanca case still lingers as a haunting snapshot of lost innocence and unanswered questions—proof that sometimes the weirdest mysteries don’t happen at night, but in your own backyard.

Sources and Links:

Bloecher, Ted & Davis, Isabel. "Close Encounter at Kelly and Others of 1955" (1978) - Full text PDF via NICAP / MUFON archives (hosted by The Black Vault) - https://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/MUFON/Pratt/pratt-1978-kelly.pdf

Borderland Sciences Research Association (BSRA) Report (1955) - Excerpts and scans via Cryptopia.us (archived BSRA material) - https://cryptopia.us/casa-blanca-1955/

Lorenzen, Coral. The Humanoids (1967) - https://www.amazon.com/Humanoids-Coral-Lorenzen/dp/B0006BNK0Y

Huyghe, Patrick. The Field Guide to Extraterrestrials (1997) - https://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Extraterrestrials-Patrick-Huyghe/dp/0380789167

Johnson, Donald. Encounters With Aliens On This Day (2005) - https://www.amazon.com/Encounters-Aliens-This-Day-Donald/dp/0967323819

Project Blue Book Files (U.S. Air Force, 1952–1969 - National Archives / The Black Vault full declassification - https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/project-blue-book/

Riverside Daily Press (August 23, 1955) - https://www.newspapers.com/paper/riverside-daily-press/ (search August 1955)

Los Angeles Times Archives (1955) - https://www.proquest.com/hnplatimes/

Cryptonauts Podcast - https://cryptonautpodcast.com/podcast-episodes/33-casa-blanca-entities

Bigfoot Collectors Club Podcast - https://www.bccpodcast.com/episodes/declassified-casa-blanca

Reddit r/Humanoidencounters – Casa Blanca thread (October 12, 2025) - https://www.reddit.com/r/Humanoidencounters/search?q=casa+blanca

Fringe Blog – "Casa Blanca 1955: The Forgotten California Encounter" (2022) - https://fringeblog.com/casa-blanca-1955

National Weather Service – Riverside, CA Historical Data (August 22, 1955) - https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/

Google Scholar – Search "Casa Blanca Entities 1955" (2026) - https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=casa+blanca+entities+1955