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McMenamins and Bothell Historical Museum Present History Pub
UFO Northwest: How Washington State Spawned the Men in Black
Presented by Steve Edmiston
McMenamins Anderson School
Haynes’ Hall
Tuesday, November 24, 2026
7pm/doors 6pm
$5
All ages
On August 1, 1947, the tragic crash of a B-25 bomber in Washington triggered an FBI investigation of “The Maury Island Incident”— an infamous Northwest UFO sighting and history’s first alleged encounter with the so-called “Men in Black.”
The FBI’s records from 1947, sealed for decades, reveal Cold War fears, jurisdictional disputes, cover-ups, false confessions, a courageous FBI special agent, and the hands-on involvement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
Relying on historic FBI records and new government disclosures, Steve Edmiston, lawyer, filmmaker and historian, exposes a Washington story that re-frames sci-fi pop culture narratives, from 1950s pulp magazines to the X-Files and Men in Black films, and challenges the cultural dominance of Roswell to highlight how the Pacific Northwest played a part in UFO history.
Steve Edmiston is a business and entertainment lawyer, frequent speaker on Northwest history and two-time appointee to the Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau. Steve is also an indie film screenwriter and producer. His screenwriting credits include 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑢𝑟𝑦 𝐼𝑠𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐼𝑛𝑐𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡, a film chronicling the true story of Harold Dahl and his alleged 1947 sighting of a UFO over Puget Sound. Steve co-founded the annual community festivals Burning Saucer and Men in Black Birth Bash (MIBBB Fest) which celebrate local UFO mythology, speculative history, and the power of story to engage and entertain.
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Event venue
McMenamins Anderson School, Skate Park, Bothell, WA 98011, United States
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