In focus: Alien Invasion Parade courses through downtown Chehalis

The Chehalis Flying Saucer Party Alien Invasion Parade was held in Chehalis on Saturday, Sept. 13.

First held in 2019, the Chehalis Flying Saucer Party celebrates the famous June 24, 1947, flight of Kenneth Arnold, who claimed to have witnessed nine metallic objects flying in an echelon formation stretching nearly 5 miles between Mount Rainier and Mount Adams while flying near Mineral after taking off from Chehalis.

This sighting helped coin the phrase “flying saucer” after Arnold described what he saw as “saucer-like aircraft flying in formation,” in an East Oregonian article detailing the sighting. His sighting also sparked the famous Summer of the Saucers in 1947, when thousands of reported flying saucer sightings were made nationwide after Arnold’s story went public.