Case file · Close encounter
'Little men' of Steep Rock Lake
A September 1950 story in the Steep Rock Echo, an iron-mine company magazine at Atikokan, Ontario, told of a couple who watched a landed saucer and small figures on the lake on 2 July 1950.
1950 CE · 48.80, -91.62 · status: hoax
The account
The anonymous writer described a double disc with portholes and a rotating hoop, and about ten little figures in shiny suits pumping water. The tale stayed obscure until broadcaster Frank Edwards retold it as fact in 'Flying Saucers - Serious Business' (1966), after which it was copied into many UFO books.
The sceptical view
People connected with the mine and the magazine later said the story had been written as a joke, a satire of saucer-men stories. No witness was ever named.