HELENA, Mont. — Larry Mayer, a newspaper photographer, pointed his digital camera to the sky on Wednesday and commenced snapping photos of what gave the impression to be a mysterious white orb hanging within the sky over Billings, Mont.

He didn’t know what he was taking a look at, however he knew one thing was up — means up, like 60,000 ft up.

“They shut down the airport and wouldn’t let anybody land or take off, however wouldn’t say why,” mentioned Mr. Mayer, who works for The Billings Gazette and can be a pilot.

By the subsequent day, his pictures had been being printed world wide, and everybody on the town was speaking about what he had captured by his lens: a Chinese language spy balloon, in response to the Pentagon.

The balloon, which the Chinese language authorities insist is a civilian craft designed extra for meteorological recordings than for espionage, had floated out of the state by Friday. However the matter nonetheless hung within the air in Billings and throughout Montana, a state extra usually related to ranching and spectacular pure magnificence.

Some Montanans puzzled why, in a time of high-tech spy satellites, China would ship a balloon. “It was eerie,” Donna Pavlish mentioned as she took a stroll in Billings on Friday. “Unsettling.”

The Chinese language authorities has mentioned the craft was by no means supposed for an overflight of Montana however was pushed off target by westerly winds.

“It’s so fascinating that one thing so low-tech as a balloon is inflicting this worldwide incident,” Ms. Pavlish mentioned.

Others couldn’t perceive why the airship — a sitting duck, or a minimum of a gently floating one — wasn’t merely taken out by the Air Power. The Pentagon had despatched F-22 fighter jets to trace the balloon on Wednesday, U.S. officers mentioned, however determined towards firing on it due to issues about falling particles throughout the huge state, which is house to 1,000,000 folks.

In a land the place a deer rifle hanging at the back of a pickup truck is a standard sight, some joked about doing it themselves.

“I did see it, and it ought to have been shot,” mentioned Billy Norris, a chef at Dickey’s Barbecue Pit in downtown Billings. “It’s a spy balloon, and it shouldn’t have been flying over the US.”

Mayor Invoice Cole of Billings would have taken the shot, too.

“I’m not an skilled, however I can’t see why the federal government didn’t shoot the factor down,” he mentioned. “Montana solely has seven folks per sq. mile. The possibility of hitting anybody is lower than the prospect of profitable the Powerball.”

“I’m extra nervous about cattle,” he added. “Montana has two instances as many cattle as folks, and a cow is so much larger.”

For some, the problem was not a lot whether or not the balloon ought to have been left to linger over Montana, however why it was allowed to get there within the first place. The state is house to Malmstrom Air Power Base and its 150 intercontinental ballistic missile silos.

“We must always deal with our safety so much higher,” mentioned Chet Cole, who works on the Marble Desk restaurant in Billings. “If a balloon makes it this far to Montana, then someone’s not doing a job with nationwide safety.”

And if anybody in Montana has expertise in coping with surprising guests from above, or a minimum of pretending to, it’s the Montana cattle rancher Invoice Pullman, higher identified to many because the actor who performed the president within the 1996 alien invasion movie “Independence Day.”

“It was a wake-up name for me and doubtless for lots of people in Montana,” Mr. Pullman mentioned Friday. “The state can really feel too distant to be in hurt’s means if there have been a conflict, however in reality it may very possible be the frontline of a nuclear first strike. Thankfully I believe most Montanans have a restraint that retains issues like unruly horses and floating hot-air balloons from inflicting a foul wreck.”

Brian Schweitzer, a former governor of Montana, mentioned he understood folks’s concern. “In Montana, we don’t like folks peeking over our fences,” he mentioned.

However he mentioned he discovered it exhausting to imagine that China was spying on the missile silos. “I grew up in just a little farmhouse a mile from an intercontinental missile,” he mentioned. Whereas the missiles are underground and never seen, Mr. Schweitzer mentioned, you’ll be able to drive as much as the power and take a photograph. “Taking a rental automobile can be so much cheaper than sending a balloon from Beijing,” he mentioned.

The balloon was not a direct concern for Montana by Friday, having traveled tons of of miles east to Missouri.

Jordan Bush, who works as a protection contractor close to Kansas Metropolis, had left work just a little after 10 a.m. to choose up his automobile from a restore store when he noticed the balloon.

Mr. Bush is a climate balloon fanatic — “Sure, this was proper up my alley,” he mentioned — and had been monitoring the prevailing winds in anticipation of the balloon’s heading east.

“Personally I’m sort of involved,” he mentioned of the balloon, including that he was skeptical that it had arrived accidentally.

In Columbia, Mo., Jacob Ennis, 30, was taking his trash out to the dumpster at his house when he regarded up and noticed the balloon.

“It was fairly apparent,” he mentioned. “It appeared a bit nearer than I assumed it will be. It was only a huge white orb within the sky.”

Mr. Ennis had heard that the balloon was within the Kansas Metropolis space, a few two-hour drive west, however he mentioned that he hadn’t actually been in search of it. “It’s undoubtedly noticeable,” he mentioned. “It’s very fascinating. It’s just a little ominous realizing it’s a surveilling craft from a international authorities.”

Mr. Ennis mentioned he had stayed exterior for about 10 to fifteen minutes watching the balloon and taking photographs and video on his cellphone, which he posted to Twitter. It was nonetheless in sight when he went again inside.

Jenna Fisher contributed reporting from St. Louis.