Alien Zone, a Main Street soda shop in Roswell, NM, November 2008, photo © 2008-2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
It’s been over a year since my family took a trip to southern New Mexico, stopping off in that out-of-this-world place known as Roswell. We explored the International UFO Museum & Research Center, which when we were there didn’t seem all that global, well, except for the globes, or rather, discs hanging from the ceiling. We meandered up and down Main Street, which feels an awful lot like your run-of-the-mill small town, well, except for the pair of drunken aliens playing poker in a storefront window.
Roswell has been defined by a single event that happened in the first week of July 1947, an event that came to be known as “The Roswell Incident.” What I like about Roswell is that something happened to it those more than 60 years ago—something truly bizarre and mysterious—and in the absence of closure as to what exactly that something was, the citizens of Roswell, or at least those who keep the mystery alive, have embraced this event and allowed it to take on a life of its own.
There’s something beautiful about the unknown. You can dig all you want into the facts that are available and the eyewitnesses who are alive, but no matter how well you piece together everything that is known, the parts that you can’t fill in remain the most compelling.
Flying Saucers, painting in the UFO Museum, photo
© 2008-2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Here’s what is known and not known about The Roswell Incident (heavily excerpted from “The Roswell Incident” on the International UFO Museum & Research Center website):
W.W. “Mack” Brazel, a New Mexico rancher, saddled up his horse and rode out with the son of neighbors Floyd and Loretta Proctor, to check on the sheep after a fierce thunderstorm the night before. As they rode along, Brazel began to notice unusual pieces of what seemed to be metal debris, scattered over a large area. Upon further inspection, Brazel saw that a shallow trench, several hundred feet long, had been gouged into the land.
Brazel was struck by the unusual properties of the debris, and after dragging a large piece of it to a shed, he took some of it over to show the Proctors in 1947. Mrs. Proctor moved from the ranch into a home nearer to town, but she remembers Mack showing up with strange material.
The Proctors told Brazel that he might be holding wreckage from a UFO or a government project, and that he should report the incident to the sheriff. A day or two later, Mack drove into Roswell where he reported the incident to Sheriff George Wilcox, who reported it to Intelligence Officer, Major Jesse Marcel of the 509 Bomb Group, and for days thereafter, the debris site was closed while the wreckage was cleared.
On July 8, 1947, the Public Information Office at Roswell AAB issued a press release stating that wreckage from a crashed disk was recovered. Hours later, the press release was rescinded and a new one released stating that the a weather balloon was mistakenly identified as wreckage of a flying saucer.
Meanwhile, back in Roswell, Glenn Dennis, a young mortician working at the Ballard Funeral Home, received some curious calls one afternoon from the morgue at the air field. It seems the Mortuary Officer needed to get a hold of some small hermetically sealed coffins,and wanted information about how to preserve bodies that had been exposed to the elements for a few days, without contaminating the tissue.
Dennis drove out to the base hospital later that evening where he saw large pieces of wreckage with strange engravings on one of the pieces sticking out of the back of a military ambulance. Upon entering the hospital he started to visit with a nurse he knew, when suddenly he was threatened by military police and forced to leave.
The next day, Dennis met with the nurse. She told him about the bodies and drew pictures of them on a prescription pad. Within a few days she was transferred to England, her whereabouts remain unknown.
According to the research of Don Schmitt and Kevin Randle, in their book, A History of UFO Crashes, from which the following account of the Roswell Incident , in part, is based, the military had been watching an unidentified flying object on radar for four days in southern New Mexico. On the night of July 4, 1947, radar indicated that the object was down around thirty to forty miles northwest of Roswell.
Eye witness William Woody, who lived east of Roswell, remembered being outside with his father the night of July 4, 1947, when he saw a brilliant object plunge to the ground. A couple of days later when Woody and his father tried to locate the area of the crash, they were stopped by military personnel, who had cordoned off the area.
Dead Alien, from a movie set, UFO Museum, photo
© 2008-2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
Once military personnel got into the mix, things began to get muddled. Late one night shortly after the debris was found, a military representative drove off with a load of the stuff and apparently decided to stop by his home and show the family what he had. I can picture that happening. Just imagine how excited you’d be if you were driving around with a spaceship rim and fender in your car. Heck, I’d drop in on my sleeping kids and rouse them out of bed to see the alien goodies.
In 1990, the son of that military officer underwent hypnosis, in which he recalled being awakened by his father and looking at the debris on the kitchen floor. He described the materials, “Purple. Strange. … Different geometric shapes, leaves and circles.” He also said while under hypnosis that his father told him the materials came from a flying saucer. “I ask him what a flying saucer is. I don’t know what a flying saucer is…It’s a ship. [Dad’s] excited!”
The Crash, painting in the UFO Museum, photo
© 2008-2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
A press release to the radio and newspapers was picked up by the AP Wire on or around July 7, with these words, “The Army Air Forces here today announced a flying disk had been found.” However, the release was later rescinded.
Evidence of the crash wound deeper into the federal government, until finally it disappeared for good. By July 9 the story was changed. According to the UFO Museum website, “The military tried to convince the news media from that day forward that the object found near Roswell was nothing more than a weather balloon.” Brazel, the rancher who originally found the debris, began acting strange. He changed his version of events to corroborate the cover story, claiming to have found weather observation devices. Several newspapers carried this AP lead: “Reports of flying saucers whizzing through the sky fell off sharply today as the army and the navy began a concentrated campaign to stop the rumors.”
Drunken Aliens and Happy Aliens in storefront windows on Main
Street, photos © 2008-2010 by ybonesy. All rights reserved.
The City of Roswell celebrates its most famous incident every year with a UFO Festival during the first week of July. I think it’s safe to say that not only is this an international event, it may in fact be a galactic one. I suppose some could say that there was no other path than to keep this story alive, or rather, to make it into the past, present, and future of the place. But no matter — weather balloon or flying saucer — by now Roswell has a corner on little green men with pointy ears.
Links about The Roswell Incident
- Roswell UFO Museum’s The Roswell Incident: for information supporting the story above about what happened in July 1947
- The Roswell Files: for a different perspective on what happened that week in Roswell
My grandparents lived in southern New Mexico most of their lives. My grandfather was in heavy construction, supervising the building of dozens of bridges and sewer plants all over the area, and they often lived in remote areas like the Organ mountains. Although she never specifically told me about this, various relatives have told me that she claimed to have seen flying saucers out in the desert “more than once” during that era.
In more recent years, I’ve met occasional scientists who claimed access to government files that they “couldn’t directly quote” but which provided evidence of a massive cover up. I’ve forgotten the exact logic for why this supposed cover up took place.
This whole report reminds me of the song “The Little Green Man” from the sixties. “… ‘I love, you, I love you,’ said the little green man, and scared me right out of my wits.”
LikeLike
Northern and southern NM, ritergal, your roots cover much of the state! How cool that your grandmother was part of that mysterious time. I personally believe that something did happen there beyond a weather balloon and that a cover-up was involved.
It was a fun visit, and I want to say that at least when we went, there is a wonderful Mexican bakery (panaderia) across the main parking lot for the UFO Museum, where you can get yummy pan dulce (sweet bread) and other goodies for the rest of the trip, should you be traveling further south to Carlsbad, as we did.
LikeLike
My roots in the Land of Enchantment spread from Albuquerque, Los Alamos and the corridor down to Santa Fe, Farmington, Las Cruces and Clovis. Indeed, the whole state was my neighborhood. I only lived in Albuquerque and Los Alamos though. My mother’s grandparents migrated into the Territory when coal mines opened in the Madrid area around 1880.
Although I moved away nearly fifty years ago, New Mexico is still my heart’s home. Perhaps the reason I don’t care for fall anywhere else I’ve lived, is that New Mexico holds the patent on that season. No place else can begin to compare.
LikeLike
So true!
I love Madrid area. It’s such a rich place. My grandmother’s father was also a miner, and her first husband died in the mine explosion of Dawson, I want to say in 1908. But I can’t recall the exact year. Will have to ask my mom about that.
Well, your family lived in some lovely parts of the state, although I think all of it has beauty. Different in the south than the north, but still beautiful, all of it.
LikeLike
I remember fondly my day in Roswell in the summer of 2002. The UFO museum was funny and fascinating. I loved the street lamps which, as I am sure you noticed, are shaped like classic green alien heads.
LikeLike
Did you take time in 2002 to explore NM, Jude? When we went with the family (part of my 10-year-old’s New Mexico field trip assigned by her 4th grade teacher) it was my first time there. Glad we finally made it. It was a hoot.
LikeLike
Nice post Ybonesy. You know…I’ve only driven through Roswell and have never stopped, and even then, I think it was before they started capitalizing on the whole “Incident”. I find the whole New Mexico UFO phenomena really interesting. There is the UFO base up at Dulce and a lesser known UFO crash site near Aztec.
There’s a great movie about all this stuff called “High Strange New Mexico”. I saw it years ago at its premier at the Taos Talking Picture Festival (I think that’s defunct now).
New Mexico is full of cool unknowns!
LikeLike
GB is me…mimbresman. Oops!
LikeLike
I enjoyed reading this post. I’ve heard vaguely of these events in Roswell, but never knew the story.
LikeLike
GB/MM (ha ha, you have so many names!), hey, I’m surprised you’ve never stopped in Roswell. I bet you’ve driven through quite a number of times, too, given how much you drive in NM.
Hey, I used to love the Taos Talking Picture Festival. I do think it folded. I remember “High Strange New Mexico,” too. Great funky flick.
What’s the scoop on the UFO crash site near Aztec? And why so much UFO activity specifically localized in southern NM?
LikeLike
Thanks, Teri. Another NM spot to explore some day. And then you can drive on to Carlsbad. 8)
LikeLike
Oops, I was just reading Jim your comment, MM, and realized that Aztec is northern NM.
LikeLike
Yep, Aztec is near Farmington. Apparently this crash happened after Roswell, and lessons learned from Roswell, the Army quickly swooped in, recovered the craft and left. But here’s a more plausible explanation.
http://www.skepdic.com/aztec.html
The alleged Dulce UFO base is not too far away.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulce_Base
I’ve always gotten a strange vibe from Dulce.
There is a nuclear blast site just south of there called Gasbuggy. http://www.atomictourist.com/gasbug.htm Someday I want to go check it out.
Also there is one near Carlsbad called Gnome.
BTW, one of the producers of “High Strange New Mexico” is one of my FB friends. He lives in Albuquerque.
LikeLike
Thanks for dropping in the links. I’ll check them out.
What I remember from Aztec is that they won Best Small Town of America in something like 1975. I always wondered while driving through whether they hadn’t perhaps something more current to tout, although it was (probably still is) an adorable-looking town.
Never been to Dulce. What kind of strange vibe do you pick up there? I’ll always think of Skinwalkers when I think of strange vibes and you. 8)
And I’ve never seen the nuclear blast sites. We stopped and checked out Valles Caldera, which is of course not a nuclear blast site but a meteor crash site. What an amazing thing to see. That’s where the brown bird decided that it liked me:
I Think I Figured Out What My Totem Animal Is
LikeLike
ybonesy,
Your post reminded me of the movie, “Waiting for Guffman.” Do you remember how aliens had landed in Blaine, Missouri and deeply impacted the community? I wonder if the writers of that script know the Roswell story. I’ll bet they do.
LikeLike
Chris and I went to Roswell on a Southwestern vacation about 8 years ago. We drove from Milwaukee to Colorado to visit friends, then to Taos to spend a week in an earthship on the Mesa, then drove down to Roswell and then across Texas to Dallas where Chris spent the first 13 years of his life. A fascinating journey that trip.
The Roswell interlude was eye-opening – we didn’t go out to visit the sites around the town – just the UFO museum. What impressed me about the museum was its mix of tackiness, faith, and fear and here and there, an actual fact or two. I don’t believe any alien ship landed near Roswell, but the testimonials I read in the museum were fascinating – and for a few minutes, almost convinced me.
side note: while we were in the museum, a storm swept the town, dumping buckets of rain in a half an hour. We’d left our one year old lab, Peri, in the car with the windows open for air. The car had two inches of rain on its floor and the seats – and Peri – were soaked and shivering. Our radio never worked again and Peri has hated riding in cars ever since.
(revenge of the alien ghosts?)
LikeLike
Teri, No, I never saw or heard of “Waiting for Guffman.” I’ll have to look that one up. But yeah, I wonder, too, if Roswell figured at all into their story. That would be cool.
Jude, you hit the nail on the head with your description: “its mix of tackiness, faith, and fear…an actual fact or two.” It’s still tacky, which is why I got a kick out of the International in the name. It feels so hand-made, homegrown, as if the townspeople put it all together. There’s such a charm about it all, the museum, the main street aliens, all of it.
Ha…your revenge of the alien ghosts has me chuckling. Poor Peri. And then you had to drive on over to Texas and back. Wow. That was an epic trip. I love how couples go through this rite of visiting the places where we grew up. We want our loved ones to know us, and part of knowing us means knowing the places that shaped us.
LikeLike
ybonesy,
Run (don’t walk) to the nearest video store for “Waiting for Guffman.” It’s my favorite Christopher Guest movie. Quirky and funny.
LikeLike
OK, it’ll be next on my Netflix queue. I need to mail in our last movie today, in fact, so I should get it this week. Here’s a link to the movie website: Waiting for Guffman [LINK].
LikeLike
Cannot resist adding: if you like “Waiting for Guffman” you will also like “Best in Show,” my personal favorite Christopher Guest movie.
LikeLike
I saw that one, Jude, and loved it.
LikeLike
OH yb! Love the City, the People and the Festival…and of course ANYTHING related to Alien talk. Great post!
I can remember, as a young adult, my Family Tribe all gathered at my parents home for a Holiday meal. Outside, we saw a unidentified silver thing in the sky, close to Disneyland, about 20 miles away. We all shared my Dad’s binoculars and tried to decide what it was. Finally, we all stuffed ourselves (illegally) into my Dad’s giant old Suburban and drove to it! It was a much anticipated…silver weather balloon…sadly of this world. We keep looking…
😉
LikeLike
Hey, Heather, isn’t that funny, your whole family chasing after the UFO. What a great story, even if it ended up being the weather balloon (and in fact, especially given that it was a weather balloon!!).
I think I might have written about this, but my acupuncturist, Dr. C (as I fondly call him) follows the goings-on of UFOs and other paranormal activity. He can show you photos of all the crop circles around the world, and talk to you about all the cover-ups. I love talking to him about these matters. I especially love hearing about the interviews of people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. And believe me, I think about such things if I find myself driving on a deserted patch of highway or rural road at night.
It’s for me very much a generational thing. I can’t say I’m a believer or not a believer. I’m open. It’s all so exciting to consider.
LikeLike
Top o’ the mornin’ to ya O’ YbonesY!
This post was fun. I’ve only driven through Roswell. Well actually a buddy of mine and I ate at the Pizza Hut there when he helped me transfer duty stations from Barstow to Houston.
We pushed that U-Haul as fast we could to try and make it to the museum before it closed but running out of gas in Bingham, NM (which is a funny story itself I might have to post) made us miss closing time by about 20 minutes.
LikeLike
Ybonesy, Dulce is a strange little town. I interviewed for a job once there. I guess I wasn’t who they were looking for and I am glad they didn’t call me back. Just a creepy vibe, I remember. I don’t know why, maybe because of the remoteness of place and the unfamiliarity of the territory. I just felt uncomfortable there.
MM
LikeLike
yb, on my last sojourn to New Mexico we drove from ABQ to Sicorro (actually 40 miles west of the city) to see the VLA (Very Large Array of radiotelescopes). Now that was an experience and then we drove to Roswell arriving in the city 5 minutes after the UFO museum closed so I contented myself with a visit to the UFO McD’s down the street.
I found Roswell bigger than I thought it would be. The number of military personnel on the streets surprised me until we passed the New Mexico Military Institute which I guess is a military high school/college in the city.
The countryside around the place is perfect for a spaceship crash but they would have trouble finding much to run into. I believe it happened mostly because it’s fun to think that ETs came to New Mexico in the 1950’s. Talk about a galactic wrong turn. Must have been drinking in that spaceship.
LikeLike
[…] grape tomatoes, she Googled cherimoya on her BlackBerry. Names like soursop, custard apple, and strangealiendeathfruit popped up, along with a quote from Mark Twain describing the cherimoya as deliciousness itself. […]
LikeLike
I hoestly believe that to think we are the only forms of life in the universe is crazy. Mathmatical it is impossible for us to be the only ones. However I don’t think there were any Aliens crash landing in New Mexico just for the fact that the US goverment could never keept this secret. Kmart protects their toothpaste better the the us goverment protects it secrets. To think this is a secret that is still being kept is not realistic at all. Somewhere it would have been leaked and we all know politicians and all goverment levels can be bought. I don’t believe it.
LikeLike
[…] to posts: WRITING TOPIC: ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS, greetings from artesia haiku, Roswell, NM — Aliens Welcome Here, and for a more modern visit to the caves check out Postcards From Carlsbad […]
LikeLike