NEW MEXICO: ROSWELL

June 30, 2021

We spent the night at a Super 8 in Las Vegas (New Mexico), a quirky hotel in a quirky little town. I loved the peacock decoration that was part of the hotel landscaping.

However, Las Vegas didn't hold a candle to the quirkiness of our next destination: Roswell, New Mexico, home of the [in]famous July 1947 "Roswell UFO Incident." The basic story is that a "flying disc" crashed at a ranch about 75 miles from Roswell and was reported to authorities by the Roswell Army Air Field. However, the Army quickly retracted the statement, saying that it was actually a plain ol' weather balloon that crashed. 

Things were quiet until the late 1970s when a retired military man exposed the "cover-up" to a UFOlogist, or a researcher of UFO sightings. Many more "eyewitnesses" soon came out of the woodwork, including several who said that at least one alien spacecraft had crash-landed and bodies had been recovered by the military.

In 1994, the US Air Force came out with a report stating that the crashed object was a nuclear test surveillance balloon, and in 1997 they added that the recovered "alien bodies" were probably test dummies that had been dropped from high altitude.

What I can gather is this: 1) Something crashed into a field 75 miles outside Roswell in July 1947; 2) There was some kind of cover-up, although whether it was because it was a nuclear-related device or a UFO can be debated; 3) There are a lot of crazy people out there; 4) Roswell makes a big chunk of money off its UFO/alien image. As for #4, why else would we have gone to Roswell, except perhaps as a bathroom stop on our way to Carlsbad Caverns? 

As soon as you hit the edge of Roswell's business district, there is no question what the big draw is.

Like almost all Roswell tourists, we beelined for the International UFO Museum and Research Center.

The museum displays are a blend of interesting documentation and hilarious, ridiculous dioramas, images, claims, and speculations.

Overall, they take themselves fairly seriously.

Displays for each day from July 2 to July 10, that fateful period in 1947, contain photos and eyewitness accounts of the explosion and the wreckage, including statements from local farmers, local officials, members of the military, reporters, and pathologists who supposedly worked with the cadavers. There are notarized affidavits and copies of letters to various officials in Washington, D.C.

The museum also includes re-creations of possible scenarios:

One of the things that was most interesting to me was the explosion not of the alien ship, but of the pop culture related to UFOs that happened after 1947. Movies about space aliens and space travel started popping up within a few years. According to this museum, there have been over 600 feature films with space alien themes (e.g., Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Star Wars, Star Trek).

Along with the well-known movies, there have been plenty I have never hear of, such as The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). It starred a giant, soft-spoken robot named Gort.

Gort and one of his co-stars are on display in the museum.

Television has also had plenty of alien-related shows.

The most hilarious section of the museum was the speculative morgue/pathology lab dioramas. The pictures speak for themselves.

Is the guy in the suit and hat supposed to be FBI? CIA? I have no idea.

My favorite thing in the whole museum was this amazing carved wood reproduction of the (real) stone lid of the sarcophagus where the Mayan King Pakal was buried deep in the "Temple of the Incriptions" pyramid in Palenque, Mexico, which Bob and I visited in 2018. Pakal lived from AD 603-683, and UFOlogists believe this carving depicts what they call "The Palenque Astronaut" sitting at the controls of his space ship. They even speculate that the unusually tall body found in the tomb may have been an extraterrestrial being.

Signage at the museum notes, "The Mayan people were consumed with worship of the heavens. They calculated and created a solar calendar that is so accurate that it predicts today's eclipses within 13 seconds of their happening. Perhaps, their obsession with the skies was a result of extraterrestrial beings taking these people under their wings--literally."

Apparently UFOs have visited the native population as well.

Did you know there are SEVEN LEVELS of UFO sightings? Neither did I. 

Well, that was fun (and a place I probably only need to experience once in my life).

Back on the street, we had a few more "close encounters of the alien kind."

The E.T. on the left is made from tires. The alien on the right advises you that "If you want to grow old, eat chicken."

Roswell was getting some rain that would impact our adventures for the next few days.

We also had a little bit of hail.

We had a memorable (not in a good way) lunch at a place called Los Cerritos Mexican Kitchen. It had an atmosphere that reminded me of Coco's, although the carvings on the backs of the benches were quite unique.

Bob is mostly vegetarian, but his big weakness is raw oysters. When he saw them on the menu, he had to order some for the two of us to share. 

After tasting them, we agreed that you should never order raw oysters in Roswell. They were easily the worst oysters we have ever eaten.

On the other hand, we ate a bowl of ice cream at Baskin-Robbins that was out-of-this-world good.

Roswell is the county seat of Chavez County, and even the county courthouse is covered in the popular Alien Green (although it was completed in 1911, 36 years before the UFO crash).

Like some other courthouses and capitol buildings we have seen, there is a replica of the Ten Commandments out front.

On our way out of town, we passed by this colorful carved Indian, chained to a hotel sign--a sad image indeed.

He shared the space with this extraterrestrial family . . .

. . . and this alien pioneer.

Roswell, Capital of Weirdness.