A Visit To the Roswell International UFO Museum

Above, the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

One claim to fame of the state of New Mexico are green and red chile peppers (restaurants in the state usually ask, "red or green?" when one is placing an order).

Another claim to fame is the Roswell Incident of July 1947. Here, it was reported that an alien "flying saucer" crashed on a ranch near Roswell during a severe thunderstorm. After initially stating that a flying saucer had been recovered by the military, the story changed the next day from flying saucer to "weather balloon".

Above, an eye-catching display at the UFO Museum. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Since then, the city of Roswell holds an annual UFO Festival (called AlienFest this year) and has opened the Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center.

Creators Syndicate has posted and article, "See The Spaceship Crash Site In Roswell, New Mexico". The title of the article is misleading as it focuses on the museum. I don't know about now, but bus tours to the crash site were offered during the past few years (I attended the 2018 festival but decided not to shell out over $70 so see barren land).

Above, an alien is about to be autopsied. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

But the article is interesting nonetheless as it describes what visitors can see in the UFO Museum.

It begins with:

My hobby is watching "Ancient Aliens" and "Project Blue Book" on TV. I love to imagine the "What ifs?" of satellites and space explorers — human and otherwise. In Roswell, New Mexico, locals claimed that in 1947 a spaceship crashed on a nearby rancher's property and five space beings were found, one of them alive. After the first rash of newspaper headlines that declared a UFO had crashed there, the U.S. government rushed in and declared the "spaceship" was a weather balloon and the stories were wild myths. For decades the top secrets were carefully guarded on threat of death if any eyewitnesses told what they actually saw.

So naturally I was fascinated by the little UFO museum we found years ago in Roswell and then on three subsequent trips visited again. What happened there that July night in 1947 was supported by people around the world who reported hundreds of sightings of UFOs, and convincing personal accounts were on the walls of this small-town, amateurish UFO Museum. This year we returned again to Roswell and were delighted at the newly rebuilt and renamed International UFO Museum.

The Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center is an interesting and fun place to visit. I highly recommend it.

To read more, go here.

74 Years Ago: "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region"

Above, my reprint of the famous front page of the Roswell Daily Record. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A newspaper came out whose headline shook up a lot of people. The headline still resonates today.

It was 74 years ago today (July 8, 1947) that the Roswell Daily Record reported that a flying saucer was recovered by the RAAF (Roswell Army Air Field) in Roswell, New Mexico.

The headline: "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region"

Above, yours truly in Roswell, New Mexico at the UFO Festival.

Other newspapers around the country picked up the story, including the Los Angeles Herald-Express.

From Wikipedia:

The Roswell incident is the 1947 crash of a United States Army Air Forces balloon at a ranch near Roswell, New Mexico, and the subsequent conspiracy theories claiming that the crash involved a flying saucer, and that the truth had been covered up by the United States government. On July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disc" from a ranch near Roswell. The Army quickly retracted the statement and said instead that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.

The Roswell incident did not surface again until the late 1970s, when a retired lieutenant colonel, in an interview with a researcher of unidentified flying objects (UFOs), alleged that the weather balloon account had been a cover-story. Ufologists began promoting a variety of increasingly elaborate conspiracy theories, claiming that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, which then engaged in a cover-up.

I obtained a reprint of the famous front page at the 2018 Roswell UFO Festival and it is framed and display in my living room. 

Government UFO Report Fails To Impress Roswell Attendees

Above, the Roswell Internationa UFO Museum and Research Center. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

There are true believers. There are non-believers. And there are some in-between when it comes to Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO).

The annual UFO Festival in Roswell, New Mexico is happening this weekend and the recent government report on UFOs (or UAPs) failed to impress attendees.

The Washington Times reported:

ROSWELL, New Mexico — The federal government’s recent landmark UFO study failed to offer the clear answers many hoped for.

In fact, Joyce Rowell was left with the same question she’s always had.

“Why don’t they tell us the truth?” Ms. Rowell, 75, said Friday as she and her daughter, Debra Tucker, searched for the next clue on an alien-themed scavenger hunt inside a cozy coffeehouse in downtown Roswell. 

Ms. Rowell and Ms. Tucker, 52, traveled here from Tecumseh, Oklahoma, for the city’s annual UFO Festival, which has drawn a record crowd this year amid skyrocketing public interest in the subject and the release last week of the government’s widely anticipated unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) report.

Inside Roswell’s Stellar Coffee Co. — which boasts the “Spock Special,” “Martian Sunrise” and “Alien Soda” among its menu offerings — Ms. Tucker said she remains open-minded to all possibilities, including that at least some UFO sightings could be connected to extraterrestrial life.

“I definitely think it could be true,” she said. “I haven’t ever seen one but I think it’s definitely possible. There’s so much out there we don’t know about.”

To read more, go here. 

UFO Tourism Takes Off At "Hot Spots"

Above, vendors at the 2018 Roswell UFO Festival. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It is rather timely that Forbes should post about UFO Tourism at this time since the annual UFO Festival is starting today in Roswell, New Mexico. I attended the 2018 festival.

The thesis of the Forbes article is that UFO Tourism is taking off in different "hot spots" around the world and the Forbes article lists them.

They begin with:

U.S. intelligence agencies recently delivered a report on “unidentified aerial phenomena” to Congress, compiled by the Director of National Intelligence and the Secretary of Defense, to finally make public what the government knows about unidentified flying objects and data analyzed from the encounters.

In the nine-page report on the Pentagon’s UAP Task Force, officials recommend extending research and resources to explore existing unknowns. They also pointed to new ways the government can use new technology to investigate sightings. The report does not confirm or refute the existence of alien life.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the report is that “No standardized reporting mechanism existed until the Navy established one in March 2019. The Air Force subsequently adopted that mechanism in November 2020, but it remains limited to USG reporting.” Indicating that the government never wanted to acknowledge UFOs.

With thousands of UFO sightings in North America over the past year, Peter Davenport, Director of the National UFO Reporting Center, does not think there is any single location that is the most prolific. He tells me, “Everyone seems to talk about “hotspots” for UFO sightings, and many people believe they really exist, but I don’t believe our data support the notion. The only exception may be Horry County, South Carolina, from which NUFORC seems to have received an unusually large number of sightings of mysterious red, yellow, and orange light.”

To read more, go here. 

Roswell Looking For Professional Company To Organize Future UFO Festivals

Above, vendors on Roswell's Main Street. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

This story was posted back in September, but I have only just read it this morning.

The city of Roswell, New Mexico is looking to have a professional management company run future Roswell UFO Festivals.

KRQE reported:

ROSWELL, N.M. (KRQE) – The UFO Festival had to be held virtually this year because of the pandemic but next year the City of Roswell wants it to be bigger and better than ever; that means taking a different approach.

“So, I’m all for it,” said Karen Perry, a downtown shop owner.

The city says it’s time for the UFO Festival to take a giant step forward. They realize to do that, the city needs to hire some help. Downtown store owners say that could breathe new life into the festival that has grown very stale.

“You cannot stay the same without growing stagnant and that’s part of where the festivals gotten [sic],” said Perry.

Perry is excited to hear about how the festival will incorporate more of Roswell, than just Main Street. New events could bring new visitors to Roswell and be a big increase in revenue for the town.

I attended the 2018 Roswell UFO Festival. While I had a good time, my biggest gripe on the festival was that it was too spread out over town. Events were not centrally located and we had to do a lot of walking to get from one to another. If the city had a convention center or a big hotel with big ballrooms and meeting rooms that are centrally located, it would be easier for attendees, especially seniors, to attend different events. Transportation, if one didn't have a car to get around, is practically non-existent, except for taxis. 

To read more, go here.