Roswell

August 1, 2021

Roswell

I have always had a fascination with the strange, unexplained and occult so it should come as no surprise that I pretty much insisted that our first stop upon departing Clovis, was nearby Roswell, New Mexico, even though it wasn’t exactly in the direction we were ultimately heading. Roswell has been the source of mystery and intrigue ever since 1947 when the Roswell UFO incident occurred.

The Roswell incident is the 1947 crash of a United States Airforce balloon at a  ranch about 75 miles from Roswell 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 Force (RAAF) 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 alien occupants had been recovered by the military, which then engaged in a cover-up. 

Roswell has developed an entire tourist economy based on the incident and the supposed UFO and its aliens. Of course we had to check it out and after a quick lunch we began our exploration at the official Roswell visitor center then walked the short distance to the International UFO Museum and Research Center.

The museum is focused largely on the 1947 incident and later supposed additional UFO incidents in the United States and elsewhere. It was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit educational organization and is located in a former movie theater from the 1930s. The museum contains an extensive library and exhibits all focused on the history of UFO encounters. Additionally, it has an extensive library collection of UFO material and meeting room. It functions as the centerpiece of the annual UFOfest held in Roswell each year.

It is pretty well done all things considered and is only partly an obvious tourist trap type place. In fact it is pretty interesting and while it certainly leans towards the idea that the Roswell incident was a UFO, it leaves the final decision up to the visitor. 

As much as we enjoyed Roswell, we next headed into Texas where our next stop and overnight would be. Kathy had passed through Abilene before and thought it would be a good place to stop. There was a place that she really wanted to visit in downtown, the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature.

They were having a great exhibit of the art of Children’s book illustrator Loren Long and we really enjoyed it. As we were walking around downtown, we happened upon the 12^th Armored Division Museum and took a chance by going in. It was a great decision as the excellent museum dedicated to the US army division and the role it played in World War II.

Created and maintained by the actual members of the division, the museum provides an excellent overview of their role in World War II and incredible insight into what life during the war was actually like. They have an impressive amount of artifacts and provide great displays and descriptions of their days fighting the Nazis. I wish everyone these days would visit such a museum to truly appreciate the sacrifices that our military make and the threat that fascist thinking and blind patriotism truly are.

https://www.roswellufomuseum.com/

https://www.12tharmoreddivisionmuseum.com/