NEW MEXICO LEGENDS

The Roswell Incident

The hot summer of 1947 brought something new to Roswell, New Mexico, other than it historic contingent of Indians, Spaniards, longhorn cattle, chili farmers, and plenty of cowboys. This was something new! And, it wasn’t arriving along the usual dusty trail, but rather, from the skies above.

That was the summer that the Roswell skies, as well as the heavens all over America were filled with unidentified flying objects – UFO’s!

The first report came in on June 24, 1947 when pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a disc-shaped objected flying at high speed near Mt Ranier in Washington. After this report hit the news, hundreds of other reports of “flying saucers” were reported across the country.

UFO's were allegedly seen all over the country in 1947.

However, just hours after the press release went out, another was published from Brigadier General Roger Ramey, the head of the Eighth Air Force in Forth Worth, Texas, claiming the first release was untrue, and that in fact, the object retrieved was nothing more than a weather balloon with a radar target attachment. The second press release appeared in the press on July 9.  Later, he would add that the balloon was a foil covered box kite with no identification markings or instruments.

To this, Brazel was astounded. He had previously found two weather balloons on the ranch, but neither looked anything like the debris that he found in June, 1947. Afterwards, Brazel stated that he wished he had never reported the finding and short of a bomb, would never do so again.

In the meantime, other strange things were happening in Roswell. One afternoon the Ballard Funeral Home received several curious phone calls from the Army Base. Taking the calls from the Mortuary Officer at the base, was a young mortician named Glenn Dennis. The soldier asked Dennis how he could get some small hermetically sealed coffins. He also asked questions about how to preserve bodies that had been exposed to the elements for a few days, without contaminating the tissue.

Dennis, obviously curious, drove out to the base hospital that evening where he saw several large pieces of the wreckage that included odd engravings sticking out of the back of a military ambulance. He then went into the hospital and began to visit with a nurse he knew until suddenly he was threatened by military police and forced to leave the premises.

Undaunted, Dennis made plans to meet with the nurse the next day who told him that several strange little bodies had been found and drew pictures for him. Just a few days later, the nurse was allegedly transferred to England and even today, her whereabouts remain unknown.

Other strange things were also happening. When Bud Payne, a rancher at Corona was trying to round up a stray in the area where Brazel had found the debris, he was spotted by military personnel and escorted away. Others locals who tried to approach the debris field were also forcibly turned away.

The shrouded mystery and accompanying controversy began almost immediately which has ultimately led to a number of investigations by private citizens, reporters, and ultimately the Air Force, in 1994.

One report alleged that the military had been watching an unidentified flying object on radar for four days in southern New Mexico, when they detected that the object was on the ground on July 4, 1947.

An eye witness William Woody, who lived east of Roswell, backed this report up when he stated having seen a brilliant object plunge to the ground on the same evening. When he had his father tried to find the crash site, they were stopped by military personnel, who had cordoned off the area.

Major Jesse Marcel, the head of Roswell’s Army Counterintelligence Corps, who was sent to investigate Mack Brazel’s story would later remark that "something must have exploded above the ground and fell." He also described the debris saying that the tinfoil type substance was indestructible and would describe some of the material thusly: "I didn't know what we were picking up. I still don't know what it was...it could not have been part of an aircraft, not part of any kind of weather balloon or experimental balloon...I've seen rockets... sent up at the White Sands Testing Grounds. It definitely was not part of an aircraft or missile or rocket."

Another later statement made by then retired Brigadier General Thomas DuBose, the chief of staff of the Eighth Air Force said, "[It] was a cover story. The whole balloon part of it. That was the part of the story we were told to give to the public and news and that was it." General Dubose would also say that he personally received the order from Washington to start a cover-up.

Major Marcel at Fort Worth, Texas with balloon debris. Though this "staged" picture of Marcel with weather balloon material was widely published, Marcel would say later the material he picked up at Brazel's ranch was not part of any kind of weather balloon or experimental balloon.

The inconsistencies of the account were abundant. Beyond dispute is the number of military and civilian witnesses who gave very different versions of what they had seen, none of which supported the weather balloon description released by the Air Force base.

If these two conflicting accounts of the debris were not enough, later stories would emerge that the military had also recovered an intact alien aircraft, complete with the alien bodies. These accounts have since become known as the “Area 51 Cover-up.”

There are several theories promoted by UFO proponents including a mid-air collision between two alien spacecraft or that the craft was struck by lightening.

Though the U.S. Government continues to deny that aliens have visited our planet, much of the American public believes that the earth has been visited by aliens and Roswell is, in fact, the site of a UFO crash.

In any event, there is no doubt this mystery, as well as UFO’s in general, are of fascinating interest to the American public and the entire world. In 1991, two of the original witnesses involved in the “Roswell Incident” decided to open a museum to inform the public of what really happened. These two men were Walter Haut, the Public Information Officer at the Army Air Field who issued the first press release, and Glenn Dennis, the mortician working at the Ballard Funeral Home that fielded the strange questions from the Army base. The two witnesses then called upon Max Littell, a local real estate developer for assistance, and three men started the museum.

The International UFO Museum and Research Center welcomed nearly 150,000 visitors during its first four years of business. Dedicated to the collection and preservation of the many materials written about the 1947 Roswell Incident and other unexplained phenomena related to UFO research, the museum had grown so much by 1996, that it had become the top tourist destination of New Mexico. The next year, the museum was rededicated at a new location as the number of visitors continued to increase and interactive technologies were built into the museum.

A visit to the museum will provide visitors, not only with the history of the event, but also alleged debris, allegations of the civilians being threatened by the US Army,  depictions of UFO’s, books and other research material.

Roswell, New Mexico has become synonymous with UFO's and unexplained phenomena and in addition to the museum also hosts an annual UFO festival each summer.

Contact Information:

International UFO Museum and Research Center

114 North Main St
Roswell, New Mexico 88201
505-625-9495
 
 

© Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated January, 2008

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