Roswell

I didn't feel I could very well pass through New Mexico without going to Roswell. I've been a big fan of the X-Files, and before that I used to watch this old show with a name I can't remember where an Air Force officer went around investigating UFO sightings. The subject is fascinating to me, just like the subject of ghosts. These are things I want to know are true but have never seen a shred of evidence proving them to my satisfaction. Like going on the Ghost Tour of Winchester in Virginia last year, I had to go see the UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell.

If you aren't familiar with the Roswell Incident, a purported crash of an extraterrestrial spacecraft subsequently covered up by our government, there's a comprehensive Wikipedia article on the subject.

Regardless of the truth behind what happened, the residents of Roswell seem to both take the international fame of their town with a cheerful attitude and certainly don't mind the extra tourist income it brings in. Note the streetlight in front of the museum in this picture - it wasn't just because it was in front of the museum; a lot of the streetlights had the alien head look.


UFO Museum and Research Center

There were also a lot of alien references in business names, like "Alien Records" that sells used vinyl albums, CDs, and DVDs. Several businesses with signs out in front, including McDonald's, included the words, "Aliens welcome!"

Inside the museum, the curators have done a good job assembling a lot of material about the Roswell Incident, of course, since the founders of the museum were directly involved. The presentation of the materials, in many cases, though are rather cheesy and amateur, so you can tell this is not a museum with large funding grants behind it. I couldn't help but wonder if they couldn't get Paul Allen to help out if they simply asked. Allen funded the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle and it seemed like half the exhibits in the place were out of his own personal collection. They ought to at least ask if they haven't. Here's the display at the entrance when you first come in:


In the UFO Museum

This museum involves a lot of reading, and that's even if you don't go into the library archives that make up the "Research Center" half of the place. There was, however, one thing I found particularly interesting that tied into stuff I'd done a couple days before. This wood panel was on exhibit:


Wood Panel of Early Spaceship?

There was information with this panel that described why there are some that believe it is a carving showing a Native American pilot from hundreds of years ago guiding a spaceship off-planet.

Apparently, this piece was carved shortly before the disappearance of the Mogollon, the people that inhabited the Gila Cliff Dwellings, and other tribes. At least, the original of this carving was from then. There was an unfortunate lack of information about whether this panel was the original or not, but I tried comparing the photograph of it that was in a framed magazine article on the subject and the actual panel on display. There were small but clear differences, which when combined with the lack of any glass protection preventing visitors from touching the panel leads me to suspect this was an unlabeled reproduction.

There are other interpretations of the symbols, but I can't help but wonder if perhaps it's true that these tribal groups went off into space. There are quite a few unexplained things about them and their disappearance that are consistent with the concept. With some extraterrestrial help, it could be.

The museum left me with more questions rather than less, but I'm glad I went. Especially since I also got a couple of cool T-shirts and some guitar picks with alien eyes printed on them, you know, just to help out the museum.