Seventy-five miles north of Carlsbad, the New Mexico ranching town of Roswell (pop. 45,293) has become a catch-word for flying saucers, UFOs, extraterrestrials, and a complicated U.S. government cover-up of all the above. The cover-up is the one thing that’s pretty much a given, since the Air Force has gone so far as to deny officially that anything ever happened in Roswell—which is equivalent to a confession, in the minds of UFO believers. Everything else about Roswell is, so to speak, up in the air.
The Roswell story goes something like this: In 1947, at the start of Cold War hysteria, something strange and metallic crashed into a field outside town, and the Army Air Corps (teams of tight-lipped operatives wearing special suits and dark glasses, no doubt) came and recovered it. Reports to the effect that a flying saucer had landed in Roswell appeared in the local paper, and quickly spread around the globe, only to be denied by the government, which claimed the “flying saucers” were actually weather balloons. Thirty-one years later, a retired military intelligence officer from the Roswell base sold a story to the National Enquirer, repeating details of the 1947 “flying saucer” crash, and telling of his subsequent capture of extraterrestrial beings. This in turn spawned countless other stories, books, and videos, and spurred the growth of a battery of tourist attractions and souvenir stores in and around Roswell.
The best first stop is the International UFO Museum and Research Center (free; 505/625-9495), which fills an old movie theater in downtown Roswell at 114 N. Main Street. There are plenty of motels, and many good places to eat like the friendly Nuthin’ Fancy Café (505/623-4098), where President George W. Bush raved about the ribs.
