PLACE
Roswell UFO Crash
LOCATION
Roswell, New Mexico, U.S.A
AUTHOR
Article and Pictures, Tony Hart-Wilden
HISTORY
Probably the most famous UFO incident in modern history. In July of 1947 a flying saucer crashed in the desert north of Roswell, 3 dead aliens were recovered from the wreckage. Almost as soon as the story made the pages of the world press, it was retracted, as a result of government intervention, and a cover up that has continued to this day. The alien bodies were said to have been transported via Roswell ‘s infamous Hanger 84, to destinations unknown. Rumors abound that the remains of the UFO ended up, in the hands of the U.S military where the futuristic technologies became the basis for some of the advanced engineering found in the world’s most top secret aircraft.
The town of Roswell is somewhere in the middle of the New Mexico desert. I had flown into Albuquerque a couple of nights ago, and after a few stop offs, and a drive of several hours I arrived there at about 4 pm in the afternoon. One thing you notice about New Mexico is how blue the sky’s 
are. They almost seem to glow. The day was hot and the weather clear. The state is sparsely populated and it was one of those drives where you could go for miles without seeing another car. Finally I saw a sign saying welcome to Roswell, and I had arrived. As a town it really does seem like any other generic Midwest town in the States. Just the usual mix of strip malls, fast food restaurants, a few cheap motels and a small local airport. But because of the 1947 Roswell UFO crash this town has been heard of throughout the world. Before that, its claim to fame was that Billy the kid rode in and out of there a few times. Without doubt a thriving tourist industry has been built up around what is probably one of the most famous and controversial UFO encounters in history. The town has has also capitalized on being the birthplace of the actress Demi More and having a popular TV series concerning aliens named after it. But what makes this particular UFO sighting unique is not just the fact that the craft crash landed in the desert, but that there were reports it contained the bodies of dead aliens. Apparently much of this was witnessed by military personal, as well as several other credible witnesses. What really happened continues to be debated. The government subsequently denied the incident, claiming it was a weather balloon that was found. Eventually after much public pressure, it conducted an inquiry into the occurrence in 1994 and again in 1997.
After years of claiming it was a weather balloon, the government changed its story once again, to say it was part of Project Mogul a top secret project to place audio mikes at high altitudes to monitor nuclear bomb blasts. They also claimed the alien bodies were crash test dummies. This in itself proves like any government, they are capable of manufacturing evidence, or spreading disinformation, to serve their own self interest. There are enough books, videos and websites on the occurrence to easily dispute much of what is in these reports. Not least that 
these Project Mogul tests actually took place several years after the 1947 incident. But you just need to ask yourself the question, could you tell the difference between a research balloon containing crash test dummy’s and a downed unidentified flying object, containing what appeared to be the body’s of dead alien beings. I myself didn’t drive all the way out here, to see a place where a weather balloon crashed. As you enter the town, and come to Main Street, you will notice many references to aliens and the Roswell UFO crash in the advertising on the outside of the shops and restaurants. There was a carpet shop claiming to have “out of this world prices” with a spaceship painted next to it. And you will find on the menus of the local eating places, such items as alien burgers and flying saucer pie. If you want a cheap place to stay there’s a Holiday inn, a Best Western, a Days Inn, a Super 8 Motel and many others at one end of the town. I went for the Day’s inn. Normally you don’t have to book, but once a year they have an “Alien Space Crash” festival. People come here from all over the country dressed as aliens, go to the international UFO museum, attend a convention, or get married .
I got the official Roswell UFO guide book from a nearby convenience store, and then went back to the motel room. There is supposed to be more then one crash site in the area. But the most famous of them is the Corn Ranch crash site, this is the one originally reported at the time of the 1947 crash. It is located a few miles north of Roswell on private land just off of highway 285. You have to contact the land owners to book a tour of the site. I called them several times, but got an answer machine, 
and no one called back. There is also another site known as the Brazel landing site, east of Roswell on Highway 247. This is where debris from the saucer was found. The third location is the Ragsdale site, west on Highway 285. This site is named after James Ragsdale who claimed to have seen the UFO crash occur here, but this was not till many years after the event. But it is not just long ago UFO sightings that bring believers here. There are also literally hundreds of UFO sightings still being made in the town, and surrounding desert. After having dinner at the nearby Red Lobster restaurant I waited till about 10 pm when it was dark, then headed north on Highway 285. Although out in the desert the temperature drops drastically at night. But as soon as you’re a few miles out of town the night sky is incredibly clear. There’s no light pollution, and because there’s little industry in New Mexico , there’s no smog. I parked up on the side of the road, down a cattle trail. The moon wasn’t out that night. But you can see thousands of stars. Without doubt one of the reasons for the high number of UFO sightings here is the clarity of the skies. If you live in a big city, you really can’t see what’s up there most of the time.
I sat out in the desert for about an hour, scanning the night sky with binoculars. I didn’t see anything apart from the stars and returned to the motel. One of the key figures in the 1947 Roswell UFO crash was Dan Wilmot who reported seeing a bright saucer shaped object moving across the sky. Another was Mac Brazel who found the crash wreckage on what was the Foster ranch, north of Roswell and or also went public with his story on K.G.L.F radio, before being pressured to 
change it by the authorities. Major Jesse Marcel of the 509th bomber command was the officer in charge of the military investigation of the incident. Glenn Dennis was a mortician who received several calls from another military officer requesting 4 small hermitically ceiled caskets at the time of the crash. He also claimed to have been in contact with a nurse who saw alien body’s at the military hospital where the caskets were delivered to. Oliver Henderson was a pilot who said he flew the three dead aliens out of Roswell. And General Ramsey, was the person that ordered Major Jesse Marcel to retract his story that he had seen wreckage from the crashed UFO. It was the mortician Glen Dennis who went on to found the international UFO museum in Roswell town center that is still there today.
The next morning, still having no reply to my request for the crash site tour, I decided to head to the international UFO museum. You will find most of the key landmarks associated with the incident are within a few miles of here. Entry to the museum is free, and it doesn’t just cover the Roswell 
UFO crash. There are also reports and incidents from all over the world. There is an area where you can watch UFO documentaries, an exhibit of space aliens and a massive gift shop. You can buy all sorts of UFO related merchandise here. Aside from books and videos, you can also get alien ambush hot sauce, or an alien cookie kit. The next stop on the list was the Ballard funeral home. This is just a few blocks up from the museum along Main Street, on the right hand side. This is where Glen Dennis got his mysterious phone call from the military mortician requesting 4 caskets. But there’s no official reference to its location in the Roswell guidebook, as it is still an operating funeral parlor, and they probably don’t wish to encourage tourists.
If you keep heading up Main Street for a few miles and take the turn off to the airport, to the right of the main terminal there is an aircraft hanger called hanger 84. I had found a reference to it in one of the UFO books that I had with me. But it’s quite difficult to find, and probably 
isn’t visited by to many people. There’s an industrial area with several buildings and warehouses adjacent to the runway, and I must have driven around the area for about 2o minutes and still couldn’t find the hanger. Just as I had given up, and decided to head back to the motel, I drove past an orange water tower on my left, and on the right hand side I noticed a small inconspicuous sign saying building 84. I recognized it from a picture I had as being hanger 84. This is where the body’s of the aliens and Roswell UFO crash debris where supposed to have been secretly stored before being flown out of the area for analysis. Their rumored final location was Wright Air Force Base. This part of Roswell does feel like a forgotten part, of what is a very small town whose population is little over 50,000, and I doubt the area has changed that much since that day in 1947.
Outside the hanger there was an old 747 passenger aircraft sitting on the tarmac, and several old military vehicles. I got out of the car and looked through the windows of the hanger’s office, but there is not much to see inside. There are several restricted area signs and a fence separated you from the main doors, but they were firmly closed. I headed back out of the airport via Main Street, and began to proceed out of Roswell to the north of the city on Highway 285. I knew somewhere along here was the crash site. I had read that there was a sign advertising UFO tours and beyond that in the desert was where the crash was supposed to have occurred. There really is nothing but flat desert out there, for miles. The next place up the road of any significance is Fort Sumner, this is 
where the outlaw Billy the kid is buried. The skies out here are incredible, and the colors have an almost unreal quality about them. There are dozens of cattle trails that stretch out to the horizon off of highway 285. After a few miles, next to one of them was the sign advertising the UFO tours. The land really does look all the same, around here, but I just wanted to get somewhere near the crash location. I turned off the road and headed down the dirt road for about 3 miles until I came to what looked like private property, and I couldn’t proceed any further along the trail. Everything seemed quite featureless, a sort of uniform dark reddish color. But for me it was enough just to know I was in the general vicinity of where the now legendary incident had occurred. I stopped the car and took a few pictures then headed back up the trail to the freeway. As far as flying saucers and aliens go, during my few days at Roswell I didn’t see any. But without doubt there are still a very high number of UFO sightings in the area, and people will continue to come to the small New Mexican town in the desert in search of their own answers to this mystery.
Occasionally new evidence relating to the Roswell UFO crash surfaces, but its doubtful that anything will be conclusive either way. Aside from Roswell there is much of related interest 
in the area. In addition to not being far from Billy the kid’s final resting place there is also the Los Alamos nuclear test laboratories, the White Sands missile base, the Trinity Test site where the first ever atomic bomb was detonated, and also another lesser known UFO landing site in Sorroco a few hundred miles away. So if you’re going to make it all the way out here, there are several other side visits worth making. Of course some may say that the surrounding military bases may explain a large number of the continued UFO sightings. On the other hand if you were a alien visiting another planet, wouldn’t one of the key locations you would be observing, be military and weapons testing establishments?
1947 Roswell UFO Incident – Documentary – Youtube
UFO Crash, There Were 2 Crashes Not 1 – The Huffington Post
The Roswell UFO Museum – Official Site
Roswell UFO Crash – What Really Happened 67 Years Ago – The Week
“It All Started – On June 25th, 1947” – The Roswell Files
UFO Tours – Private Tour – Denis Balthaser, Researcher
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