Wander the UFO Museum and explore the Roswell Incident, experience the flavor of New Mexico cooking, and bask in the light of Georgia O’Keeffe paintings. The journey is part of the destination. Crimson sunsets melt over indigo plateaus, and after dark, any indescribable flash of light is reason for suspicion.
Surveillance Balloon or Something Alien?
The alleged 1947 crash landing of a flying saucer is embedded in the fabric of this community. Each July, the aliens come. As many as 10,000 visitors converge on this city of 45,000 to hear speakers give their spin on the Roswell Incident.
The controversy surrounds materials recovered north of Roswell after the crash--were the remnants a high-altitude government surveillance balloon, as the United States military claims, or something alien?
Legitimate research is paired with fun during the Roswell UFO Festival, where outrageous costumes, a night parade, concerts, and tales of abductions intertwine.
The festival “brings a lot of national and international attention,” said Julie Shuster of Roswell’s UFO Museum. “It can be everything from silly to serious. It’s a lot of fun.”
People paint their faces. They get into the moment. There’s even a pet costume contest.
Motels invite patrons to “crash with us.” Restaurants offer menu items that are “out of this world.”
Other Objects in the Sky
Before supposed spacecraft descended on Roswell, man-made devices blasted upwards. Robert H. Goddard, one of the fathers of modern rocketry, achieved supersonic velocity when in 1935 he launched his 4-meter long rocket and reached an altitude of 1.5 kilometers near Roswell.
Goddard’s original workshop is preserved at the Roswell Museum and Art Center, which opened in 1937 with support from the Depression-era WPA to promote public art centers nationwide.
“We are a grass roots organization that has an interesting history,” said Laurie Rufe, director of the Roswell Museum and Art Center.
Art lovers will recognize works by New Mexico modernists Georgia O’Keeffe and find a gallery of Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth originals that celebrate the landscape of the Hondo Valley. Stargazers will revel in the attached planetarium. Visitors can wander the 50,000-square foot museum free of charge.
Embracing the Green Chile
Flavorful dishes like lightly battered green chiles and enchiladas with red sauce are perennial favorites of the townspeople and can be found at several authentic Mexican restaurants.
Different kinds of green chile grown in different parts of New Mexico are showcased each September during the Chile, Cheese and Quilts Festival. Colorful ristras, or strings of red chiles, signal the summer’s end.
Throngs Flock to Remnant Wetlands
Bird watchers, take note. Remnant wetlands along the Pecos River draw throngs of snow geese and sandhill cranes—as many as 20,000 each—November through February at Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge. More than 90 species of dragonflies and damselflies inhabit the 25,000-acre refuge and are celebrated at the Dragonfly Festival each September.
“There’s nothing else much like it for a long ways away,” said Jeff Howland, refuge manager.
Getting to Roswell
Get there on the weekend without the long drive. Roswell International Air Center—once a military base with bragging rights to one of the nation’s longest runways—offers three flights daily to Dallas Ft. Worth International Airport.
Roswell's spicy food, desert beauty and controversy are calling. The truth is out there.
Susan Jakobsen - My name is Susan Jakobsen, and I have worked at newspapers in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico as a reporter, editor, and designer. My ...
