Roswell New Mexico

In 1865 a not so bright group of settlers from Missouri established their settlement about 15 miles southwest of what today is Roswell, New Mexico. Unfortunately, they were forced to abandon the site because it lacked water. Yeah, that’s important.

Then in 1869 a businessman from Omaha Nebraska and his partner constructed two adobe buildings. This was the start of Roswell. The two buildings became the settlement’s general store, post office and sleeping quarters for paying guests. From there the town grew, but never did boom.

During World War II German POWs were housed in nearby Orchard Park. The prisoners were used to bring the much needed infrastructure to Roswell such as paving the banks of the Spring River. Roswell became a location of military importance from 1941 to 1967, when the Walker Air Force Base was decommissioned.

In the 1930s, Charles Lindbergh and money-man Harry Guggenheim chose Roswell as the location for rocket experiments. The rockets were the creation of scientist Dr. Robert H. Goddard. Some claim without the experiments at Roswell, America would not have won the race to the moon. Who know? Maybe it was these very same experiments that drew other-worldly attention, leading to the Roswell Incident of 1947.

As the story goes, a rancher named Mack Brazel discovered metal debris on his land. The debris was in a giant trench that is said to have spanned several hundred feet. The investigating officials from nearby Roswell Army Air Filed first reported that a flying saucer had crash landed outside of town. Reports began to swirl that not only had materials of unknown origins been recovered, but the bodies of spacemen, too. Within hours the original statement was retracted, and the official claim was that what Mack really found was the debris from a weather balloon. As for the bodies? Who knows. What I will tell you is it’s hard to take the whole UFO business seriously after a visit to Roswell’s International UFO Museum and Research Center. I mean, really?

That said, it was a hoot. While Roswell might not be on your way to anywhere in particular, it’s worth a visit just for kicks.