Roswell Welcome Sign — Attraction in Four Corners States

The Roswell incident is the 1947 recovery of balloon debris from a ranch near Corona, New Mexico by United States Army Air Forces officers from Roswell Army Air Field, and the conspiracy theories, decades later, claiming that the debris involved a flying saucer and that the truth had been covered up by the United States government.1 On July 8, 1947, Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disc". The Army quickly retracted the statement and said instead that the crashed object was a conventional weather balloon.1]

Roswell incident

July 8, 1947, issue of the Roswell Daily Record, announcing the "capture" of a "flying saucer"

Date1947LocationLincoln County, New Mexico, United StatesCoordinates33°58.1′N 105°14.6′W

The Roswell incident did not surface again until the late 1970s, when retired lieutenant colonel Jesse Marcel, in an interview with ufologist Stanton Friedman, said he believed the debris he retrieved was extraterrestrial.[3] Ufologists began promoting a variety of increasingly elaborate conspiracy theories, claiming that one or more alien spacecraft had crash-landed and that the extraterrestrial occupants had been recovered by the military, which then engaged in a cover-up.

In 1994, the United States Air Force published a report identifying the crashed object as a nuclear test surveillance balloon from Project Mogul.[1 A second Air Force report, published in 1997, concluded that stories of "aliens bodies" probably stemmed from test dummies being dropped from high altitude.

Conspiracy theories about the event nevertheless persist, and the Roswell incident continues to be of interest in popular media. The incident has been described as "the world's most famous, most exhaustively investigated, and most thoroughly debunked UFO claim".[4]

The city of Roswell, New Mexico has capitalized on the event; the city's official seal now features a little green man while the city contains countless ufology attractions, events, statues and iconography.

On July 8, 1947, RAAF public information officer Walter Haut issued a press release stating that personnel from the field's 509th Operations Group had recovered a "flying disc", which had landed on a ranch near Roswell.

The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of one of the local ranchers and the sheriff's office of Chaves County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until such time as he was able to contact the sheriff's office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office. Action was immediately taken and the disc was picked up at the rancher's home. It was inspected at the Roswell Army Air Field and subsequently loaned by Major Marcel to higher headquarters.[8]

As soon as Marcel brought the material to General Ramey's office, both Ramey and his chief of staff Colonel Thomas Dubose identified the material as pieces of a weather balloon kite.[7] The FWAAF weather officer on duty explained to reporters that such "ray wind" devices were used at about 80 weather stations across the country. The balloons were attached to a six-pointed reflective device that looked like a silver star. After launch, the balloon expanded with increasing altitude before bursting around 60,000 feet with pieces then dispersing in their fall to...

Roswell was a stopping point for me on my road trip. A friend wanted some good alien photos and Knick-Knacks from the "Alien Mecca" so I wanted to get him a few good items. To say I was disappointed, is the understatement of the century. I've been on a 8K mile road trip across the country, stopping at road side attractions etc. paying hundreds of dollars for experiences and lifetime memories along my road trip, I was looking forward to Roswell being one of those great memories. This place has SO much potential to take tourists money and be a fantastic tourist trap, and they just totally dropped the ball. The visitor center is in the middle of town, the handful of attractions are cheesy at best and are too spread out. There are no great road side signs alerting you to your arrival in Roswell, no great art installations throughout your walk through town, no walking tour mapped out by a painted trail of green or something to that effect, The most alien things are the cheesy alien eyes painted on a few light posts on main street. I visited 4 of the "gift shops" located here in town, and 3 out of the 4 felt and looked like everything for sale was bought off Wish dot com. I took more photos of the restaurants that had an alien figure outside their building, like Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds. I think there is one Alien themed restaurant that played up the theme, but is so far out of the way, no one driving through town would even know it's there. This is the town that advertising and marketing came to die in. I was so disappointed, I thought about writing the mayor to voice my disappointment, but figured it would just fall to the wayside and...

Sad to see the sign with all the stickers to be completely honest… disappointing people can’t just leave things alone. However, it was still amazing to see in person, and absolutely a bucket list item for my friends and I who drove 3 hours to visit! Also as a heads up for those looking for it, it’s on a highway, and away from the city by approximately 10 or so minutes! Happy to have gone all in all, but won’t be returning as the “crash sight” is owned by a farmer (according to the UFO Museum staff), who got tired of people letting his cows out of the gate, to view the sight. Super disappointed to learn for us, so wanted to give others that heads up! Definitely a one time...