We took the back highways to Roswell. It was a lovely little drive.
Immediately upon entering Roswell, one was inundated with little green men and other alien-related things.... on billboards, banks, hotels, stores, gas stations, etc.
We stopped briefly in the city's visitor center to decide what we wanted to do. Again, alien imagery prevailed.
Take me to your leader?
Hanging with one of the locals
We ended up going to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. The museum, which opened in 1992, includes exhibits on the Roswell Incident, crop circles, UFO sightings, Area 51, ancient astronauts, abductions, etc. The exhibits are not designed to convince anyone of anything. Visitors are encouraged to ask questions and explore their own answers.
What is the Roswell Incident?
The whole thing started when an unidentified flying object crashed on a ranch northwest of town in July 1947. The rancher, W.W. Brazel, rode out to check on his sheep and noticed unusual pieces of metal debris scattered over a large area. Upon further inspection, he saw a shallow trench several hundred feet long gouged into the ground. He reported it to the sheriff who in turn contacted the military. The area was immediately sealed off and the wreckage was cleared. Later, other witnesses came forward with claims of mysterious bodies.
The official version of the story: it was a crashed conventional weather balloon known as Project Mogul. Anything other than that is just a conspiracy theory.
Inspecting the debris
The 8-foot tall robot, Gort, from the 1951 movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
This is a page from a UFO Sightings Questionnaire. Doesn't the man look suspiciously like Spock to you?
The Palenque (Pu-lin-ka) Astronaut is a carving sometime between 400 - 500 AD from the lid of a tomb from a Mayan temple. It is said to portray an astronaut sitting at the controls of his space ship. The Mayan had an obsession with the sky... perhaps the result of extraterrestrial visits? This replica took five people three years to complete.
A drawing of the Palenque Astronaut
We also watched a fascinating movie over crop circles that was playing in the other room.
The Bermuda Triangle (or Devil's Triangle) is an where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. According to the US Navy, the triangle does not exist.
Title 14 Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations has earned the nickname The Extra-Terrestrial Exposure Law. Created by NASA in 1969 in preparation for the Apollo 11 mission, it was meant to guard the Earth (by means of quarantine) against any harmful contamination resulting from the return of personnel, spacecraft and other property from another celestial body. However, in a 1982 Pentagon press conference, it was stated that contact between U.S. citizens and extra-terrestrials or their vehicles was strictly illegal. The rule was revoked in 1977 and formally removed from the books in 1991.
We continued south, eventually arriving at Brantley Lake State Park at dusk... which was only 4:30 pm (these shorter winter days make traveling a bit more difficult!). We were hoping to camp in the primitive sites for only $8 a night, but the park manager said they were closed due to flooding. So instead he offered us one of the better sites (normally a $14 value) for a mere $5. The place was quite empty!
We raced against the sun to set up the tent overlooking the lake, which in spite of how low it looked was at a record high level.
