We’re visiting Roswell, NM for a few days.  The downtown area has lots of shops related to the alien crash that allegedly happened here in 1947.  We visited the Roswell UFO Museum and Research Center which had lots of stories and affidavits from people who were involved in the crash, the military takeover of the area, the removal of the debris and bodies and the subsequent coverup about it.  The stories, news articles, affidavits etc. do tell a compelling story.  A local rancher noticed a brightly lit object in the sky and saw it crash onto his land.  He drove out to the site and saw wreckage that he didn’t recognize.  He picked up a small piece of debris and drove to a neighbor who had a phone to call the sheriff.  The sheriff and other people went to the site and described in their affidavits what they saw.  The military showed up really quickly and cordoned off the area, debriefed the locals and apparently threatened them and their families if they told anyone about what they witnessed, removed all the debris and bodies.  A nurse at a nearby hospital who saw the bodies (and apparently one that was not dead) and an undertaker who was ordered to supply child-size coffins told stories about what they saw too, and then were threatened.  Several military personnel as well as the locals told deathbed stories that seem to match – what they saw, what the military did, the coverup and threats etc.  Interesting! We also visited the Roswell Museum and Art Center.  It contains lots of southwestern motif art pieces and a large collection of historical items from the 1800s including lots of weapons, uniforms and items of clothing, saddles etc.  It also includes lots of native american artifacts, several full headdresses, beaded clothing, weapons, bison hides etc.  Very interesting, and what I found the most interesting was that it was ALL from one man’s collection.  WOW! We found that there is a small series of lakes just a few miles out of Roswell, called the bottomless lakes.  They aren’t really bottomless, but are instead a series of sinkholes that are fed under the ground from a mountain range several miles to the west.  Most are about 30 feet deep, the largest is about 70 feet deep and has a shallow ‘lip’ that has been used as a beach for swimming and small boating for over 100 years.  There are several covered pavillions with picnic tables for parties etc.  We visited it on a Sunday and it was crowded!  Here’s the website about this state park: http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/SPD/bottomlesslakesstatepark.html

Here are a few pictures of the bottomless lakes that Jeff took: