Roswell

We took a drive into Roswell Saturday to check out the UFO museum. I had read up a bit on the Roswell Incident and didn't really have an opinion on it. I guess you could say I went there with an open-minded skepticism about the whole thing. Driving into Roswell from Bottomless Lakes, it occurred to me that this would be a good place for an alien to land. It's so barren in this area, you can drive for miles without seeing any signs of life.

Before going to the museum, we drove around town to get some pictures of some of the alien-themed art and advertising. The citizens of Roswell have really embraced the whole alien thing and everywhere you look there is a little green man or a spaceship.

Even the local KFC, McDonalds and credit union had an alien theme...

The downtown area of Roswell is full of alien stuff, particularly around the museum. This mural was on a window next to the museum...

Many of the streetlights in Roswell have alien eyes on them. I thought this was something planned by the city but I found out it was actually a guerrilla art project and isn't sanctioned by the city. It's just a coincidence that the lights have an alien shape to them and a couple of local artists went out one night and pasted the eyes on some of the lights. Here is a picture of the streetlight in front of the museum...

...and another shot of the museum marquee...

Out in front of the museum is a statue of Mac Brazel. He is the farmer that discovered the UFO and debris field on his ranch.

The museum was  interesting. There was a lot of stuff to read: newspaper articles, official reports and affidavits from witnesses of the crash and aftermath. The first display featured the infamous newspaper report of the saucer crash...

I liked this big display in the center of the museum. You could get your picture taken with the aliens but I passed on that.

Half of the museum is dedicated to the Roswell incident and the other half features information from other UFO sightings. There was an interesting display of pictures of reported sightings and a section dedicated to ancient artwork that many believe depict alien encounters.

 There was also a section dedicated to movies and TV shows about the Roswell incident and other alien-themed movies. This rather gruesome display came from the 1994 Showtime movie: The Roswell Incident...

 It's hard to really describe this museum because, as I said earlier, so much of the information was in the form of written documents. It was a fun stop though. I wouldn't say that I came away a believer but some of the information, particularly a few of the reports and signed affidavits, made me a bit more skeptical of the government version of the story. I think I would like to read more about it and possibly go back some day.

We're really loving our stay here at Bottomless Lakes. It has been hot most days but we've had a few cooler days and even got in some hiking last week. I have a bunch of pictures of the lakes and bluffs from our hikes but I'm going to save them for a separate post. It was almost 100 degrees Monday so we went over to the beach area at Lea Lake to see about swimming. I like swimming in cold water but it was a bit too cold, even for me. It was still nice though, just sitting in the sun with our feet in the water. The temperature is suppose to drop into the sixties tomorrow for a few days and then head back into the 80's this weekend. We have something really cool planned for this weekend if the weather holds out, so stay tuned!

I hope you enjoyed the alien pictures. Thanks for stopping by!