Roswell gears up for 60th anniversary UFO fest

BY JUSTIN M. NORTON | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ROSWELL, N.M. - Is "The Truth" located in this remote city in New Mexico?

Driving alone down a stretch of desolate highway en route to Roswell, I begin to understand why conspiracy buffs have long argued that aliens crash-landed in the desert here a half-century ago.

Darkness engulfs desert fields. A misshapen yellow moon hangs in the sky. Husks of abandoned buildings litter the roadside. Has an alien invasion already taken place?

I have secretly wanted to visit Roswell since I was a boy. What I got during my brief visit was a lesson in how a small city in the middle of the American Southwest became enshrined in American pop culture.

The 60th anniversary of the so-called "Roswell Incident" will be marked Thursday-Sunday at the city's annual UFO festival. City officials say 50,000 people are expected for the event, which will include lectures, book-signings, tours, entertainment, and, according to the organizers, perhaps an alien abduction or two.

Plans are underway for the construction of a UFO-themed amusement park - complete with an indoor roller coaster that boasts a simulated alien abduction. The park, dubbed Alien Apex Resort, could open as early as 2010. The city has received a $245,000 legislative appropriation for initial planning, but the park would be privately built and managed.

The original Roswell Incident occurred in July 1947. A rancher named W.W. "Mack" Brazel went to check on some sheep after a night of storms. He claimed he found some strange debris. Neighbors told Brazel he might have pieces of a flying saucer.

On July 8, 1947, a local military office issued a press release saying that pieces of a "crashed disk" were recovered. A story featured on the front page of the Roswell Daily Record claimed a flying saucer was captured (the paper is now reproduced and sold to tourists). Other news agencies picked up on the event - albeit in a cursory fashion.

A revised release was soon sent out that said the material was a weather balloon. But stories about requests for tiny coffins and a nefarious plot began to emerge, and Roswell went from small town to Alien Capitol.

What exactly happened in Roswell remains a mystery. However, it did inspire me to drive across the desert to a town of roughly 45,000 people.

After a fitful sleep at the Best Western, I rubbed my scalp to search for any curious implants or scars, and headed out early to spend the morning downtown.

I was greeted at the UFO Museum by an alien dummy wearing a Santa Claus hat.

The museum takes visitors through a timeline, beginning with newspaper clips and printed affidavits from many who claim to have intimate knowledge of the crash.

The convoluted timeline of what happened after "The Roswell Incident" shows just why there are so many conflicting stories about the event.

Among the displays are explanations of crop circles and an exhibit detailing how Roswell has been portrayed in pop culture.

It's curious how aliens are almost inevitably depicted by those who claim they've been visited by extraterrestrials as diminutive with oval heads, green skin and doe-shaped eyes.

The museum's most popular and photographed exhibition is purely fictional: the set of an alien autopsy from the 1994 television movie "Roswell." The vivid exhibit, in which doctors prepare to examine an emaciated alien corpse, is on a permanent loan to the museum.

The gift shop takes up a good chunk of the first floor and offers every conceivable extraterrestrial gift: alien plush dolls; alien shot glasses and magnets that say "I BELIEVE." A wide selection of books and documents on the Roswell incident is also for sale.

There's also a research library for those inclined to further study the alien phenomena.

"We'll tell people the story of what happened and tell them to make up their own mind," Turner said.

Downtown Roswell is a hub of alien-themed shops. There's the Not Of This World coffeehouse and the Cover Up Cafe. Even businesses like banks have cardboard cutouts of aliens in the windows.

One shop worth a visit is the Alien Zone, roughly a block away from the museum. For a small fee, visitors can see an exhibit called "Area 51" that features displays of roughly 3-foot-tall alien models in very human poses.

One display shows an alien in a sauna reading a newspaper; another features a forlorn-looking alien lounging in a jail cell in pinstripes. The main exhibit features an "alien autopsy" complete with an alien baby fetus in a glass jar in the background and another life-size model of an alien stumbling from a crashed space ship.

There's plenty else to do in Roswell. Even city officials seem to know why many people trek across the desert for a visit. The city's Web site says: "Roswell has something to offer all of our special visitors, whether from this planet, or from a distant galaxy."