In the Mouth of Roswell

We didn't arrive last night until well after midnight, and what a clear black starry night it was. Almost creepy. We didn't have a detailed map of Roswell, only a state map, and so all we had was a vague idea of where the campground was. We turned off the highway on to the road leading to Bottomless Lakes and saw the signs for the park, and followed them, winding through the pitch blackness for a few miles, then ended up back at the highway we had just left. It was like the scene from the film In the Mouth of Madness where the they are driving down that dark road and they keep passing the same creepy bike... I was just a little terrified. 

However, Sergei was able to figure out where the park was and we made camp quickly and then were out like lights....  Until I was roused by a precocious raccoon who was desperately trying to get into our tent. He was a pretty cute little guy so I woke Sergei to show him, and Sergei frightened the raccoon off with his pillow. We slept the rest of the night without further interruption. 

This morning we got to see the park at last, and Lea Lake is beautiful. It was created when a salt and gypsum flat collapsed and is very deep (though not apparently bottomless). The lakes here got their name when the 19th century cowboys tried to determine the depth of the lakes by tying their lariats together and couldn't find the bottom. The depth actually ranges from 17 to 90 feet, and the steep drop off is visible through the pristine water.  We swam for a bit, and I saw a large turtle also swimming. 

You can see how it drops off like a crater

Here we are with Lea Lake behind us

Here we are - Roswell!! 

...and UFO Capital of the World...

After that we went to the International UFO Museum and Research Center. If you ever find yourself in the Roswell area I highly recommend you visit. I am a "UFOskeptic", as per the terminology used by "UFOlogists" to describe people who don't believe, but it was a weird little place that presented a plethora of information (and misinformation...) in a very disjointed way, and succeeded in piquing my curiosity (although, to be fair, a Gallup Poll stating that 87% of Americans believe in UFOs is NOT evidence that UFOs exist - museum curator, I'm talking to you).

I thought the museum had a lot of potential to be thoroughly entertaining, and with a little organization, streamlining of material and some interactive exhibits it would have been excellent. But even mediocre as it was, it was worth the trip. 

Which reminds me that last spring I heard Annie Jacobsen speak about her book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top-Secret Military Base.  In it she posits that the Roswell incident was not a UFO, but a Soviet craft manned by surgically and genetically altered children intended to look like a UFO filled with aliens in order to cause hysteria in the USA (a la War of the Worlds).  I think this is poppycock and I am not alone.  Here is a review by Skeptic Donald Prothero.  Although the rest of her book cites an abundance of sources and seems well researched, the Roswell section rests on a single source that she doesn't reveal. She says it's because her source is still under obligation to keep what he knows top secret et cetera, et certera, but it's still a far fetched story to throw out there without much evidence... As Carl Sagan says, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."  Anyway, you know the best part of that lecture was that all the UFO people showed up, and they were mad too.  That was pretty funny.

But back to the museum.  Here is what it makes clear: something happened in Roswell, and based on the response of the government and military, it wasn't just a weather balloon. Could it have been a top secret American craft? Sure, but it did take the authorities a long time to respond. It wasn't until a few days after the incident occurred and the rancher who found the crash site reported it to the authorities that they responded.  So, who knows what sort of top secret thing crashed in the New Mexican desert but perhaps sometime during our lifetimes it will be de-classified and we can find out.