Nice to be able to stay in one place more than a single night on this trip. I had the full day to explore Roswell and all it had to offer.
ROSWELL, NEW MEXICO
Roswell is famous for a single thing; in 1947 something crashed in a desert near Corona that the military and government attempted to cover up. It’s now the UFO capital of the world.
I expected some real quirkiness from Roswell and when I’d originally booked my flights I planned to spend a week here. I’m so glad I didn’t! There really isn’t much to Roswell. There’s a couple of museums and a handful of souvenir shops offering alien anything, but beyond that it’s just another American small town.
Roswell is actually about 2-3 hours away from the crash site, back in 1947 it took a day to travel here from Corona. Despite the crash site being much closer to Corona, Roswell has taken all the credit for it.
Obviously, my first stop was the grand sounding ‘International UFO Museum & Research Centre’. Entry was a measly $5 (currently £3.81) and this entitled visitors to come and go as they please over the course of a day. Parking was free, something I love about America. Back home they’d try and squeeze every last pound out of you and charge for parking!
The museum was built in an old cinema and had been operating for over 25 years. The right hand side of the hall was dedicated to the Roswell Incident and had lots of witness statements; the left side covered UFO’s in general. In the middle that was a tacky UFO and alien display that smoked and spun every half hour.
I’m a sucker for reading everything in a museum, so it took me around 2 hours to cover all exhibits. It was very interesting and taught me some facts about Roswell that I didn’t previously know.
The exit was via the gift shop (of course!). It was HUGE. The biggest museum gift shop I’ve ever seen! It stocked all sorts from fridge magnets to t-shirts and key rings to books. Most of the t-shirt designs were exclusive to the museum and therefore not available in the other souvenir stores. Although sincerely tempted, I resisted buying any dust gathering tack.
I left the museum with a long list of things I’d researched, from the alien street lamps to the UFO shaped McDonalds.
Around Roswell, there are lots of alien references from postboxes to street lights. It was fun driving around town looking for aliens but I couldn’t have done it for a week!
LOCKED IN THE MUSEUM
It was getting late in the afternoon and I entered yet another alien attraction for just $3 (currently £2.29). This one wasn’t informative or educating, it was simply displays of aliens and was quite amusing.
I was absorbed in the various scenes, and hardly noticed the other visitors leave. Eventually, I went to the exit, it was locked… I was locked in the museum!
Confident that I wouldn’t totally be forgotten as I could hear voices in the adjacent gift shop, I decided to make the most of my imprisonment and get inside the exhibits to pose for photos; I had my remote control and tripod with me. I just hoped I wasn’t being watched…
Leave a Reply