Roswell, New Mexico

We will soon be leaving Roswell so it was time for us to go into town and check out what Roswell is most popularly know for - the Roswell UFO Incident of July 1947.

But first, we hiked out into the desert surrounding Roswell, just to get a feel of the area where the flying saucer crash landed during a lightening storm.

In Roswell there is the International UFO Museum & Research Center. Here we are at the entrance with a sculpture of William Brazel finding the debris in the desert. 

There's a lot of reading to be done here; display panels are covered with witness statements, newspaper clippings and extended essays outlining the Incident. There are also several homemade models. Here's the flying saucer crashing in the desert.

More models of the site, and...

the aliens that arrived.

Some of the mock-ups are rather gruesome.

It is believed that there was an autopsy on one of the aliens before the local mortician took the body away.

Other by-products of the UFO craze is the visitor from War of the Worlds and...

some art work. There were quite a few people at the museum, maybe a hundred or more at the time of our visit.

 On the other hand, we also went to the Roswell Museum & Art Center and were the only visitors at this wonderful art museum, one of the best small museums we have visited on our travels. There are seventeen galleries showcasing Southwestern artists including Georgia O'Keeffe, Peter Hurd and Henriette Wyeth (husband & wife), along with an eclectic mix of Native American, Hispanic and Anglo artifacts the region's inhabitants.

 http://roswell-nm.gov/308/Roswell-Museum-Art-Center

There's also a fascinating display on local rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard, who launched the first successful liquid fuel rocket in 1926 and made the Apollo moon landings possible. There is also an adjoining Goddard Planetarium with public programs on Wednesdays - we were a day late.

Below are some examples of the wonderful art we saw-

A serigraph by Jasper Johns.

Peter Hurd

Peter Hurd

This colorful work extended the length of a wall.

Peter Hurd

Henriette Wyeth (picture behind glass)

Henriette Wyeth

Henriette Wyeth's portrait of her father, N.C. Wyeth.

The child at lower left (enlarge) is part of the painting

This oil painting is of one of Goddard's most successful missile test firings.

A mock-up of Goddard's workshop.

Missile in the foreground.

Out in the front plaza of the museum is a larger than life Robert Goddard overseeing...

the firing of this missile.

On the way back to the campground we stopped at an overlook of Lea Lake and the Pavilion and water tower.

We're tucked behind the rocks in the center of the picture.

Enlarge this picture of the sunset and you'll see the water tower in the lower right.

Today's hike:

Length - 2.84 miles

Duration - 1 hour, 01 minute

Elevation gain - 170 feet (17 floors on the Fitbit