The Other Mysteries of Roswell

Mention the word "Roswell" to most people and doing so will, of course, provoke imagery and comments concerning the infamous events of July 1947. Namely, the reported crash of what was then termed a "flying disc." The location: the Foster Ranch, Lincoln County, New Mexico. It's a seldom discussed fact, however, that the alleged cosmic crash is just one of many mysteries that revolve around the town of Roswell.

Take, for example, Roswell's Chaves County Courthouse. It was a place where, years ago, more than a few violent killers were executed. It's also a place from where numerous stories have surfaced of the ghostly cries of spectral children echoing around the old building - and particularly so in the basement. And still on the matter of ghostly kids...

Back in 1963, an oilman by the name of Olen Featherstone established a pecan orchard in the vicinity of the town's Country Club Road. It, too, is said to be the haunt of a restless, supernatural soul. In this case it's a young boy, with no legs. He spends his time crawling around the fields and streets, usually in a highly distressed state - and, rather oddly, only on Sundays in October.

Roswell's Pueblo Auditorium, which was built as the 1920s came to an end, has a notable claim to fame: on Valentine's Day, 1955, a young Elvis Presley performed there. It, too, has a story of a spooky child attached to it. His spirit appears to be tied to the balcony area - to the point that he is seemingly unable to leave it. His only action - done in repetitive style - is to entice people to the balcony, with either laughter or tears, and then vanish before their amazed or terrified eyes.

Moving on, we have the saga of the New Mexico Military Institute, established in 1891 by Joseph C. Lea. He chose one Robert S. Goss - a Confederate colonel - to oversee it. A number of reports exist of people claiming to have seen, at the institute, the ghostly images of members of the Juliet troop. They were a unit who met their end in a violent confrontation with Native Americans back in the 1800s.

Then there was the local psychic woman who, on a specific day in 1936, loudly warned that the town of Roswell was on the verge of suffering complete and utter disaster. The reason, she said, was because the ground was about to open up and swallow the town and its people in one, almighty gulp.

Of course, nothing of the sort happened, but that didn't prevent a significant number of people from fleeing to safer havens for a few days. And particularly so when the town was actually hit by a large flood, which had many believing the prophecy was about to come disastrously true.

A local man, John Lemay, has taken the time to carefully chronicle much of the strange activity that goes on in Roswell. It's an impressive list, too, and includes sightings of a Sasquatch-style beast, what sounds like a small dinosaur roaming around, bottomless lakes that swallow cars, and even out of place alligators - something which parallels the legends of alligators in the sewers of New York.

And, finally, there is the story of the ghosts of Roswell's dead aliens. Located in the town is a place called the New Mexico Rehabilitation Center (NMRC). It's built upon the grounds of the old Roswell Army Air Field Hospital. It was to the hospital, back in 1947, we're told, that the strange and small bodies found on the Foster Ranch were transferred - for inspection, autopsy or brief storage. It all depends on who you ask.

It's intriguing, then, that some of the staff of the NMRC have reported seeing spectral forms of the diminutive deceased beings walking through walls and closed doors and acting in definitive spectral style. Are the dead of 1947 still hanging around? Maybe they are.

In late 2005, I headed out to Roswell to investigate the stories of the ghostly, dead ETs - along with conspiracy author Jim Marrs, ghost-hunter Josh Warren, psychics Karyn Reece and Laura Lee, paranormal investigator Brian Irish, author Heidi Hollis, and Native American Richard Hernandez.

We personally spoke to a number of the staff at the NMRC about the claims. They openly, and on the record, told of personally seeing the ghostly, small figures on more than a few occasions. We even held a midnight seance in town to try and contact them. Yep, Roswell is a seriously strange town!