When it comes to UFO encounters in New Mexico, Roswell is the best-known, but there are other fascinating (and sometimes inexplicable) stories worth exploring.
In New Mexico alone, the National UFO Reporting Center has over 1,800 documented reports of people encountering unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or unidentified aerial/anomalous phenomena (UAP).
In more recent years, the official term has changed to UAP to move away from the “flying saucer” phenomenon that took off in the mid-1900s. UFOs were certainly having a moment throughout the back half of the 20th century. Both terms refer to the same general idea, however: Visible objects or lights in the sky that observers, researchers, or authorities cannot immediately identify.
We’re diving into eight of the wildest UFO encounters in New Mexico history. These are the stories that continue to make people wonder: “What in the world was that?”
1. Roswell Incident (1947)
Even people outside of New Mexico know that Roswell = aliens. I first got into the story thanks to the video game “Perfect Dark” on the Nintendo 64. Spoiler alert for a game that’s over a quarter-century old: One of the main plot points centers on the Roswell Incident, which includes you rescuing a friendly alien named Elvis. The real Roswell Incident happened in 1947, when a rancher named W.W. “Mac” Brazel found debris near Roswell. At the time, the military was secretly flying high-altitude balloons to detect Soviet nuclear tests. One day after the Roswell Army Air Field announced they had recovered a “flying disc,” they walked that back and said it was a downed weather balloon.
After about 30 years of relative disinterest, conspiracy theories began rising again in the late 1970s. Jesse Marcel, the first military officer who investigated the Roswell Incident, did an interview with ufologist Stanton Friedman. Marcel said the weather balloon explanation was a cover story, and he now believed the debris belonged to an extraterrestrial being. Soon, books were being written about Roswell, such as Charles Berlitz and Bill Moore’s “The Roswell Incident.” The Air Force released two additional reports in the 1990s. There were allusions to Project Mogul, a secret operation meant to detect tests of Soviet bombs, as well as crash test dummies that people erroneously remembered as being alien bodies. It’s been nearly 80 years since the Roswell Incident, and many questions remain about what really went down.
2. Green fireballs (beginning in 1948)
On Dec. 5, 1948, one civilian and one military plane crew reported seeing fireballs they described as a “green ball of fire” and “like a huge green meteor.” Lincoln LaPaz, an astronomer at the University of New Mexico, claimed to see a green fireball a week later, on Dec. 12. He said this one was “not a conventional meteorite fall,” later breaking into fragments while maintaining a green hue. The following year, a conference at Los Alamos left attendees dumbfounded, unable to figure out where the green fireballs had originated.
Some scientists and researchers believe the green fireballs could be nuclear fallout, lunar material, or perhaps bolides, which are vibrant meteors. Others insist the fireballs come from an extraterrestrial origin. In the 2000s, people have observed green fireballs in several places beyond New Mexico, including Australia, Japan, Tennessee, and West Virginia. The Land of Enchantment has been a trendsetter in the phenomenon.
3. Saucer Armada (1950)
“HUGE ‘SAUCER’ ARMADA JOLTS FARMINGTON” read the Mar. 18, 1950 headline from the Farmington Daily Times. The small town received hundreds of reports of flying objects from Mar. 16 to Mar. 18. While this is one of the less-remembered UFO encounters in New Mexico history, it passes the sniff test of believability.
That’s largely because so many people claimed to see the same thing. From 11 a.m. to noon each of those three days, pedestrians along Main Street pointed toward the San Juan County skies. One account says there were objects moving at “almost unbelievable speeds,” looking like they were playing tag above the clouds. Another report said things quickly evolved from a few objects to hundreds of them. One witness report came from Marlo Webb, then a parts manager at a Chevrolet garage. He later became Farmington’s mayor.
Several witnesses also claimed to see a single red object paving the way while others followed. Independent UFO researcher David Marler came up with the name “Red Leader” as an homage to “Star Wars.” Whether Farmington residents witnessed something from a galaxy far, far away remains a topic of discussion more than 75 years later.
4. Kirtland Air Force Base (1957)
On Nov. 4, 1957, R.M. Kaser and E.G. Brink, two Civil Aeronautics Administration (now the Federal Aviation Administration) employees, were manning the control tower at Kirtland Air Force Base. Shortly before 11 p.m., the two said they saw a white light traveling east across the airfield. The pair viewed the object through binoculars and estimated it was between 15 and 20 feet tall and shaped like an egg. The object hovered a few thousand feet from the tower for a minute, then continued eastward and began climbing at a high speed.
To double-check what they saw, Kaser and Brink called the Radar Approach Control, which verified an object moving east. On the radar, the target moved south, north, and then cruised behind a C-46 aircraft that was leaving the base for nearly 14 miles before disappearing from view. In total, radar tracked this UFO for about 20 minutes.
The Air Force investigated the incident as part of Project Blue Book, which studied reported sightings from 1952 to 1969, when the program was disbanded. Ultimately, the Air Force said this particular sighting was simply a misidentified aircraft. Their best guess was that a pilot mistakenly tried to land at the base, realized the error, and quickly maneuvered out of the landing.
5. The multi-radar UFO nobody saw (1959)
Every other entry on this list has at least one eyewitness to help set the stage. This one had no human eyes on it, but it was captured by multiple radar systems. On Sept. 13, 1959, Kirtland Air Force Base tracked an object soaring through the sky with an average velocity of 1,920 miles per hour. It was also making sharp, angular turns at very high speeds.
If the object had only appeared on one radar system, you could chalk it up to a blip or a temporary glitch. But four separate radar stations across the American Southwest recorded outputs with similar characteristics. They all saw the excessive speeds and aggressive turns.
To put that speed into perspective, Air Force Major Joseph W. Rogers set a new aerial speed record of just under 1,526 miles per hour in December of 1959. Yes, the world record at the time was nearly 400 miles per hour slower than whatever was traveling across the skies that September day.
6. The Socorro landing (1964)
A Socorro police sergeant named Lonnie Zamora was making his rounds in his cruiser on April 24, 1964. In the late afternoon, he discovered an “egg shaped craft” off the beaten path in an undeveloped arroyo full of bushes just south of Socorro. Zamora said he witnessed a bluish flame and a roar. He continued approaching, and from about 50 feet away, he saw landing gear and a red insignia that he later drew from memory. The blue flames and ominous roar returned, and the object began elevating into the sky. Zamora also claimed he saw two figures in “something white, white coveralls,” but couldn’t definitively say whether they were human.
Zamora was an honest officer with a good reputation, and he had physical evidence on his side. The area, which was later visited by several other investigators, had burned soil and vegetation, ground impressions from possible landing gear, and metal scrapings on a rock that had broken off in one of those impressions.
The FBI, U.S. Army, and U.S. Air Force all investigated the incident, but none could determine a conclusive explanation. The Air Force categorized the case as “unknown” in Project Blue Book, and it inspired astronomer J. Allen Hynek to admit that some of these UFO reports may have merit, after all. Even over 60 years later, the Socorro landing remains one of the most intriguing UFO encounters in New Mexico, and the U.S. at large.
7. Hobbs burn incident (1964)
Less than two months after Zamora’s sighting, another case rocked Hobbs, a town in the state’s southeast corner near the Texas border. An eight-year-old boy named Charles Davis was playing outside his house while his grandmother watched. Suddenly, a black object shaped like a top appeared, mirroring his movements before making “a beeline course” and coming straight at him. The object shot a shower of flames at Davis, singeing his hair and burning his face. He eventually recovered physically, but remained emotionally scarred by the incident for decades.
Davis hasn’t spoken about the event very often, though a conversation with him is featured in Marc Hartzman’s book, “We Are Not Alone: The Extraordinary History of UFOs and Aliens Invading Our Hopes, Fears, and Fantasies.”
“I remember knowing I was seeing something I shouldn’t be seeing. I remember hearing a loud noise and within seconds—boom—it was on me,” Davis said. He noted that many people are skeptical, but added, “I will tell you this, I know something happened and I don’t care what anyone says.”
What makes this story especially intriguing is that several other people in Georgia reported similar encounters with an object shaped like “a giant top,” which also emitted strong heat and caused burns. All of these incidents, including the one in Hobbs, happened on Tuesdays, adding another eerie element into the mix.
8. Dulce cattle mutilations (1970s and 1980s)
New Mexico State Police officer Gabe Valdez was stationed in Dulce in the 1970s. In 1976, he investigated a mysterious cattle mutilation. Throughout the rest of the decade, he came across several other similar mutilations. The cattle seemed to have been killed without spilling any blood, had their organs removed, and their skin was cut with laser precision. Valdez and a friend, businessman Paul Bennewitz (who happened to be interested in UFO encounters), both believed a secret government underground base lay beneath the Archuleta Mesa near Dulce. Among ufologists and other enthusiasts, there’s belief that this underground base is a joint facility between the U.S. military and extraterrestrials.
Greg Valdez, Gabe’s son, published a 2013 book titled “Dulce Base: The Truth and Evidence from the Case Files of Gabe Valdez.” He said his father never believed what he witnessed was the result of aliens. Instead, he believed the UFOs were disc-shaped aircraft being used for government testing, and the cattle mutilations were merely biological weapon tests of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. “See, that’s how a lot of stories are,” the younger Valdez said. “They are dramatized, when there are logical, simple explanations.”
That’s true; there may be some logical explanations for encounters over the years. Though in this case, the “real” explanation seems just as wild as the one Greg Valdez says is made up. And simplicity won’t stop people from being intrigued by UFO encounters in New Mexico. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off on our next alien adventure.
