Roswell, New Mexico

Roswell is a city in southeastern New Mexico. In July 1947 a rancher brought debris found on a ranch northwest of the town to the local sheriff, and the press office of Roswell Army Air Field announced that it had recovered a 'flying disc'. Within a day the Army said the debris was a weather balloon.

The story faded until the late 1970s, when researchers and witnesses began claiming that an alien craft and bodies had been recovered and hidden. Roswell became the template for later 'crash retrieval' claims, and the town now hosts a UFO museum and festival.

In 1994 and 1997 the US Air Force reported that the debris came from Project Mogul, a classified string of balloons designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests, and that 'alien body' accounts likely drew on later dummy-drop tests and accidents. The Pentagon's AARO review in 2024 found no evidence of recovered alien craft. The FBI Vault holds a single 1947 teletype about the event.