In 1947, a rancher near Roswell, New Mexico, found debris that later became the center of UFO conspiracy theories. These theories claim the U.S. military recovered parts of a crashed alien spacecraft. After military personnel collected metallic and rubber pieces, the U.S. Army Air Forces announced they had a "flying disc." This news was widely reported internationally but was quickly taken back. The debris was actually from a complex, uncrewed military balloon system linked to equipment used in the secret Project Mogul, which aimed to detect Soviet nuclear tests. To hide the true purpose of the debris, the military said it was from a regular weather balloon.
In 1978, retired Air Force officer Jesse Marcel stated the weather balloon explanation was false and suggested the debris might be of alien origin. This idea was popularized in the 1980 book The Roswell Incident, leading to many complex and conflicting conspiracy theories. These theories falsely claim the event involved hidden evidence of alien beings, grey aliens, multiple crashed spacecraft, alien bodies, autopsies, and the study of alien technology. None of these claims are supported by facts.
In the 1990s, the U.S. Air Force released reports confirming the debris was linked to Project Mogul, not a UFO. Despite this and the lack of evidence, some UFO supporters still claim the debris came from an alien craft and accuse the U.S. government of hiding the truth. The Roswell story has become a common theme in science fiction books, movies, and TV shows. The town of Roswell now promotes itself as a place for UFO-related tourism.
1947 military balloon crash
In 1947, the United States sent up many secret Project Mogul balloons carrying equipment to detect Soviet atomic tests. On June 4, researchers at Alamogordo Army Air Field in New Mexico launched a long line of these balloons. They lost contact with the balloons within 17 miles (27 km) of a ranch near Corona, New Mexico, managed by W.W. "Mac" Brazel. Later that month, Brazel found tinfoil, rubber, tape, and thin wooden beams scattered across several acres of his ranch.
At the time, Brazel had no phone or radio and did not know about the growing public interest in flying discs. During the early Cold War, newspapers nationwide reported Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of objects he called "flying saucers," which he claimed could move faster than any known aircraft. This report led to over 800 similar sightings. When Brazel visited his ranch on July 5, his uncle, Hollis Wilson, suggested the debris might be from a "flying disk." Hundreds of sightings had been reported during the Fourth of July weekend, and newspapers speculated the debris might be from the Soviet Union. A reward of $3,000 (worth about $43,000 in 2025) was offered for proof.
The next day, Brazel drove to Roswell, New Mexico, and told Sheriff George Wilcox about the debris. Wilcox contacted Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF), which was home to the 509th Bomb Group, the only unit capable of delivering nuclear weapons at the time. RAAF assigned Major Jesse Marcel and Captain Sheridan Cavitt to collect the debris. RAAF’s commander, Colonel William Blanchard, informed the Eighth Air Force’s leader, General Roger M. Ramey, about the findings.
On July 8, RAAF’s public information officer, Walter Haut, issued a press release stating that the military had recovered a "flying disc" near Roswell. Robert Porter, an RAAF flight engineer, helped load what he was told was a "flying saucer" onto a flight to Fort Worth Army Air Field in Texas. He described the material as lightweight and small enough to fit in a car trunk. After the news was shared by radio station KSWS and the Associated Press, the station’s phone lines became overwhelmed with calls.
The press release stated:
"The many rumors regarding the flying disc became a reality yesterday when the intelligence office of the 509th Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force, Roswell Army Air Field, was fortunate enough to gain possession of a disc through the cooperation of a local rancher and the sheriff’s office of Chaves County. The flying object landed on a ranch near Roswell sometime last week. Not having phone facilities, the rancher stored the disc until he could contact the sheriff’s office, who in turn notified Maj. Jesse A. Marcel of the 509th Bomb Group Intelligence Office."
— Associated Press (July 8, 1947)
Media interest decreased after a press conference where General Roger Ramey, his chief of staff Colonel Thomas DuBose, and weather officer Irving Newton identified the debris as parts of a weather balloon. Newton explained that similar radar targets were used at about 80 weather stations across the country. Fewer news stories followed, focusing on ordinary details of the crash. On July 9, the Roswell Daily Record reported no engine or metal parts were found in the wreckage. Brazel told the newspaper the debris included rubber strips, "tinfoil, paper, tape, and sticks." He said he did not pay much attention to it but returned later with his wife and daughter to collect some debris. Despite later claims that he was forced to repeat a cover story, Brazel told reporters, "I am sure that what I found was not any weather observation balloon." In Fort Worth, Texas, Jesse Marcel described the wreckage as "parts of the weather device" made of "tinfoil and broken wooden beams."
A portion of the debris was sent to Wright Field in Ohio, where Colonel Marcellus Duffy identified it as balloon equipment. Duffy, who had worked on Project Mogul before, contacted the project’s officer, Albert Trakowski, to discuss the debris. Unable to share details about the project, Duffy called it "meteorological equipment."
The 1947 official account did not mention any connection to Cold War military programs. On July 10, military personnel at Alamogordo demonstrated to the press that the debris was from weather balloons. Four officers provided a false explanation about using weather balloons for meteorological data over the previous year. They showed balloon setups used by the Mogul team, offering a simple explanation for the unusual aspects of the Roswell debris. The United States Air Force later described the weather balloon story as "an attempt to deflect attention from the top secret Mogul project."
UFO conspiracy theories (1947–1978)
In 1947, the discovery of unusual debris was not widely known for about 30 years. People stopped discussing it after the government gave a simple explanation, and interest in flying saucers dropped quickly after a false story about a flying saucer in Twin Falls, Idaho. This story was created by four teenagers using parts from a jukebox. Just days earlier, the public had widely believed that a flying disc found near Roswell, New Mexico, had crashed.
During this time, many Americans began to believe the U.S. government was hiding information about UFOs. Stories about crashed spaceships and alien bodies in New Mexico appeared, which later became parts of the Roswell myth. In 1947, many people thought flying saucers were secret military planes. Over the next few decades, flying saucers became linked to alien spacecraft. After events like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the Watergate scandal, trust in the government decreased, and more people believed in conspiracy theories. UFO supporters claimed the government was hiding secrets about aliens, calling it a "Cosmic Watergate." The 1947 incident was later reinterpreted to fit these new beliefs.
In 1948, a false story about a crashed saucer near Aztec, New Mexico, spread widely. The people behind the hoax convinced a writer named Frank Scully to report their fake story. The tale included descriptions of small gray human-like figures, metal stronger than Earth's materials, strange writing, and a government cover-up to avoid causing panic. These details later appeared in the Roswell myth. In retellings, the simple debris found at the real crash site was replaced with the more fantastical elements from the Aztec story. By the time Roswell became popular again in the media, gray aliens had become common in American culture, partly because of a 1961 story about the Hill family claiming to have seen aliens.
In 1997, an Air Force investigator named James McAndrew wrote that even though the Aztec story was proven to be fake, many UFO believers still think it is important. Some parts of this story later appeared in other tales about crashed flying saucers, including the Roswell incident.
" Hangar 18 " is a place that does not exist, but many conspiracy theories later claimed it was where the U.S. government stored alien bodies or spacecraft from Roswell. This idea first appeared in a book by Frank Scully, was expanded in a 1966 book called Incident at Exeter, and became the basis for a 1968 science-fiction novel called The Fortec Conspiracy. The novel described a fictional cover-up by a military group studying technology from other countries.
In 1974, a writer named Robert Spencer Carr claimed that alien bodies from the Aztec crash were stored in "Hangar 18" at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He said he had seen an alien autopsy, a story later added to the Roswell myth. The Air Force denied that "Hangar 18" existed, noting that Carr's story was similar to the fictional Fortec Conspiracy. A 1980 movie called Hangar 18 dramatized Carr's claims and was described as a modern version of the Roswell story. A folklorist later called it "early Roswell mythology." Years later, Carr's son said his father often told strange stories to strangers, such as claiming to befriend a giant alligator in Florida or discuss philosophy with porpoises in the Gulf of Mexico.
Roswell conspiracy theories (1978–1994)
Interest in Roswell grew again after ufologist Stanton Friedman spoke with Jesse Marcel in 1978. Marcel had helped move the Roswell debris from the ranch to a press conference in Fort Worth. During the 1978 interview, Marcel said the "weather balloon" explanation given at the press conference was a cover story, and he now believed the debris was from another planet. On December 19, 1979, Marcel was interviewed by Bob Pratt of the National Enquirer. The tabloid brought widespread attention to Marcel’s story in February 1980. Marcel described a material that could be crumpled but would return to its original shape when released. On September 20, 1980, the TV show In Search of…, hosted by actor Leonard Nimoy, aired an interview where Marcel described his role in the 1947 press conference:
"They wanted some comments from me, but I wasn’t allowed to speak. So, I stayed quiet. General Ramey told the reporters what it was and told them to forget about it. He said it was just a weather balloon. Of course, we both knew differently."
Ufologists later spoke with Jesse A. Marcel Jr., M.D., who said his father showed him debris from the Roswell crash site when he was 10 years old. This included a small object with purple-colored symbols. However, these symbols matched those on adhesive tape used by Project Mogul, which came from a New York toy company.
To share his research, Friedman worked with his childhood friend, William "Bill" Moore, who contacted paranormal author Charles Berlitz. Berlitz had written about the Bermuda Triangle and the Philadelphia Experiment with Moore before. Berlitz and Moore co-wrote The Roswell Incident in 1980. The book popularized Marcel’s story and added claims about alien bodies found near the Plains of San Agustin, about 150 miles west of the original debris site. Marcel never mentioned finding alien bodies.
Friedman, Berlitz, and Moore also linked Marcel’s account to a statement by Lydia Sleppy, a former teletype operator at a radio station in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sleppy said she was typing a story about crashed saucer wreckage when she was interrupted by a message telling her to stop. Between 1978 and the early 1990s, UFO researchers like Friedman, Moore, and others interviewed many people who claimed to be connected to the 1947 Roswell events, but their stories often conflicted.
The first book about the Roswell conspiracy, The Roswell Incident by Berlitz and Moore, was published in October 1980. Anthropologist Charles Ziegler called this book "version 1" of the Roswell myth. Berlitz and Moore’s version became the most popular explanation of the Roswell conspiracy during the 1980s.
The book claimed an alien craft was flying over the New Mexico desert to observe nuclear weapons activity when a lightning strike killed the alien crew. It said the U.S. government covered up the crash to avoid causing panic. The book quoted Marcel’s later description of the debris as "nothing made on this earth." It also claimed that some photos showed the debris had been replaced with material from a weather device, even though the photos looked the same. However, details from Captain Sheridan Cavitt, who collected the debris with Marcel, contradicted these claims. The book also introduced the idea of alien bodies, based on stories from a man named Grady "Barney" Barnett, who had died before the book was written.
The authors said they interviewed over 90 witnesses, but only 25 were included in the book. Of these, seven claimed to have seen the debris, and five said they touched it. Some details, like small alien bodies and indestructible metals, matched other UFO stories more than the 1947 Roswell reports. Berlitz and Moore said a discredited story about a crashed saucer near Aztec was actually about the Roswell incident.
Mac Brazel, who found the debris in 1947, died in 1963 before interest in the Roswell story grew again. Berlitz and Moore spoke with his children, William Brazel Jr. and Bessie Brazel Schreiber. Brazel Jr. said the military arrested his father and made him keep the event secret. However, during the time Mac Brazel was supposedly in military custody, people saw him in Roswell, and he gave an interview to a local radio station. Schreiber, who collected debris with her father at 14, described materials that matched those used by Project Mogul, including "waxed paper" and "aluminum-like foil" with tape that looked like "pastel flowers" when held to light.
According to the
Air Force response
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Air Force answered questions about the Roswell incident because of pressure from New Mexico congressman Steven Schiff and the General Accounting Office (GAO). A 1994 Air Force report explained that the weather balloon story was a cover for Project Mogul, a military program that used balloons to monitor distant areas. A 1995 report, The Roswell Report: Fact vs. Fiction in the New Mexico Desert, provided detailed evidence linking the debris found near Roswell to a specific Mogul balloon launched on June 4, 1947. However, many people who study UFOs did not accept the Air Force’s explanation. They noted that the GAO found no documents about the Roswell incident at the CIA and no records about the alleged Majestic 12 group. Surveys from that time showed most Americans believed the Air Force’s explanation was not true.
News media and researchers who question unusual claims supported the idea that Project Mogul explained the debris. The program’s materials, such as lightweight foil and unusual symbols, matched descriptions of the debris. These materials also matched a 1947 FBI message from Fort Worth, Texas, which described a "disc" that was hexagonal and attached to a balloon. On June 24, 1997, the Air Force released a second report, The Roswell Report: Case Closed, explaining that stories about military personnel loading "aliens" into body bags matched the Air Force’s actual process for retrieving test dummies in insulation bags. These dummies were used to test equipment that needed protection from desert heat.
Later theories and hoaxes (1994–present)
Pseudo-documentaries, such as Alien Autopsy: Fact or Fiction, have greatly influenced public views about the Roswell incident. In 1995, British businessman Ray Santilli claimed he had video footage of an alien autopsy, which he said was filmed after the 1947 Roswell crash. He purchased the footage from an elderly Army Air Force cameraman. The film Alien Autopsy presented this footage as evidence of a government investigation into Roswell. However, the supposed cameraman, Barnett, had died in 1967 and had never served in the military. Visual effects expert Stan Winston told newspapers that the footage was clearly fake. In 2006, Santilli admitted the footage was made in a London living room.
Over 20 million people watched the film. The program was aired by Fox before and connected to the fictional TV show The X-Files, which later made fun of the film. Alien Autopsy set a pattern for later pseudo-documentaries that questioned government cover-ups. Despite being proven false, some UFO believers still considered the footage as evidence linking Roswell to extraterrestrials.
In 1997, retired army intelligence officer Philip J. Corso published The Day After Roswell. His book combined many conflicting conspiracy theories with his own claims. Corso said he had seen a nonhuman body preserved in liquid inside a glass coffin. However, the book contains many incorrect facts and contradictions. For example, Corso claimed the 1947 debris was sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, which was the headquarters of the 8th Army Air Force. Other sources state that the 8th Army Air Force was actually based 500 miles away at Fort Worth Army Air Field.
Corso also claimed he helped study debris from the Roswell crash. Other researchers questioned his book. One expert, Schmitt, suggested Corso might have been part of a group spreading false information to harm UFO research. Corso’s story was criticized for resembling science fiction, like The X-Files. The book relied on Corso’s past work with the Foreign Technology Division and a foreword from US Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond later demanded his name be removed from future editions after learning the book’s contents, stating he would not support claims that Cold War success was due to alien technology.
The Roswell story continues to inspire many books, including works by ufologist Walter Bosley, paranormal writer Nick Redfern, and journalist Annie Jacobsen. In 2011, Jacobsen’s book Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base claimed that Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was recruited by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to create "grotesque, child-size aviators" to cause panic. Scientists and historians criticized the book for its many errors and for repeating old, unverified stories. One historian called the book’s reporting "error-ridden" and said its claims were already widely shared in other Roswell-related books.
In 2017, the UK newspaper The Guardian reported on Kodachrome slides that some claimed showed a dead alien. These slides were first shown at a UFO conference in Mexico, where nearly 7,000 people attended. Later, it was revealed that the slides actually showed a mummified Native American child discovered in 1896 and displayed at a museum in Colorado for decades. In 2020, an Air Force historian shared a newly declassified report about a 1951 event in which two Roswell personnel wore poorly fitting radioactive suits with oxygen masks while retrieving a weather balloon after an atomic test. During one trip, they encountered a woman in the desert who fainted when she saw them. One of the personnel suggested that their strange appearance might have seemed alien to someone unfamiliar with modern equipment.
Explanations
The secrecy around the 1947 debris recovery was because of Cold War military programs, not aliens. Some people still believe a spacecraft crashed near Roswell, but evidence shows this is false. B. D. Gildenberg called Roswell "the most famous, most studied, and most proven false UFO claim." Some stories may be based on memories of servicemen recovering parts from plane crashes or parachute test dummies, as the Air Force suggested in a 1997 report. Pflock says supporters of the crashed-saucer idea often ignore problems in their claims. Kal Korff believes poor research is partly because the Roswell UFO story has been profitable for groups, publishers, Hollywood, and others. Few researchers use proper scientific methods, he said.
A 1994 USAF report said the 1947 object was from a Project Mogul device. Mogul was a secret part of a New York University atmospheric research project. It used high-altitude balloons to track nuclear tests. Flight No. 4 was launched from Alamogordo Army Air Field on June 4, 1947. It was near Brazel’s ranch when its tracking equipment failed. Major Jesse Marcel and Brigadier General Thomas DuBose later said the weather balloon story was a cover-up. In the USAF report, Richard Weaver said the weather balloon story might have been used to hide Mogul or was a misunderstanding by a weather officer. Sheridan W. Cavitt, who helped recover the debris, said the debris came from a balloon.
Ufologists once thought the Roswell debris might be from a secret balloon. In 1990, John Keel suggested it was from a Japanese balloon used in World War II. An Air Force meteorologist said this was impossible because those balloons could not stay in the air for two years. Project Mogul was linked to Roswell by researcher Robert G. Todd in 1990. In the 1994 book Roswell in Perspective, Pflock agreed the debris was from Mogul. In 1993, a US congressman asked for an investigation. Lieutenant James McAndrew, an Air Force officer, said civilians who found the debris did not know about Mogul. This led to confusion and questions that remain today.
The 1947 accounts did not mention alien bodies. No main eyewitnesses said they saw bodies. Roswell authors only interviewed four people who claimed to know about alien bodies. Later stories about alien bodies, told by elderly witnesses, often conflict. They disagree on where the crash happened, how many aliens were there, and what the bodies looked like.
The 1997 Air Force report said the "bodies" described later were based on memories of military accidents and test dummies. Programs like Operation High Dive in the 1950s used dummies dropped from high-altitude balloons. The Air Force said the way dummies were recovered—using stretchers, casket-shaped boxes, and bags that looked like body bags—matched stories about finding alien bodies. Descriptions of "weapons carriers" and a "jeep-like truck" matched vehicles used in the 1950s. Witnesses said the "bodies" were bald, looked like dummies, and wore flight suits. These details matched Air Force dummies from that time.
Social scientists and skeptics have studied the Roswell myth. Susan Harding and Kathleen Stewart say the Roswell story became popular in the 1980s, when people were interested in conspiracy theories. Joe Nickell and James McGaha said the time when Roswell was not in the news allowed myths to grow, and early debunking let ufologists exaggerate stories. Charles Ziegler said the Roswell story has traits of traditional folktales. He found six different versions of the story, each shaped by storytellers. Some stories were added to make the tale more exciting, while others were ignored or dismissed by those who control the story.
Cultural impact
Roswell's tourism industry focuses on UFO museums, businesses, and decorations with alien themes. Many local businesses, such as restaurants, stores, and street lights, have UFO-related designs. A wide variety of shops sell UFO-themed items. Since 1995, Roswell has hosted an annual UFO festival. Visitors can explore alleged crash sites for a fee. The city has museums, festivals, and conventions, including the International UFO Museum and Research Center. Approximately 90,000 tourists visit Roswell each year.
The Roswell incident gained international attention through films that highlight theories about the event. In the 1980 movie Hangar 18, an alien ship crashes in the U.S. Southwest. Debris and alien remains are found, but the government hides the truth. The film's director, James L. Conway, described it as a modern retelling of the Roswell incident. In 1995, Conway revisited the idea in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Little Green Men," where characters from the future cause the Roswell incident. In the 1996 film Independence Day, an alien invasion reveals a secret about a Roswell crash and government cover-up. The 2008 movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull includes a quest for an alien body from the Roswell incident.
In the 1990s, Roswell became the most famous location tied to early UFO stories, partly because of repeated TV coverage of Roswell conspiracy theories. The TV series The X-Files often included the Roswell incident in its storylines. The show's second episode, "Deep Throat," introduced a Roswell alien crash into its plot. A 1996 episode, "Jose Chung's From Outer Space," humorously referenced the Santilli Alien Autopsy hoax. After The X-Files became popular, other TV shows, such as Dark Skies and Taken, also explored Roswell-related themes. From 1998 to 2002, a book series titled Roswell High was adapted into a TV show called Roswell. A second version of the series was released in 2019 under the name Roswell, New Mexico.
Journalist Toby Smith described Roswell as the starting point for how UFOs, alien crashes, and aliens on Earth are portrayed in media and pop culture. In a 2001 episode of Futurama, titled "Roswell That Ends Well," characters from the future travel back in time and cause the Roswell incident. The animated show American Dad! features an alien named Roger who crashed in Roswell. The 2006 comedy Alien Autopsy focuses on the creation of the Santilli hoax film in the 1990s. The 2011 movie Paul tells the story of Roswell tourists who rescue a gray alien.
Belief that the government covered up the Roswell incident led to questions for U.S. presidents. In a 2014 interview, Bill Clinton said, "When the Roswell thing came up, I knew we'd get gazillions of letters. So I had all the Roswell papers reviewed, everything." His administration found no evidence of alien contact or a crashed ship. In a 2015 interview with GQ magazine, Barack Obama said, "I gotta tell you, it's a little disappointing. People always ask me about Roswell and the aliens and UFOs, and it turns out the stuff going on that's top secret isn't nearly as exciting as you expect." In December 2020, Obama joked with Stephen Colbert, "It used to be that UFOs and Roswell was the biggest conspiracy. And now that seems so tame, the idea that the government might have an alien spaceship." In June 2020, Donald Trump said, "I won't talk to you about what I know about it, but it's very interesting."