Camper Invasion to Honor UFO Crash Legend

ROSWELL, N.M. — UFO aficionados could have a camping experience that’s out of this world this summer when they sleep at the site where some believe an alien spacecraft crashed 50 years ago.

The camping will be part of a weeklong celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the alleged sighting. Previous tours of the property have been limited to 30 minutes during the day.

“Ever since we first began letting people visit the site we’ve been asked if we’d allow them to camp overnight,” said Roswell rancher Hub Corn.

Tickets for one night during the July 1-6 anniversary week cost $90, and the event is limited to 2,000 people, organizers said.

Organizers also plan to install a memorial stone sculpture garden featuring 20-foot-tall obelisks and a plaque dedicating the “sacred site” to “the beings who met their destinies near Roswell, N.M., July 1947.”

A rancher near Roswell found debris on July 8, 1947, and an Air Force officer was reported to have discovered a flying disc, fueling UFO buffs’ theories. A 1994 Air Force investigation found that the debris probably came from a once top-secret balloon designed to monitor the atmosphere for evidence of Soviet nuclear tests.