The town that told E.T. to "Phone Home."

We're beaming up to Roswell, New Mexico, the quirky little town that's become the unofficial HQ for all things extraterrestrial. Buckle up, Earthlings, because we're about to explore the galaxy's most famous UFO hotspot. Join Jessica and Karmen as they drive into the strange and mysterious world of Roswell, where the residents aren't just waiting for the next big thing—they're waiting for the next big thing to land in their backyard.

They'll uncover the origins of the infamous 1947 alien crash (or weather balloon mishap, depending on who you ask). From the annual UFO Festival, complete with alien costume contests and out-of-this-world parades, to the countless alien-themed businesses that make Roswell feel like Area 51's quirky cousin, they'll guide you through a town that's turned extraterrestrial encounters into an art form. 

Expect a few raised eyebrows and maybe even a touch of paranoia as they explore the UFO capital of the world. Whether you're a skeptic, a believer, or just in it for the alien-shaped cookies, tune in and decide for yourself: is Roswell just a town with a great marketing gimmick, or is it the epicenter of Earth's most cosmic mystery? Either way, one thing's for sure—it's out of this world. Don't miss your exit.

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Episode Transcript

(00:05):
Navigating to small town us A rulemarkers for one, are we Chalian?

(00:33):
Hi, Jessica you ready? Okay? Yes? Sorry sorry I wasn't ready
for it. Like for those ofyou who can't see us, Jessica's naughty.
Yes she's ready. You're gonna sayI'm not. Are you sure?
All right? So there are tonsof porky towns in New Mexico, small

(00:56):
towns, right and although I'm surein the future we're going to be seen
a lot more of New Mexico.Right now, we want to talk a
little bit about Roswell And there aresome pretty important events that have happened in
Roswell, and I think everybody hasheard of them or did they happen or
did they happen exactly exactly. It'slocated near Texas border, on your way

(01:19):
over to the Texas border. It'san interesting little town. It's really before
the big news that happened somewhere inthe mid nineteen hundreds. Before that didn't
really have much going on, welluntil nineteen forty seven. So do you
think they did this as a publicitystunt or do you think that there really

(01:42):
was a UFO crash in Roswell Well? I can tell you. So we
all know that Roswell is a suspectedUFO sighting and actual crash landing according to
some Yes, and I can tellyou there are certain facts that the government
has said are true and certain thingsthat they haven't acknowledged as true. And

(02:06):
one of the things that they havesaid is that you know the sighting.
The agreed upon facts, in otherwords, are that you know. In
early July nineteen forty seven, arancher named mac Brazzle Brazil. Not exactly
how sure how to pronounce that?So I probably botched that really bad.
But that doesn't sound like our branchis name mac Brazzle Brazil, Brazil.

(02:32):
I don't know how do you howdo you spell it? B r a
z e L Brazil. Oh,I thought you were saying, like the
no no, no razzle mcdazzel.I'm just kidding. That would be such
a great name, Mac Razzle.Ladies and gentlemen, coming to you from
Roswell, New Mexico. We haveMac Razzle on the phone. Mac tell

(02:57):
us how you're doing. Yes,Razzle and Mac was his nickname. I
don't actually know his first name.It's just like W. W. Mac
Razzle and he found a wreckage onhis property in Lincoln County, New Mexico,
which is about seventy five miles northof Roswell. So it actually didn't

(03:17):
even happen in Roswell. Everybody isbig Roswell fanatic, but it's about seventy
five miles north of Roswell. Alot of people, however, before that
in Roswell had been talking about seeingflying what, flying saucers or flying discs.
So it so because of all therumors about the flying saucers and whatnot,

(03:39):
they that's where Roswell comes from.That's why you hear about the UFO
being crashing in Roswell, because italready had started. Those rumors had already
started before that. Well, doyou think there's something to it? Because
you know, the New Mexico skyis a vast expanse of deep dark sky.
So maybe because of the lack ofcity lights and light confusion or what

(04:05):
would you call it, You know, it's weird. I don't know.
Light combustion, No, not combustion, light pollution illusion, Yes, that's
the word I was looking. Yeah, a lot of communities believe that the
light is like a pollution to yourdark skies. So maybe because there's dark
skies there, it's people are ableto see the UFOs or flying objects very

(04:29):
well. Could be. You know, once you when you live in a
dark sky's community, you realize that, you know, you can see everything.
So maybe there were maybe you couldsee stuff that I know. I
mean, you you don't realize howmuch you're not seeing when you live in
the city and then you go outinto the desert and you're like, oh
my god, look at the stars. Forget what stars look like. So

(04:53):
of course, of course I'm surethat is prime area for seeing UFOs,
and I'm yes, I'm sure itis. And so one of the things
that happened is that the wreckage Brazildid find some things left behind from the
wreckage and brought it over to thesheriff in town. The sheriff's name was

(05:15):
George Wilcox, and he brought itto the attention of the Air Force,
basically the commander over at the AirForce, because he was like, well,
this is strange. And what itwas was a lot of like rubber
like material, some very thin paperlike material, like strips of like a
metallic material too, which is weird. So he did actually and the government

(05:40):
does agree that this part happened.So this is a real fact that he
found he found the wreckage and hebrought it over brought some of that over
there. The next day after itwas turned into the government or turned into
the Air Force, the r AFFwhich is the Roswell Army Airfield, released
as statement writing that the many rumorsregarding the flying discs in Roswell became a

(06:04):
reality yesterday when the Intelligence office ofthe five hundred and ninth Bomb Group and
the eighth of the eighth Air Forcewas fortunate enough to gain possession of a
disc through the cooperation of one ofthe local ranchers and the Sheriff's office in
Chavis County. They did release that. The Air Force did release that,

(06:25):
and so they did say that theywere able to obtain a flying disc.
So do you think the song ItCame out of the Sky by John Fogerty
was inspired by Roswell? And thismaybe the interesting thing is so that's like
the first thing that ever came out, and that was that was published.
Right after that, the government changedits story about it like a few different

(06:47):
times, which is of course,so you know, over the last few
years it still is not really.We're not really sure what the government is
doing on that anyways, So I'mnot comparing NCIS to the government, the
real government. But but you're gonnaright now, I'm gonna so. I

(07:09):
was not in the Navy, butI do watch a lot of NCIS,
of course, and I've heard themsay the number of terrorists and really hostile,
very dangerous things that they intercede orintercept on a daily basis would just

(07:30):
shock and scare the hell out ofAmericans. So I'm thinking there's a truth
to that. Maybe maybe the governmentdidn't want to give all of the secrets
or all of the details because theydidn't want Americans to be scared or curious
and go investigating trying to find thebaby aliens, because who wouldn't want a

(07:55):
baby alien? They're so cute,like well they Yeah, from the pictures
we've seen, they all seem verycute with their big eyes and their big
foreheads, their cute little arms.They all look very cute. And I've
heard they're peaceful except for the peoplethat have had probed. But I don't

(08:15):
think that happened to this rancher,right, he was no, no,
no, no, I think what'shappening here is that the Tan of Roswell
is seeing a lot of sightings andthen all of a sudden, this rancher,
if you you know, about anhour no mirth of Roswell finds and
sees a crash on his property andcollects a lot of the debris. Now

(08:39):
there is a picture of the rancherholding up debris, and it does look
like a papery like material. It'sinteresting. I don't know, I don't
know, like how okay. Firstof all, my first thing I think
of is like, okay, howdoes the flying Saucer use paper? As
maybe they were reading a paper,Maybe they were looking at a map.

(09:00):
Maybe it was the map. It'sthe map to the universe, and it
was nineteen forty seven, so maybethey still had a paper map. So
one of the first things the governmentdid was disclaim it basically, so first
they recognized it. Then they werelike, you know, this is just
a weather balloon, and it's adebris from the weather balloon, saying exactly,

(09:24):
I don't know, I don't Imean, he has so Major Marcel,
Major Marshal, I don't know whothat is. Somebody from their US
Army. I guess is kind ofholding these this flying debris, you know,
like this piece of it, andit looks like it's bending in his
hands like paper like and it's areally really old news clipping, but he

(09:50):
is by he's bending down picking upsome of these weird pieces of paper.
Of course, at the time,I don't think there was much testing being
done as far as like what kindof material this is? But to me,
that's what I would do, Likeif it was made out of wood,
if it was made out of paper, and here's the other part,
tinfoil looking material, wouldn't you testto see if it was tinfoil Like,

(10:15):
wouldn't you look at it and go, this is made of trees? I
don't know. I mean, it'sit's always say like paper and tinfoil.
I would have been looking for avery large baked potato. This sounds because,
I mean, if these if aliensare supposed to be of a higher
intellect than your average American, whyare they making their rocket ships or their

(10:41):
alien spacecraft out of tinfoil paper andbalsa wood. That also, I'm sorry
to debunk this story, but italso sounds like a very clever high school
experiment or or science project. Rubber, we've got we've got galaxy glue.

(11:03):
We've got galaxy glue, we've gottinfoil, we've got paper mache. Now
were their bodies so? Okay?So there this one account does not talk
about that, but there are thereis another account. And this is something
that local individuals have said that inRoswell, whether or not this is the

(11:26):
same wreckage or not, saw awreckage, saw a UFO crash many years
ago in nineteen forty seven around thattime period, and what happened was people
saw aliens getting out, and theydescribed the aliens as looking like a Jerusalem
cricket. And if you know whata Jerusalem cricket looks like. That has

(11:48):
many names Jerusalem crickets one name.Another name is a tato bug. Tato
bug. Oh yuck, that soundsso gross anyways. Another one they have
is a cant spider. They're allbig and they're so creepy. Yeah,
there's some and like in the inthe actually in Africa, in the actual

(12:09):
desert over there, they get tobe very large. Like how large do
they get? I don't know howlarge, but I've seen pictures where they're
bigger than somebody's hand. Well I'veseen them here in the United States and
they are like three inches okay,two inches two and a half inches,
but that's that's for a bug.That's too big. It's just way too

(12:30):
big. Yeah. They're also lookingreal. Yeah, they're just like they've
got really strong looking legs, likethey could climb up anything or jump right
in your face and strike. Yeah, and they do. They like get
into this defensive stance. They're notnice things, like you know, something's
like, oh, they're scared ofpeople and they run back. No,

(12:50):
these guys, they're like a wolfspider. They're like launch up and scare
you. Their faces kind of looklike babies are, Like, it's really
scary. It is it does.They have this marking on their forehead,
which is what those locals said thatbasically it looks kind of like a person
but elongated. And then they've describedthem as saying it looks like a Jerusalem

(13:13):
cricket. So it's like a peopleface on a bug. And it is
really creepy, like a large doton this forehead. Oh my god,
yeah, you're showing she's showing mea picture right now, and it's absolutely
terrifying. Yes, it bites itbites. There are certain versions of it

(13:37):
that bite, and they have beenI think they might have been. I'm
not sure. Don't quote me onthat. That could be totally wrong,
but that's the depiction I get fromit. I just kept with all of
our podcasts. There will be thingsthat we are going to say that cannot
be backed up with fact, butwe're pretty sure they're true because our parents
have told us and everybody has toldus along the way. It's small town

(14:01):
somewhere, So please do not googleour facts, thank you, And don't
take any important life decisions on anythingyou've heard other than recommendations for food and
wine and places to stay, hygieneproducts like that. But when it comes

(14:22):
to facts about bugs and other alientype things, don't fact check us.
You'll be disappointed, and then you'llprobably disappoint us. That's right. So
I had a Jerusalem cricket in mygarage about a month ago, and it
wasn't too too big, but it'sdefinitely scary looking. It is like yellow

(14:46):
and red and brown and very unnaturalcolors. I'll have to say, it
is not a pretty sight. Youdon't know if it's like a cricket or
a spider or a scorpion. It'ssomewhere in between. I'm not exactly sure.
And it's like one of those realscary monster hornet situations. Don't you
don't want them around? Come fromthe earth or do they live in trees

(15:09):
or what? You know what?I don't want to know, so I
haven't looked it up, quite honestly. I don't want to know if they're
hanging out in my trees or inmy yard or where they are, because
I will probably never go around oneof those things. Again, how do
they get in? I don't know. I haven't seen one since and we
you know, we got sprayed andwhatever. So thank god, but you

(15:30):
don't want one, You just don'twant one. We've kind of described it
in detail. So now imagine analien figure looking like this creepy bug,
I mean not so yeah. Sothen of course the locals they're telling stories
to their children about the Jerusalem cricketlooking aliens that came from the sky.
Well, one day some pictures turnedup in a alien enthusiast box basically mailbox

(15:56):
or whatever. There's a long storyto it, and I'm not going to
get into great detail, but theydid this whole thing where they tested the
pictures and what it was. Itshowed this picture of what looked to be
like this elongated face where the armswere coming out of the ribs area.
It was a skeleton, a veryold skeleton, and it didn't look human.

(16:18):
It looked small and very misshapened bodyfeatures, didn't you know. They
had researchers kind of look into it. This is back in like the two
thousands. Okay, it wasn't likeit was a long long time ago.
The pictures were from a long timeago, but they just got revealed recently.
They were sent to this guy andhe did some research on him and
found that the pictures were legitimate.There was no there was nothing done to

(16:41):
them, in other words, tomake it look like this is not a
person, you know. And sowhat happened was they took it to the
locals in that area. By thistime, it's their children or their grandchildren
who had heard the stories about theJerusalem cricket, Jerusalem cricket looking aliens,

(17:02):
and when they saw the picture ofthe body, they said, that's it.
That's the they has the Jerusalem cricket. I believe it was in Spanish,
and I'm not exactly sure how thatis pronounced or how that what that
word is in Spanish. But it'sthe Jerusalem cricket marking on the head in
the elongated face that they recognized fromthe tales of their their parents or their

(17:26):
grandparents, and so it was alarmingto those individuals. It was like confirmation
to them that they had found something. Well, lo and behold. Later
on they did a big release inMexico and everybody, all these alien enthusiasts
came to the release of proof thatthere is an alien and ended up being

(17:51):
a picture of a mummified child.And the reason they know that is because
there was a card on the tablethat nobody was able to cipher. Finally,
someone at this event saw it anddeciphered it to be a mummy mummified
alien child, or no, froma mummified child, an alien child,

(18:15):
that would be great, but itwas a mummified child, you know,
ancient child. So someone would justhave taken a look at that card a
little sooner, maybe they wouldn't haveput so much effort and time into this.
Anyways, that was a very shortversion of what actually happened. But
it's interesting because the part that isstill a lore is the individuals who saw

(18:38):
Jerusalem cricket looking aliens coming out ofa crash site, and that part is
still there. You know, maybeit's not this picture that showed up,
but it's still there. So interesting. I can't imagine people, so many
people, especially you know, ranchersand things like that, were they weren't

(18:59):
trying to get hits on YouTube.They weren't trying to get so you know
this there had to be some truthto it right now. And you know,
perhaps stories grow over time, butthere had to be some truth to
it. I myself, do youbelieve there's something to it? I would
love love to have seen the giantbaked potato and the agents came out of

(19:22):
it. Of course, No,I want to know what the jelly stuff
is or the rubber stuff it's Iguess it's strips of rubber. It's what
it says, strips of rubber likematerial. But again, where is the
stuff that was turned into the airforce And now we could tell, like,
now we could set it aside andsay here's the material, we did

(19:47):
tests on it. It's from thisearth, it was manufactured in this plant.
I mean, but we have enoughinformation now, why don't they just
come out and say it. Youknow, why don't they just say here's
our tests boop, you know,and it's not an alien. And as
it turns out, the aliens havebeen breaking into ace hardwares across the United

(20:08):
States since nineteen thirty two and stealingmaterial to make their ships because they're very
small and they could fit through thevents, so they just go in when
everybody's come and they steal the thingsthey need. And they're small, so
they don't need a lot, rightexactly, they use old air conditioner parts.

(20:30):
Perhaps now you never know, possible, it's very passible. I wonder
if there was a serial number ora black box yay Roswell. In Roswell,
there are a lot of great placesto eat, a lot of awesome
people you can talk to, campingout looking for aliens, maybe wearing tinfoil

(20:52):
on their heads, not just exactlysure, dressed like potato bugs or like
potato bugs. And I know theyhave regular events commemorating the sighting of the
UFOs and also you know the crash, So by highly encourage people taking a
trip to Roswell, or if you'replanning a trip anywhere and you can get
to Roswell. Definitely go to itto see it for yourself. When my

(21:15):
daughter was very little, we gota little alien in a tube of jelly,
so it had very cool It stoodon a little stand and it was
looking back. It was quite phallic, actually, but it was just a
little stand with a two of jellyand then a baby alien floating around in

(21:37):
it, and it was cute.She was little, and I think we
did get it in Roswell kept herbusy, you know, on a road
trip, and I told her itwas a real alien and she had to
take care of it. And thatgirl, my daughter is the sweetest girl
in the whole world, and shedid, and she was a little bit
afraid, but she still took verygood care of it, and she nurtured
that thing. And she kept iton her headboard and when she would come

(22:00):
into my room at night, shewould bring it in there and she would
put it on the headboard, soyou know, nothing would happen to it.
My daughter was always a little bitobsessed with aliens anyway, so when
she like, she when she wouldgo visit my mom during the summer break,
she would go outside and put cookiesout and little crackers and snacks in

(22:22):
case the aliens came. Oh shewas. She was a little bit obsessed.
And this is before like she wasnot like, so there's something right,
there's something kids no kids know things. So she did those things.
And I guess aliens don't eat triscits, but she did. And then my
nephew came to stay with us,and this is this thing she had taken

(22:42):
care of for a couple of years, you know, And now she's about
five or six, and my nephewwas messing around within any broken open and
she cried and she cried, andshe thought the alien was going to die.
And I had to tell my daughterthat I'd been lying to her for
so long and then it wasn't areal alien. That was a sad day.

(23:04):
It was a very sad day.That was my memorabilia from Roswell.
Keana, If you're listening, I'mreally sorry I lied. You know.
They really capitalize on the whole alienUFO merchandise. But they also have museums.
Oh yeah, you can go thereand take a look and decide for

(23:26):
yourself what really happened in Roswell.And they also have a lot of art,
I mean arts, coffee, breweries. They have all sorts of things,
so it's not just about the aliensthere, although it is definitely a
theme when you walk in, whenyou drive into Roswell, even the sign
has you know itself Roswell has abig flying saucer over it, so you

(23:48):
know, you get what you're gettinginto when you first arrive in Roswell.
I think my favorite museum in Roswellis the Miniature Museum because I love miniature
things. It's like polly Pockets onsteroids, just like everything miniatures, just
cute little houses and everything. It'sit's it's definitely a sight to see.

(24:11):
There are so many things that youcan't you find out about about the town
when you arrive, like you have, You've got these little touristy spots you
can just walk around and actually goin and get you know, your alien
sunglasses, and then you can goover to the other store and get your
backpack full of sighting gear, youknow, if you're trying to find it
UFO yourself. I wonder if UFOshave ever since nineteen forty seven have has

(24:37):
anybody in Roswell actually seen a UFOsense? I don't know. We should
go ask, Yeah, I betyou after all of the you know,
who knows what happened to that rancherand all of this stuff. So like,
I bet you if somebody did seeanother one, they weren't gonna say
anything because the dan government moves inand takes all their stuff. Right,
Yeah, I wouldn't say anything.I would have been, no, nothing

(25:00):
happened here. Kids were having adamn bonfire, That's all I'd say.
I'd be like, no, no, We're roasting some green chili and some
corn. That's it. That's whatI don't think they. I don't think
people in New Mexico talk like that, but if I live there, that's
how I would talk. So theyactually do. They actually do their own
research UFO and research. It's actuallya museum and research center. Okay,

(25:23):
there actually is three major UFO sightingsin New Mexico that the government says are
They say there's enough fact there thatthey are interested in those three sightings,
and that's the most in any state. Well, again, those big skies,
so is I know Montana's the bigsky state, but I think New
Mexico has to be the dark skystake. Well, in New Mexico,

(25:45):
a lot of it's so remote,to be honest, when you drive through
New Mexico, you really see there'sit has to do with a lot of
the protected land. But there arenot a lot of big cities in New
Mexico. No, I had areally dark sky. Even their big cities
aren't that big. There is aRoswell visitor Center that talks about all the

(26:07):
different things, the Spaceport Roswell,which is a virtual experience that takes you
back to that time in nineteen fortyseven, and other types of things where
women were really treated nicely. Iknow it's coming, Carrot say, all
the aliens are men, by theway, Roswell, UFO Space Lock and

(26:30):
Gallery, the Robert H. GoddardPlanetarium, so Planetarium and Roswell. That's
something I would probably check out.The Dunkin Donuts Baskin Robbins is considered a
nice spot to go get some alienwar stellar coffee. Then you can go
downtown and sip a brew at theblack Cock Brewery. Oh yes, don't

(26:52):
forget about the black Cock Brewery,where you can play a giant game of
Django sipping on a black Cock brew. Even the McDonald's is shamed like a
UFO Everything Everything. Thanks everyone forjoining us today on small Town USA.
If you want to hear more smallTown hit subscribe now, go ahead,

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