The trek continues to
Roswell
The Alien Capital of the World.
To the world, Roswell means one thing: UFOs. You can't escape the aliens, so lean into them. Downtown features extraterrestrial streetlamps, a flying saucer McDonald's, and little green men in every shop window! But the 1947 incident is just one layer of a remarkably rich history. This is where John Chisum built the largest cattle empire in the West. Where Robert H. Goddard perfected the liquid-fueled rocket. And where the massive Walker Air Force Base commanded America's atomic bomber wing. Today, Roswell embraces its interstellar fame while serving as the gateway to the surreal landscapes of southeastern New Mexico.
The 1947 Incident & Project Mogul
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In July 1947, a local rancher discovered strange metallic debris on his land. The nearby Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a press release stating they had recovered a "flying disc." The military quickly retracted this, claiming it was a conventional weather balloon, sparking decades of cover-up conspiracy theories.
In the 1990s, the Air Force declassified the truth: the debris was from Project Mogul, a top-secret high-altitude balloon program designed to carry microphones to detect Soviet nuclear tests. The intense secrecy surrounding Mogul fueled the UFO mythos.
Today, the International UFO Museum and Research Center—housed in a converted 1930s movie theater—preserves both the history and the folklore of the event, drawing hundreds of thousands of believers and skeptics alike.
Alien Main Street
Roswell does not treat 1947 as an embarrassment. It treats it as a business plan. Downtown Main Street is lit by streetlamps with black almond eyes, the McDonald's is built as a flying saucer, and there is scarcely a shop window between them without a little green man in it. Even the Walmart and the car dealerships get in on it.
Lean into it — the kitsch is the point, and an afternoon on foot downtown costs nothing. The UFO Museum anchors the strip, with alien-themed gift shops, escape rooms, and photo-op saucers filling the blocks either side.
The town peaks at the Roswell UFO Festival, held every year over the July 4th weekend. Expect an alien costume parade, a pet costume contest, light shows, live music, and guest speakers ranging from serious aerospace historians to committed believers. It is the single busiest weekend of Roswell's year. If you want to be here for it, book lodging months out; but, if you would rather have the museums to yourself, avoid it entirely!
Walker Air Force Base
The "flying disc" press release didn't come from just anywhere—it came from the only atomic bomber base in the world. Roswell Army Air Field—later renamed Walker Air Force Base—was home to the 509th Composite Group, the elite unit that dropped the atomic bombs on Japan to end WWII.
During the Cold War, it became the largest base in the Strategic Air Command (SAC). Its massive presence defined Roswell's economy and culture for decades until its closure in 1967. Today, the site operates as the Roswell International Air Center, known worldwide as a massive airliner "boneyard" where retired jets are stored in the dry desert air, and the Walker Aviation Museum preserves its legacy.
Deep History: Cattle & Rockets
Long before the UFOs, this was cattle country. In the 1870s, John Chisum moved his headquarters to South Spring Ranch just outside Roswell and built a thirteen-room adobe there. He called the outfit the "Jingle Bob" — after his ear-mark, a slit that left two-thirds of each steer's ear flopping loose, and reportedly the only case in the West of a ranch taking its name from an earmark rather than a brand.
That range sat astride the Goodnight-Loving Trail, the cattle route Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving blazed in 1866 — up from Texas, across the Staked Plains, then north along the Pecos toward Fort Sumner and the Colorado markets beyond. Roswell grew up on that traffic. Chisum controlled over 100,000 head of cattle at his peak, and got famously entangled in the Lincoln County War alongside Billy the Kid.
Decades later, in 1930, Robert H. Goddard moved to Roswell — and not for the scenery. Charles Lindbergh had talked the Guggenheim family into funding him, and a Clark University meteorologist pointed him at this particular high plateau: open country where he would endanger nobody, be left alone by the curious, and breathe dry air kind to lungs scarred by the tuberculosis that nearly killed him in 1913.
He was no absentee. Goddard and his wife Esther lived here from 1930 to 1932 and again from 1934 to 1942, and he ran the launches himself with a crew of three — machinists Nils Ljungquist and Albert Kisk, and welder Charles Mansur. In 1935 he flew the first gyroscopically stabilized liquid-fueled rocket, inventing in this desert the technology that would eventually carry humanity to the moon.
The Roswell Museum (not to be confused with the UFO museum) features a stunning recreation of Goddard's workshop alongside world-class art collections, including works by Peter Hurd and Georgia O'Keeffe.
Historic Architecture
The Chaves County Courthouse is one of the most striking buildings in New Mexico. Built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style, its green-tiled dome dominates the downtown skyline. It serves as a reminder of the vast wealth generated by the early cattle and agricultural booms that built the city, long before the Air Force arrived.
The Outdoors
Bottomless Lakes State Park (14 miles (23 km) southeast) was New Mexico's first state park, in 1933. The nine "lakes" are not lakes at all — they are sinkholes, and they were dissolved rather than dug.
Groundwater rising along faults at the escarpment eats away the gypsum underneath until a cavern roof gives way, leaving a shaft that fills from below — the same artesian system that keeps Bitter Lake wet on the other side of town. Most are brackish, concentrated by desert evaporation. The darkest of them, Devil's Inkwell, owes its colour to steep walls and algae rather than to any great depth.
The name is a tall tale that stuck: the water is startlingly clear and the walls drop away steeply, so the bottom looks much further off than it is. Lea Lake, at 90 feet (27 m), is the deepest and the only one where swimming is allowed.
Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge (seven miles (11 km) northeast) is a wetland oasis at an ecological crossroads — the Chihuahuan Desert meeting shortgrass prairie, the Pecos River, and the artesian basin beneath. That collision of habitats has drawn 357 documented bird species, making this one of the best birding stops in the Southwest.
Fall migration is the spectacle: more than 26,000 lesser sandhill cranes and over 50,000 snow geese and ducks stage here. Summer belongs to the smaller residents — 75 species nest on the refuge, including the vermilion flycatcher, snowy plover, and cliff swallow.
Bitter Lake is also one of the richest dragonfly sites in North America, with more than 100 species of dragonflies and damselflies recorded. They peak in July and August, and the refuge throws an annual Dragonfly Festival to mark it.
Food & Drink
Cowboy Cafe — A beloved, no-nonsense local diner famous for hearty breakfasts and huge portions of comfort food.
Los Cerritos Mexican Kitchen — The go-to spot for authentic regional Mexican and Southwestern fare, highly regarded for their table-side guacamole and green chile enchiladas.
Cattle Baron — This legendary regional steakhouse chain was actually founded right here in Roswell. Famous for its hand-cut steaks and massive salad bar, it remains the local favorite for a sit-down dinner.
Pecos Flavors Winery — A downtown tasting room offering local New Mexico wines, craft beer, and an elevated bistro menu.
Famous Natives
Roswell has been the hometown of several notable figures.
If you've got a spare day
🦇 Carlsbad Caverns National Park (~1.5 hrs south) — One of the world's most spectacular subterranean cave systems. The Big Room trail runs largely level once you're down, and a good stretch of it is wheelchair accessible. You must book a timed entry reservation on Recreation.gov in advance.
🤠 Lincoln Historic Site (~1 hr west) — Walk the perfectly preserved streets of the frontier town where the Lincoln County War exploded and Billy the Kid made his legendary courthouse escape. Much of the single street is preserved as it stood, and several original buildings are open to walk through.
🌲 Ruidoso (~1 hr 15 min west) — A cool alpine mountain resort town set in the Sierra Blanca range, offering skiing in winter and hiking in summer. Easily paired with Lincoln on the same loop.
Watch
Sources. Wikipedia; New Mexico State Parks; National Park Service; Visit Roswell; International UFO Museum. Population figures: 2020 U.S. Census.
MobTreks · a stop on the Southern trek.
Thank you @yoolypr, @lauriekallis, LL Group, Claude and Gemini.
No living hamsters were harmed in the production of this work.