UFO Museum Gets a Travel-Listing Boost

By Erin Green
The Roswell Daily Record
5-31-06

     The Roswell International UFO Museum and Research Center has been named by a national publication as a top 10 out-of-the-way place people should see.

In USA Weekend magazine published Sunday, Roswell’s UFO museum was listed as one of the places people should go out of their way to visit.

“It’s wonderful publicity for the museum,” museum director Julie Shuster said. “It’ll make people who are making plans think about including Roswell in their travel plans this summer.”

She said the museum has averaged around 187,000 visitors a year for the past decade.

During the Memorial Day weekend, she added, some 800 visitors a day went through the facility, which is at 114 N. Main St.

The article also mentioned the annual UFO Encounter Festival, scheduled for June 30-July 3.

“It’s just going to be a wonderful plethora of activities,” said Shuster, one of four members of the Festival Committee. “We put on a good party.”

The festival features food, games, a night parade, book signings, a costume contest and concerts. Shuster said the event normally draws about 20,000 people to Roswell.

“We’re just thrilled to death with it,” she said. “People are still fascinated with it. You don’t have to believe it. It’s your choice what to believe.”

In the USA Weekend story, the museum is listed as being a “clearinghouse for information” about the 1947 incident in which Roswell residents reported seeing strange lights and ranchers reported finding wreckage. The Army concluded the object was a weather balloon gone astray.

The museum has become a destination for those interested in UFO phenomenon and sightings around the world, the article states.

More . . .

See Also: Roswell Festival Offers UFO Evidence, Theology, Music & Fun!