Roswell, New Mexico

Roswell is a city in southeastern New Mexico. It covers 29 sq mi (75 sq km) and has a population of 48,000 people (2011 estimate). The city is 3,573 ft (1,089 m) above sea level. It is the county seat of Chaves County.

Chaves County Courthouse, Roswell
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chaves_Country_Courthouse.jpg
Author: J Dykstra


The area around Roswell was inhabited by Native American tribes until the arrival of pioneer settlers from Missouri in 1865. The founding of Roswell itself was largely the effort of Van C. Smith, an Omaha businessman, and his partner Aaron Wilburn. In 1873 Smith named the town after his father, Roswell Smith, a prominent lawyer from Lafayette, Indiana.

Roswell is best known throughout the United States for the UFO Incident where an object that crashed there in June or July 1947 is believed to be that of an alien spaceship. There had been intense speculation that the crash was truly that of a UFO, even tough the US Armed Forces maintained that the debris belonged to an experimental high altitude balloon.

The US military had a base here, the Walker Air Force Base, from 1941 until 1967. After the base closed, Roswell took advantage of its pleasant climate to become a retirement community. It also taps the fame received from the UFO incident to become a tourist mecca for UFO-related recreation.

Visiting Roswell

US Highway 285 runs north-south through Roswell while US Highway 380 runs east-west through it.

Places of Interest in Roswell

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