Roswell Before The Roswell Book
Anthony Bragalia has just posted a history of Roswell stories that predate the publication of Bill Moore and Charles Berlitz’ 1980 book The Roswell Incident.
He first mentions Wilhelm Reich’s roadstop there in 1954 because he felt that the atmosphere there was laden with DOR or “Deadly ORgone.” This is pretty weak.
However, Bragalia goes on to describe at least four other published or anecdotal versions of the Roswell crash story that appeared before 1980. His point is that some critics claim that the Roswell story was essentially created by the Moore and Berlitz book.
Of course the story was around long before this. Moore told me that he had heard a few stories and rumors about the incident in the years leading up to his book. The reason that he decided to move on the story was that in 1978 (or so) Stanton Friedman accidentally ran into a man at a Louisiana radio station who knew retired Major Jesse Marcel. Friedman called Moore with the news and the rest is history.
I believe that I may have a couple of recordings of original interviews with Roswell witnesses from the late 1970s. If so, (and the tapes aren’t rotted away) they will be digitized and posted for anyone who wants to download them.
We still don’t know for sure what happened in that small town on the parched plains of southern New Mexico in 1947, but the claim that the event was heavily embellished by the authors of the first book on the subject is just wrong.
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Feb 10 2010 
February 10th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
Hi Greg,
I don’t know of anyone who has ever claimed that the authors of The Roswell Incident made the story up. Rather, the claim is that they took that story, which was already out there, and “enhanced” it to fit their own preconceived notions of what might or might not have happened, i.e. aliens from Zeta Reticuli or wherever who crashed not only one but TWO spaceships, and then just left them there for the US military to recover.
The story was clearly out there. What amazes me is not that it was rediscovered, but that it took such great researchers so long to do so!
Paul
February 11th, 2010 at 12:12 am
Paul,
I guess I did imply that there were accusations of lying. What I tried to convey were the accusations that the original Roswell book created the legend, not the event. This is something even Moore might be inclined to agree with at this point.
I changed the text a bit reflect this. Thanks for the reality check.
February 11th, 2010 at 10:39 pm
There’s nothing “weak” about the Reich story at all. He practically says there are “aliens at work” signs along the highway. Neither Greg nor Paul seem to get Anthony’s point, that Roswell didn’t take long to be “rediscovered”–it existed in the literature, as legend, all along. But that seems to fit a kind of Friedman/Moore-centered view of the thing (since Greg knows Moore and Paul is related to Friedman.) I’m happy that Anthony has at last expanded the view by a wider reading of the literature and I hope he continues it.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Kenn,
Here is the only paragraph on Roswell from Reich’s book, Contact With Space:
Although it was very hot as we neared Roswell, New Mexico, no OR flow was visible on the road, which should have been shimmering with ‘heatwaves.’ Instead, DOR was well-marked to the west against purplish, black, barren mountains, in the mountains, the sky was a blinding grayness, and over the horizon as a grayish layer. The caking of formerly good soil was progressively characteristic and eventually the caked soil prevailed over vegetation, which now consisted only of scattered low bushes, while grass disappeared.
I don’t know how this equates to “aliens at work signs on the highway,” unless you want to extrapolate that all areas where he saw DOR effects were crowded with UFOs. Besides, this was in October of 1954, seven years after the Roswell incident. By this logic, anywhere there has been a UFO sighting should be a barren desert.
I thought Bragalia’s point was that the story was not elaborated on from a mundane occurrence, and there was ample evidence that this is the case. I can’t figure out why you think I was ragging on him, if anything, I was supporting his research by posting this. If I remember correctly, Moore/ Berlitz even included some of the older rumors in their first book.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
..and of course now I notice that Nick posted on this way back on February 4th. Oh well.
February 11th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
DOR, of course, is UFO exhaust according to Reich. The passage you quote is accompanied by a sketch of a turret that Reich also found malformed by possible alien activity and otherwise his description of the vegetation and blackening rocks matches his UFO experiences in Rangeley,Maine, manifestly not a desert. So I don’t know what you’re talking about here. The point is that this is 1954, not 1947, and you’d have to be a coincidence theorist to think that Reich was driven to scope out this geography by happenstance. He had aliens and Roswell connected in his brain. He’s quite relieved in the following pages of Contact With Space to get back to the more normal atmosphere in Ruidoso.
So it’s not a week story, and to say so is ragging on the Bragalien. “)
This is just the beginning of this research. I hope Tony does more and makes a book about it. We can all cluck our tongues at any given researcher, or cluster of researchers like the early 80s Roswellnauts. But Tony ’s beginning to compile data that may lead to some small triangulation of information. So at least we’re on the same page in supporting his research.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:23 am
Greg – You will never have to worry about me linking to that blog.
I wish Anthony would get his own blog. Seriously, he is the only one there that ever writes anything interesting the rest is just name calling.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:25 am
or maybe I am thinking of another RRR blog…
February 12th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Kenn,
In the desert, there are a lot of blackened rocks and sparse vegetation. Does Reich mention anywhere in the book that he took the route he did to Tucson because he wanted to see what UFOs had done to the landscape?
The “turret” he drew and described sounds and looks like a mesa, which is a typical landform in the southwest.
Does Reich ever mention once that he had aliens and Roswell connected? I don’t think so. I doubt he even heard the story before he drove through there. If you can point to something specific that he wrote or said, I’d be willing to reconsider.
You know I have a lot of respect for Reich and always have. That doesn’t mean I have to accept everything he says without question, or make assumptions about what he was thinking if it fits my preconceptions.
I don’t agree with Bragalia at all on some of his research, in this case I hope he finds some gold in those early accounts. I do think that he has a predisposition to the ETH, but once again, that is no reason for me to throw out any interesting info that he can uncover.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
You’re trying to say that Contact With Space has nothing to do with UFOs and landscapes? Really?
Why do you suppose Reich was going to the desert? To fight UFOs with cloudbuster guns! He was having many UFO experiences of his own, starting with the blackening rock and vegetative changes at Orgonon in Maine. And again: DOR = UFO exhaust. Of the mesas, Reich points out the grayness of the highest level and the turret shape as “posing a problem in itself.”
And how absurd to suggest that Reich hadn’t heard the significant national news story of Roswell like anyone else having read a newspaper in 1947, let alone someone clearly well read in the UFO literature at the time. Sorry, Greg, you ‘ve got Galileo’s Saturn syndrome here. You just don’t want to see it. It’s not matter of accepting Reich’s conclusion but one of reaching an obvious conclusion based on his reportage: that he had a particular attraction to Roswell and went looking for alien effects.
February 12th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Kenn,
Did I say that Contact With Space had nothing to do with UFOs and landscapes? No. What I pointed out was that Reich never mentions UFOs having anything to do with Roswell, or that he picked his route for that reason.
I thought Reich said that he was going to the desert to change weather patterns. He did not write that he was going to fight some sort of battle with UFOs. As I remember, he was surprised at first when he and his team saw them when they arrived in Tucson.
Roswell was just one of hundreds of UFO stories reported in the late 1940s and early ’50s, and wasn’t percieved as particularly significant at the time. The only reason we think it’s important now is that a few writers chose to investigate. There are probably many other seemingly insignificant UFO stories waiting for the right researcher and witnesses willing to talk.
Why didn’t Reich mention that he was driving through areas that were famous for UFO sightings? Maybe he did, but I just don’t remember it.
Once again, there are countless mesas thoughout the southwest. The different colors in various levels are due to the sediments laid down over geologic time. Did Reich point this particular one out because it was not similar to others in the area? Were there any others in the area to comapre it to? I don’t think he mentions this.
I want to see supporting evidence. I don’t want to accept something by inferrence, which is what you seem to be doing.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
What is it about the difference Reich clearly reported in the atmospheric conditions in Roswell as compared to Ruidoso that you’re not getting? Or that Reich considered DOR as UFO exhaust and he’s seeing plenty of it at Roswell? Or that Reich first had his UFO experiences in Maine and was clearly inclined to expect them as he traveled west? Or that of the many ways to get to Tucson, he mapped one through Roswell? The evidence is right there in Contact With Space.
Want more? The book is a catalog of Reich’s observations and calculations, arcane language but scientific reportage. You don’t think he had enough scientific background to understand sediments?
You’re looking at this one paragraph and it doesn’t say “well, I stopped by Mac Brazel’s ranch to see some of that flying saucer wreckage and went to the funeral home to check out the alien bodies” and dismissing it. Roswell was unique among the sightings of the first post-war wave in that the craft had been captured and turned over to the Air Force, leaving a lingering memory in the popular culture of the day. It gave Reich–who after all was detailing many sightings himself and even having a “Valley Forge” battle with UFOs of his own–an expectation that he could turn his info over to the military as well.
It’s an obvious allusion to Roswell. The story wasn’t central to what he was doing but it clearly shaped his travel plans.You’re just moving the goalpost for “evidence” further away from common sense.
February 12th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Kenn,
Reich at least could have mentioned something about the crash as his motivation for passing through Roswell. He didn’t mention it or UFOs. Seems like a pretty important thing to have left out if he was trying to make a point. Also, were there UFO sightings in the area before he showed up? Does one event suddenly blanket the whole region with DOR that hangs around seven years after the fact?
Sorry, but by your own statements you are still inferring from what you believe Reich meant for your conclusions. Sometimes a little, sometimes more, but they still remain educated guesses. Your hunches may convince you, and even me someday, but they’re not going to convince many others, which is what this is all about anyway. It’s the wider public’s “goalposts” for evidence that remain the same, not mine. Hunches, guesses, inference and a deeper understanding of Reich’s possible motivations are not going to cut it.
February 12th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Lesley,
I think we’ve linked to the RRR site a couple of times. Never say never!
February 12th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
Bah, semantic games for people whose sense of high school science is what’s threatened by evidence of double charged Geiger readings from craft hovering at 35,000 feet, the likes of which Reich reported on regularly in his CORE journals and, as Heard pointed out, were recorded by many others. Turn on FOX News if you want a look at the wider public’s evidence goalposts. Sarah Palin says death panels, then there’s death panels. Reich could produce a photograph of himself in flagrante delicto with a grey and someone would say “well, it could be a midget…”
February 12th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
OK, so this is weird. I’ve been watching this old anime show called Prince Planet. Earlier this week I sent a note to Tony pointing out that a Roswell grey is sitting in on an intergalactic council in the first episode–evidence of how the image permeated the popular culture from 1965. Now just as I have this discussion about Reich with Greg, I’m watching the 14th episode and it has a scientist investigating a spacecraft crash in a desert–and his name is “Dr. Orgonite”!
February 12th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Kenn,
No, someone would say that picture was PHOTOSHOPPED!
Hey you know me, I have a pretty skewed view of things, and I’m pretty comfotable with many things most people either don’t know about or find “hard to believe.” Most people don’t even care about this stuff, and they shouldn’t have to. But when amassing a cadre of evidence to convince someone who is on the fence about Roswell or UFOs in general, Reich passing through and commenting on the atmospheric conditions there has got to be pretty low on the list of important bullet points.
February 12th, 2010 at 4:14 pm
Kenn,
Hey, that’s a pretty good catch on the grey from 1965. A couple of years ago Martin Kottmeyer was trying to find out when that image first made an appearance in pop culture.
How did Japanese animators know about Orgonite?!
February 12th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Haven’t a clue. The plot turned to giant atomic termites after that. There’s an epsiode of Lost In Space that has a cloudbuster-like rainmaking device and dialogue between June Lockhart and Guy Willaims concerning “character armor”, a Reich concept. This was also from 1965.
February 13th, 2010 at 10:17 pm
Not to get in between Kenn and Greg in this interesting discussion, but there are a couple of points I’d like to make:
First, Greg, when you claim that Roswell “wasn’t percieved as particularly significant at the time,” I have to agree with Kenn that instead, it was unique for multiple reasons. First, there’s the extraordinarily public claim that the US Army had recovered a flying disc, a report that made headlines all across the world. Indeed, the fact that the local radio station was threatened with losing its license if it continued to broadcast the story is also unique in UFO lore.
I’d also suggest that there was a surprisingly large number of people who witnessed parts of the event (whether cleanup and transportation of debris, or connection with post-transport material), and a much higher percentage of military witnesses than any other event. While many of them have only come forward officially in recent years (1990 and later), the fact that so many were apparently aware of the event at the time makes it much more likely that the story was known to locals and others off-base as well. And the fact that so many have chosen to make death-bed confessions, again many more than any other event in UFO history that I’m aware of, suggests this event left a lasting impression on them (and their families).
I’d also suggest the fact that the 509th Commander, Colonel Blanchard, went on leave on July 8th, right after the event blew up, shows that he had some kind of connection to the event from that moment onwards, though whether the leave was some sort of forced vacation to keep him quiet, or was part of his overseeing the debris, is not clearly known.
I’d also like to point out to Kenn that when you say “that of the many ways to get to Tucson, he (Reich) mapped one through Roswell?” that you need to look at a map of New Mexico. There just ain’t a lot of options there. I once drove from Santa Fe across the state through Roswell on my way to Carlsbad Caverns, and I gotta say, I never felt the emptiness of this country like I did before and after driving through that vast, desolate desert. If you’re trying to get from east to west, there just aren’t many ways to go.
Certainly, choosing to go through Roswell suggests Reich may have been off the more well-traveled paths, such as the older main road west through Albuquerque. But remember, when he was doing this, there weren’t many alternative routes (and there still aren’t). So I suggest that his passage through Roswell was less intentional and more an artifact of the limited number of routes.
Keep up the back-and-forth, guys. Love to hear two well-read researchers able to duke it out with ideas and evidence, and not slander and name-calling. So refreshing! (:^D)
February 14th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
Templar,
I agree that the Roswell story was sensational at the time. My point was that it was mostly forgotten in the years between 1947 and 1980. If it was mentioned, it was in UFO books, which most people don’t read or care about that much.
I can’t seem to locate a New Mexico roadmap from the time, which would answer some questions. Reich’s assistant Robert McCullough transported some equipment from Maine to Arizona on a more northerly route. Both he and Reich noted drought conditions, and there was a severe drought in New Mexico in the early 1950s.
February 18th, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Heh, heh, now that this is such an old post I can sneak in here and have the last word. First, Templar: I’ve been through New Mexico many, many times. The times I’ve been to Roswell, I meant to go there. I’m sure it was the same for Reich. But now you have Greg trying to look for old maps that “prove” it just couldn’t be. And yes, Reich was looking at desert conditions, including drought, but he never divorced that from his ideas about UFOs. What’s the most famous line in Contact? “Am I a spaceman?” He’s totally on about the UFO thing, even with prescience about abductions, suggesting this might have happened to his mother in Austria. It defies elemental common sense to suggest that Reich didn’t know about Roswell, from the initial news flash and in the abundant UFO lit he was no doubt immersed in (and I don’t know where else Greg thinks stories about Roswell would appear, although I mentioned a 1965 cartoon that has a Roswell grey.) No, Roswell wasn’t the central UFO experience of Reich’s life at the time. The kind of detail about Roswell that Greg’s looking for didn’t even emerge for many years after the event and subsequent cover up. But it’s virtually impossible that Reich had never heard of the event and with his preoccupation with UFOs, did what he could to work in a visit there around what he was doing.
February 18th, 2010 at 11:17 pm
Kenn,
My reach is long and my watch is vigilant!
Once again, you must admit these are guesses based on what you (and no one else I have heard of besides Mr. Bragalia, and perhaps Jim Martin) THINK that Reich was doing in regard to his travel plans.
I looked for a map from 1954 in an attempt to decrease my skepticism. Was that not clear? I like to have something on which to base my opinions, and not take things on faith or read between the lines.
You appear to be making a guess based on your biases. I am casting doubt, which is the only word that Robert Anton Wilson inscribed in my copy of The New Inquisition. To me, the knife cuts both ways.
You could be right. I remain unconvinced so far.
This is comment #23 in the thread. I think that gives me that last word!