UFO Sightings in New Mexico
Declassified UAP files, famous historical sightings, and primary-source documentation for New Mexico.
New Mexico is the state of the 1947 Roswell incident — the most-cited UFO event in U.S. history and the originating event in the modern UFO record. On 8 July 1947, the FBI Dallas field office sent a memorandum to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover describing a recovered "hexagonal object suspended from a 20-foot balloon by cable." The memo, now declassified and released in PURSUE Release 01 as DOC-001 (PURSUE-001), describes the object as "bronze, metallic, of ellipsoid form, between 130 and 195 feet in apparent dimension." The U.S. Air Force officially attributed the Roswell debris to Project Mogul, a classified high-altitude balloon program for detecting Soviet nuclear tests. New Mexico also hosts White Sands Missile Range, Holloman AFB, and Kirtland AFB — three facilities with extensive Cold War-era UAP investigation history including the 1948 "Green Fireballs" investigation centered at Los Alamos.
“Hexagonal object suspended from a 20-foot balloon by cable.”
PURSUE Release 01 entries from New Mexico
- Roswell, New Mexico — 08 JUL 1947 (PURSUE-001 · CORROBORATED · Federal Bureau of Investigation)FBI Dallas field memo describing hexagonal object suspended from a 20-foot balloon by cable.
Famous historical sightings in New Mexico
Roswell crash debris (1947)
FBI Dallas field office memo to Director Hoover, dated 8 July 1947, describes recovered hexagonal object near Roswell. Released to the public via the FBI Vault and now in PURSUE Release 01 as DOC-001. Air Force attribution: Project Mogul balloon train.
Green Fireballs (1948–1952)
Recurring green-colored fireball sightings over northern New Mexico (Los Alamos, Sandia) prompted Project Twinkle. Atmospheric physicist Lincoln La Paz led a formal investigation; cause never definitively identified, official conclusion attributed most cases to unusual meteors.