© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.
Should there be an office of historical correctness in New Mexico? Highly officious experts would drive government vehicles with bumper stickers proclaiming, “If it isn’t true, you’re through.” They would assure that what the festival organizers say about our history is true, functioning as our historical Myth Busters.
This week there is the world famous amazing Roswell UFO Festival. OK, I know we are not supposed to mess with anything that brings cold, hard credit cards into New Mexico. Still, when I question Roswellians, they look embarrassed, duck their head like they passed gas in church and then exhibit that Roswell Smirk which tells me they know it is bunk.
Do not try to sell me on the alien myth. Dave Thomas of the Skeptical Inquirer tells the real story in The Roswell Incident and Project Mogul.
Additionally, when World War II ended, my photographer father was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base. In fact, that is where I was born. While he would not divulge what he saw and photographed at the crash site, he did indicate that the “Alien incident” was bogus.
My father did not care if tourists from states that have The World’s Biggest Ball of Twine brought back to New Mexico some of our tourist dollars. Live-and-let-believe was his motto. We long-time residents know that the incident at Roswell was concocted in the 1980s as a public relations ploy to get more tourists to visit Roswell.
But who cares? Tourists have lots of fun and, better yet, they arrive in droves, throw their money at us and then leave. Life could not get any better. It is just that truth thing that bothers me. And Roswell is not my only concern.
For instance, there is the tourist attraction in Fort Summer, Billy The Kid’s grave marker. Tourists gaze reverently at the marker and honk their noses on their sleeves as they read, “Pals, Tom O’Folliard, Charlie Bowdre, William H. Bonney alias Billy The Kid.” The only sticking point is that there is no one buried under the grave marker.
A flood on September 30, 1904, moved the military cemetery where the pals were buried a couple miles downstream and commingled the bones. Then the government moved all of the bones they could find to Santa Fe. That is where O’Folliard, Bowdre and Billy the Kid are buried. They are in a mass grave. Even though we know the Fort Sumner Billy the Kid grave marker is bogus, do we really care if tourists go to Fort Sumner and spend their money? Not really.
I am more troubled that we celebrate Billy and not the lawman, Pat Garrett. He ran toward danger rather than from it. Sheriff Garrett and his family really are buried in Las Cruces. I contend that we should have a Pat Garrett Days celebration in Las Cruces at the same time as the Billy festival so tourists can choose between the outlaw and the lawman. Unfortunately, that idea is deader than Elvis.
Speaking of Elvis, you know the festival I like best? The town of Dead, New Mexico, has the Dead Festival where people dress up as Elvis, Marilyn, Janice Joplin and the crowd-favorite deadhead Jerry Garcia. Last year I saw D. B. Cooper, Howard Hughes, Tupac, Amelia Earhart, and the list goes on and on. At the festival there are more dead people in Dead than live ones.
It is still a small festival. Maybe in time it can become as large as the Roswell event. I think it is catching on. Each year is bigger and more fun. It also provides extra cash for area ranchers so they can continue ranching. Why should a government official tell the tourists that Elvis really is dead and those are just actors dressing up to deceive the easily deceived?
No, we should not have a government office of historical correctness for the simple reason that I like UFO aliens much better than I like officious government experts.
I even have that Roswell Smirk down pat so I can go to the next Dead Festival as one of the original UFO aliens. See you there.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.
© 2007 by Michael Swickard, Ph.D.