Daily conspiracy

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

A Colorado UFO watchtower has been waiting for the government to catch up



Messoline, 61, is the manager of the UFO Watchtower, a scrappy roadside attraction that rises out of the southern Colorado desert scrub. For 26 years, it has drawn curious road-trippers and a stream of believers who figure that if the truth is out there, it might well show up here. A thick binder on the desk of the gift shop overflows with testimonies and puzzling photos reflecting more than 300 sightings.

Many bear similarities to the declassified materials the Defense Department describes as “unresolved” and is now publishing online in retro Commodore 64-style font. The government files include FBI interviews, NASA transcripts, grainy military videos and law enforcement statements. Announcing the data dump in May, President Donald Trump said the information would allow Americans to “decide for themselves, ‘WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?’ Have Fun and Enjoy!”

In this high desert flanked by snowy mountains, the revelations, though murky, have prompted both excitement and it’s-about-time eyerolls. Messoline’s mother, Judy Messoline, opened the watchtower on a lark but says she has since seen 30 UFOs. She is no fan of Trump, but on this policy matter, she approves.

The UFO Watchtower is not quite Roswell or Area 51, but for many who think we are not alone, it has become a requisite stop on an extraterrestrial circuit. The San Luis Valley is home to the wind-carved Great Sand Dunes National Park, bubbling hot springs, sprawling potato farms, a reptile park with more than 300 alligators — and, over centuries, sightings of confounding phenomena.

In 1967, the valley burst onto the national scene as the site of the first widely publicized livestock “mutilations” — a topic of fascination for the alien-interested — when an Appaloosa horse named Snippy turned up dead in a field, stripped of its hide, its organs carefully removed. Locals speculated about extraterrestrials; the sheriff suspected lightning.

The area also shares features common to many UFO-sighting hot spots, according to a University of Utah study: dark skies and a wide-open Western landscape.

Judy Messoline moved to Hooper in the late 1990s from Colorado’s populous Front Range, planning to trade her work with horses for cattle. She bought acreage, but her effort at ranching was a bust. The terrain was too rocky and dry.

But while working at a convenience store, she heard plenty of stories from farmers about strange things in the sky, and she quipped that someone should open a UFO watchtower. One farmer told her it was a good idea, so she did it.

Tower is a generous word. It is more of a platform, shaped like a U and 10 feet off the ground — sufficient height, Judy Messoline said, to “get off the lay of the land.” Entry costs $5.

“I stand out there daily and say, ‘For god’s sake, Scotty, beam me out of this place. I don’t care where, just get me out of here!’” she said, shaking her head, and only partially joking.

Visitors come from around the world. Some spend all day on the tower, staring at the horizon, Larry Messoline said. Others camp on the property and pull out telescopes. Scientists and employees of a prominent aerospace contractor have stopped by and shared about their own mysterious encounters, he said.

Savannah Woldengen, 18, removed a transparent heart charm from her bracelet and set it in a dusty shot glass, an offering she hoped would let otherworldly beings “know I’m here.”

Woldengen said she had only dabbled in the government UFO files, but the visit had inspired her to dig deeper. She didn’t see anything uncanny at the watchtower, but it did not diminish her belief.

“I just think it’s beautiful to hope,” said Woldengen, an art student from Liberty, Missouri. “I just love aliens so much and everything about them.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/20...-catch-up/

(Bold mine)

Sure about that, luv?



Boru