New Mexico

New Mexico is the U.S. state where several crash and contact stories are set, beside nuclear-weapons laboratories and bases.

Crash and contact stories. At Roswell, the Roswell Daily Record of 8 July 1947 ran the headline "RAAF Captures Flying Saucer On Ranch in Roswell Region" (see the Roswell crash story). The alleged Aztec crash of 25 March 1948 traces to Frank Scully's 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers. Silas Newton, central to that story, was convicted of fraud with an associate for promoting a device they called the "doodlebug"; William Steinman alleged they were framed. The alleged Trinity crash, dated 16 August 1945 near San Antonio, comes from the Padilla and Baca account in Jacques Vallée and Paola Harris's 2021 book Trinity: The Best-Kept Secret. At Holloman AFB, an alleged contact meeting with President Eisenhower is rated low in confidence.

Laboratories and bases. Los Alamos National Laboratory began as Project Y of the Manhattan Project in 1943. The Trinity and 1954 custody claims that name it are testimony, to be read against the documented record. Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque was consolidated with Sandia Base and Manzano Base in 1971 and hosts Sandia National Laboratories by permit. Air Force Office of Special Investigations complaint forms released under FOIA record airmen's reports of a bright light landing over the Manzano weapons area on 8 August 1980, and an instrument-recorded six-hour radar blackout on 13 August. They show that the reports were made, not what was seen.