UFO Festival to be Held Near Site of Reported 1974 UFO Crash

Sept. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- Presidio, a Texas border town within 40 miles of where a flying saucer allegedly crashed in 1974, is commemorating the event by hosting its first annual “Border Zone International UFO Festival” on October 19th and 20th, 2012. Among the festivities is a two-day lecture series featuring a number of  speakers, including nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, the world’s best-known UFO investigator, who will present a lecture titled “Man’s Place in the Universe”  and another called “Star Travel? YES!” Lectures will be held at the Presidio Activity Center, 1400 E. O’Reilly Street. Admission is free, and vendor spaces are also free. More information is available at UFOborderzone.com.

Also scheduled to speak at the festival are Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte, authors of Mexico’s Roswell, the first book to reveal the story of a reported mid-air collision between a small plane and a UFO about 40 miles northwest of Presidio on August 25, 1974. According to the book, the crash destroyed the plane but did little damage to the UFO, which was then allegedly found by Mexican soldiers and moved from the crash site on a flatbed trailer.  Shortly after the soldiers made the recovery, all of them died from exposure to an unknown contaminant that apparently emanated from the crashed UFO.

After the death of the Mexican soldiers, U.S. helicopters from the Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, reportedly brought in a clandestine team of “crash retrieval” personnel, dressed in Hazmat gear.   The U.S. team is said to have used a large cargo helicopter to take the fallen UFO back to Texas, crossing the Rio Grande River near Candelaria, Texas. The remaining evidence left behind in the Mexican desert was supposedly obliterated by the use of high explosives.

Following the announcement of the upcoming UFO festival in Presidio, two long-time area residents came forward for the first time to disclose that they saw a large “fireball” in the sky in 1974 and that several residents of Candelaria reported seeing several U.S. military helicopters, including a double-rotor cargo helicopter, coming back from Mexico about a day after the fireball sighting. The revelation by retired school teacher Johnnie Chambers, 82, and her son, John, has helped bolster the argument that something very unusual did indeed happen here in 1974.

Torres and Uriarte are hoping that other local residents who saw something in 1974 might step forward and tell their stories during a “Town Hall” meeting on the afternoon of October 20. The meeting will feature all of the lecturers together at once, and they will take questions from the audience, as well as invite people to tell their own stories of UFO contacts. In the past, similar events related to other UFO incidents have yielded a wealth of additional witnesses.

In addition to the UFO lectures and meetings, the Border Zone International Festival will also feature a number of other festivities, including several that will be held across the international bridge from Presidio, in Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Mexico.   Also, the annual “Dude of the Dead” Music Festival will take place during the same weekend (Oct. 19-21), with most of the concerts taking place on Saturday night beginning at around 8 p.m. (after the final UFO lecture).  Texas Monthly magazine calls it “an event akin to Burning Man that mashes Día de los Muertos rituals with live music … like one big séance.” Music will take an “Americana” slant, with acts that include The Doodlin’ Hogwallops, Jim Keaveny, Skin ‘N Bones, Anthony Ray Band, The Rocky Top Alien Breeding Experiment, David Shane & the Dusty Ramblers, 7 Year Drought, and Pablo Menudo. Admission to the music is $10 and more information is available at http://DudeoftheDead.net.

About his lecture regarding Man’s place in the universe, Stanton Friedman said, “Since 1930, our view of the universe has changed dramatically, to where we now know that the universe is billions of years old and that there are likely billions of life-sustaining planets elsewhere in the cosmos. Scientists now estimate there are at least 100 billion planets in the Milky Way alone! It is indeed time to review man’s place in the universe — especially in view of the enormous amount of evidence showing that extraterrestrials have been visiting Earth, that governments have been lying about those visits, that technological progress comes from doing things differently, and that the future is not merely an extrapolation of the past.”

Describing his lecture about interstellar travel, Friedman said, “Many scientists say that UFOs cannot be from faraway planets because star travel, if it is even possible, would take too long. In truth, star travel is not only possible but is already within our reach! In this lecture, I will show that mankind already possesses the technology necessary to make a round trip to the closest stars within a person’s life span. If interstellar travel is possible for us, it certainly is possible for other, more advanced civilizations elsewhere in the universe. The U.S. government and its industry partners have been developing nuclear-powered engines since the 1960s, and many such engines have been successfully tested. Take a peek ‘behind the curtain’ at scientific achievements that have been mostly kept secret from the general public. You will be shocked to learn that travel to other stars is technically already possible!”

In addition to their lecture about “Mexico’s Roswell,” Noe Torres and Ruben Uriarte will also speak on their latest book Aliens in the Forest: The Cisco Grove UFO Encounter.  In disclosing one of the world’s most intriguing and least known UFO cases, the presentation will feature video testimony from principal eyewitness Donald Shrum, who speaks out in public for the first time ever about his terrifying encounter with aliens in a dark forest near Cisco Grove, California.

Other speakers at the UFO lecture series include veteran UFO researcher Dennis Balthaser of Roswell, New Mexico, who will speak on “The 1947 Roswell Incident, Then and Now.”  The reported UFO crash near Roswell has been Balthaser’s primary research interest for the past 20 years, and he will give a complete history of the world’s most famous case. Balthaser will also lecture on “A Closer Look at Area 51,” a disclosure about Nevada’s top secret Groom Lake military base. He will show photos of and describe unconventional aircraft that are test flown there. Dennis will also discuss the reasons behind the high level of secrecy, and he will present documentation explaining this secrecy.

Ismael Cuellar, director of the Laredo Paranormal Research Society (LPRS), will present “Marfa Lights and Other Anomalies.” Cuellar’s group uses cutting-edge scientific instruments to investigate paranormal phenomena, such as UFOs, mystery orbs, spirit entities, and more. In this presentation, they will share the results of their research into the Marfa Lights phenomenon, as well as other “mystery orbs” that have been detected near Laredo, Texas. Cuellar and his group will also present a lecture called “UFO Hunters,” about the group’s discovery of strange flying objects in and around Laredo.

Also scheduled to speak is Gilberto Rivera, director of the Chihuahua-based UFO research group GIFAE (Grupo de Investigación de Fenómenos Aeroespaciales). He organized the “Chihuahuan X-Files” Conference and the 1st International Congress of Ufology in Chihuahua city. Since 1996, he has been writing articles about UFOs for the journal “Year Zero.” He has also appeared on numerous television programs in Mexico and abroad. In this presentation, he brings us the latest information about UFO sightings in Chihuahua and throughout Mexico. His presentation, titled “Chihuahua UFO Research” will be in Spanish with translation into English.

For complete information about the festival and all activities, please visit UFOborderzone.com or http://roswellbooks.com/zone.