Roswell alien figures. Alien figures in a car during a tour of the area around the storage silos by the railroad tracks in Roswell, New Mexico, USA. These toy figures are sold as 'The Roswell Alien'. It was near here on the evening of 2 July 1947 that many UFO sightings were reported during a thunderstorm. Next morning, a rancher, Mac Brazel, discovered strange wreckage in a field. When the impact site was located, a UFO craft and alien bodies were allegedly found. The official explanation was that it was a crashed weather balloon. Conspiracy theorists believe that the true events were kept secret. There is now a tourist industry in Roswell, which includes the International UFO Museum and Research Center, and an annual UFO festival. Photographed in 1997.