GROWING UP IN SMALL-TOWN OHIO, I heard plenty of ghost stories and urban legends: the creepy old man who patrolled the woods of Snake Hill, the haunted graveyard directly behind my buddy’s backyard, and my cousins’ house that was most definitely possessed. But encounters? Nope. No ghosts, no UFOs, no Bigfoot.
I want to believe—as my collection of X-Files VCR tapes and former obsession with Art Bell’s paranormal radio show might attest. Maybe I’ve just been unlucky. I’ve done my own investigating at Roswell’s International UFO Museum & Research Center and spent a few nights at the Lodge at Cloudcroft, where the mischievous ghost Rebecca is said to wander the hallways playfully. Still, nothing.
As this month’s “Mysteries & Legends” cover feature suggests, however, there’s no shortage of UFO reports, spectral sightings, lost treasures, and unexplained phenomena in the Land of Enchantment—or as folklorist William Dewan calls it, the “Land of Lore.”
Land at the International UFO Museum & Research Center to investigate on your own.
Photograph by Jennifer Coats.
Dewan grew up steeped in the research of his amateur UFOlogist father, later earning a doctorate in American studies at the University of New Mexico. “New Mexico is a very special and unique place,” he says. Its folklore reflects the state’s complex cultural mix, layered traditions, and often turbulent history. “A lot of the folklore and legends really speak to that unique history,” he adds.
Stories like La Llorona convey some underlying cultural values, desires, or warnings yet remain flexible and entertaining enough to take on multiple meanings. Dewan’s UNM students often heard of La Llorona from their grandparents during monsoon season, but in previous generations, the story had been told to young brides-to-be as a way to emphasize the duties of a wife and mother.
During his research interviewing people statewide, Dewan was struck by “the sheer spectrum of bizarre experiences that people from various walks of life were open to talk about,” he recalls.
Even more than the volume of sightings and stories, Dewan is fascinated by what these stories can teach us about ourselves. “Maybe we don’t have everything figured out,” says the current UC Irvine lecturer, who’s working on a forthcoming book of scholarly UFO research. “There’s more to the world and more to reality that’s hidden from us. Maybe we should have a bit more humility as we approach the unknown.”
➤ For another chapter of New Mexico's ghostly lore, read about The Strange Death of Melvin Mills.
