UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico, reaches 5 million visitors

ROSWELL, NM– The International UFO Museum & Research Center in Roswell, New Mexico, celebrates an extraordinary milestone: 5 million visitors.

A father and daughter from Roswell became the lucky visitors when they entered the museum earlier on Nov. 21, the Roswell Daily Record reported.

Chris and Hannah McDonald received balloons, memorabilia and a lifetime membership to a family museum.

Museum Director Karen Jaramillo said it was a surprise that Roswell residents put the number at 5 million because so many guests come from out of state.

The UFO Museum, which opened in 1992, attracts more than 220,000 visitors annually, Jaramillo said.

Since the so-called Roswell Incident of 1947, Roswell has been a hub for people fascinated by space and extraterrestrial phenomena.

Something crashed on the then JB Foster ranch, with the US military announcing it had recovered a “flying disk” but later saying the debris was just the remains of a high-altitude weather balloon.

Since then, speculation about aliens and government cover-ups has persisted, inspiring books, films and TV shows.

An annual UFO festival, taking place since 1996, brings as many as 40,000 people to Roswell, according to a city report.