A widespread panic about drones or other unknown low-flying objects has gripped New Jersey in recent days, but many other parts of the US remain cheerfully gripped by another very American mystery in the skies that has had a modern resurgence of interest: UFOs.
At the newly opened National UFO Historical Records Center – an array of beige buildings on the grounds of the Martin Luther King Jr elementary school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico – records detailing unexplained aerial objects and public fears around them fill literally dozens of filing cabinets.
For director David Marler, this first-of-its-kind public archive of historical UFO records is the culmination of a lifelong interest in and investigation of UFOs – or, as the military now prefers to designate, UAPs: unidentified anomalous phenomena.
It arrives at an opportune moment: in recent years, congressional and Senate hearings have thrust the subject – which rises and falls in public attention, often at times of national or political insecurity – back into the spotlight.
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