By Elena Mendoza
It's simply known as the Roswell incident. In just a few weeks, the ranch where so many people believe a UFO crashed in 1947 will open to the public for the first time.
Back in 1947, a man named Mack Brazel owned and lived on this southeast New Mexico ranch.
"He was the ranch hand that found the flying saucer, or the weather balloon, whichever you believe,” said Lauren Bogle, whose family owns the ranch. "A lot of the pens you see were back when Mack Brazel worked here. A lot of this is very original. It hasn't changed and we've even used it still to this day."
Bogle said Brazel was working the fields when he saw what he believed was a UFO.
"Saw something go through the sky and crash a couple miles down that way and went and researched it, called the Roswell Sheriff's Department, the Roswell Sheriff's Department called the base,” said Bogle. “The government did a sweep, they took him back to the base and then he came back with a new Ford truck to never speak of it again."
The Bogle sisters' great-grandfather bought the ranch when the Brazel family sold it in 1952.
"Nothing to do with the crash at all. Just for agriculture and to do a cow-calf operation,” said Madison Bogle.
"We kept Mack Brazel, but I think there was a little bit of a falling out and it had to kind of do with the crash itself,” said Bogle.
Contrary to popular belief, the site sits pretty far from Roswell, in a town called Corona about 75 miles northwest of what has become known as the "Alien City."
"Corona is a really tiny town,” said Bogle. “Roswell got heavily involved and they're the ones that stored all the materials and went through everything.”
Tour-goers will be shuttled out from the Roswell mall and will get to experience how the events played out.
“The second you step foot on this ranch, we want you to feel like it's 1947 all over again and we want you to experience it first-person,” said Bogle.
The Bogle sisters said they'd like to try to make it an annual event.
They say they're working in conjunction with the UFO Festival and are holding the tours early in the morning and late at night so people can still enjoy those festivities.
Tickets range $65 to $250 for the VIP experience.
