Debris Field Discovered on Foster Ranch — Roswell, NM

I have been ranching the Foster place outside of Roswell for years, and on or about July 2, 1947, something came down on my land during a thunderstorm. I did not find it until a few days later when I rode out to check on the sheep and found a scatter of wreckage across a quarter mile of pasture. There was a great gouge torn in the earth going northwest to southeast, and spread out from it was the strangest material I have ever handled in my life. Most of it was a thin foil-like metal, lighter than tin, but when you crumpled it up in your hand it unfolded itself perfectly flat again, like it had a memory. There were also small I-beams, about the size of my hand, with markings along the edges that were not any letters or numbers I recognized — they looked almost floral or geometric, printed in a purplish color. The foil itself would not burn. I held a lit match to a piece and it did not so much as warm up. There was also a heavier dark material, almost like plastic but not quite. I loaded what I could into my truck and brought some to Sheriff Wilcox. The Army men came out from Roswell Army Air Field the next day and cleared the whole site clean. Major Marcel came personally. He told me it was nothing to be concerned about. But I know what a weather balloon looks like, and that was not a weather balloon. Whatever came down on my land was not made by any manufacturer I have ever heard of.