time that I was at this strange little town was in March of 1990.
I will never forget that 1990 visit when I first brought a Japanese TV
crew, incredible as it may sound, to document an alleged existence of
an "underground U.S./alien joint bio-lab" which was rumored to exist
deep under the Archuleta Mesa, adjacent to Dulce. While interviewing
many Jicarilla Apache locals on the street at that visit, we were
inexplicably detained by the then Police Chief, Hoyt Velarde and kept
at his office for almost an hour and a half, during which time he had
meticulously taken down our personal info, i.e., our ID's, driver's
licence numbers and, in my case, even my Soc. Sec. number, if I recall
correctly. It was a shock to us then. We had asked him if we were
doing anything illegal by interviewing the people, the question to
which he never responded. I clearly remember that just before he
released us, he told us in a rather warning tone: "Don't you ever ask
any more questions regarding such a base. I have nothing to do with
it and I do not want to talk about it!" An enigmatic answer,
indeed. That was in March of 1990.
Now here I am once again, in Dulce. It brought me back lots of
memories of 1990. However, this time, as soon as I drove in to Dulce,
I immediately noticed that it had completely changed since 1990.
It seems to have grown quite a lot, not so much in terms of
population, but in terms of its physical appearance. There are now so
many new buildings, large and small and many modern local community
facilites - a brand new Middle School, a brand new High School, a
new Students' Athletic Complex, brand new Police and Maintenance
Center, a modern Emergency Medical Service facility, and on the south
side, a brand new Student's Residential Complex, and, of course, a
newly refurbished Best Western Hotel, all in the small community of
less than 3500 residents.
Yes, it has been many years, so it would seem natural for some growth
to take place.
When I interviewed the locals in 1990, I clearly remember that almost
every one of them had testified to us that in the late 70's and the
early 80's, they had frequently observed strange lights in the sky,
especially flying over and around, and even appearing to disappear
into the sides of the Mesa. They even testified to us that they also
frequently observed military helicopters over Dulce, along with
reports of cattle mutilations in the ranches nearby. Those were the
things we heard back then when we were in Dulce in 1990.
To my great surprise, sightings still seem to continue in and around
Dulce, even now!!
Incredible as it may be, even recent sightings of what many describe
as "Bigfoot" along the Navajo River is also a fairly new topic of
conversation in Dulce now.
I was so fortunate this time to personally get to know a friendly
family who lives in the northwest area of the town. I had gotten to
know the husband while I was attending a symposium in Aztec the
weekend before. During my three days of stay in Dulce this time, I
have obtained many new, fascinating sighting reports from many locals
again, particularly from the family that I just mentioned and their
relatives.
On my second day of stay in Dulce, this family invited me to their
residence for a great meal. They had also invited their relatives who
were willing to describe to me in detail many strange experiences they
have had and even are having now.
It was assuring to know that the family that I befriended were
immediate relatives of high officials of the Jicarilla Apache tribe.
The husband was a son of the former head of the Police Department
(before Hoyt Velarde). His wife is an immediate family of the head of
the Jicarilla Apache tribal council. His sister-in-law has been a
Dulce Police dispatcher. For this reason, I will refrain from naming
any individuals to protect their privacy.
My friend's wife told me of a fairly recent incident whereby a huge,
silent delta-shaped dark object emitting extremely bright lights
slowly passed over a group of 50 to 75 (all their relatives) on a mesa
where they were celebrating a traditional Jicarilla Apache feast
called the "coming out" feast, a "puberty" celebration for young boys
and girls (similar to the Spanish quinceanera celebration). The huge
object appeared after sundown, an hour or so after their traditional
meals had ended and after the shamans had completed their chantings
and dances. They were simply stunned to see the huge triangular
'craft' hovering only about 100 feet above the campground. The entire
area lit up like daylight. What was more amazing was that after a few
minutes of hovering over the area, it suddenly took off with a
tremendous gust of wind. Pots and pans were flying all over. Some of
the people were almost thrown off their vehicles. Fortunately, no one
was injured. Panic spread. The generators failed to re-start and all
battery-operated appliances malfunctioned, including the car radios.
Another recent incident they recounted was a daytime sighting of a
silver, saucer-shaped object at around 11 a.m., which hovered for 30
minutes right next to Hwy 537, not too far from the junction of U.S.
64, north of La Jara Lake.
One relative also recounted a recent, unforgettable sighting of a
huge, flying "triangle" near Hwy 537, near J-30 (Jicrailla Road, #30),
with some type of a "cloaking device" that almost appeared to have a
transparent body. The object was described to have been close to half-
a-mile in length!!
The biggest and most impressive sighting, however, took place in May
of 2004 when several families were celebrating together the feast on a
Jicarilla Apache campground, located at an area near J-33 and J-40,
right near the Continental Divide. Incredibly, it involved hundreds
(not just one or two objects) of brilliant objects in the night sky.
It literally filled up the entire sky, according to the testimony of
the former Dulce police dispatcher. There were close to 100 witnesses
to this incredible incident. Some even said that there were probably
close to several hundred objects in the night sky. They moved en
masse slowly from one end of the sky to the other. It was literally
an "armada" of UFOs (which exactly reminded me of the famous, well-
documented 1950 mass sightings of UFOs over Farmington, near the Four
Corners ara of New Mexico).
What was particularly fascinating about this sighting was that
everyone also saw a small fleet of military helicopters which seemed
to follow the objects. Again, car radios went dead all through the
sighting.
An interesting point is that many of the appearances of UFOs seem to
coincide with various feasts taking place in the Jicarilla Apache
reservation. Were 'they' attracted to the Jicarilla feasts?
Last but not the least of the impressive Dulce sightings involved a
Jicarilla Apache Forerst Service ranger who witnessed a 'craft' of
some kind enter the east side of the Archuleta Mesa through several
large rocks that appeared to open (almost like a door) and in went the
craft into the side of the mesa. He excitedly reported this sighting
live on his microphone while he was communicating on his radio with
the Forest Service station across the south side of Dulce. The ranger
was stationed at the top of the Archuleta Mesa in the look-out
building next to the radio communications tower. This took place a
few years after a big fire destroyed many of the trees on and around
the mesa. (What is still strange about the aftermath of the fire,
which they say happened about 10 years ago, is the fact that all
attempts for the re-forestation have so far failed on and around the
Archuleta Mesa. They just don't seem to grow, for some strange reason
or other.
What is my conclusion to all these recent sightings in Dulce? It's
just totally incredible to me. But these were all first-hand
eyewitnesses to the events. Without doubt, I cannot help but believe
that they all saw what they described to have seen. Or, at least,
they all think that they saw what they saw. There is no other
explanation.
Lastly, while in Dulce, the son of the former head of the Dulce Police
Department took me to the site of Project Gasbuggy. Project Gasbuggy
was a rather 'strange' 1967 government project which involved a large
underground nuclear explosion (29 kilotons of TNT) deep inside the
high plateau area 25 miles south of Dulce, allegedly to release
natural gas from deep under the ground. It was a joint project with
El Paso Natural Gas Company. Is it possible that this curious
nuclear explosion had created, deep, huge underground extensive
caverns all over the area along with extensive natural "tunnels"?
What this has to do with the ongoing sightings of not only "UFOs" but
also alleged sightings of "entities" (including fairly recent
sightings of alleged 'Bigfoot' along the Navajo River near Dulce) I
haven't the faintest idea. We may not necessarily be talking about
purely physical phenomena but somehow intertwined with it could be
some type of "mass psychological" phenomena?
But, of course, we cannot rule out any prosaic answers. One theory is
that the town of Dulce is benefitting financially by allegedly
covering up the dumping of nuclear waste materials (from Los Alamos
and elsewhere) into the underground cavities under Dulce and its
neighboring areas and have created the entire Dulce "underground base"
story as a cover story!
If this were the case, it still sounds totally incredible!
Whatever the case may be, it is simply fascinating!!
An interesting, additional information on Hoyt Velarde, former Police
Chief of Dulce, New Mexico, can be found at:
http://www.hometown.aol.com/area51watch/page8.html
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