UFO document and research collection growing in New Mexico

RIO RANCHO, N.M. (KRQE) – Are you a believer or a skeptic? Either way, the National UFO Historical Records Center near Albuquerque has the real-life evidence to help you make your case. And with a recent acquisition, the collection is even bigger than ever.

“We’re not here to make people believe in UFOs,” David Marler, the National UFO Historical Records Research Center executive director, told KRQE News 13. “We want to create a traditional historical archive where audio files, video files, government documents, case files, news clippings, newspapers, microfilm – all of that material can be stored and readily accessed by researchers, whether you’re a believer, a skeptic, or somewhere in the middle of that spectrum.”

Marler leads what he says is the nation’s largest collection of historical documents and tapes on unidentified flying objects. The nonprofit records center is made up of countless newspaper clippings, military accounts, and citizen reports on UFOs through the early and mid 20th century.

“In the UFO community and within the general public, as this has garnered more publicity over the last few years, people are crying out for disclosure, crying out for the government to come forward with all they have. Well, I’m here to tell you definitively. You don’t have to wait for the government. We have tens of thousands of files that you can access now,” Marler says.

Example of what the records show: The Battle of LA

The archive has records on tons of different UFO sightings, but some of Marler’s favorite records are those that describe the so-called “Battle of LA.” It was an event reported on the California coast in 1942. Listen to Marler tell the story in the video below:

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UFO National Historical Records Research Center looking to expand

Marler says the records center has recently acquired a key collection of documents. The files come from the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, a group founded in 1952 and include a wide range of files from multiple states.

“Last night, as I was starting to begin wading through this data, I found radar log sheets from Kirtland Air Force Base describing unidentified radar targets that had anomalous flight characteristics and when they were tracking these things,” Marler says. “Quite literally, from 1989 until just this past weekend, those materials were essentially stored away and not accessible to researchers or the general public. For the first time in 35 years, we’re opening these case files we’re opening these file cabinets, and quite literally, it is a time capsule. It’s a glimpse into that 1950s, 60s, 70s, and 80s era of UFO reporting, and it’s very exciting to have such a large amount of data just dumped onto you.”

Now, with the recently acquired files – plus all of those that the research center already had – Marler says it’s time to expand. And he’s hoping to find a permanent space to create an open-to-the-public research library.

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Images from the National UFO Historical Records Center courtesy David Marler

“We feel emboldened to reach out to the community, to the general public, and request funds and benefactors to create the first ever historical archive for the UFO subject,” Marler says. “With this new acquisition, we are at a breaking point to be quite honest, insofar as storage and the ability to work with the material and sort it. We do have a lot of equipment for digitization work, but between the equipment and the archival material itself, we don’t have adequate workspace to do the work that’s needed.”

Marler says he’s trying to work with community leaders to find and fund at least a 5,000-square-foot building in or near Albuquerque. The larger vision is to build a museum to go along with the records. But in the end, the focus is on sharing with the public.

“There’s a lot of misgivings and misunderstandings regarding the UFO subject, in large part due to science fiction movies and in large part due to the sensational TV shows that you see out there. And what we want to do is be able to provide the original case materials,” Marler explains. For example, [in] Socorro, New Mexico, a famous case that occurred in 1964 – we have the original investigators’ notes, news clippings, audio recordings, media coverage, for anybody that really wants to go into the heart of any of these UFO cases, we have the original, contemporaneous documents, and I don’t think it gets any better than that – short of seeing the UFO yourself.”