The Big Lie

·  Rolla Preceded Roswell  ·

A good portion of the population has heard of Roswell, New Mexico; not for its desert beauty, but for the decision of the US government to cover up the truth about UFOs and early alien contact in 1947. 

A little known fact is that Rolla, in southwest Kansas, was the epicenter of alien visitation nearly twenty years before the Roswell Incident.

My Grandpa Clarence, who farmed there, explained it to me over the course of my family visits to Hutchinson, Kansas.

Western Kansas once produced crops on virgin soil. It was rich in nutrients. According to the history books, farmers were at least partially to blame for the catastrophic dust storms and drought which occurred in the late 1920s and 1930s.

In their thirst for high crop yields, they plowed too much of the prairie sod. It resulted in overexposed terrain that would one day be blown 1,600 miles, all the way to New York City and into the Atlantic Ocean.

According to Grandpa, the accusations are not true. It’s a big lie.

What really happened, long before Roswell, was that aliens visited Rolla as part of their intergalactic search for planets that would be a favorable environment for colonization. Rolla’s sparse and friendly human population, remote location, and predictable rainfall, made it the perfect site.

At first it was mutually beneficial to the distant travelers and the local farmers. The energy from the unearthly outlanders helped produce larger and larger crops in the region. Simultaneously, the health of the weakened space travelers improved. All was well temporarily, but in time things got out of balance.

A migration of farmers and an influx of aliens to Rolla appeared to be a short-term problem, but  the tipping point was reached when the weather became increasingly unpredictable. The drought that destroyed the American Midwest actually began at Rolla, not Roswell.

While alien presence continued to benefit the crops, it was learned that the increased, nearly invisible UFO traffic was sapping the moisture from the region. The nonterrestrial travelers were using up the earth’s moisture to fuel the growing number of spacecraft carrying their scientific experiments.

Rolla was like an exclusive, scenic, tourist spot that was spoiled overnight after being discovered by seven million viewers on social media. The foreign invasion escalated after Rolla’s paradise was leaked by a disgruntled alien scientist who had been sent home for violating intergalactic social norms. 

The winds increased, the dust blew; the grasshoppers and jack rabbits, enormous by now, couldn’t find enough food to support their giant exo- and endoskeletons.

The scavengers decimated what remained of the cash crops, including the thirsty private gardens of the shell-shocked Kansans.

The rain stopped. People grew weary. Some lost hope of the moisture ever returning.

Grandpa made the only decision he could. He and his family (including Harold, a.k.a. “Hal,” my dad) returned to Reno County.

That’s where I heard these stories from Clarence. Grandpa explained that the aliens had been testing the planet’s capacity to remain balanced–fertile and healthy–so that the newcomers could stay, grow stronger, and propagate their kind.

These stories from Grandpa might be true. I want to believe them. He was so convincing. He even had photos of some of the enormous crops and animals (which I share with you today).

I hesitate to believe everything, because one day while visiting my grandparents, I tried on Grandpa’s old fedora.

Once I put it on, I immediately became aware of the silence and peace within me. There were no distractions. I was the happiest I could ever remember. I never wanted to leave this nirvana that I had accidentally discovered. Or, had it discovered me?

But then, out of the silence, I heard a familiar sound. Looking out the window, I saw Grandpa’s green, 1947 Chevrolet returning home. He had forgotten his hat.

I hesitated, but I knew I had to surrender this warm, blissful feeling.

As I took off the soft felt hat, I saw that it’s lining didn’t match the brown fabric on its brim. Instead, it was lined with shiny tin foil!

When I asked Grandpa about it, he said it was to keep his head warm, but I had other ideas.

Until next time, happy writing and reading!