The Unexplained Is Out There

“I want to believe.” It’s the message plastered on the office wall of UFO-hunting FBI agent Fox Mulder in television’s “The X-Files.”

It also could be Judy Messoline’s personal mantra.

She wants to believe, like the people who visit her San Luis Valley ranch in search of the mysterious lights and otherworldly craft, rumored for decades in the area.

Messoline, a big fan of “The X-Files,” admits having seen strange lights in the sky. As for believing in UFOs, she said: “It would take one landing so I could take a look.”

Messoline, 55, and partner Stan Becker have built a 10-foot-high UFO-watching platform on their 620-acre ranch near Hooper, a town of about 120 residents 220 miles southwest of Denver.

They charge $2 admission and rent binoculars for the faithful and the curious to watch the skies. The ranch also offers rustic campsites and a domed gift shop stocked with “alien dust,” posters, big-eyed, shiny extraterrestrial dolls and pyramid candles.

Stories of supernatural phenomena abound in this naturally spectacular 50-mile-wide, 125-mile-long valley, which is 7,600 feet in altitude and ringed by the San Juan and Sangre de Cristo mountains.

Messoline’s watchtower gives a view of the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, with its 750-foot-tall dunes.

The book “The Mysterious Valley,” by Christopher O’Brien, examines reports through the years of cattle mutilations, mysterious helicopters and oddly shaped aircraft hovering over the San Luis Valley.

O’Brien, who lives in the tiny valley town of Crestone, said his 1993 stories about unexplained phenomena in a local paper inspired normally reticent residents of the ranching and farming area to tell him about their experiences.

Messoline got the idea to build the watchtower after putting up with ET enthusiasts camping on her property. She also needed to make some money because cattle ranching, which drew her to the valley five years ago, was foundering.

The green, glow-in-the-dark ET cutouts that point the way to the lookout tower attest to Messoline’s sense of humor. So does the big chunk of land she and Becker have designated as UFO parking.

The watchtower opened for business Memorial Day weekend. Becker and Messoline, who live in a log house on their spread, planned to keep it open Fridays and Saturdays during the fall because business has been so good. A steady stream of visitors, including some tour groups, kept them busy last summer.

“It really did work out okey-dokey,” said Messoline, who is delighted by the fascination with UFOs--unidentified flying objects.

A New Stop on Believer Circuit

People who read articles about the watchtower or heard radio reports in other parts of the country visited out of curiosity. For others, it has been a stop on a circuit that included Roswell, N.M., scene of an alleged UFO crash in 1947 and the site of the annual UFO Encounter, which draws tens of thousands of people.

“I didn’t realize I could work 11 hours a day, seven days a week and giggle the whole time,” she said.

For some, though, it is no laughing matter. Messoline has recorded hours of conversations with people seeking a place to tell their tales of extraterrestrial encounters without fear of ridicule.

Messoline’s UFO watchtower is another outlet.

“A lot of residents in the valley say, ‘We know we can come here and discuss it. If you tell anybody around town, they think you’re crazy,’ ” she said.

Saguache County Undersheriff Mike Norris said his office doesn’t get frequent reports about mysterious lights or crafts. “But people talk and it gets out,” he said.

Norris has seen people stake out parts of the valley for hours, waiting for a glimpse of something sensational. In 1967, the sensation was the death of Snippy the horse.

As recounted in O’Brien’s book, the horse, whose real name was Lady, was found stripped of part of its flesh, drained of fluids and with its hind quarters removed.

O’Brien said the carcass was found about the same time UFOs were reported in the area and the incident became part of the lore surrounding other strange deaths of animals.

Candace Knowlan, who owns a shop in Hooper, has seen strange things in the sky since moving to the San Luis Valley six years ago. She’s not sure if the area is a magnet for extraterrestrials or if city dwellers are blind to otherworldly visions because of bright lights at night and busy lives.

“I’m not egotistical enough to think that in this entire cosmos we’re the only intelligent life to be created,” Knowlan said as she used binoculars to scan the sky from the watchtower platform. “If nothing else, you get to stand here and look at all the stars.”