Arizona Boardwalk, Scottsdale
8th January, 2023

I’ve always been interested in UFOs. As a kid, I used to have a subscription to Flying Saucer Review, and wrote a letter to the local police chief, inquiring about the topic. My level of fascination has waxed and waned over the years, but never went out entirely. I’d say my current level of belief is a definite maybe. That life exists elsewhere in the universe seems almost certain. That some people have had some very strange experiences is also true. Whether these two facts are connected, and if so, in what way… I just don’t know. [Chris is more sure they are] But I certainly find the more extreme end of UFO stories – stuff like the Dulce UFO base and war – very entertaining. So, on hearing about a UFO exhibition opening across town: well, that’s a Christmas present for Chris sorted.

Arizona is certainly a good place for it. While New Mexico may have Roswell, our state likely has two of the most well-known UFO incidents in America. In 1975, forestry worker Travis Walton was allegedly abducted by aliens in a Northern Arizona forest, an incident which became both the book and movie, Fire in the Sky. And in 1997, the Phoenix Lights were one of the most-witnessed events in UFO history. I use the plural since it was actually two separate indidents. The most well-known are the circular orbs which were witnessed from downtown Phoenix, and caught on video: I suspect these were actually flares. But earlier that night, a lot of people – including Chris – saw a triangular craft fly over the city from North to South. That’s much-less discussed, and not so easily explained.

The location was on the Arizona Boardwalk, an entertainment complex on the east side of Scottsdale, just past the 101 freeway. It’s also home to OdySea Aquarium, Butterfly Wonderland and so on. I’m not sure how permanent the exhibit is intended to be. It’s clearly a non-trivial set-up, but its stay may depend on success. It certainly wasn’t particularly busy the Sunday afternoon we visited, though the same could be said for the Boardwalk as a whole. Bit of a surprise, considering it was nice weather and we’re in peak snowbird (winter visitor) season. There were a lot of cars in the parking lot though: no idea where their inhabitants had all gone. Maybe they’d been abducted. Less exotic explanation: Butterfly Wonderland.

The experience consisted of eight galleries plus an introductory film and, of course, the inevitable gift-shop. You were given a questionnaire on arrival (above): you filled out the first question on arrival, then the rest as you went around, after seeing the evidence in each gallery. Unless you were Chris, who willfully ignored instructions and ticked all the boxes immediately. I immediately entered “pedant” mode – “Well actually, ‘UFOs, aliens and life beyond earth’ should be three separate questions…” – before going with a cautious “Maybe”. You also got a token to drop in one of three bits at the end, as a kind of opinion poll on the topic. Spoiler: “Yes” was winning handily, to no great surprise. Skeptics probably wouldn’t be willing to fork over $20.

The galleries were grouped around a theme, such as “Abductions” or “Ancient Aliens”, and presented the evidence with a mix of exhibits: video, pictures, artifacts, and interactive elements. The last were, frankly, pretty feeble, though we did appreciate some of the photo opportunities provided to visitors (below). The recreation of Travis Walton’s experience was little more than two sheets of plastic 8-10 feet apart, with some lights and smoke in the middle. But the rest of them were generally pretty interesting, and struck a generally decent balance between true belief and scepticism. For instance, there was a screen projecting a series of videos, where you had to decide if they were real or hoaxes. Pro-tip: if the craft is clear and in focus, it’s a hoax.

Even as someone who has read quite a bit on the topic, there were things here I hadn’t heard of, such as the Ilkley Moor UFO incident or the Coyame UFO Crash incident. While there were obvious limitations of space here, I did come away with topics which merited further Googling. However, I did wonder if a lot of the information presented had perhaps been copy-pasted wholesale from the Internet. One caption even included “See picture here” text, strongly suggesting a link in the original source. It didn’t work on the poster, no matter how hard we prodded it with a finger. On the other hand, we enjoyed some of the video presentations. We sat and watched a good chunk of a documentary about the Betty and Barney Hill abductions; hearing Barney’s fear during hypnotic regression was quite convincing.

I think we probably spent about two hours in there, and if we’d been so inclined to watch all of the video stuff, it would likely have been longer. I can’t claim I particularly had the needle of my beliefs moved significantly by what I “experienced”, and some elements could certainly have been improved on. But Chris and I agreed it had been worthwhile, and a pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon. You do need to have an interest in the topic, though this probably goes without saying. It definitely provoked some interesting dinner conversation that evening. Chris theorized, tongue in cheek, that the whole exhibition was perhaps staged by extra-terrestrials living among us, to find out who they could trust. That the government has used the UFO phenomenon for their own purposes isn’t in much doubt, so I’m just going to file that hypothesis under “Hmmm….” and move on. The Truth is Out There, folks.