Videos: The Socorro Close Encounter - Socorro, New Mexico - 1964

The location of the alleged 1964 Socorro UFO sighting may be recognized by the city as a historical site, if Socorro’s Tourism Director Deborah Dean has anything to say about it.

The Socorro City Council heard the suggestion by Dean at its Monday night meeting.

“This is something that’s been featured on the Discovery Channel, the History Channel and other national programs,” Dean said. “It could be a good thing for Socorro since so many people are interested in it.”

She asked that the council consider approaching the owner of the property. Mayor Ravi Bhasker said the city could recognize Lonnie Zamora for his role in Socorro’s history.

“He served as a police officer and later at the landfill, and if we develop this site we’ll do a plaque for him,” Bhasker said.

Librarian Paula Mertz told the council the Socorro Public Library has a large file of newspaper and magazine clippings about the UFO incident in Socorro.

“In the past, we’ve had quite a few people coming in looking for information,” she said. “They also want to know where the location was.”

Councilor Gordy Hicks said he remembers the event and that officially recognizing the site could be beneficial to the city.

Tuesday morning, Hicks, Dean and the present owner of the property, Kathy Richardson, toured the area along with Chief of Police Lawrence Romero and Assistant Chief Mike Winders.

Hicks told the group that he visited the site the day after police Sgt. Lonnie Zamora made the sighting of an unknown craft in an arroyo about a quarter mile west of Fairgrounds Road.

“The depressions in the ground were six to eight inches deep, so whatever made them must have been very heavy,” Hicks told the Mountain Mail Tuesday.

According to reports published at the time, on Friday, April 25, 1964, at 5:45 p.m., 31-year-old police sergeant was in pursuit of a speeder on the south side of Socorro when he heard what sounded like an explosion west of Park Street.

Upon investigation, he saw a white, oval-shaped object resting on four legs in an arroyo emitting a roaring sound. He reported that next to the object were two short figures dressed in coveralls inspecting the object.

Zamora, thinking that an automobile accident had occurred, began approaching the scene until the roaring noise increased in pitch and volume, sending him running back to the road, in fear of it exploding. The craft emitted a flame from its underside and rose into the air, flying westward toward Box Canyon. Zamora told reporters that for a few moments he felt in danger for his life.

Other officers arrived on the scene minutes later, and by the next day, the story was covered in mass media nationwide. Many Socorro residents visited through the weekend and it was reported that at one point there was bumper-to-bumper traffic on the dirt road leading to the arroyo.

In the weeks following, flying saucer investigators and government agencies visited the site, but a definitive explanation for what Zamora saw was not determined.

At the time, skeptics suggested that both Zamora and the mayor, Holm Bursum Jr., perpetrated a hoax to boost tourism.

No evidence of it being a hoax was uncovered, and the site has never been developed for tourism. It remains much as it was in 1964.

The U.S. Air Force investigator’s report noted that Zamora was “a serious police officer, a pillar of his church, and a man well versed in recognizing airborne vehicles in his area.”

The incident was officially designated by the government as unexplained. Dean said she would like to add items to the Socorro Heritage and Visitors Center relating to the incident. San Antonio artist Patrick Richard said he is donating a painting he made in 2005 of Zamora to the center.

“I used a photograph of Lonnie with Air Force personnel taken while they were examining the site,” Richard said. “I’m donating the original painting to the Heritage Center. I want to do this for Lonnie.”

Videos: The Socorro Close Encounter - Socorro, New Mexico - 1964
Videos: The Socorro Close Encounter - Socorro, New Mexico - 1964