The National UFO Historical Records Center will open its doors to the public Saturday at its location on the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School campus, marking an unusual partnership between Rio Rancho Public Schools and the archive facility.
The open house runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday at the center’s new home at the southeast end of the elementary school campus at 1301 Nicklaus Drive SE.
The collaboration aims to promote critical thinking and evidence-based research among students and community members, according to a school district announcement.
The NUFOHRC houses what officials describe as the largest collection of UFO records in North America, containing thousands of historical documents related to unidentified flying object reports and investigations.
David Marler, a Rio Rancho resident and executive director of the UFO center, has accumulated one of the largest personal libraries of UFO books, journals, magazines, newspapers, microfilm, audio recordings, and case files from around the world covering the last 75-plus years.
“What we’ve assembled here today has never been assembled before in the history of this country, namely, the largest concentration of historical materials on the subject of UFOs ever in the United States,” Marler said at the grand opening of the UFO center last October. “That’s a big statement, but it’s one I stand by, and it’s one that nobody can challenge.”
Marler is among the leading UFO historians and archivists in the world. His Rio Rancho home held dozens of four-drawer file cabinets with government documents, reports, case files, hundreds of thousands of news clippings and more than 1,500 books cataloged. All of his archives, along with hundreds of historic audio recordings and museum-quality artifacts from the USAF Project Blue Book, can now be enjoyed by the public at the records center.
During Saturday’s event, visitors can tour the facility and examine portions of the archive’s collection. Center officials said the records support educational programs focused on scientific inquiry and historical research methods.
The partnership represents an unconventional approach to science education, using the popular subject of UFOs to engage students in research methodology and critical analysis of historical documents.
The center will be accessible to researchers, educators and the general public interested in examining the historical record of UFO phenomena.