My internet friend Suebob has been traveling the country in a motorhome. I think she’s been on the East coast for some time and now I think she’s making her way back the West coast. She posted a beautiful picture of a sunset in Marfa Texas on Instagram and I commented that I had a story about Chris and Marfa. She responded with “Tell it!” Except now that I sit to tell it, I’m not sure it’s my story to tell. I was an observer of this adventure, not a participant. I can only tell you what I was told and I only saw the edited version of the video that recorded this adventure one time. It was if the videographer was riding around in an all-wheel-drive-off-roading vehicle instead of walking on his own two feet while filming. The result is a vomit inducing shaky video of four college friends roaming the American West in search of UFOs.

Yes.

Unidentified Flying Objects

The University of Science and Arts offers a five week independent study program between the winter and summer semester. Some people work on an art installation. Some people take an accelerated math class. Some people go on trips to New York or Mexico. Our sophomore year, Chris had the idea to use his independent study time to hunt for UFOs. This… this is quintessential Chris. His crazy adventure ideas were legendary, but this idea got him five college credit hours. Chris wrote up a proposal detailing his idea’ where him and his cohorts would visit and how they would present their findings. He presented it to his advisor expecting it to be dismissed, but the advisor approved his proposal. The next thing we knew, Chris, our friends Amy, Christy and Scott were loading up a car with camp gear, a tape recorder and a video camera and heading South.

They had three destinations in mind when they headed out: McDonald Observatory in Texas, Marfa (also in Texas) and Roswell, New Mexico. This was before Marfa became the eccentric art destination it is today. Tourists flocked to the dusty little town for one reason and that was for the mysterious flashing lights that happen East of town. No one knows what causes the phenomena. They just happen. At the time of Chris’s adventure, the Marfa lights were not as popular as they are today. Now there’s a whole festival around them. So here’s what I know about Chris’s time in Marfa. His description of the place made me think of a Bugs Bunny cartoon of the old West. I imagined a town consisting of a run down roadside motel across the street from a two pump gas station with tumbleweeds rolling by. He told me that they drove out to the parking area to view the lights. While they were standing there, looking out across the empty landscape, a tour bus pulled into the parking area. A number of people stumbled out of the bus with cameras and video recorders. Chris saw this is a great opportunity to get some interviews. He got out his tape recorder with a microphone attached and walked up to some older gentleman who had climbed up onto a rock to get a better view. Chris said something along the lines of “Sir? Can I ask you what you think these lights are all about?” and then held the microphone up to the man. Except the poor guy had had zero warning and having a microphone shoved into his face by this stranger, startled him. He yelped and fell off the rock.

This is the only story about Marfa that I remember Chris telling. That and Scott’s narration on the video. “What are these strange lights? UFOs? Ghosts? Strange lights?” We lost touch with Scott. I wonder if even knows about Chris. After Marfa, they made their way to New Mexico, stopping at White Sands, Meteor Crater, Carlsbad and then finally Roswell. Chris had a Hawaiian print style shirt made out of Anamaniacs fabric. He loved that thing, wore it all the time and he managed to lose that shirt on this trip. Some times I wonder if there is anyone left at USAO who talks about that one group of kids who got five credit hours for hunting UFOs. I image some college kid coming across something in archives about it. I can imagine that student taking this information to his/her friends and saying “Hey guys! Look at this! We should do something like this!” I like to think of Chris’s UFO hunt inspiring others to dream up their own crazy adventures.

So…that’s the story of Chris and the Marfa lights as best as I can tell it.