HOOPER, Colo. — As part of the new series “Colorado’s Unexplained Stories,” we’re taking a trip four hours south of Denver to the San Luis Valley. The area is nicknamed “The UFO Hot Spot of America.”
Apparently, there are more UFO sightings there than anywhere else in America.
Locals refer to Highway 17, which cuts through the valley, as “The Cosmic Highway.”
If you take the highway into Hooper, you’ll eventually pass by an oddly shaped dome-like structure known as “The UFO Watch Tower.” It was created by Judy Messoline 15 years ago.
“What I find is we get people here because they need a place to talk about it and especially ones that have had experiences. Especially abductees,” Messoline said.
Ask anyone who lives in the Hooper area if they’ve ever seen anything weird in the sky and chances are each one of them will tell you “Yes.”
Their experiences inspired Messoline to create the tower. It features plenty of things, including a log book where people can write their run-ins with the unknown.
“I had an air traffic controller from DIA come in who said they get six to eight UFO reports from pilots every month. Now figure that one out,” Messoline said with a chuckle.
Without a doubt, what’s inside the tower is neat. But what’s outside is really out of this world.
“The meteor showers are just awesome from up here,” Messoline said as she stood on the tower.
From high atop the tower, people come to experience something different.
“About 40 psychics have been by and they’ve all said the same thing — that there are two large vortexes in front of the tower,” Messoline said with a serious tone.
It might sound weird, but Messoline said there’s something special about the land the UFO Watch Tower sits on.
So much so, she created a “UFO Garden.” The garden is scattered with all sorts of trinkets, left behind by visitors from our world.
“When you walk through the garden you should pay attention to your body so you can feel the energy from the vortexes,” Messoline said.
Vortexes are defined as being a portal between our world and other worlds. Almost like a gateway to a different universe, Messoline said.
“And I thought that’s kind of special, ya know? Doggone,” Messoline said.
For some, this sort of stuff is hard to believe. But in Hooper, the supernatural just comes naturally.
“Lots of things happen here and they can keep on happening because I’m having fun with it,” Messoline said with a laugh.
Our paranormal series “Colorado’s Unexplained Stories” will continue through this season of “The X-Files.” If you have a supernatural story you’d like us to investigate, contact FOX31 Denver’s Kevin Torres at kevin.torres@digital-staging.kdvr.com or on his Facebook page.