Presidents, UFO's, and Mysteries That Remain Unsolved

The good thing about cable vision (do we call it that anymore?) is that with two hundred and something channels with nothing on, there are still usually one or two shows that one might actually want to watch.  If the one who might want to watch that one show has special interests, such as a desire to learn about some of the more obscure aspects of American history, a selection of the History Channel, History Channel 2, History HD, etc., means the odds are good that at least one history show of interest is on.  Tonight I was not disappointed.

As I surfed the upper reaches of Tele Land I ran across a very interesting title flashed across the "info" screen.  The particular program was about our Presidents who were seriously interested in the scientific investigations of UFO's.  It turns out that our chief executives, from Truman to Bush II, have had at least passing interests in discovering the "truth" about flying saucers.  Unfortunately none of these Presidents have had their curiosity satisfied.  Apparently there are some secrets even the President is not privy to.  Surprisingly one of the most aggressive Presidents in this regard was William Clinton.  While he made a joke about it publicly, Mr. Clinton did indeed seek to obtain answers using all his power.  In the end even he was denied access to deeply classified information.  For reasons unknown he never toured Area 51.  So, the mystery of UFO's and the secrets contained in America's most closely guarded vaults were never revealed to our top brass.

In West Texas, there is another place of magic and mystery that has never been explained.  In an isolated spot on Highway 90 between Marfa and Alpine, people have gathered for years to watch strange phenomena that have come to be known as the Marfa Lights.  While obviously the Marfa Lights are phenomena specific to the triangle formed by Marfa, Alpine, and Presidio, and therefore are not UFO's in the commonly accepted meaning, they are certainly just as mysterious.  I have witnessed the Marfa Lights on two separate occasions myself, and to skeptics who say that they are optical illusions caused by car headlights on the Presidio Highway, I would like say A) when you explain to me how these lights dance around the top of radio towers, divide from one to many and back to one, and perform a thousand other antics, and B) explain how Native Americans, Mexicans, and American settlers saw these same "illusions" in the two centuries before automobiles began traveling through the area, I will join you in your skepticism.  Actually, I hope they are never "scientifically explained" because I think our lives are enhanced by the little mysteries here and there that go unsolved through the years.

The Marfa Lights and UFO's are not the only objects of intrigue.  In Texas alone, there are so many mysterious things that our science cannot explain.  Just outside the hill country town of Rockdale, in Milam County, there is a rock wall, now mostly buried, that was obviously built by humans.  Equally obvious is the fact that it demonstrates technology and planning beyond that level reached by the local "Indians."  The wall is believed to be about twenty feet tall at its highest point, and is several feet wide.  This wall is not mentioned in Native American lore in the area, nor in any known accounts of the Spanish explorers of Texas.  The wall created quite a stir when it was "discovered" prior to the turn of the twentieth century by local ranchers.  It was examined by archaeologists and anthropologists during that time, but no explanation was offered.  This find was not to be heralded by later professors to their students, presumably because everyone "knew" that no one was building rock walls in North America prior to the Spanish colonization efforts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 

UFO secrets pursued by the Presidents, natural but inexplicable lights in Marfa, mysterious rock walls constructed in the hills of Central Texas; who knows how many more mysteries like these exist in our great nation, and across the globe.  I, for one, hope that some of these mysteries remain just that, mysterious.  UFO's may some day be proved to be just a figment of the human imagination; the Marfa lights, some weird distortion of light across the mountains; and the rock wall, just a practical joke by some traveling band of early Americans with nothing better to do.  Maybe, but I hope not.  Life is, in my humble opinion, enhanced and made so much more interesting when we have a few mysteries to ponder.