Yes, America's early pioneers, ranchers, and cowboys really did see unidentified flying objects in the skies over North America, according to McAllen High School librarian Noe Torres, co-author of a new book titled The Real Cowboys & Aliens: Early American UFOs. Torres, who has been a librarian at McAllen High since 1999, teamed up with Roswell historian John LeMay, president of the Historical Society of Southeast New Mexico, to publish his twelfth book about the UFO phenomenon. “UFOs were actually quite common in the 1800s,” Torres, a veteran UFO researcher who has appeared on UFO-related shows for History Channel and Travel Channel, said. “We have found hundreds of newspaper and magazine accounts about people seeing strange objects and lights in the sky and on the ground. We also found articles that mention face-to-face encounters with creatures that seemed human but were clearly not.” Long before the first airplane took flight, when nothing but birds should have been in the skies, the early residents of the United States witnessed bizarre unidentified flying objects of all sizes, shapes, and descriptions, according to the authors. Nineteenth-century denizens encountered strange beings that clearly were not human, including “Men in Black” and possibly time travelers. They saw huge mother ships, underwater UFOs, and other unexplained wonders. “Some of America’s most famous early historical figures, including Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, George Washington, shared an interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials,” John LeMay, who was born and raised in Roswell, New Mexico, said. “Our book reveals the ‘other’ American history that you were never taught in school.” In reviewing the book, UFO expert Nick Pope said, “If you think the UFO mystery began in 1947 with flying saucers and the Roswell crash, think again. This fascinating, data-rich book explores a wealth of intriguing incidents that were formerly interpreted through the lens of folklore, but which could now lead to a fundamental reappraisal of the greatest mystery of the modern age. With the focus on the 19th century, this delightful tome shines a light on a slice of American history that shows truth really can be stranger than fiction.” Best-selling author Donald Schmitt, in his review of the book, said, “What Torres and LeMay have clearly defined in this suspenseful thriller tome, is that the UFO accounts portrayed throughout this exhaustively researched work, remain in a separate class.... Aside from a rare hot-air balloon or dirigible, there was nothing else in the air back then... or on the ground; the witnesses are clearly describing something which precedes the Wright Brothers technology.... The simple fact that such cases exist in an era where the sky above us was still pristine and H. G. Wells had yet to conquer the Earth with Martians should captivate us all....” Ruben J. Uriarte of the Mutual UFO Network said, “Before airplanes were invented, journalists and scientists of the 19th century recorded hundreds of sightings of unidentified aerial phenomena crisscrossing the skies of America. This amazing new book provides a startlingly detailed look at these early UFO cases, which tend to confirm that we are not alone!” Published by Amazon.com, The Real Cowboys & Aliens: Early American UFOs is available at the author’s web site, RoswellBooks.com. BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF NOE TORRES A recognized expert in the field of UFOs and the paranormal, Noe Torres is an author, publisher, and former Texas state section director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON). He holds a Bachelor’s in English and a Master’s in Library Science from the University of Texas at Austin. He has written one of the most popular books about the famous Roswell Incident, titled Ultimate Guide to the Roswell UFO Crash, which is among the top selling books at gift shops in Roswell, New Mexico. Torres also wrote the critically-acclaimed book The Real Cowboys & Aliens: UFO Encounters of the Old West in 2011, which was followed in 2019 by an expanded book on the same theme, titled The Real Cowboys & Aliens: Early American UFOs. In addition, Torres has authored or co-authored a number of other well-reviewed books, including Mexico’s Roswell, The Other Roswell, Aliens in the Forest, Fallen Angel, and The Coyame Incident. His author’s page on Amazon is located at http://amazon.com/author/noetorres. Torres has appeared on a number of nationally-broadcast television shows, including season two, episode one of the Travel Channel’s Mysteries of the Outdoors, titled “Strange Attraction,” which premiered in August 2017. In that show, he is interviewed extensively about unexplained mysteries in Big Bend National Park. Also in 2017, Noe was featured in an episode titled “The Marfa Lights” for the TV series Mysteries of the Unexplained. In 2008, he appeared in season one, episode four of the History Channel’s UFO Hunters, in a show called “Crash and Retrieval.” In addition, Torres has founded a number of UFO conferences throughout Texas, including the Laredo UFO Conference, the Del Rio UFO Festival, the Presidio UFO Festival, and the Edinburg UFO Conference & Festival, which was recently ranked by ListVerse.com as the number three best UFO festival in the world (see https://listverse.com/2017/04/16/top-10-festivals-for-ufo-and-alien-lovers/ His efforts to organize UFO conferences in Texas were spotlighted by Texas Observer magazine (see https://www.texasobserver.org/aliens-without-borders-exploring-the-del-rio-ufo-festival/
