Roswell

The county's namesake was killed at supper. José Francisco Chaves, the Union officer the panel names, fought at Valverde in 1862, served as the territory's delegate in Congress, sat in its legislature for nearly thirty years and was made territorial historian in 1903. On November 26, 1904, eighteen days after an election, someone shot him through a window while he ate at a friend's house in Pinos Wells, in Torrance County, and escaped on horseback unseen. A man named Bell later confessed, then said he had been drunk when he did.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Roswell Population 50,000 - Elevation 3,612 Roswell was a watering place for the Pecos Valley cattle drives of the 1870s and 1880s. It was in- corporated in 1891 and is seat of Chaves County, named for Col. J. Francisco Chaves, Civil War soldier and delegate to the U.S. Congress from the Territory of New Mexico. In the 1930s, Dr. Robert Goddard conducted experiments in liquid fuel rocket flights here.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• International UFO Museum and Research Center — 2.4 mi
  A 1930s movie theater on Roswell's Main Street turned into a museum by two men who had been part of the 1947 story, one of them the officer who announced the flying disc.
• Bottomless Lakes State Park — 10 mi
  Nine sinkhole lakes under red bluffs east of Roswell, named by vaqueros whose ropes never touched bottom, and set aside in 1933 as New Mexico's first state park.

More markers nearby

• Roswell Pioneer Plaza — 2.5 mi
• Roswell — 3.2 mi
• Walker Air Force Base — 4.7 mi
• Roswell — 6.4 mi