Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge is located a few miles northeast of the city on the Pecos River.

The city also relies on New Mexico and Americana related tourism[7][8] including the International UFO Museum and Research Center.

Local American folk and New Mexico music performances occur near Pioneer Plaza and in parks around the city.

It is a center for acequia-like irrigated farming, dairying, and ranching; it is also the location of several manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum related facilities.

John Chisum had his famous Jingle Bob Ranch about 5 miles (8 km) from the center of Roswell, at South Spring Acres.

Van C. Smith, a businessman from Omaha, Nebraska, and his partner, Aaron Wilburn, constructed two adobe buildings in 1869 that began what is now Roswell.

In 1877, Captain Joseph Calloway Lea and his family bought out Smith and Wilburn's claim and became the owners of most of the land of Roswell and the area surrounding it.

The German prisoners of war were used to do major infrastructure work in Roswell, such as paving the banks of the North Spring River.

The park displays a piece of the Berlin Wall, presented to the city of Roswell by the German Air Force.

It was the report of an object that crashed in the general vicinity in June or July 1947, allegedly an extraterrestrial spacecraft and its alien occupants.

Since the late 1970s, the incident has been the subject of intense controversy and of a conspiracy theory regarding a classified program named "Project Mogul".

Many UFO proponents maintain that an alien craft was found and its occupants were captured, and that the military then engaged in a cover-up.

In recent times, the business community has deliberately sought out tourists interested in UFOs, science fiction, and aliens.

Summers are very hot (as is common with the High Plains of New Mexico and Colorado) and averages around 30 days per year when the temperature rises above 100 °F (38 °C), which can be unpleasant.

The North American monsoon occurs during the summer, and can bring torrential downpours, severe thunderstorms (with high winds and hail) and sometimes even tornadoes.

[citation needed] Joe Bauman hit a minor-league record 72 home runs for the 1954 Roswell Rockets.

Roswell's tourism industry is based on aerospace engineering and ufology museums and businesses, as well as alien-themed and spacecraft-themed iconography.

[26] The Roswell Museum maintains an exhibit that includes a recreation of Goddard's rocket engine development workshop, as well as a planetarium and a collection of fine art.