Did UFO Flap Change Stephenville?
by Gary Reaves
Last January, a rash of UFO sightings brought attention to the town of Stephenville, Texas. But did all the media attention change life there?
Stephenville calls itself the cowboy capital of the world. But look up the town in Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, and there is an entire page on UFOs.
Sightings there in January were just highlighted on ABC’s primetime but have they really changed the town?
The dairy cow on the Court House Square is again Stephenville’s most enduring icon but at Barefoot Sporting Goods, they still sell 25 UFO T-shirts a week.
But that’s nothing compared to last January when they were selling 1,000 an hour.
Image: Stephenville calls itself the “Cowboy Capital of the World.” Residents say the town has recovered from media attention brought on by UFO sightings
For a brief moment, Erath County replaced Roswell as the center of UFO attention, after 30 regular, trustworthy people, including a county constable, saw the lights zooming by.
The sightings brought international attention. The town got some UFO tourism. At the chamber of commerce, they tried to capitalize on the craze and calls from Brazil to Japan.
“We had a lot more request for visitor packets, relocation guides, as well as people calling wanting to know what else is there to do here in Stephenville,” said July Danley from the Stephenville Chamber of Commerce.
All the attention didn’t change the town.
For most, the UFO craze is distant memory but to those who actually saw it, it’s still unsettling.
“It made believer out of me,” said Steve Allen. Allen worked with ABC primetime for its special.
He’s not buying the government’s claim that all he saw was air force jets, especially after the mutual UFO network got radar readouts that show something else.
“Tell us what is going on, we’re not a bunch of idiots. We deserve to know the truth, we can handle it,” Allen said.
Stephenville may be back to normal but without better answers, the mystery remains.
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