The National UFO Historical Records Center acquires archives of Aerial Phenomena Research Organization
By Toby Martinez and Maximo Veron
Roswell Daily Record
In a groundbreaking development for UFO enthusiasts and researchers, the National UFO Historical Records Center (NUFOHRC) in Rio Rancho has become the official home of the archives of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO).
APRO, a scientific organization founded in 1952, conducted extensive field investigations on UFOs and boasted a sizable team of consulting Ph.D. scientists. One notable figure within this group was James E. McDonald, a renowned atmospheric physicist affiliated with the University of Arizona and a leading UFO researcher of his era. Additionally, James Harder, a civil and hydraulic engineering professor at the University of California, Berkeley, served as the director of research for APRO from 1969 to 1982. McDonald and Harder were among a group of six scientists that provided testimony on UFOs during a one-day symposium sponsored by APRO before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Astronautics on July 29, 1968.
NUFOHRC Executive Director David Marler told the Roswell Daily Record by email Wednesday, “We are overjoyed at the prospect of allowing public access to the APRO UFO files after 35 years of them being considered ‘lost.’ In acquiring the extensive APRO UFO case files and in conjunction with our pre-existing data sets, we now have the largest collection of civilian UFO reports dating to the early 1950s numbering in the tens of thousands. This is the largest collection of UFO reports to ever be centralized in the history of the United States. Coupled with the civilian records are original (declassified) military UFO reports derived from Dr. J. Allen Hynek, former chief scientific adviser to (the) Air Force Project Blue Book.”
NUFOHRC is currently seeking a location in Albuquerque to house its collection of UFO archives. The facility will be accessible by the public and civilian, scientific and government researchers.
“We continue our work of organizing and digitizing these records so they may be readily accessible to the general public,” Marler said. “Integral to the success of this effort will be the acquisition of donations to purchase a public building. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, we seek to create a credible institution devoted to the UFO subject predicated on original documentation on a scale never seen before. We have no such historical archive in the United States currently devoted to this subject. We at NUFOHRC have the history. Now, we need a home for this history.”
