Theory about 37th parallel and UFOs sparked book, TV shows, film concept

By Steve Hammons

In 2016, a non-fiction book was published titled “The 37th Parallel: The Secret Truth Behind America's UFO Highway.” In the book, writer Ben Mezrich chronicled the explorations and investigations of former El Paso County, Colorado, (Colorado Springs region) reserve deputy sheriff Chuck Zukowski. The book was a New York Times bestseller for two months.

Zukowski has been featured in TV shows about UFOs and his theory about the 37th parallel (north). New Line Cinema (Warner Bros.) reportedly has a movie version concept based on Mezrich's book.

Mezrich looked at Zukowski’s speculation and theory that there is something about the region around the 37th parallel that seems to be a hot spot for UFO-related and unusual incidents. This includes the 36th parallel region to the south, and 38th to the north. (Each degree of latitude is approximately 69 miles wide.)

Because Mezrich is a well-known and prolific writer on a range of topics, the book received fairly widespread attention. Readers who might not normally focus on a UFO-related subject may have found Mezrich's research compelling.

There is also a unique location where the 37th parallel intersects with the Colorado Plateau and the Four Corners region. Both the plateau and the Four Corners span Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.

GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY

From west to east, the 37th parallel runs through central California, the southern tip of Nevada, then through the central U.S. where many states abut south-north at the joint state lines of the following:

- Arizona and Utah
- New Mexico and Colorado
- Texas panhandle and Oklahoma
- Texas panhandle and Colorado
- Texas panhandle and Kansas
- Oklahoma and Colorado
- Oklahoma and Kansas
- Arkansas and Missouri
- Tennessee and Kentucky
- North Carolina and Virginia

In the Four Corners, the Colorado Plateau is a distinct geological and ecological region of the U.S. It is an area of volcanic-related uplift of land in the shape of a rough circle in the Four Corners states.

Certain areas on the perimeter of the plateau are known for beautiful red rock mountains and cliffs – red due to high content of iron oxide. Sedona, Arizona, and St. George, Utah, are two such areas on the southwest and west edges of the Colorado Plateau, respectively.

Sedona is also famous for being an "uplifting" location (on the 34th parallel) not only for the natural beauty and climate, but also where unusual geomagnetic energies are allegedly emitted from the Earth and then return back to the ground, similar to fountains and vortexes. Some researchers theorize that the high iron oxide, high quartz content and unique underground volcanic structures might be part of these magnetic anomalies.

So, where do the 37th parallel, the Colorado Plateau and the Four Corners merge? It’s a beautiful area of the American Southwest where thousands of travelers visit every year.

The 37th parallel intersects the Four Corners and the boundary of the Colorado Plateau around Durango and Cortez, Colorado, near the Mesa Verde National Park, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and the San Juan National Forest – all major tourist destinations.

The Continental Divide also runs north-south right through the same area. West of the divide, water flows into the Pacific Ocean. East the Continental Divide, water flows to the Atlantic. The divide stretches from Alaska to South America.

Are there any indications of unusual incidents in this region that might support Zukowski’s theories described in Mezrich’s book and on TV shows?

AZTEC AND FARMINGTON

There have been longstanding stories that a UFO crashed or crash landed near Aztec, NM, just south of Durango, in 1948. Authors Scott and Suzanne Ramsey conducted extensive research on this case for their 2015 book “The Aztec UFO Incident.”

According to some of the research, when this object crashed or made a controlled crash landing, several local people were witnesses. Government scientists and U.S. Army personnel reportedly may have flown into Durango, then proceeded by road south to Aztec.

Then, in 1950, 15 miles southwest of Aztec, the people of Farmington, NM, reportedly witnessed three days multiple UFOs flying over the town. This is known as the “Farmington armada” incident because there were “fleets” of objects observed.

The local newspaper interviewed many local citizens and documented their statements about what they observed. Other regional newspapers covered the incident at the time, too. Some witnesses said the objects sometimes were not just cruising along, but doing active maneuvers, swooping and darting around the skies above Farmington.

In more recent years, researchers like Zukowski and others have looked at various incidents in the Four Corners region. Some investigators and analysts say they see possible patterns, like Zukowski’s 37th parallel theories.

And for many people, UFOs remain a weird mystery, born of decades of movies and TV shows, and occasional news accounts of allegedly real incidents.

However, beginning in December 2017, news reports emerged about a special Pentagon research unit tasked with investigating and analyzing the situation – the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP). Concurrent with that news, the public learned about recent U.S. Navy jet pilot encounters with “unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP)” at sea near Navy aircraft carrier strike groups and near the west and east coasts of the U.S. Three videos taken from Navy jets were declassified and released.

This development made the UFO topic much more real and legitimate for many citizens, journalists and those involved in national security and public safety.

As the year 2020 rapidly approaches, maybe we will develop new insights and understanding about the UFO phenomena – in the Four Corners and elsewhere.


(Related articles  “Storytelling affects human biology, beliefs, behavior” and “Reagan’s 1987 UN speech on ‘alien threat’ resonates now” are posted on the CultureReady blog, Defense Language and National Security Education Office, Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, U.S. Department of Defense.)