RIO RANCHO, N.M. – Another New Mexico city is shining a spotlight on UFOs, but not in the way you might expect.

The portable classrooms at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary are the new home of the National UFO Historical Records Archive. It’s the largest collection of UFO sighting documents in the country, and maybe the world.

Now, thanks to a partnership with Rio Rancho Public Schools, the amateur collectors who kept all these records safe over the years are finally making them available to the public.

“It’s literally overwhelming. People don’t have any conception until they come here how much material that we’re talking about. And it really, I think, makes people pause and realize there’s a lot more to this UFO subject than I ever thought,” said David Marler, executive director of the National UFO Historical Records Center.  

Marler knows the idea of a UFO records archive probably sounds silly to some folks, but he says that skepticism is welcome.

“We really don’t care what your take is on the UFO subject. In fact, we welcome differing opinions, differing perspectives,” said Marler. 

The National UFO Historical Records Center is a nonprofit organizing hundreds of thousands of declassified government documents, news clippings, photos, videos and more evidence from across the globe all under one roof.

“It’s a traditional historical archive dedicated to a non-traditional subject. We want serious research to be conducted here in the hopes ultimately of maybe gaining a better insight into this mystery that we’ve been dealing with now for 75 plus years,” said Marler. 

He says there are countless connections to be discovered now that all these case files are together.

“Some organizations interviewed witnesses that the other did not, and vice versa, and sometimes there’s new insights provided by one investigative organization that was never obtained by this one,” said Marler. “The more minds, the more set of eyeballs we have looking at the data as with any subject, the better we’re going to be if we truly want to try to understand what we’re dealing with when we talk about UFOs.” 

Marler’s collection – which used to live inside his Rio Rancho home – is largely a collection of other collections sent in from fellow UFO archivists. With all this extra space donated by Rio Rancho Public Schools, Marler says they’re ready for more.

“We have about 10 to 12 other collections that are also in the queue,” Marler said. “Two individuals I know in Ohio have stated, ‘You’re already in my will. If anything happens to me, my material is coming to Rio Rancho.'” 

Whether or not you believe in aliens, Marler says the overwhelming amount of documentation is worth preserving.

“We feel it’s important because it is an element of history, it is an element of our culture. So that’s really how we try to view it,” said Marler. “If we can’t define the answers to the UFO mystery, maybe in 40, 50, 60, years someone might, but they can only do that by looking at the data.” 

While this is a public archive, it’s a not a free for all. Marler says you’ll have to submit a request on their website to set up a time to come and visit. The idea is that you’ll have full access to everything inside. 

But why would Rio Rancho Public Schools get involved with something like this.

“Our students find the subject matter of UFO investigation very intriguing. And so we want to do is we want to use that as a catalyst in order to get students involved in other types of learning,” said RRPS Chief Operating Officer Michael Baker. “So we think that the parents, as long as the students are learning, we’re not trying to persuade thinking one way or another, we think we’re going to see some really good benefits from this area.” 

District officials say the partnership is expected to last at least five years.