Weird Arizona

Dreamy Draw Dam According to those "in the know," an alien craft rocketed through Earth's atmosphere in October of 1947, dove for the American Southwest, misjudged its landing, and made an unscheduled—and permanent—stop in lower Arizona. Apparently, the ship's pilots overestimated their altitude, encountered mechanical failure or simply fell into hyperspace hypnosis, and slammed headlong into the desert. One version of the story has the craft plummeting into a landfill in Cave Creek, but the more popular account states that it ploughed into the sandy base of Squaw Peak, just outside downtown Phoenix. What's more, two four-and-a-half-foot creatures were reportedly recovered from the wreckage, held briefly in cold storage inside a local screwball's deep-freeze, then promptly collected by the men in dark sunglasses. After the pair of extraterrestrials was retrieved, the government, in typical fashion, covered the whole thing up…with infrastructure. Dreamy Draw Dam, which is viewable from East Northern Avenue as you enter Dreamy Draw Recreation Area, was supposedly built on the site of the alien crash in order to conceal the wreckage. Rather than trying to smuggle the vessel out, the Army Corps of Engineers simply hauled building material in and heaped it on top of the craft. According to UFOlogists, the dam is entirely unnecessary in its location and exists solely to conceal the extraterrestrial debris. Why not load the spacecraft into the back of a semi and transfer it to a secret lab somewhere? The military already had one just like it, of course, which was dropped in their laps three months earlier outside Roswell, New Mexico, and secreted to Area 51. (Dreamy Draw Dam, by the way, lies immediately to the south of Highway 51—coincidence?) Accounts of the episode are difficult to come by, but if they weren't, the men in dark sunglasses weren't doing their job. Even maps of the recreation area that illustrate that the dam's location is hard to dig up, not to mention signs of any kind in the park with the word "dam" on them. You will, however, find plenty of "no trespassing" signs threatening fines and imprisonment. But, of course, you don't hide a spaceship by inviting everyone to see where it's buried. The real kicker, though, is that Maricopa County is adamant in its claim that the dam wasn't built until 1973. Obviously, the conspiracy runs deep! The Hum Beneath the Dam I was wondering if you had heard anything about a place called the Dreamy Draw Recreation Area. I drive by it every day on the way to and from school. It's in Phoenix off the SR 51 and Northern Ave. The place has kind of a funny name, so I searched on Google to try and learn about it. Boy was I in for a surprise! There is a wild rumor that the Dreamy Draw recreation area was the site of a UFO crash in October of 1948, approximately 3 months after the famous "Roswell crash." The story goes that locals recovered a pair of 4.5-foot tall carcasses from the spacecraft, which were stored in a local man's freezer until the authorities could arrive. The government supposedly took over the investigation, and later built the Dreamy Draw Dam on top of the crash site. Some speculate that it was not needed for flood control purposes at all. Do I believe the story? Not entirely. But is it weird? Hell yeah! So I went to check this place out after school. It's Monday afternoon, hardly anybody is around. I'm pedaling around on my bike and I find the dam. It's fenced off pretty well and there are LOTS of No Trespassing signs everywhere. Pretty high security for an earthen dam with no water behind it! I take some pictures, look around, and I see the outfall of the dam buried in the bushes. I ride around to the other side and hike down into the low area. There's a large concrete box with a fence on 3 sides. As I am getting down towards the bottom, I hear this steady, low-pitched humming noise. I can't figure out what it is! Is there really a UFO buried beneath this thing? As I glance around to see if anyone's watching, a plane crosses the sky. The place is not TOO far from the airport, but it's still close enough to hear jets taking off. That's probably what I heard. But I got some pictures if you'd like to see what I'm talking about. The lesson is that you'll never realize how much weird stuff is out there until you start looking! –Trevor Freeman Weird Arizona

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