The Roswell Dig Diaries (Sci Fi Channel Books) (Paperback)

~ SCI FI Channel (Author), (Author), Thomas J. Carey (Author), Donald R. Schmitt (Author), Bill Richardson (Author), Mike McAvennie (Author)
Key Phrases: alternative furrow, reported furrow, metal detection survey, The Roswell Dig Diaries, Foster Ranch, New Mexico (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this valuable addition to UFO literature, McAvennie pulls together a batch of documentary materials relating to an archeological dig made in 2002 on the site of the alleged UFO crash at Roswell, N.Mex., in July 1947. Sponsored by the Sci-Fi Channel, the book has a slight bias in favor of those who argue that there’s been a cover-up of unacceptable proportions. To get the job done, the sponsors had to raise money, recruit volunteers and present a detailed plan to the supporting experts from the superb archeology department at the University of Mexico. Though equipped with the latest techniques and technology, the dig also faced such obstacles as no-show volunteers, wind, weather, high altitude and higher temperatures. The concluding report suggests that some of the objects found at the site require further analysis and that an impact can’t be ruled out. One wishes success to this book, the planned two companions and the Sci-Fi Channel’s suit under the Freedom of Information Act to secure any surviving documents from the Air Force, if only to reduce the backbiting and witch-hunting that divide skeptics and believers.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

In July 1947, something crashed in the desert near Roswell, New Mexico. What that object was, as well as what happened in the days following the crash, has been hotly disputed ever since. Did the United States government cover up the existence of an extraterrestrial UFO? Were alien bodies recovered from the crash site? Or was it all nothing more than the failed launch of a weather balloon? The "Roswell Incident" remains one of the great unsolved mysteries of the twentieth century, and a source of enduring controversy.

As part of the SCI FI Channel's ongoing mission to separate science fiction from science fact, the network sponsored an unprecedented, comprehensive archeological investigation of the crash site. Utilizing modern-day forensic tools, scientists from the University of New Mexico, in partnership with SCI FI, set out to uncover physical evidence to determine once and for all what really happened in the desert near Roswell. Only some of the team's discoveries were hinted at in SCI FI's highest-rated-ever documentary, The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence. Many have speculated about the true extent of what the dig team uncovered. Until now.

The Roswell Dig Diaries presents to the public, for the very first time, the exclusive complete archeological report, including the final scientific conclusions of this landmark excavation and never-before-seen maps and photos of the crash site. This groundbreaking volume also takes you behind the scenes of the investigation with exclusive day-by-day personal journals and private company emails, written by everyone from the project leader, Dr. Bill Doleman, to Roswell Report authors Thomas J. Carey and Donald R. Schmitt, to SCI FI Channel executives, to the volunteer dig team members who helped make the investigation possible.

Read the facts, sift through the evidence, and decide for yourself. Are we alone?

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Pocket (July 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743486129
• ISBN-13: 978-0743486125
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,250,820 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, August 20, 2004

By	Andrew Mandrackie "The Unreconstructed Rebel" - See all my reviews

Although there is much of interest in this book, there is almost as much that could be tossed out without in any way detracting from the real content. It was as if, having laid out the story, the editors found themselves with too many empty pages left, and went about madly gathering up the most irrelevant minutiae to occupy the space.

The first chapter could be discarded entirely, or at least summarized in a paragraph or so. (Do we really need to know the exact text of every email that passed between the principals? Is it crucial to devote several mind-numbingly dull pages to what reads like the full text of a sales brochure for the University of New Mexico's Office of Contract Archeology - pages brimming with such breath-taking facts as a description of their facility and a listing of their vehicles and office equipment, etc., etc., ad nauseam?) The text is rife with such alarming digressions.

Likewise, it was hardly necessary to reprint the SciFi Channel's entire PR announcement heralding the broadcast (which occurred in November, 2002, while the book was copyrighted in 2004) of the documentary film of this Roswell dig. If one missed the documentary - two years ago - the fact could hardly pass unnoticed, since mention of the production is made, it seems, at every possible opportunity. One could almost detect a ghostly producer wagging a scolding finger at the truant reader absent from that stellar broadcast.

The book is saved from utter disaster by the short diaries of the participants in the dig, which tell, in brief vignettes, the very human story of the hopes, heartbreaks and hardships of both the very educated and the very common people involved in this effort. Of further compelling interest is the final report on the project by OCA's William Doleman. The afterword documents also merit attention.

Unfortunately, the upshot of all this archeological activity in the New Mexico high desert was that nothing substantial was found to advance the cause of those (myself included) who contend for the occurrence of an extra-terrestrial event. I am left wondering if the SciFi Channel people really thought that a dig of less than a week's duration with a skeleton crew of untrained volunteers would actually produce anything; or was this simply a high profile headline event calculated to generate a lot of viewer interest whether the dig was productive or not?

If that is the case, then this book can only be seen as a further attempt to capitalize on the hopes of the UFO faithful and the drawing power of the name "Roswell".

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Roswell Mythology Continues, September 6, 2005

By	Tracking Terror (New Kensington, PA) - See all my reviews

SCI FI Declassified: The Roswell Dig Diaries is the literary companion, including the final scientific conclusions, to the SCI FI Channel's highest-ever rated original special, The Roswell Crash: Startling New Evidence. For nine days, from September 16-24, 2002, the University of New Mexico's Office of Contract Archaeology in Albuquerque, headed by principal investigator William Doleman, in partnership with the SCI FI Channel, set out to conduct a historic "dig," archeological testing and related research at the "reported location of a low-angle extraterrestrial vessel impact in 1947."

The Roswell Dig Diaries is, for the most part, a thought-provoking and enjoyable behind the scenes look at Project Starlight, this unprecedented and comprehensive search for "memory metal," the Holy Grail of Roswell, at the debris field or "skip site."

From the opening timeline of Roswell events to the personal day-by-day journals and private e-mails of many of the personalities involved, The Roswell Dig Diaries demonstrates the highs and lows of such an undertaking. In short order, you will share both the frustration and enthusiasm felt by those on the project.
Make no bones about it, the debate over what exactly crashed at the former J. B. Foster sheep Ranch (located thirty-five miles south-southeast of Corona, seventy-five miles northwest of Roswell, New Mexico) in Lincoln County one fateful July 1947 night will continue.

The Roswell Dig Diaries makes an interesting addition to any collection concerning this source of endless controversy.
(Review by Robert A. Goerman)