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171 there is something to be found, you have temporarily run out of patience and need to move on. Back you go across the crudest roads you have ever seen, to what passes as a highway in these parts, and thence to the glorified crossroads called Corona. After a day in some truly desolate places, this seems like civilization. It's a pleasure to finally get out of first gear! And head westward to the Plains of San Agustin, where far fewer UFO investigators have preceded you. More cows, maybe, but they were looking for tasteless stuff to chew, not to make history. A hundred fifty miles later, you come upon the stark one- time great lake, and soon the eerie and deceptively large saucer-shaped electronic antennas. The Very Large Array stretches across the highway, its thirteen-mile long arms spread out to capture radio signals so faint that only a scientist can appreciate the achievement. This part of Catron County— the least populated in the state—was chosen for the world's largest radio telescope because it is electronically quiet, with- out the interfering signals to be found elsewhere. Not because it is near the site of the crash of a strange vehicle, as some overly dramatic saucer fans have suggested. Past the VLA you drive, wondering what it's looking at today. Off to the left stretches the Plains, long-ago home to Anastazis and Athabascans and other ancient peoples whose descendants can be found driving pick-up trucks past the VLA with rarely a glance at the familiar formation of slowly moving monuments. The flatness of the Plains contrasts sharply with the sur- rounding steep, rocky hills and you can't help but wonder if the crew that was about to crash might have been looking for a level landing field. But there's no way to know what they were thinking, or how desperate was their situation just before they hit the ground. Still, you have to try to understand what might have been happening, even if you know you can't possibly come to a meaningful conclusion. You're driving along a good road, but there is hardly any traffic and there's no surplus of tourist facilities. The sleepy little town of Magdalena has one diner and a couple of motels, THE CRASH SITE TODAY