The UFO WatchTower resides in Hooper, Colorado over looking one of Colorado's
many visitor sites, "The Greate Sand Dunes".
Judy Messoline controls the tower with grace, witt and
a great sense of sincerity. In June of 1995 her and her companion, Stan Becker moved to
the San Luis Valley to become cattle ranchers. They had a small herd of Scotch Highlands
in Golden Colorado. With Golden becomming more golden to city dwellers, they hoofed it to
the San Luis Valley.
After moving, Judy's friend Babette (who still lived in Golden) called and said, "Well have
you seen any?" "Any What?" Replied Judy.. "UFOs", Stated Babette.. Well a few more phone calls
from Babette and a suggestion to pick up some reading material written by the recent local
investigator Christopher O'Brien, Judy sooned learned about the Mysterious Valley. After talking
with the local residents, and hearing about strange things they would see in the sky, she would
smile and reply, "What we need down here is a UFO Watchtower!" After about 4 and half years of
trying to raise cattle on land that couldn't sustain them, she decided to get out of the cattle
business. One day, while working at the local convenience store, she mentioned to one of the
farmers how she wasn't sure what to do with the 640 acres of (cattle-less) land she now had.
Smiling, the farmer replied, "Well you've joked about doing a UFO Watchtower, why don't you just
build it." Well the rest was soon to be history. The Watchtower was born. It initially opened
on Memorial Day, 2000. Since then she's hosted thousands of visitors, and have documented numerous
sightings.
This is a great place to park your RV and/or Jeep, or pitch your tent. Plenty of camping spaces available,
with a beautiful view of the mountains and sand dunes in the near distance. Sit in front of
the tower at dusk and trade stories with new found friends, then come darkness relocate to
the top of the tower for some ufo searching. When my sister Debbie and I were there, we lugged
my 8 inch Meade Telescope to the "Tower" platform for some great star hopping. Dark skies
breed great star gazing and fantastic UFO 'lookin', so stop by and say, "Hi!" to Judy, and tell her,
"The UfoNut sent ya".
