Living in Roswell

Roswell is the biggest town for a couple of hours in any direction, and it acts like it. This is where the region comes to see a doctor, go to college, catch a flight and shop. But it still runs on small-town manners. People hold doors. Rush hour lasts about ten minutes.

The alien story is real fun, and the town leans into it: the streetlights downtown have alien eyes, and every summer the UFO Festival fills Main Street. Locals will tell you it is the least interesting thing about living here.

Roswell started as a trading post on the cattle trails in the years after the Civil War. Cattleman John Chisum ran one of the largest herds in the country from his ranch just south of town. Then settlers found artesian water under the valley, the railroad arrived in 1894, and the ranch town became a farm town.

Two more chapters shaped it. Robert Goddard, the father of modern rocketry, tested his rockets in the desert outside Roswell in the 1930s. And the air base that grew here during World War II became today’s Roswell Air Center.

Art, more than you would guess. The Roswell Museum holds work by Peter Hurd, Henriette Wyeth and Georgia O’Keeffe, along with Goddard’s workshop. The Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art grew out of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence program, which has been bringing working artists to live here since 1967.

The New Mexico Military Institute has anchored the north side of town since the 1890s. Outdoors, Bottomless Lakes State Park is a short drive east for swimming and camping, Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge draws birders every fall, and the Spring River trail runs through the middle of the city.

Real variety. Brick ranch homes from the fifties and sixties on wide streets, older homes with character near downtown, newer subdivisions on the north and west sides, and acreage on the edges of town for people who want room for horses or a shop.

First-time buyers who are tired of renting, families moving up, retirees who want a single level and sunshine, and investors looking for rentals.

School data provided by Attom Data.