Ep 2: The Trinity UFO Crash Part 2 – “The Tesoro”

The Rides Home
[Replay]
In our last episode, we ended with Jose & Reme leaving the site of a large craft they discovered after it crashed in one of the canyons on the ranch.
There were 3 creatures panicking inside of it,
and the boys were struggling to process what they were seeing.
It was getting dark and while they wanted to stay, they needed to get home.

[Start]

When they made it back to Jose’s house,
they were met with anxious questions from Faustino wanting to know what happened.

They told him,
and while he wasn’t sure what to make of the more dramatic details he was sure they needed to stay away from it for now,
It was probably the government’s and it was too late for Reme to ride his horse so they needed to drive him home.

Once Faustino got Reme home he had a long conversation with Reme’s mom.
He was in an awkward spot trying to explain why Reme was so late.
On top of that, he was starting to worry that what the boys had found might endanger his job at the refuge.

THE 1ST RETURN (Day 3)
[Emotional Support Piggy]

The next day, Faustino would buy himself time to figure out what to do and who to tell.
He kept the boys busy with chores a little closer to home and nowhere near the crash site.

So fast forward to the morning of Saturday, the 18th.
3 days since the crash.
When returning to the ranch the boys were greeted by a state policeman who there waiting.
It was Eddie Apodaca.
A close friend of the Padilla’s that Faustino had reached out to.
It was time to go see this crash, and based on the story the boys told, he had no idea what to expect.

[¿Que, Donde?]

So, with Reme and Jose driving in the truck, and Faustino and Eddie following behind in a police car, they set off towards the crash site.
They went as far as they could before the boys had to lead them on a hike through the hills and canyons, making their way back to the exact spot they first saw the craft.

Standing on the hilltop above the crash site they peered into the canyon…
To the boy’s surprise, and the adults’ annoyance, no one could see anything resting on the canyon floor.
There was nothing… Absolutely nothing there…

The boys start defending themselves and are interrupted by Faustino,
QUOTE “What did you say you saw?”,
Reme responds: “it’s down there, but we can’t see it!”
After all the stress that lead up to staring into an empty canyon.
The adults finally agreed they might as well walk down and take a look.

[¡AQUÍ!]
While doubting the boys all the way down, Jose & Reme began leading them in the direction they remembered.
And that’s when it happened.
As they moved closer it suddenly came into view,
leaving all of them confused.
Still, they continued towards it until they were only about 10 ft away from the craft.

Festino and Eddie went in, making the boys to stay outside.
So they sat down and watched them through the giant hole while they waited.
After about 5 or 10 minutes they came out.
When Interviewed by Paola Harris,
Reme said, Quote
“They had a change of attitude, a complete change of attitude. They were almost like different people. They had seen something they’d never seen before.” END QUOTE (Vallée and Harris 26)

And while the boys could clearly see them the whole time they were inside, the adults were so freaked out that they made the boys take an oath.

Quote “Okay. Here’s the way it is. I want you guys to listen. This is very difficult. You are under oath. You don’t tell anybody about this, not your brother, not your cousin, not your mother, not your father, that’s our business. We’ll take care of that. And the reason for this is, that you can get in trouble. We want to keep you out of trouble.”

The boys agreed,

And, then asked them if they saw the creatures inside.
“There’s no creatures there.” “Well, you know, maybe they took off. Maybe somebody took them. Maybe….” (Vallée and Harris 27)

After that, Faustino & Eddie stopped answering questions and refused to speak about what they had seen.

Kids will be kids
By mid-afternoon, the boys were back at the Padilla’s home and couldn’t hold back their excitement.
They knew this was big, something important, something they discovered and it completely blew the adults away.
But why? What did they get to see that they didn’t?
They wanted to get a better look.

It didn’t take long before they started thinking through their options
Jose’s dad had just left with Eddie and with the way the roads were laid out, they knew they had at least a couple of hours.
With no one to slow them down, they figured they could make it to the site in a half-hour.
Plenty of Time to go get a closer look and be back home before the adults would know.

They took off, eager to finally see it up close.
This time, approaching from the opposite side of the canyon, they made their way up the hill.

But Before they could do the climb in, this canyon of surprises stopped them.
They see something.
Two jeeps in army green are parked nearby

Hiding behind the boulders and brush, the boys watched as an already active group of military personnel were picking up debris and wreckage around the crash site.

They were taking the boy’s discovery…
So, Jose and Remy did what any reasonable 7 or 9-year-old would do.
They started their own clean-up effort, sort of.

They started sneaking around, frantically grabbing pieces of debris and throwing them anywhere they could be hidden.

Stopping only to cover their stashes with rocks and dirt before going back to get more.
This kept up for a little while, finally ending when the oblivious military personnel was getting back into their Jeeps, and the boys had headed to their horses.

They still didn’t get to see inside but the day had been long enough.

Day 4: Sunday, August 19th
Welcome to the Neighborhood
[They already don’t like my fence]

The following day when Jose and Remy made it back to the Padilla Ranch, they found a military vehicle parked and someone talking to Faustino at the front door.

Sergeant R. Avila, who the boys were introduced to after Faustino told them to come up to the front when he heard them sneaking in the back.

After inviting him in, Festino and the Sergeant, and begin speaking to each other.

Quote “I’m with the US Army – and what I need to do is — get permission from you — to go in and cut the fence and put in a gate,
because we have one of our — experimental weather balloons — that inadvertently fell on your property.
We need to recover that, so we need permission to do that.”

Festino: “Why can’t you come in through the cattle guard like everybody else, instead of cutting my fence down?”

Sergeant: “Because the equipment that we’re going to bring in is wider than your cattle guard,
it won’t fit through there…
In the meantime, you have a gate that locks up and we need to have a key so we can get in there and cut that fence, and put in a gate…
We’ll put in a good gate for you. And then we need to bring in some road building equipment,
some graders and so forth and see if we can grade a road to get that truck in there to get that weather balloon out of there.”

Festino: “Okay”

Sergeant: “Keep an eye on the place and make sure nobody goes there because you know, this is really important, you know,
we don’t let anyone know about it.
We don’t want to cause any trouble for anybody, —-
and so try to keep an eye on it, so nobody that hasn’t any business going there, doesn’t go there.”
Festino: “Ok”
(Vallée and Harris 29-30)

*** *** ***
And thus begins the 3-Quarter century-long cycle of calling everything strange a weather balloon.
And there’s more…
*** *** ***

Day 5: Monday, August 20th
[THE NEW NEIGHBORS SUCK]

Although the military had been there before, they now had permission from Jose’s Dad.

The very next day, equipment was already coming in.
A new, wider gate was being built, and at least 3 to 4 soldiers were working to clean up the site.

And while they were fast getting there and starting, there was a distinct amateurish quality to the whole ordeal.

This crew, and their process, were loud, awkward, undisciplined, and obvious.
They had little-to-no operational security and all the dedication of a trust-fund kid looking for a job to keep their parents happy.

The soldiers were young, wearing no protective equipment, and blasting country-western music so loud the kids would hear it while working around the ranch.

At lunchtime, they would drop everything and head into town to eat at The Owl Bar & Cafe.
In a town like San Antonio, NM, which at the time, only had a population of “50 – 75 people”, new faces stand out, particularly when they frequent one of the only social hubs in the area.
(Vallée and Harris 46)

********
To be fair, many of the world’s leading scientists had also been spending a lot of time at The Owl.
These scientists were traveling between Los Alamos and The Trinity Testing Site. The Owl was essentially the only place on the 150-mile stretch they could stop… So they would arrive with an Entourage every time they stopped in. – (Vallée and Harris 92-93)
********

Days 5 – 9: Monday, August 20th to Friday, August 24th

[THE NEW NEIGHBORS SUCK… Continued]
Back at the ranch, Jose and Remy quickly picked up on the recovery team’s daily routine.
Over the next few days, the boys would time their own cleanup efforts to match perfectly with the soldiers’ “lunch trips” into town.

So what kinda things did they find?
Well….

They proceeded to pick up and fill bags with a strange fibrous substance they called “angel hair”. It got that name because it reminded them of the decorations they would use around Christmas.
Spoiler!!!
This stuff would eventually be used as a decoration for Christmas.
Not just at the Padilla’s and Baca’s homes, but gifted and given to people all over town.
And while the substance did have a tendency to cut you if you touched it too long,
and sure, —-
it was strange how those cuts wouldn’t make you bleed.
People just loved how it produces its own light in the dark. (Vallée and Harris 31)
Alright so I know I’m sounding like I’m joking, but the book is filled with testimonies about all this. Further, the same material has been associated with suspected UFO crashes around the world…
They also found pieces of the OG UFO Classic…. Memory Metal!!!
Pieces of metal that looked like the foil in a pack of your mom’s cigarettes, you could fold it up as much as you want and watch it unfold itself, going back to its original shape.
Another fun fact one of Jose’s family members noted, it would also stay cool to the touch regardless of the desert heat.”

Basically, anything and everything was fair game, except for the craft.

Now,
In total, the operation would end up needing a new gate, road building equipment, an acetylene welder to build a custom ramp, a 15 to 20 ft tall crane, and a large flatbed semi before the military was finally ready to haul out their weather balloon.

And while this was fun, the moment finally arrived. The alien Space-Crafff… I, I mean this weather balloon,
was almost ready to return home.
But not before the boys have one more try to look inside.
Enough of that, so oh, back to a rookie recovery crew…

Day 10: Saturday, August 25th

[MOVING DAY – “THAT’S ONE FANCY UHAUL”]
And so.
On Saturday, August 25th, Jose and Remy watched as the soldiers awkwardly tried to lift, drag, and then balance the 30ft wide avocado on the back of a flatbed truck.
Leaning it on its side to get under an overpass, they would eventually have to clear.

One Secure, the soldiers covered the craft with a blue tarp, and the boys watched as they proceeded to drive out of the canyon and park just outside the gate.

The soldiers then loaded up and headed out for the night, leaving both the truck and an opportunity.

Jose and Remy began making their way towards the craft, sneaking along the fence until they were near the back of the truck.

With the coast clear, they hopped the fence, hoping to finally get a closer look and have one more chance to take home another souvenir.

Day 10: Saturday, August 25th

[MOVING DAY – TESORO]

Jose begins lifting and looking under the tarp. Soon finding the hole in the side of the craft.
He climbs in while Remy stands near the opening, holding the tarp up to let in light.
Looking are, it’s almost entirely empty, no seats, controls, switches, or rooms.
Just a large empty space with dark gray floors and light gray walls and ceiling.
Jose looks around for a bit, trying to find anything they can take. Finally, he spots a panel at the very back of the craft.
He tries to pull it off, but it seems to be attached with some anchors.
He climbs out and goes to the truck’s cab, looking for anything to help him break it loose.
He finds a “Cheater Bar” and heads back to try again.
It works; he pops the panel loose from the wall, and the boys make off with “2 and 1/2 ft wide souvenirs they’d soon name, “Tesoro,” Spanish for “Treasure.”

[The Secret Treasure]
After that evening, excitement began winding down.
The craft was gone, and everything seemed to have worked out.

For 9 days, the boys managed to avoid being spotted or caught by both the recovery crew and their parents.
They finally saw the inside of the craft,
and even got to grab one final souvenir.

Life was returning to normal until the day Faustino was suddenly contacted by a military official.
They wanted permission to search their house and property.
Once there, the soldiers proceeded to dig through everything.
They began taking any random scraps of metal they could find,
And Ironically, Old weather balloons the Padillas would often find littering their ranch.

**********
(the weather balloons stand out to me here)
In my opinion, it makes the lie told by the sergeant that much more absurd.
With so much research and testing being done less than 30 miles away, finding and picking up weather balloons was something everyone was used to dealing with.
**********
The one thing they didn’t find was the Tesoro.
When Jose caught word of the impending search, he rushed it over to Reme, who hid it beneath the floorboards of a storage house across the street.

[NO SHEEP = NO SLEEP]
*Not long after Jose’s property was searched, did a guest arrive at Remy’s.
Pedro Anaya, a sheepherder and close friend of Remy’s dad, Alejandro.
He had just completed a trip to the stockyards where he delivered his herd.
And after striking a deal with the Baca’s, he moved into the family’s old storage house,
his bedroom, of course, was the same room the Tesoro was hidden under.

What happened next to Pedro was told directly to Alejandro and Reme only hours after it happened. And it is, in my opinion, one of the most incredible moments ever recorded in UFOlogy.

One night, Pedro is woken up by a strange light outside near the well.
He got up and moved over to the window.

QUOTE “I looked out the window and the next thing,
there’s these three critters in my room,
and the door is locked….”
>They’re pointing down at the floor, saying, “Tesoro, there’s a treasure down there.”
So “I got my rifle and I’m going to shoot them because they have no business in my house.
And so I’ve got my rifle,
and they’re gone.
But you know what, they went right through the wall.
Can you believe that?” (Vallée and Harris 43) [END QUOTE]

Well, after hearing him out, they headed over to see what these creatures were pointing at.
It’s the exact spot Reme hid the Tesoro.

They pry up the floorboards, nothing, so then they start digging,
but again, they don’t see anything unusual, so they give up…

The next day, Reme tells Jose he needs to come to get the Tesoro. He doe’s and hides it in a box filled with random old things that were stored under his house.

Later

[TIME & TREASURE]
Weeks would pass, Then months, then years, and eventually decades.
Jose & Reme both left San Antonio,
Jose to California in 1954, and Reme just a year later.

They lost touch, and life went on.
It would be 47 years before they would reconnect; both ending up on the same website while tracing their family’s genealogy.

Tesoro:
Only moved once between 1945 & 2002, when Jose visited the ranch in 1963 and brought back a bunch of old boxes to be stored in his attic and forgotten about until 2002.

A Little Footnote:
At some point during those 47 years, one of Jose’s cousins married a soldier that worked at the crash site. While just following orders at the time, he eventually felt lied to and became skeptical of why and what he did.

[CONCLUSIONS]

The plane I mentioned in the 1st episode was a B29, not B52, Oops..

It wasn’t a fucking weather balloon.
It probably weighed between 4.5 – 5 tons
Based on Jacques obsession with determining the size of the truck used to drive it out.
After likely being struck by lightning, the craft hit the radio tower and made a controlled crash.
Based on, the height of the tower and distance to where it eventually landed. As well as a hard curve in the path it carved into the ground before stopping. (as well as no, natural objects or angles in that area of the canyon)

The B28 Pilots testimony was recorded at the time of the event, documented, and eventually collected during research.

Assuming Sergeant Avila wasn’t psychic, the permissions he was asking for show he was briefed with a plan.
Having already been to the crash site Saturday evening, it’s safe to assume a plan was already worked out when Sergeant Avila Asked for specific permissions. He had already been briefed on the needs of his men to allow them to extract the craft and remove any traces of debris.