The Bitcoin Conference 2025<\/a> in Las Vegas, scheduled for the last week of May, includes several notable political figures slated as speakers, including returning guest and Bitcoin advocate Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY). Also appearing are Trump\u2019s so-called \u201cA.I. and Crypto Czar,\u201d David Sacks, and Bo Hines<\/a>, the \u201cExecutive Director of the President\u2019s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, a less-expected and almost otherworldly contingent will possibly make an appearance as well \u2014 at least in the audience, if not beamed up and looking straight into the stage\u2019s spotlights. Like fire from the skies, an unexpected $3,000 bitcoin donation which nobody asked for crashlanded in Roswell, New Mexico, earlier this year, leaving city council members wrestling with whether to once again answer history\u2019s call, by establishing the United States\u2019 first strategic bitcoin reserve<\/a> \u2014 at the city level or otherwise \u2014 before other U.S. states or even the U.S. Congress itself acts definitively (following President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order<\/a>).<\/p>\n Roswell is home to a few things you might not expect \u2014 world-renowned dairy farming and one of the world\u2019s largest mozzarella cheese factories; aerospace and aviation industries with a famous \u201caircraft graveyard\u201d which once housed Elvis Presley\u2019s personal small plane, \u201cHound Dog II,\u201d for 35 years; a vibrant arts, museums and cultural scene \u2014 but also a thriving tourism industry<\/a>, largely built around what Roswell is really<\/em> known for: flying saucers.<\/p>\n But Roswell is really known worldwide for the 1947 \u201cUFO incident.\u201d In early July 1947, a presumably once-flying object of unknown origin crashed and was destroyed, landing roughly at nearby Corona, New Mexico, recovered later and brought to the now-defunct Roswell Army Air Field\u2019s 509th, a World War II-era military base, still housing the United States\u2019 only nuclear bombs at the time as well as the U.S.\u2019s only pilots, mechanics, and officers equipped to touch them.<\/p>\n Speculation still rages as to whether the recovered craft and its alleged pilot and passengers \u2014 reports of oddly shaped bodies persist but are highly debated still \u2014 were from a supposed extraterrestrial location, or the result of a U.S. military experiment<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n At the time, the local newspaper, the Roswell Daily Record, family-owned since 1891 and still in print today, reported the headline seen around the world:\u00a0<\/p>\n RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region<\/strong><\/p>\n Readers now know that the Daily Record followed up with a retraction, restating the military\u2019s revised claim that the crashed vehicle was \u201cjust\u201d a high-altitude weather balloon. 21st-century examination<\/a> of a zoomed-in photo from the 1947 \u201cflying saucer\u201d staged press photo reveals otherwise, according to Donald Burleson, cryptanalyst and former professor of mathematics at Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell. Burleson is also a published author and has written \u201cLooking Up,\u201d<\/a> one of the Daily Record\u2019s recurring columns on UFOs, for 25 years.<\/p>\n The city of Roswell hosts the International UFO Museum and Research Center, which opened in 1992 and draws over 220,000 visitors annually, Executive Director Karen Jaramillo told The Associated Press during a 2023 interview<\/a> marking the museum\u2019s 5 millionth visitor. Roswell also hosts an annual UFO festival<\/a>, which, according to the city\u2019s website in 2023 \u201c\u2026 had a $510,205 direct economic impact for Roswell \u2026\u201d in a lockdowns-recovery rebuilding year for the event(s).<\/p>\n https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Roswell,_New_Mexico#Local_industry <\/p>\n<\/figure>\n Stranger in a Strange Land<\/strong><\/p>\n Roswell by and large and the newspaper alike is today home to many oddities, myself included. A Nashville transplant with an odd missionary calling<\/a>, last year the Record took me in as their in-house evening copy editor \u2014 with a desk, landline, sick pay, and everything \u2026 it\u2019s kind of surreal. (I\u2019m told the desks are from the WWII army air base. And the chairs? On day three, I brought in my own.)<\/p>\n Germaine to today, I also possess certifications in bitcoin and have been orange-pilling people for years. The newspaper eventually allowed me to fulfill that second calling of mine by contributing as a writer as well, via a Sunday column where I began writing about bitcoin, for the Record<\/a>. I\u2019m honored to have providentially been brought on board just in time to document the entire \u201cstory arc\u201d of President Trump\u2019s first-term anti-bitcoin hostility and his 2024 reversal<\/a> in my October 2024 opinion column \u2014 as well as Trump\u2019s unexpectedly well-received \u201cNever sell your bitcoin<\/a>!\u201d exclamation, while campaigning at 2024\u2019s Nashville Bitcoin Conference. With \u201cWorld War Bitcoin<\/a>,\u201d I described for \u201cnormie\u201d newspaper readers the strategic race occurring among the multiple nations now competing to accumulate and mine \u201call the remaining bitcoin.\u201d<\/p>\n And through it all, I didn\u2019t even get fired. Yet. But being in the bitcoin news industry and seeing the trend, in January I proposed a strategic bitcoin reserve<\/a> for Roswell, since the city received a $3,000 in bitcoin donation from an anonymous out-of-state reader of the newspaper column. To my mind, with or without government \u201capproval\u201d or bitcoin media industry recognition, I have a confirmed blockchain transaction from January 3, 2025, that says the Roswell Strategic Bitcoin Reserve has been established. Period.<\/p>\n Who custodies and manages it is still up for grabs, but I ask others, \u201cAre we Bitcoiners or not?\u201d<\/p>\n But OK, the idea is currently being mulled over by some city councilors who\u2019ve given me the time of day, as I want to give the donation to the city as our start, and look for personal and corporate sponsorships from there (so as not to create any new expenses or taxes for the city). We\u2019re struggling<\/a>, being honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n While the city council can of course be a tough nut, and bitcoin is new and bewildering to many still, Roswell City Attorney Hess Yntema kindly replied to me recently via email, \u201cAs for accepting a gift of Bitcoin, in New Mexico, municipalities are empowered to acquire real and personal property. NMSA 1978, \u00a73-18-1(C). \u2026 Personal property is broad and includes tangible and intangible assets; this would include Bitcoin. The City is always grateful when a donation is made to further the public good.\u201d<\/p>\n To help with the decision-making process perhaps, I\u2019m grateful to report that Bitcoin Magazine has extended an invitation to all 10 members of the Roswell City Council plus Mayor Timothy Jennings to attend the event whether the council approves the custody and management of a city-held bitcoin reserve or not. Mayor Jennings\u2019 office replied graciously that he would be unable to attend on those dates, while at press time at least one other city councilor, Cristina Arnold, has committed to be \u201cthinking about it.\u201d City Councilor Ed Heldenbrand and City Attorney Hess Yntema are, with Arnold, excited to be ushering in Roswell\u2019s next step, for posterity\u2019s sake if not their generation: \u201c\u2026 a great step for the future,\u201d Heldenbrand said in a text message.<\/p>\n The Roswell City Council next meets on Thursday, May 8, at 6:00 p.m. Mountain time, with meetings livestreamed over YouTube<\/a>, where whether the topic of the proposed donation will be discussed remains unknown at press time. Prior to this meeting however, two Roswell city councilors, one from the city\u2019s finance committee, have scheduled a meeting with myself and Hess this week to discuss \u201cthe procedure for accepting the Bitcoin,\u201d according to a group text message from my ward\u2019s councilor organizing the meetup.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn-ilddnad.nitrocdn.com\/XgjmJNBNBbZQEuHAZVzgTqmzytAUTSfp\/assets\/images\/optimized\/rev-3426a8c\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AD_4nXfVVS-SMaJ7lr8i3e4iajNhwMr6Yt-pcy4-eiH2V6FaYoBPLWlS3zJ-I3ddbWGYkiwu03MRWwypiX5yUQOtk65rPllK0dMZRHpknzirhWPZIPuVdveWkTfXhugXefCSBDt8MMHLkey4RftbGMau_O7WgqeCHvt9wfQ.png\" "\\"Las")
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