Article by Marcia Darnell
Tourism – February 2007 – Colorado Central Magazine
THE ’60S ARE REMEMBERED in the U.S. as a time of turbulence, of war and protest, of free love and hippies. When people think of the ’60s they recall love beads and incense, the Beatles and tie-dye, sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll.
In the San Luis Valley, when people think of the ’60s, they remember a dead horse.
Snippy was an Appaloosa belonging to the Lewis family, who lived near the Great Sand Dunes. In September 1967 Snippy was found dead, her head and neck stripped of flesh and her nether parts excised.
Before long, Snippy became known as the first victim of those mysterious livestock deaths reputed to be perpetrated by aliens, and her remains drew reporters, scientists, and curiosity seekers from around the world.
Snippy’s remains passed from hand to hand over the years, eventually landing in a trash bin. Rescued and preserved, they were recently offered for sale on eBay. Some Valley residents were horrified, feeling that the horse bones are a vital part of the local culture and should remain here.
The Alamosa County Chamber of Commerce got involved, publicizing the case in its newsletter and opening a Save Snippy Fund to buy the bones. The Chamber also organized a presentation by Christopher O’Brien, author of The Mysterious Valley, who came to Alamosa to lecture on Snippy’s demise and encourage donations.
The event was sparsely attended, perhaps because it happened on a pre-Christmas Friday night. [SOOTHSAYER RULE #1: Don’t schedule your Great Revelations speech during a holiday season.]
Chamber Director Debra Goodman opened by saying the bones were a “priceless artifact” and would help economic development in the Valley by drawing tourists.
“Roswell doesn’t have bones,” she pointed out. “This is unique and different.”
O’Brien began his presentation with photos of the Sand Dunes and Mt. Blanca, then presented an aerial map with a big red “X” to mark the place where Snippy was found. Then O’Brien attempted to link Snippy’s death with the JFK assassination, UFO sightings, the Gulf of Tonkin incident, general cultural upheaval in the United States, the Vietnam War, and people building on sacred Indian grounds.
Adding to the mix, he cited the widespread use of hallucinogens at the time of Snippy’s death (“at its height in history that week,” he claimed), military ops and strange helicopters, and ancient petroglyphs which he says resemble aliens. He also mentioned uranium poisoning, alleged biological weapons testing, crop circles, Summitville, and mad cow disease.
Indian tribal elders blessed the area just a few years earlier, O’Brien said, and two bison were found mutilated the same night Snippy died. Other livestock mutilations have also been reported in the Valley, as have UFO sightings. All these things, he said, are related.
As “proof” of his theory, O’Brien showed a camera ad he’d clipped from a magazine. It featured a cartoon which depicted a farm family shooting film of a spaceship regurgitating cows into a field. That the ad shows cattle coming OUT OF the ship instead of going INTO the ship, O’Brien, says, shows a conspiracy to cover up the truth.
“What’s wrong with this picture?” he asked. Then he warned us not to eat non-organic beef.
“Snippy was a warning,” he intoned. “Something came down and sacrificed that horse as a warning.”
O’Brien concluded by saying that the San Luis Valley may be the world’s sacrificial altar, and we need to respect the “multi-dimensional predator.” Anyone responsible for letting Snippy’s remains leave the area, he said, “better have a mighty powerful army of angels.”
Then came the sales spiel: Give money and you can save the planet.
The Chamber of Commerce has about $4,000 in its Save Snippy Fund, a far cry from the $50,000 asked for the remains, but a lot of money for an area that bills itself as one of the poorest places in Colorado. The prevailing attitude in the Valley, however, seems to be that it’s worth it.
“I don’t go anywhere without someone bringing this up,” says the Chamber’s Goodman. “It’s what everybody’s talking about now, especially those who were here when it happened.”
But on the other hand, I’ve logged several months in the Chamber of Commerce office myself, over the years, and only once did someone come in asking to see Snippy, and that gentleman was decidedly un-sober. So I questioned whether people would actually travel over mountain passes to see an incomplete equine skeleton.
Goodman, however, defended the use of Chamber resources in this pursuit. “As tourism marketing manager for the Valley, my job is to get the media interested,” she said. “This could absolutely be a secondary tourist draw. There are large numbers of people interested in the paranormal. This is of interest.”
She stressed that the Chamber is not spending money on this, only promotional effort. O’Brien made his presentation free of charge, and has donated his unsold books, CDs, and DVDs to the Save Snippy fund.
Delzia Pavlovsky, president of the Chamber board, supports the effort. “When we approved it as a committee, we agreed to pursue it without a lot of cost,” she said. “We felt it was a unique part of our history but we didn’t want to spend a lot of resources on it. It may not be a complete tourist draw, but some of the publicity could make people aware of the other assets we have.”
BOARD MEMBER Shon Davis said he went along with the campaign reluctantly. “I think any time you have a group with different people with different backgrounds it works best at times if you step back and go along with other people’s decisions,” he said. “My understanding is that the Chamber is not committed to any money. We’re spending time resources, but not money resources.”
“I think anything like this that may bring people to town is good,” said business owner and Chamber member Ruthie Brown. “Alamosa and the Valley are on the verge of really being a big tourist spot, with the Sand Dunes, trains, Stations of the Cross, the alligator farm, all of it.”
Alamosa resident Don Thompson went to the lecture out of curiosity. “Being new to the Valley, Valley history intrigues me,” he said, “and I do think it’s part of our history.”
He said he has doubts about the movement’s success, but “I do support tourism just out of civic pride.”
It seems, then, that if money trumps skepticism it’s all to the good — presuming it brings in spenders. And maybe the superstition of Snippy will do just that.
“I do not want to turn it into a ‘little green men’ thing,” said Goodman. But…
“It’s a fascinating story. It’s intriguing.”
And so it is — even without the flying saucers.
Marcia Darnell lives, writes, and maintains a skeptical attitude in Alamosa.
