New Family-Friendly Ancient Astronaut and UFO Museum Opens Next to Disneyland

1/19/2016

According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, there is a new museum in Anaheim exhibit devoted to teaching parents and children about UFOs and the ancient astronaut hypothesis from a credulous perspective. “This is a 101 on UFOs,” curator Brian Bouquet said in describing the purpose of “Encounters: U.F.O. Experience,” which is on exhibit in Anaheim until May 31 following successful runs in Arizona last year and South Carolina in 2013. According to organizers, about 13,000 people per week visited at the Arizona State Fair, and in Anaheim more than 1,000 have already paid the $12 admission fee ($8 for children 8 years or older; free under 8) since the exhibit opened in early January. The exhibit is located just around the corner from Disneyland.

The exhibit was first conceived in 2008 and took five years to bring to life, according to the Huffington Post.

“There are displays of original and replica artifacts, conceptual models, and documented film clips and recordings that support claims of ancient encounters through modern day sightings,” the exhibit’s website said. “Replicas and models include the famous Easter Island statues and Egyptian Hieroglyphic tablets reporting extraterrestrial sightings.”

None of the published accounts explain what hieroglyphs allegedly contain extraterrestrials.

The exhibit tells the “alien” history of earth in roughly chronological order, opening with a room dedicate to the ancient astronaut hypothesis. The exhibition informs visitors that aliens may have had a hand in constructing the moai of Easter Island, the Nazca lines, and the temples and monuments of Puma Punku in Bolivia. “We don’t have even modern cranes that can lift the heavy rocks into those positions,” Bouquet told the Times in explaining why he believes aliens are behind ancient monuments.

The remaining rooms cover twentieth century UFO crazes, recent sightings, and alien abductions. Bouquet explained that the exhibit is geared toward getting kids excited about aliens and the ancient astronaut theory. It features a simulated alien “autopsy” in which kids can play with the creature’s “guts” as well as a simulated alien abduction experience, complete with white light. A final room, simulating an “escape” from hostile aliens, is set to open later this spring.

“It’s a good waste of time if you are into aliens, and definitely kid-friendly,” one Yelp reviewer wrote of the Myrtle Beach version of the attraction in 2013. Another offered that “Our tween kids had fun watching the videos and looking at all of the artifacts. More fun than a normal museum. It makes you think about how much of the ufo reports have been covered up by the government.”

With the move to a location opposite Disneyland, it seems that the “Encounters” exhibit is aiming squarely for the family tourism crowd, and it’s disturbing to think that a tourist attraction that bills itself as at least mainly nonfiction would purposely target children with ancient astronaut fantasies and conspiracy theories. If there is any saving grace it is that most visitors have complained that the exhibit is cheaply produced and unconvincing.

If only the History Channel, the Ancient Aliens broadcaster co-owned by Disney, had thought of the idea first.

10 Comments

Time Machine

1/19/2016 02:30:08 pm

Alas, the subject matter itself is only of recent origin.

Only Me

1/19/2016 02:42:28 pm

>>>“We don’t have even modern cranes that can lift the heavy rocks into those positions,” Bouquet told the Times in explaining why he believes aliens are behind ancient monuments.<<<

I'm so sick of this bullshit assertion. I present the following:

Liebherr Mobile Crane: lift capacity- 1,200 tons

LR13000 Crawler Crane: lift capacity- 3,000 tons (3,371 tons in November 2010)

Could ancient cranes do the lifting? Yes, if sufficient numbers were coordinated to work in unison. No aliens or space tech necessary.

1/19/2016 04:37:29 pm

Jean-Pierre Adam, Roman Building: Materials and Techniques (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Pierre_Adam

1/21/2016 01:21:41 pm

You don't even actually NEED cranes to do heavy lifting. Cranes are, in essence, large, mobile block-and-tackles. You can rig a block and tackle anywhere that you have sufficient support. You can also use levers, wedges, ramps, screws, or flat-out manpower.

A single person can maneuver several tones alone, with the proper application of the six basic machines. I've seen my father--one man alone--move a five-ton hunk of metal into and out of a pickup truck, completely alone and using only some boards, some bricks, and a few rocks. What he did was "walk" the thing over to the truck, using the stones as pivots that he switched out. When he got it there, he put a board under the edge that was already up, then lowered the cabinet (Industrial equipment cabinet, not the kind you usually have at home) onto it. He tilted the other wide and put in a board over there. Then he just kept going back and forth, using boards and bricks to build the thing up until he could tilt the thing right into the truck bed, then slid it on the dirt there--the usual build-up in a truck bed, but makes it pretty slick--until he could tie it down.

Getting it out was even easier--he slid it to the tipping point and let it come down slowly until it touched the ground, then used his pivots to "walk" it right into place.

That's ONE GUY and a five-ton chunk of steel.

Pretty sure it wouldn't take more than a dozen or so to handle a few hundred tons in much the same way.

No CRANES necessary, either.

1/21/2016 01:55:28 pm

That is what's so infuriating about fringe claims. Ancient people had a better grasp of basic engineering—hell, they were INVENTING new methods to overcome new challenges—that the fringe won't acknowledge.

I only wanted to point out that the claim we can't move the Trilithon stones at Baalbek, etc., with modern technology is bullshit and further proof the fringe will ignore anything that destroys its narrative.

Uncle Ron

1/19/2016 02:47:43 pm

Interestingly, the negative reviews I read on several sites located on Google all said things like "looked fake," "boring," "cheesy," "not worth the money," etc. None said it was total bullshit.

Gerard Plourde

1/19/2016 02:50:34 pm

It would be appropriate if the nearest neighboring section of Disneyland were Fantasyland.

On a serious note, it empoverishes human history to assert that our ancestors were too dumb to be responsible for the great landmarks they created.

ANON

1/19/2016 07:22:32 pm

love the conspiracy theory map. can't see kurt cobain on there, though

1/19/2016 07:36:32 pm

http://www.examiner.com/article/encounters-ufo-experience-brings-unidentified-flying-objects-to-anaheim

Los Angeles Zombie Examiner:
Have you had any UFO encounters of your own and are you a believer?

Brian Bouquet:
"No I haven't, but I'm waiting! I'm the one who shoots down the theories, I like to get to the bottom of the reports. I've tried to do that on everyone of the stories that I read and I say, 'OK, there's incredible witnesses here, mass sightings, a large number of people saw it personally and there's tangible evidence of some degree'. So I try to drill down to whether it's real or not real. I'm kind of a skeptic, in that regard. But I believe that it's inconceivable that we are alone."