ANGEL FIRE — For Dee Gragg, the question isn't "Did a UFO land in a field just outside of Angel Fire?" Instead, the question is "What kind of a UFO was it?"

Gragg, assistant director of the New Mexico chapter of the Mutual UFO Network, gave a presentation Saturday in which he shared evidence gathered in a 10-month investigation of an empty Moreno Valley pasture.

The talk, touted as a report on an "authentic landing site," was sponsored by the Angel Fire-based Alliance Studying Paranormal Experiences and its president, Janet Sailor. She refers to the area in the mountains of Northern New Mexico as a "UFO hot spot."

"We're going to reveal everything," Sailor said while introducing the presentation.

Judy Piper, a local accountant and one of the owners of the land on which strange phenomena were discovered, was also on hand. She originally contacted Sailor about odd patterns that were appearing in her field last year. She also has said that she once saw a strange light above a hill in the valley.

For Gragg, a professor with New Mexico State University and a longtime veteran of the UFO game in New Mexico, this latest Angel Fire discovery had all the telltale signs of an alien landing zone.

To prove his point, he began his presentation by describing what he called a "classic case" of an alien touchdown.

Dateline: Delphos, Kan., 1971. Sixteen-year-old Ron Johnson and his dog Snowball are tending a flock of sheep when a strange, mushroom-shaped object comes into view. Extreme light emitted by the ship reportedly blinds Johnson temporarily, and after it vanishes, the ship leaves behind a distinct ring of "desiccated" ground that is about 8 feet wide.

According to Gragg, witnesses who returned to the site shortly after the incident reported numbness in their hands after touching the affected ground surface. Soil samples were taken, but Gragg is uncertain about the specifics of the results.

After he was contacted by Sailor and shown photos of the recent Angel Fire case, Gragg noticed an immediate connection.

"The first time I saw what was on the Pipers' land, I recognized it right away," he said. "I was excited and you can see why."

A photograph of a similarly ring-shaped imprint that was taken by Sailor on the Pipers' property is projected onto the screen. Some members of the crowd gasp. Others nod their heads.

Subsequent slides show the schematics of six rings at the "Angel Fire Site," complete with their precise GPS coordinates, elevations and diameter measurements. They range in size from 5 feet to 12 feet wide.

These measurements, as well as their locations relative to each other, suggest to Gragg that these are not the footprints of one large ship (a massive "triangle" ship) but of several smaller spaceships. He suspects they could have been unmanned scouts, but alludes to the possibility of them being manned crafts.

"At this size," he said, "there's plenty of room for little ETs to ride around in."

Gragg theorizes that the marks left in the ground were made by the electromagnetic forces used to power these types of ships. Soil samples were taken by the field investigation team but have not yet been processed, Gragg said.

During the presentation, Gragg describes another cluster of strange anomalies that he refers to as the "nest area." In this zone there are no rings in the ground, but rather circles where the grass has grown especially green and thick. No measurements were taken at the "nest site."

Though he had no theory as to why the ground would react differently in this area, he was confident that it amounted to further evidence of extraterrestrial activity.

"My guess is that this was a landing site for quite a long time," Gragg said.

Following Gragg's presentation, Sailor addressed the crowd about the nature of this discovery. She gave special thanks to the Pipers for their help in the investigation and for coming forward despite concerns about what others might think.

For Sailor, that's what makes this find stand out from other strange occurrences in the Moreno Valley.

"This is probably not the most significant thing to happen in this area," Sailor said. "But we never had any proof of these things. Now we do."

Contact J. R. Logan at jrlogan@sangrechronicle.com.