The UFO landing at Socorro has been wrapped in controversy almost from the moment that police officer Lonnie Zamora watched a craft descend and land. Zamora saw alien beings near the craft and a symbol on its side but was told that he shouldn't mention either. Encounter in the Desert reveals--for the first time--exactly what he saw in that arroyo in 1964 and what an examination of the landing revealed to investigators. Socorro wasn't a stand-alone case. Other sightings, some of them nearly as spectacular as Zamora's, were reported at the time. A study of the Air Force investigation of this case reveals an effort, at first, to learn the truth that mutated into a clever attempt to hide the information from the public. Encounter in the Desert reveals all this and much more, including: The first new, in-depth look at the Zamora UFO landing in more than three decades. Other reports of alien creatures sighted around the country at the same time. An examination of the physical evidence found on the landing site. The revelation that there were other witnesses to the craft and the landing.