Reserva de la Biosfera del Desierto de Mapimí

In July 1970, an Athena test missile launched from a U.S. military base near Green River, Utah toward White Sands Missile Range lost control and fell in the region. The rocket was carrying two small containers of cobalt 57, a radioactive element. Immediately, a team of specialists arrived to find the fallen rocket. The aerial search lasted three weeks. Finally, when the rocket was found, a road was built to transport the wreckage, along with a small amount of contaminated top soil. As a result of the US Air Force recovery operations there, a number of myths and stories relating to the area arose, including "strange magnetic anomalies that prevent radio transmission", mutations of flora and fauna, and extraterrestrial visitations.