from NPR

Decades-Old Mystery Put To Rest: Why Are There X’s In The Desert?

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Pez Owen was joyriding in her Cessna airplane when she first spotted a giant X etched in the desert. “It’s not on the [flight] chart. There just wasn’t any indication of this huge cross,” she says. Chuck Penson/Pez Owen

Pez Owen was flying over the desert in her single-engine Cessna airplane when she spotted a huge “X” etched in the desert below. She says it was the strangest thing.

“It’s not on the [flight] chart,” Owen says. “There just wasn’t any indication of this huge cross.”

Then she spotted another one.

“There had to be some reason,” she says. “So, of course, I immediately thought I had to get Chuck in on this.”

Chuck Penson is her former colleague from the University of Arizona. Penson worked in facilities, and Owen worked in the planetarium. Now, they’re adventure-seeking friends. That’s how Scott Craven from The Arizona Republic described them in a recent article.

Their version of hanging out is exploring abandoned mineral mines and military radar bases. Mysterious X’s plotted in the desert was too good to pass up.

“I was not going to rest until I knew what was going on with these,” Penson says.

“It’s conspiracy theory stuff, you know?” Owen says. “It’s right out of the movies.”

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