ALIEN LORE RULES IN AMERICAN TOWN

Alien mood rings, alien magnets, alien rubber balls, alien earrings, alien figurines, alien lamps and alien fuzzy pens line the shelves of the Indian Head Resort gift shop on a highway running through Lincoln, New Hampshire.

- Michaela Towfighi

The extraterrestrial creatures come in all shapes, sizes and colours. Some resemble the creature from the movie E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Others mimic the Little Green Men from animated film franchise Toy Story (1995 to present).

All the merchandise are capitalising on a cherished bit of local lore: a couple who claimed they were abducted by aliens while driving back from their honeymoon in 1961.

Betty and Barney Hill said they were seized on a stretch of US Route 3 by grey aliens with long bodies and large heads.

Their tale was one of the first UFO - or unidentified flying object - stories to capture national attention, inspiring the 1975 movie The UFO Incident, starring American actress Estelle Parsons and actor James Earl Jones. A new movie, Strange Arrivals, is being developed with American actress Demi Moore and actor Colman Domingo.

The simple version of the Hills' story - if reported UFO sightings can be simple - is that a strange, bright light began to follow them on the dark roads in the White Mountains, eventually hovering above their car, a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air.

By the time they got home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, they could not account for hours of their journey. Betty's dress was torn. Their watches no longer worked.

TALE OF ABDUCTION BRINGS FAME TO TOWN

What actually happened to the Hills, who are now dead, is unknowable. But their story has turned a 1.6km-long stretch of the remote road into the Area 51 of New England.

In the lobby of the Indian Head Resort, a plaque resting on an easel recounts what the Hills said happened that September night.

Outside the hotel carpark, the state of New Hampshire has commemorated their tale with an official green historical highway marker, which includes their description of a "brightly-lit cigar-shaped craft". (The sticker depicting Santa in a sleigh with two green aliens is not state-sanctioned.)