Holding onto a post («a stabilizer») beneath his spaceship-shaped house in Bowman, Jody Pendarvis leads a tongue-in-cheek tour of his «UFO Welcome Center,» in 2004, which even drew a visitor from England. About his long hair, he said jokingly, «I like it cause it looks like Einstein.»
File/Staff
COLUMBIA — Jody Pendarvis, the builder of the now-destroyed UFO Welcome Center in Bowman, is unsure if he will attempt to make another spaceship.
«It’s still up in the air, still can’t say,» he said while rummaging through the debris, looking for anything that may have survived the May 9 blaze.
Along with the 16-foot tall makeshift UFO tourist attraction he spent 25 years building, Pendarvis lost his trailer home that sat behind it.
Other than a few safes that are potentially salvageable and a mural of an astronaut with “we come in peace” written on it, everything is gone.
«Bowman didn’t want it anyway,» Pendarvis said with a laugh. «They probably still don’t.»
Pendarvis, 73, owns a small farm and another trailer about a mile down the road where he is currently staying, though the trailer doesn’t have electricity or water.
Pendarvis suspects a power line running near the structure that he noticed was getting lower and lower was a source of the fire, but an official report hasn’t been filed.
Pendarvis said a few «voyagers from the interstate» have stopped by since the fire, expecting to see the roadside oddity but disappointed to arrive at a pile of black rubble.
The UFO Welcome Center, built from discarded plywood and other material, cost Pendarvis roughly $35,000 to construct. He imagines he’d need about $100,000 to rebuild it and another trailer on the property.
Pendarvis was laid off from his job in July 2023, and he said his savings are dwindling, meaning he will probably need to find work, though he worried no one would want to hire someone his age.
Even if he did have the money to rebuild, Pendarvis suspects his age would prevent him from doing the manual labor.
«It’s kind of sinking into me now, about everything being so terrible,» Pendarvis said.
Pendarvis said he has to clear the land of the debris. He might try to move back and put another trailer on the land, but he isn’t sure.
Pendarvis has been busy cutting grass on his farm, trying to set up a generator in his temporary trailer and spending time with «a couple girlfriends,» he said.
«You never know if a UFO ‘gon pop up here. I wouldn’t doubt if one’s coming down here tonight just to land in the parking lot,» Pendarvis said.
Pendarvis assured folks he would be OK.
«Shoot, I got 18 or 19 different things to do and more,» he said. «It just ain’t enough hours in my life to do it all. But I’m gonna sure try.»
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