Area 51 is most commonly thought of as a place where the US military keeps UFOs and alien
secrets, but no one outside the highest levels of government knows the truth. Though it may
just be a fraction of the full story, here's what we know about Area 51.
“It ain’t on a map.”
“Trust me, it’s there.”
Okay, so when you're talking about Area 51, separating fact from fiction is a tricky matter.
That said, this whole shebang reportedly got started during World War II.
Somewhere between harnessing atomic energy and turning a skinny kid named Steve Rogers
into a super-soldier, the U.S. military built a pair of small runways right next to Nevada's
Groom Lake and named it the Army Air Corps Gunnery School. Sometime after the war, the
Gunnery School was abandoned. No biggie.
Enter the paranoid 1950s, whereupon the equally-paranoid CIA teamed up with the somehow-even-more-paranoid
Lockheed aerospace corporation. Their joint project, labeled Skunk Works, was intended
to develop U-2 spy planes. The secrecy of the project meant that test flights had to
be done in a remote location, far away from commercial and military flight paths, but
close enough to a major city that receiving new supply shipments wouldn't be a total pain
in the neck. Luckily, the project's Air Force liaison was around to mention the nice little
abandoned Gunnery School in Nevada where he had trained. After close inspections, Skunk
Works moved in, set up shop, and started testing their spy planes.
Obviously, they didn't tell any of this to the press. Their cover story was to refer
to the military base as the "Watertown Project," and claim that they were merely studying weird
weather phenomena.
"Oh my, what's that?"
"Looks like rain."
These days, the existence of Area 51 is common knowledge. Nobody knows what they do there,
exactly, but everyone knows that it's a real place. Throughout the entirety of the 20th
century, though, the U.S. government refused to even admit that much. Seriously. The place
was in movies and everything.
“Nothing to see here, please!"
It wasn't until 2013 that the CIA finally came clean about the test site's existence,
through declassifying some old documents about the subject. By this point, the X-Files theme
was already embedded in people's brains, and decades of lying doesn't do a lot to inspire
public trust. So a lot of people weren't too inclined to buy the CIA's story about the
base being used to test fly high-tech military weaponry, as opposed to, you know, studying
alien bodies from the Roswell incident or what have you.
"This story isn't real."
Nonetheless, much of what the world knows today about Groom Lake's history is thanks
to the 400 pages the CIA made public, and it does seem quite credible that the base's
primary intention has indeed been to test experimental military aircraft. Could aliens
have ever played a role in those experiments? You be the judge.
If you're wondering how a sketchy government base could stay hidden for so long, you're
not alone. But the cloud of secrecy surrounding Area 51 is foggy enough that even Agent K
would get lost in it.
"You sure you don't want some coffee?"
The first thing you have to understand is that Area 51 isn't some dinky little hole
in the desert. The base is stationed inside a 4,687-square-mile piece of land that's way
bigger than Rhode Island, and almost the size of Connecticut.
Secondly, they don't kid around when it comes to privacy. Any military pilots brave enough
to fly into the airspace above Area 51 face a harsh trio of horrible consequences, starting
with a court martial, leading to a dishonorable discharge, and potentially culminating in
time behind bars.
The professional environment is reportedly so secretive that non-disclosure agreements
are standard, and apparently, some people's jobs don't even officially exist. In an interview
with a local Las Vegas news station, one former employee named T. D. Barnes claimed people
on the base communicated with fake names and weren't even allowed to tell their families
back home where they worked. Barnes said his own wife thought he did most of his secretive
work in a foreign country, until he told her the truth in 2009.
"This is a top secret mission. Put a lid on it, make up a story, and go away."
Outside of a select few government workers and contractors, no one really knows what
goes on at Area 51 - and the people that do certainly aren't going to tell you about it.
"You’re on a need to know basis, and you don't need to know."
That said, you can be reasonably certain that the area is at least used for testing high-tech
experimental military aircraft. The CIA's declassified documents make it clear that
this was how the base was used throughout most of the 20th century. In addition to those
U-2 spy planes, Lockheed's A-12 Archangels were also tested there in the 1960s, followed
by stealth fighters in the '70s, and Tacit Blue aircraft in the '80s. So presumably,
the military is currently flying some ludicrously advanced new aircraft models out there today,
the likes of which we won't see unveiled to the public for another few decades. It all
makes perfect sense.
Or, you know, they could have aliens there, right? Right?!
Considering it took decades for the U.S. government to even admit the place existed, lots of people
still believe there's shady stuff going on at Area 51, whether UFO-related or not. You
can't blame 'em for being suspicious, that's for sure.
When there's a mystery afoot, people always suspect aliens. Just ask that "aliens" dude
on the History Channel.
The real credit for establishing a permanent link between Area 51 and aliens probably goes
to a guy named Bob Lazar. In 1989, Lazar - under the pseudonym "Dennis" - reportedly told the
press that he was a former scientist who had worked in Area 51, playing a part in reverse-engineering
nine extraterrestrial flying saucers. Boom - the truth was now surely out there.
Once "Dennis" spoke out, the world flipped on its axis. Nobody stormed Area 51, but the
news spread like wildfire, and Lazar's story turned Area 51 into UFO central. Soon afterward,
Lazar came forward with his true identity, claiming that his family's lives had been
threatened.
A lot of what made Lazar's story stick - and why it continues to gain support, to this
day - is because he's clearly a smart guy. Back in 1989, for example, he explained that
the supposed alien spaceship used element 115, aka moscovium, to manipulate gravity
for its propulsion system: an impressive concept, since that element didn't get synthesized
in a lab until 2003. This isn't quite the smoking gun it sounds like, though. While
Lazar's descriptions were certainly knowledgeable, it's also the sort of concept a clever science
fiction author could cook up with some research. Lazar has credibility issues, too, as his
claim of studying physics at MIT doesn't line up with MIT's records. Still, he has many
followers.
Again, the official government line is that there are no flying saucers in Area 51. There
have been plenty of UFO sightings in the area, but these are generally chalked up to people
misinterpreting real military tests. For example, imagine if you were in the 1970s and you saw
something like a modern stealth fighter zoom by above your head. Wouldn't you be freaked
out? Plus, once enough people say there are UFOs in a certain area, people tend to "see"
more UFOs. So it goes.
That said, the CIA's declassified documents did contain at least one section regarding
UFOs, which discusses something called Operation Blue Book. The CIA reportedly noted a dramatic
increase in UFO sightings after the U-2 started being test-flown from Area 51, and while this
seems like an obvious case of cause and effect, they did want to make sure this was their
doing - just in case. So they recorded UFO sightings, documented them, and compared the
locations against U.S. aircraft flight logs to check that nothing funny was going on.
Using this method, Blue Book officials were able to confirm that the majority of UFO sightings
matched military aircraft flight patterns.
Note the word "majority," though. This terminology doesn't prove anything, and it's easy to jump
to conclusions, but it is a word choice commonly seized upon by UFO folks. Again, believe what
you will.
If you're wondering how the U.S. government is legally able to keep people from entering
Area 51, well, it's enshrined in federal law. Section 1382 of Title 18 of the US Code, to
be precise. Area 51 is surrounded by signs warning trespassers that they could be subject
to deadly force, heavy fines, and/or prison time.
How seriously do they take these laws, though? After all, would they really shoot someone
who charged past the barriers? Well, yes, actually.
"If you cross that border, they have the right to shoot you."
In January 2019, the Nevada National Security Site, of which Area 51 is just a small part,
reported that an unidentified man holding a "cylindrical object" had broken in, driven
8 miles past the security gate, and ignored the commands of the officers who intercepted
him. Yes, they shot him, and yes, he's dead now.
A less deadly incident occurred in 2014, when a guided tour vehicle carrying four passengers
accidentally crossed the boundary. Two minutes later, the guards roared out in a white truck,
stopped the bus, and issued misdemeanor charges and $650 fines for each person in the bus,
passengers included. Thankfully, the charges were dropped for the passengers, but the driver
was barred from doing Area 51 tours for two years.
The truth is, nobody actually knows why, exactly, this mysterious base is called Area 51. This
name was first discovered on diagrams from the 1960s, and it's possible that the name
is just a relic from the Atomic Energy Commission, which used a grid naming system to title the
various "safety experiment" locations within the land of Nellis Air Force Base.
That said, Area 51 is far from the only name this location has had, and it's doubtful that
those who work there call it that. If anything, they probably think of it as Groom Lake. The
location's airport identifier code is KXTA, with another official name for it being the
quaint title of Homey Airport. Because top-secret military installations are so homey, right?
Maybe it's a reference to E.T.'s phone.
"E.T. phone home."
Anyway, plenty of Area 51 nicknames have appeared throughout the years, all of which sound straight
out of a science fiction horror movie. These include Dreamland, the Box, the Ranch, or
- simply enough - "the remote location." That doesn't sound creepy or sinister at all.
Nobody goes into Area 51 unless they're invited, but the surrounding region has - predictably
enough - flowered with exactly the sort of alien-themed tourism you'd hope to find in
such a location. Nevada State Route 375 was named "the Extraterrestrial Highway" in 1996,
and the area welcomes visitors from any planet to enjoy the various museums, restaurants,
and hotels dedicated to the little green dudes.
Outside of Roswell, New Mexico, or the annual Exeter UFO Festival in New Hampshire, it's
hard to find a more alien-friendly spot. Well, except their homeworlds.
Tourists shouldn't expect to actually go inside Area 51, though. Also, don't believe all the
hype: While salespeople love to claim that Nevada sees more annual UFO sightings than
anywhere else in the country, USA Today reports that this honor actually belongs to Vermont,
followed by Oregon. Nevada, for what it's worth, ranks at #13.
By now, everyone has heard about how millions of people are allegedly going to storm Area
51 to "see them aliens." But despite how many outlets are spinning the story, the whole
thing started off as a pretty obvious joke. The original Facebook page for the event is
obviously satirical, considering that it's telling people to dodge bullets with the power
of a "naruto run," among other things. The event page itself is mostly just an excuse
for extraterrestrial fans to share silly, weird, and occasionally profound memes - as
well as battle strategies for when the raid happens, which it definitely will.
Will a million people actually fly out there, though? Probably not, but in today's world,
who knows? That said, the U.S. military has made it clear that they are not going to have
any sense of humor about the whole thing, with Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews
telling the Washington Post that they were not only aware of the event, but ready for
it. As she told reporters,
"[Area 51] is an open training range for the U.S. Air Force, and we would discourage anyone
from trying to come into the area where we train American armed forces. The U.S. Air
Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets."
Another person discouraging would-be stormers, interestingly enough, is Bob Lazar himself.
On Instagram, Lazar recognized the humorous intention of the event, but called anyone
seriously considering an Area 51 run "misguided," explaining that any of the alleged alien tech
he worked on was probably moved ages ago.
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