So, what is Area 51 really? What do we know for sure? How did a Cold War espionage operation become associated with theories of deep-state cover-ups of crash-landed aliens? And why did dozens of people put their lives on hold in September to drive into the Nevada desert to stand outside of it?
Here's what we do know about Area Today, the U. Air Force uses the 38,acre patch of desert as a training site. Sometimes called the Nevada Test and Training Range, the base is located next to a salt flat called Groom Lake and is home to some of the longest runways in the world. The closest town is Rachel, Nevada, population The airspace above the base is extremely off-limits.
And the land around it is peppered with warning signs to would-be trespassers. We also know that workers aren't commuting there by car. Air traffic control audio out of a private terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport suggests that government-owned passenger jets flying under the name "Janet Airlines" make daily flights to and from… somewhere in the Nevada desert.
Not much was happening on this swath of land before World War II. In , prospectors discovered silver and lead around Groom Lake salt flat. A man named Patrick Sheahan built a humble homestead and founded Groom Mine in The Sheahans' homestead was about as isolated as it gets; Las Vegas wasn't even founded as a city until and was inaccessible by railroad until But the family's quiet lifestyle abruptly changed in , when the government sent agents to scout the area for use as a training site for bomber planes.
In March , President Dwight D. Eisenhower was worried that America's lack of knowledge of Russia's military developments might leave America vulnerable to attack. So Eisenhower recruited a panel of experts to figure out how the United States could use science to thwart a potential Russian attack. One thing was clear: The U. Nearly undetectable to radar, the A could fly across the continental United States in 70 minutes at 2, miles an hour.
The plane also was equipped with cameras that could, from an altitude of 90, feet, photograph objects just one-foot long on the ground.
With all of the high-tech flights out of Area 51—including more than 2, takeoffs by the A—reports of unidentifiable flying objects skyrocketed in the area. Area 51 became forever associated with aliens in after a man claiming to have worked at Area 51, Robert Lazar, gave an anonymous interview with a Las Vegas news station. Lazar claimed that Area 51 housed and studied alien spacecraft and that his job was to re-create the technology for military use.
High school students wear matching alien masks in downtown Roswell, New Mexico during their spring break in At the time though, engineers at Area 51 were studying and re-creating advanced aircraft -- just aircraft acquired from other countries, not from outer space. Nevertheless, the notion that Area 51 houses alien spacecraft still lingers today. The government formally acknowledged the existence of Area 51 for the first time in when the CIA declassified documents about the development of the U-2 and A Previously, locals knew something odd was happening in the desert but details were scarce and hard to verify.
Area 51 is still an active base developing cutting edge military technology. It will be a few more decades, at least, until current work is declassified and available to the public. The site continues to be a pillar of U. Even without the event, Area 51 draws believers and skeptics who frequent the small but thriving trail of alien-themed museums, restaurants, motels, parades, and festivals.
All rights reserved. Culture Explainer. He created the site because he wanted to share Area 51 with the whole planet. Area 51 is where several super-secret, very cool aviation projects originated.
We don't know much about what goes on there today, but flights from two of its early projects—the U-2 and Oxcart spy planes—account for more than half of all US UFO sightings during the late s and s. So says the CIA. The technology was so advanced, so secret, and so strange compared to the flying objects people were used to that "unidentified" was the only conceivable label. And Arnu likes to help people understand this strange place's true history and its true, if more mysterious, present.
But sharing it all with a raucous, amorphous festival—one that might not have enough security or porta-potties, and that will definitely have too many people who want to break the Air Force's rules? It's not a suitable spot for a Burning Man—esque conspiracy party. Its remoteness is, of course, the biggest reason the military can operate a hush-hush testing facility. Arnu's concerns, which he shared with the commissioners on behalf of some residents of Rachel, are reasonable: With way too many devices in town, the cell phone network would get overloaded.
The two-lane highway would get clogged. People would crash into each other. And someone was bound to slam into the open-range livestock that wander freely in the very, very dark night. The problems wouldn't end there: People would run out of gas, and the closest pump is around 50 miles away.
Campers would get too cold at night, too hot during the day, and too dehydrated all the time, unprepared for the extremes of desert living. It was inappropriate and we apologize for this mistake. In a voice hoarse from stress and lack of sleep, she said a noon-to-midnight slate of Alienstock event musical entertainment would continue for the several thousand revellers camping on her property and nearby federal land.
This is their event as much as it is mine. In Nye county, Sheriff Sharon Wehrly said no one showed up at a main entrance and an auxiliary gate at the once-secret Area 51 US air force facility.
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