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Oct 23, 2023 · Speculation about space aliens at Area 51 has been part of popular culture for more than half a century. Airwolfhound, CC BY-SA/Flickr via The Conversation There are much simpler explanations for ...
- Overview
- Where is Area 51?
- Why build a secret base in the desert?
- Aliens and UFOs become part of Area 51 lore
- Is the truth out there?
Secluded in the Nevada desert, the military base has long been associated with alien and UFO sightings. Here's the real history behind the conspiracy theories.
UFO believers look for suspicious spacecraft during a UFO and Vortex Tour in Sedona, Arizona. This composite image is a combination of six photographs taken in 2017 through night vision goggles.
Each year, Area 51’s mythology draws tourists from around the world. People come to the air base near Rachel, Nevada, in hopes to catch a glimpse of otherworldly spacecrafts.
The legend of Area 51 has been discredited for years—but some of its history is based on true events. Here’s what you need to know about Area 51.
About 120 miles northwest of Las Vegas, somewhere between mile markers 29 and 30 along Nevada’s “Extraterrestrial Highway” (State Highway 375), lies an unmarked dirt road. Although no buildings are visible from the asphalt, the track leads to Groom Lake or Homey Airport—as it’s called on civilian aviation maps.
For those in the know, this road leads to a military base with many unofficial names: Paradise Ranch; Watertown; Dreamland Resort; Red Square; The Box; and The Ranch; Nevada Test and Training Range; Detachment 3, Air Force Flight Test Center (Det. 3, AFFTC); and Area 51.
The UFO Research Center library opened to the public in 1992 as part of the UFO Museum in Roswell, New Mexico. The library holds an extensive collection of reference materials on the history of extraterrestrial encounters and related phenomena.
Photographs by Jennifer Emerling
When the CIA started developing spy reconnaissance planes during the Cold War, then-CIA Director Richard Bissell, Jr. realized a private base was needed to build and test prototypes.
In 1955, he and Lockheed aircraft designer Kelly Johnson selected the secluded airfield at Groom Lake to be their headquarters. The Atomic Energy Commission added the base to the existing map of the Nevada Test Site and labeled the site Area 51.
Within eight months, engineers developed the U-2 plane, which could soar at an altitude of 70,000 feet—much higher than any other aircraft at the time. This allowed pilots to fly well above Soviet radar, missiles, and enemy aircraft. (Read how Area 51 engineers used cardboard to mislead Soviet spy satellites.)
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High school students wear matching alien masks in downtown Roswell, New Mexico during their spring break in 2017.
Area 51 became forever associated with aliens in 1989 after a man claiming to have worked there, Robert Lazar, gave an interview with a Las Vegas news station. Lazar claimed that Area 51 housed and studied alien spacecraft and that his job was to recreate the technology for military use.
However, Lazar’s credentials were soon discredited: according to school records Lazar never went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or California Institute of Technology, as he claimed. At the time though, engineers at Area 51 were studying and recreating advanced aircraft—just aircraft acquired from other countries, not from outer space.
Nevertheless, with all of the high-tech flights out of Area 51—including more than 2,850 takeoffs by the A-12—reports of unidentifiable flying objects skyrocketed in the area.
“The aircraft’s titanium body, moving as fast as a bullet, would reflect the sun’s rays in a way that could make anyone think, UFO,” sources told journalist Annie Jacobsen for her 2011 book on Area 51.
The government formally acknowledged the existence of Area 51 for the first time in 2013 when the CIA declassified documents about the development of the U-2 and A-12. 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—but the purpose it has served since the 1970s is a top-secret mystery. 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.S. alien mythology. A 2019 interview with Lazar on a popular podcast inspired a “Storm Area 51” event, in which about 6,000 people showed up in the desert to look for evidence of aliens. (It ultimately morphed into a festival celebrating all things alien.)
Even today, Area 51 draws believers and skeptics who frequent the small but thriving trail of alien-themed museums, restaurants, motels, parades, and festivals—all in hopes of discovering that the truth really is out there.
Photographer Jennifer Emerling has spent time photographing UFO culture in the American West. See more photos from the project on her website Welcome, Earthlings and her Instagram.
Editor's note: This story was originally published on September 20, 2019. It has been updated.
Sep 19, 2019 · Area 51 has featured in a number of sci-fi shows, such as the X-Files. And, in 1989, a man named Robert Lazar claimed he had worked on alien technology inside Area 51.
Sep 19, 2019 · This belief that Area 51’s “military base” is a cover for alien research has been fully mythologized by pop culture over the years, becoming an entrenched part of alien lore. But those who ...
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Sep 18, 2019 · Area 51 is the home of spy planes, not aliens. Annie Jacobson, author of a book on Area 51, explains that to Vox. Annie Jacobsen spent years learning the secrets of Area 51.
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Apr 11, 2022 · Area 51 is a U.S. military base that has become synonymous with tales of UFOs, government cover-ups and potentially testing alien technology.
Aug 14, 2023 · Speculation about space aliens at Area 51 has been part of popular culture for more than half a century. Airwolfhound/Flickr , CC BY-SA There are much simpler explanations for what witnesses have ...
