Area 51 Also known as
ìDreamland,î
ìGroom Lake,î or simply ìthe Ranch,î this now
semi-secret U.S. government test facility has become in the minds of
many
the UFO capital of the world. The six-by-ten-mile dry lake bed is
located
approximately 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, as part of the
Nellis
Test Range.
Popularly known as ìArea
51î
the site has a long history of official denial and controversy, which
has
only intensified outside interest in it. During a 1995 hearing on an
environmental
pollution suit at the base, then-Secretary of the Air Force Sheila
Widnall
refused to reveal even the official name of the facility, claiming
national
security concerns.
Area 51 reportedly began life in
the early 1950s, under the unofficial designation
ìMcGinleyís
Farm,î to serve as a test site for the U-2 spyplane. Since then,
the facility has allegedly served as a test range for many of
Americaís
ìblack projects,î such as the SR-71
ìBlackbirdî
reconnaissance airplane, the F-117 stealth fighter, and other
still-undisclosed
aerospace vehicles and systems; possibly including the mysterious
hypersonic
ìAurora,î as well as laser-assisted orbital launching
systems
and particle beam weapons.
In 1989, a self-described
ìphysicistî
by the name of Robert Lazar claimed in a Las Vegas TV interview to have
observed and worked with ìflying saucersî under test at
the
neighboring S-4 location (also known as Papoose Dry Lake Bed), while he
was employed there as a contractor. Lazarís allegations that the
government has recovered, ìreverse-engineered,î and
flight-tested
alien saucer-craft are completely unsubstantiated, and his falsified
educational
and employment histories have been exposed by investigators.
Nonetheless,
Lazarís claims have brought lasting worldwide attention to the
base
and himself, which of course is the point. If any of Lazarís
claims
of secret technology were true, he would be serving a long prison term
for violation of his so-called ìMajesticî security
clearance.
Perhaps one should ask which is
more
likely: that Lazar can freely reveal to the world his super-secret
assignment
(for which he was especially chosen) of back-engineering the propulsion
systems of captured UFOs, or that this elusive fellow who drives a red
Corvette sporting a license plate that reads ìMJ-12,î and
whose claimed credentials are mostly nonexistent, might have something
of a Walter Mitty complex?
Because the Groom Lake facility
is
in a known, accessible location and because unusual aircraft and
unidentified
aerial phenomena are sometimes visible from nearby, it has become a
magnet
for many who wish to observe ìUFO events.î
The nearby town of Rachel,
Nevada,
boasts a ìLittle AíLeíInnî and a small but
continuous
stream of tourists looking for UFOs. The state of Nevada has even
designated
the local road, State Highway 375, as îThe Extraterrestrial
Highway.î
A cottage industry of Area 51 experts and alleged witnesses, similar to
that of the Roswell, New Mexico, incident, seems to be a permanent part
of UFO lore.
Russian satellite photo of runways at
Area
51
The U. S. Air Force has resisted
allowing
this once-secret installation to be scrutinized close-up by uncleared
people
with no need-to-know. In response to the unwanted worldwide publicity,
the government recently expanded the 60-square-mile property to include
nearby hills, in an effort to deny would-be observers any high ground
from
which to photograph tests in Area 51. The government also employs
contracted
security guards to prevent unauthorized entry to the posted area, and
prominent
signs warn intruders away with the statement: ìdeadly force is
authorized.î
Despite these government
attempts,
determined UFO buffs have recorded intriguing telescopic videos that
show
bright lights hovering and zipping about Groom Lake in maneuvers that
seem
impossible for conventional aircraft. It has been suggested that these
pictures may indicate tests of VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing)
craft,
laser-assisted launch systems, particle-beam weapons, or other
developmental
projects that combine these or other technologies.
Not surprisingly, the government
has also resisted legal efforts by citizens to disclose Area
51ís
activities. A lawsuit concerning alleged pollution injuries in Area 51
brought the following response on September 20, 1999: In Presidential
Determination
99-37, President Clinton said, in part, ìI find that it is in
the
paramount interest of the United States to exempt the United States Air
Forceís operating location near Groom Lake, Nevada, from any
applicable
requirement for the disclosure to unauthorized persons of classified
information
concerning that operating location.î
A search of the literature on the
World Wide Web provides many speculative articles on the possible uses
and significance of Area 51, as well as detailed satellite photographs
of the base.
óArlan K. Andrews
Arnold sighting The
ìmodern
ageî of ìflying saucersî began with the sighting by
Kenneth Arnold on June 24, 1947. Arnold, a civilian pilot, was flying
over
the Cascade mountains in western Washington State, when he reported
seeing
nine shiny objects in a chain-like formation flying at an estimated
speed
of 1,600 miles per hour.
atomic bomb and UFOs Imagine a
U.S.
government project involving many of the worldís top scientists
developing a fantastic new technology, requiring the services of
thousands
of workers in three separate locations, yet a project so secret that
not
even the Vice President knew about it. ìArea 51î perhaps?
No, it was the Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb.