ARE THERE ALIENS IN AREA 51?

ON MOST early mornings, eagleeyed visitors in the Las Vegas desert can spot strange lights in the sky moving up and down. No, it’s not a UFO. It’s actually the semi-secret commuter airline using the call sign ‘Janet’ that transports workers from Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport to the infamous Area 51, just north.

Since the base opened in the 1950s, ‘alien’ aircraft have been reported. Though unlikely, the base’s secretive history has invited conspiracies to run wild about what is truly concealed in the southern Nevada desert.

But if not aliens, what is really hiding behind the walls of Area 51? There are other, non-intergalactic theories that are just as fantastical. But in reality, the base’s true purpose and likely cause for discretion lies in its origins.

THE ORIGINS OF A MYSTERY

When the Soviet Union lowered the Iron Curtain and attempted to block itself from contact with its allies and the Western world in the late 1940s, there was a near-total intelligence blackout to the rest of the world. Worried about the USSR’s potential technology and intentions, President Eisenhower approved the secret development of a high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft called the U-2 in November 1954. The test site for the secret plane? The southern Nevada desert.

At the time, commercial airlines were still in their infancy, flying at between 3 000- and 6 000 m, compared to up to 11 500 m today. Aircraft in the U-2 programme could reach 18 300 m. So, in

1944, seeing a plane at this seemingly unreachable height looked completely other-worldly to anyone below.

Commercial pilots started reporting the peculiarities right away. In response, the base couldn’t just announce its stealth capabilities or plans, so ‘natural phenomena’ or ‘high-altitude weather research’ became the government’s go-to explanations for the ‘UFO’ sightings.

For decades, that answer sufficed. Then, in 1989, conspiracy theorist Bob Lazar went on Las Vegas local news and said that he’d seen aliens and had helped to reverse-engineer alien spacecrafts while working at the base.

Without confirmation about what truly existed inside the base, wild speculation reigned for many decades. Most theories pertained to galactic visitors tucked away somewhere, but others were just as – if not more – sensational.

One of the more colourful rumours insists that the infamous 1947 Roswell crash was actually a Soviet aircraft piloted by mutated midgets and that the wreckage remains on the grounds of Area 51. Another is that the US government filmed the 1969 Moon landing in one of the base’s hangars.

The CIA declassified a heavily redacted report about the U-2 programme in 1998 (and then subsequently released it nearly in full in 2013) that details many of the early sightings by commercial pilots. But the lore of Area 51 remains strong.

Fact or fiction, people still gawk to see what lies beyond those chain-link fences. And if anything is true about extraterrestrial beings, it’s that they are a big tourism draw.

AREA 51 TODAY

Since the alien craze boomed after Lazar’s claims, surrounding towns and even the state have capitalised on curious visitors. In 1996, the state of Nevada renamed Route 375 – the highway closest to Area 51 – as the ‘Extraterrestrial Highway,’ and destinations such as the

Alien Research Center and the Little A’Le’Inn (in the town of Rachel) dot the road.

Then there’s the actual base. While getting inside is not at all permitted, civilians can drive up to the front- and back gates. (Find directions on dreamlandresort.com.)

If you do venture out there, remember two things. First, it is the desert, so be prepared with proper gear and equipment such as a physical map, a compass, and weather-appropriate apparel – it gets hot during the day and cold at night. Second, the government doesn’t really want you peering into Area 51. Some experts and historians who have visited the base confirmed that they have been closely observed or even intimidated by guards and security (including an F-16 flyby). So do not trespass, under any circumstances, or arrests and heavy fines await you.