Area Area 51 It sounds like a railroad yard or a spot on a game board not a legend like Shangri-La or Atlantis But for more than half a century Area 51 has been at the center of extraordinary American stories Which of them are true Which aren’t One reason why Area 51 has spun up so many vivid tales perhaps has to do with the fact that nearly everything about it has been officially denied or simply left unexplained The New York Times once described it as a base so secret it doesn’t exist And it’s a well-known irony that secrecy often attracts the spotlight aeronautics politics and defense even though its budget operations and employees have rarely been made public sometimes not even to the president When Lyndon Johnson took office in 1963 upon president John F Kennedy’s death he had never heard of Area 51 and had no But Area 51 does exist and has played a key role in American
AREA 51 ENTERING AREA 51 knowledge of a revolutionary spy plane that was being developed there Area 51 has also been central to conspiracy theories and other scenarios involving military plots government deception cooperation with extraterrestrial beings international intrigue and fantastic technology It’s easier to find Area 51 than it used to be when even U S Geological Survey maps didn’t label it Google Maps can take you right there and even show you runways hangars and other buildings views that not long ago could have gotten you shot down if you were a pilot arrested if you were hiking close enough to see them or praised if you were a foreign spy Physically Area 51 is located about 80 miles 129 km north of Las Vegas It’s in barren desert terrain an area of dry lakes and low mountains creosote bushes and Joshua trees It is surrounded by the Nevada Test and Training Range NTTR a 5,000-square-mile The sparsely populated Nevada desert lends itself to the otherworldly speculation surrounding the government facility of Area 51
