Area 51

Lore & Background

All research and occurrences in Area 51 are Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI). The CIA publicly acknowledged the base's existence on 25 June 2013, through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed in 2005; it has declassified documents detailing its history and purpose. The intense secrecy surrounding the base has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories and a central component of unidentified flying object (UFO) folklore. The surrounding area is a popular tourist destination, including the small town of Rachel on the so-called 'Extraterrestrial Highway'.

Reader's Guide

The original rectangular base of 6 by 10 mi is part of the 'Groom box', a rectangle of restricted airspace measuring 23 by 25 mi. The area is connected to the internal Nevada Test Site (NTS) road network, with paved roads leading south to Mercury and west to the NTS's Yucca Flat region. Leading northeast from the lake, the wide and well-maintained Groom Lake Road runs through a pass in the Jumbled Hills. The road formerly led to mines in the Groom basin; it has been improved since their closure.

It winds past a security checkpoint; the restricted area around the base extends farther east. After leaving the restricted area, Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tikaboo Valley, passing the dirt-road entrances to several small ranches before converging with State Route 375, the 'Extraterrestrial Highway', south of Rachel. Area 51 shares a border with Yucca Flat, the location of 739 of the 928 nuclear tests conducted at NTS by the United States Department of Energy.

The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is southwest of Groom Lake. Groom Lake is a salt flat in Nevada used as runways by the Nellis Bombing Range Test Site airport (XTA/KXTA) on the north side of Area 51. The lake sits 25 mi south of Rachel, Nevada, in the namesake Groom Lake Valley portion of the Tonopah Basin. Some 4409 ft above sea level, it is about 3+3/4 mi from north to south and 3 mi from east to west at its widest point.

Did You Know?

• The origin of the name 'Area 51' is unclear. It is believed to be from an Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) numbering grid, although Area 51 is not part of this system; it is next to Area 15.
• Nicknames for the facility include 'Paradise Ranch' and 'Dreamland'; the latter is the approach control call sign for the surrounding area.
• Lead and silver were discovered in the southern part of the Groom Range in 1864, and mining continued until 1918, then resumed after World War II and continued until the early 1950s.