Original subtitles

♪♪♪

[male narrator] Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada,

in the western United States,

eighty-three miles north northwest of Las Vegas.

It is a highly classified United States Air Force facility

located within the Nevada Test and Training Range.

It is an area roughly twenty-five miles of restricted airspace and is heavily guarded.

The perimeter of the base is marked out by orange posts

and patrolled by guards in white pickup trucks and camouflage fatigues.

Technology is also heavily used to maintain the border of the base.

This includes surveillance cameras and motion detectors.

It is one of the most secure bases within the United States,

and if you go beyond the perimeter, they will kill you.

♪♪♪

[electronic sounds]

[voices on radio]

[male narrator] The origin of the name Area 51 is unclear.

It is believed to be from an Atomic Energy Commission numbering grid.

Although Area 51 is not part of that system, it is adjacent to area 15.

Another explanation is that 51 was used

because it was unlikely that the AEC would use the number.

According to the Central Intelligence Agency, the correct names for the facility

are Homey Airport and Groom Lake,

though the name Area 51 was used in a CIA document from the Vietnam War.

The facility has also been referred to as Dreamland

and Paradise Ranch among other nicknames.

The United States Air Force public relations has referred to the facility

as "an operating location near Groom Dry Lake."

The special use airspace around the field is referred to as restricted area 4808 North.

Area 51 has become a focus of modern conspiracy theories

due to its secretive nature and connection to classified aircraft research.

Theories include:

The storage, examination, and reverse engineering of crashed alien spacecraft,

including material supposedly recovered at Roswell,

the study of their occupants and the manufacture of aircraft based on alien technology.

Meetings or joint undertakings with extraterrestrials.

The development of exotic energy weapons for the Strategic Defense Initiative

or other weapons programs.

The development of weather control.

The development of time travel and teleportation technology.

The development of exotic propulsion systems related to the Aurora Program.

Activities related to a shadowy one-world government or the Majestic 12 organization.

Many of the hypotheses concern underground facilities at Groom or Papoose Lake

and include claims of a transcontinental underground railroad system,

a disappearing airstrip named the Cheshire Airstrip after Lewis Carroll's Cheshire cat,

which briefly appears when water is sprayed onto its camouflaged asphalt,

and engineering based on alien technology.

In the mid-1950s, civilian aircraft flew under 20,000 feet

while military aircraft flew over 40,000 feet.

The U-2 began flying at about 60,000 feet

and there was an increased number of UFO sighting reports.

Sightings occurred most often during early evening hours,

when airline pilots flying west saw the U-2's silver wings reflect the sun,

giving the aircraft a fiery appearance.

Many sighting reports came to the Air Force Project Blue Book which investigated UFO sightings

through air traffic controllers and letters to the government.

The project checked U-2 and later OXCART flight records

to eliminate the majority of UFO reports that it received during the late 50s and 60s,

although it could not reveal to the letter writers the truth behind what they saw.

They believed that the rumors helped maintain secrecy over Area 51's actual operations.

The veterans deny the existence of a vast underground railroad system,

although many of Area 51's operations did occur underground.

The modern history of Area 51 is a place for UFOs

and extraterrestrial activity began in the 1980s.

Bob Lazar claimed in 1989 that he had worked at Area 51's sector 4,

said to be located underground inside the Papoose range near Papoose Lake.

He claimed that he was contracted to work with alien spacecraft

that the government had in its possession.

Similarly, in 1996 a documentary, Dreamland, directed by Bruce Burgess

included an interview with a seventy-one-year old mechanical engineer,

who claimed to be a former employee of Area 51 during the 50s.

His claims include that he had worked on a flying disc simulator

which had been based on a disc originating from a crashed extraterrestrial craft

and was used to train pilots.

He also claimed to have worked with an extraterrestrial being

named Jarod and described as a telepathic translator.

In 2004, Dan Crain claimed to have worked on cloning alien viruses

at Area 51, also alongside the alien named Jarod.

Crain's scholarly credentials are the subject of much debate,

as he was apparently working as a Las Vegas parole officer in 1989,

while also earning a PhD at State University of New York.

In July 2019, two million people responded to a joke proposal

to storm Area 51 which appeared in an anonymous Facebook post.

Many people said that they were interested in the event

scheduled for the 20th of September 2019,

and billed as "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us", an attempt to see them aliens.

Air Force spokeswoman Lauren McAndrews

said government officials knew about the proposal.

In a statement to the Washington Post, she said Area 51 is an open training range

for the US Air Force and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area

where we train American armed forces.

The US Air Force always stands ready to protect America and its assets.

The media reported that the proposal's creator

had said it was satirical and meant as a joke.

Joke or no joke, it caught the attention of UFO buffs and even entertainers.

Many pledged to rush the base in an attempt to get inside

and see what all the secret fuss was about.

After memes and the Facebook account had been posted

thousands of times on the internet,

local businesses were besieged with people showing up well before the September event.

Some local businesses saw the potential for cashing in on all the tourist activity,

and began to arrange outdoor events, concerts and more for the occasion.

Matty Roberts created the event on Facebook On June 27th as a joke,

not imagining the viral spread the event would receive.

The event planned for the raid in Amargosa Valley

from 3 am. to 6 am. on September 20th, 2019.

The Facebook event writes, "If we run, we can move faster than their bullets.

Let's see them aliens."

Robert said the event had around forty signatures three days into the event's list date

and then suddenly went viral.

The meme possibly spread first on the app TikTok as well as Reddit and Instagram later.

The Facebook page for the event is filled with thousands of satirical posts

discussing the best way to break into Area 51.

After the viral spread of the meme,

Roberts was worried that he would receive a visit from the FBI.

The event received 1.6 million going,

and another 1.2 million interested signatures as of July the 18th.

He had to take the event offline as of July 20th.

Copycat events such as plans to storm a genealogical vault

of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,

Loch Ness and the Bermuda Triangle have also been created.

Business owners in Rachel, Nevada,

a town of just fifty-six people just outside of the base

have made preparations for visitors who want to go to Area 51.

Connie West, co-owner of the Little Ale'Inn restaurant and inn,

has had all thirteen rooms of the inn booked, and plans to open up thirty acres for camping

and create merchandise for the event.

Las Vegas businessman George Harris has hired bands

to play at an annual festival called The Swarm.

Matty Roberts has also expressed interest in a music festival to be made outside of Area 51.

Cosmic Kay, owner of the shop Aliens R Us in Boulder City,

says that even though the shop is one hundred seventy miles away from Area 51,

business has increased due to fascination regarding aliens.

Everyone involved believes this will become an annual event

much like the famed Burning Man event

in Black Rock Desert of Northwest, Nevada.

Other businesses around the nation have based products and services on this event.

A collection of merchandise related to the event from online retailers was launched.

Bud Light plans to release a promotional alien-themed beer label

and promised a free beer to any alien that makes it out

as long as a tweet with the new design gets fifty-one thousand retweets.

Fast food restaurant Arby's has planned to deliver food with a special menu to the event.

The UFO store has even released an entire promotional DVD package based upon the event.

Area 51 has been the subject of conspiracy theories regarding aliens since the 1950s,

when some individuals reported seeing UFOs at the location of the base

around the time the military started flying CIA U-2 spy planes in the area.

The CIA declassified documents related to Area 51

and recognized its existence in 2013.

Up until then, the government had denied even the existence of the base,

though it could be clearly seen from an area mountaintop.

Conspiracy theorists believe aliens, UFOs, or secrets related to them are stored at Area 51.

In June 2019, the Pentagon provided a briefing on UFOs

encountered by Navy pilots to members of Congress.

That same month, US President Donald Trump said he had also been briefed on UFOs.

Prior to these events in 2019, the government had also been forced to admit

they did indeed have a UFO program based out of the Pentagon.

The program code-named A.A.T.I.P.

or the Advanced Aerial Threat Identification Program.

The program began in 2007 with funding of 22 million over the five years,

until available appropriations were ended in 2012.

This program began in the US Defense Intelligence Agency,

although the official A.A.T.I.P. program has ended,

a related group of interested professionals have extended the effort,

funding a nonprofit organization called

"To The Stars... Academy of Arts and Science."

Many who worked at A.A.T.I.P. say officially the program has ended,

but it is still receiving funding and is continuing.

[male narrator] On May 22nd 2019,

Pentagon spokesman Christopher Sherwood confirmed to the New York Post

that the program did pursue research and investigation into unidentified aerial phenomena,

dispelling rumors that the program only focused on theoretical physics.

The program manager, Luis Elizondo, said on December 19th, 2017

that he believed there was very compelling evidence we are not alone.

The Storm Area 51 Event took a turn on the first weekend in August of 2019.

Just as the hype seemed to have calmed down, over two million UFO enthusiasts

found their Area 51 meme filled page suddenly blocked by Facebook,

under the pretext of ever-elusive, community standards violations.

Spooked by the high volume of attendees, worried about the Las Vegas strip clubs

pledge to bring its dancers to entertain the masses,

or offended by one of the thousand memes posted by the community,

Facebook abruptly removed

the "Storm Area 51 - They Can't Stop Us All" event page over the weekend.

The backup page set up by the organizers was also wiped out

as the social media giant found the content posted

to this event to be in violation of their community standards.

Frustrated would-be raiders regrouped on reddit to share their theories,

while others continue to flood Twitter with Area 51 memes.

Many agreed that Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg

is secretly an alien from Area 51 and he doesn't want us to know.

Many questioned if the government had threatened Facebook or other online sites.

The hysteria over aliens at Area 51 only grew.

It seemed several were not willing to give up and were determined to storm Area 51.

After starting the Facebook event as a joke,

Matthew Roberts now planned an actual Area 51 festival in Nevada

to take place September 20th, the day the raid was going to go down.

He says he created another Facebook event this time for the real festival

that would take place somewhere that's not a highly classified military base,

but this too was taken down by the social network.

Perhaps it was for public safety,

or the government instructed Facebook to remove the site.

Either way this only encouraged event promoters to push forward.

The intense secrecy surrounding the base

has made it the frequent subject of conspiracy theories,

and a central component to unidentified flying object folklore.

The base has never been declared a secret base,

but all research and occurrences in Area 51 are top-secret, sensitive,

compartmentalized information.

The CIA publicly acknowledged the existence of the base for the first time

on the 25th of June 2013, following a Freedom of Information Act request

filed in 2005,

and they declassified documents detailing the history and purpose of Area 51.

Of course, there were no mentions of aliens.

The lakebed made an ideal strip for testing aircraft

and the Emigrant Valley's mountain ranges

and the NTS perimeter protected this site from visitors,

about 100 miles north of Las Vegas.

The CIA asked the AEC to acquire the land designated Area 51 on the map,

and to add it to the Nevada Test Site.

[male narrator] President Johnson named the area Paradise Ranch

to encourage workers to move to "the new facility in the middle of nowhere",

as the CIA later described it, and the name became shortened to The Ranch.

On the 4th of May 1955, a survey team arrived at Groom Lake

and laid out a 5,000-foot north-south runway on the southwest corner of the lakebed

and designated a site for a base support facility.

The Ranch initially consisted of little more than a few shelters,

workshops, and trailer homes in which to house its small team.

In a little over three months, the base consisted of a single paved runway, three hangars,

a control tower and rudimentary accommodations for test personnel.

The base's few amenities included a movie theater and a volleyball court.

There was also a mess hall, several wells and fuel storage tanks.

CIA, Air Force, and Lockheed personnel began arriving on July of 1955.

The Ranch received its first U-2 delivery on the 24th of July 1955 from Burbank.

Regular Military Air Transport Service flights

were set up between Area 51 and Lockheed's offices in Burbank, California.

To preserve secrecy, personnel flew to Nevada on Monday mornings

and returned to California on Friday.

During the Cold War, one of the missions carried out by the United States

was the test and evaluation of captured Soviet fighter aircraft.

Beginning in the late 60s, and for several decades,

Area 51 played host to an assortment of Soviet-built aircraft.

Under the HAVE DOUGHNUT, HAVE DRILL and HAVE FERRY programs,

the first MiGs flown in the United States were used to evaluate the aircraft

in performance, technical, and operational capabilities,

pitting the types against U.S. fighters.

Area 51 also hosted another foreign material evaluation program called HAVE GLIB.

This involved testing Soviet tracking and missile control radar systems.

A complex of actual and replica Soviet-type threat systems began to grow around Slater Lake,

a mile northwest of the main base, along with an acquired Soviet Barlock search radar.

They were arranged to simulate a Soviet-style air defense complex.

All of this evaluation of foreign technology made Area 51

the perfect place to study, test, and evaluate alien technology.

If you have a UFO or flying saucer and wanted to see what it could do

out of the prying eyes of the nation,

Area 51 was the most logical and perfect place to do it.

The base itself is restricted, the airspace above the base is restricted,

and even land surrounding the base has been purchased

and declared restricted for miles around.

The United States government has provided minimal information regarding Area 51.

The area surrounding the lake is permanently off-limits

to both civilian and normal military air traffic.

Security clearances are checked regularly, cameras and weaponry are not allowed.

Even military pilots training in the NAFR risk disciplinary action

if they stray into the exclusive box surrounding Grooms airspace.

Surveillance is supplemented using buried motion sensors.

Area 51 is a common destination for Janet airline, a small fleet of passenger aircraft

operated on behalf of the Air Force to transport military personnel,

primarily from McCarran International Airport.

The USGS topographic map for the area only shows the long-disused Groom Mine.

A civil aviation chart published by the Nevada Department of Transportation

shows a large restricted area defined as part of the Nellis restricted airspace.

The National Atlas shows the area as lying within the Nellis Air Base.

However, high resolution and newer images available from satellite imagery providers,

including Russian providers prove the base is huge and of course does exist.

These show the runway markings, base facilities, aircraft and vehicles.

[male narrator] We may have Tang thanks to the space program,

but who gave us such innovations as the stealth fighter and Kevlar?

Aliens of course.

Conspiracy theorists believe that the remains of crashed UFO spacecraft

are stored at Area 51,

an air force base about 150 miles from Las Vegas.

Government scientists reverse engineer the aliens' highly advanced technology there.

Fodder for this has come from a variety of supposed UFO sightings in the area

and testimony from a retired Army colonel,

who says he was given access to extraterrestrial materials

gathered from an alien spacecraft

that crashed in Roswell, New Mexico.

Some believe that the government studies time travel at Area 51,

also known as Groom Lake or Dreamland.

The government has developed advanced aircraft and weapon systems

at nearby Nellis Air Force Base, including stealth bombers and reconnaissance planes.

And the government's official line that the details of Area 51 are classified

for the purpose of national security is only seen as further proof

that the military is hiding aliens or alien spacecraft.

In the summer of 1955,

sightings of unidentified flying objects were reported around Area 51.

That's because the airbase had begun its testing of the U-2 aircraft.

The U-2 can fly higher than 60,000 feet.

At the time, normal airliners were flying in the ten to twenty thousand feet range,

while military aircraft topped out at about 40,000 feet.

So, if a pilot spotted the tiny speck that was the U-2 high above it,

they would have no idea what it was

and they would usually let air traffic control know that someone was out there.

This led to the increase of UFO sightings in the area,

while Air Force officials knew the UFO sightings were U-2 tests,

they couldn't really tell the public.

So, they explained the aircraft sightings by saying they were natural phenomenon

and high-altitude weather research.

The testing of the U-2 ended in the late 1950s,

but Area 51 has continued to serve as the testing ground

for many aircraft including the F-117A,

the A-12 and the Tacit Blue.

No one knows for sure what Area 51 is up to these days.

The government never even publicly acknowledged the existence of the base

until 2013,

with the release of declassified CIA reports.

But if you're ever at the Las Vegas Airport,

keep an eye out for some small unmarked passenger planes

in a fenced-off area.

They're how Area 51 employees get to work from their homes in Vegas.

So, how did Area 51 come to be known as a place

where the government keeps aliens and alien saucers?

Enter Bob Lazar.

Lazar is primarily known for his time of being hired in the late 1980s

to reverse-engineer purported extraterrestrial technology at a secret site called S-4,

located several miles south of the Area 51 United States Air Force facility.

Lazar claims he examined an alien craft that ran on an antimatter reactor

powered by the then un-synthesized element 115.

He also claims to have read US government briefing documents

that described alien involvement in human affairs over the past 10,000 years.

Lazar's claims resulted in bringing added public attention to Area 51.

His story gained renewed attention due to a June the 20th 2019 interview with Joe Rogan

as well as a 2018 documentary about his life

entitled "Bob Lazar, Area 51 and Flying Saucers."

[male narrator] In May of 1989,

Lazar appeared in an interview with investigative reporter George Knapp

on Las Vegas TV station KLAS,

under the pseudo name Dennis

and with his face hidden to discuss his purported employment at S-4,

a subsidiary facility he claims exists near Area 51.

He said the facility was adjacent to Papoose Lake

which is located south of the main Area 51 facility at Groom Lake.

He claimed the site consisted of concealed aircraft hangars built into a mountainside.

Lazar said that his job was to help with the reverse engineering

of one of nine flying saucers.

Bob claims one of the flying saucers, the one he coined the Sport Model

was manufactured out of a metallic substance

similar in appearance and touch to stainless steel.

In a subsequent interview that November, Lazar appeared unmasked and under his own name.

Lazar claims that the propulsion of the studied vehicle

was fueled by atomic element 115, or e 115.

Lazar explained that e 115 generates a gravity wave.

In addition, Lazar claims that during his onboarding to the program,

he read briefing documents describing the historical involvement

with earth for the past 10,000 years by extraterrestrial beings; grey aliens.

These aliens are from a planet orbiting the twin binary star system Zeta Reticuli.

Lazar's story garnered media attention and controversy as well as supporters.

The scientific community however is skeptical of Lazar's claims

as he makes them without any hard evidence or proof of what he is claiming.

According to scientific skeptic Benjamin Radford,

Lazar's lies propelled Area 51 into the public consciousness.

Lazar claims he earned a Master's degree in physics from MIT

and a Master's degree in electronic technology from Caltech.

However, there are no records of Lazar attending either MIT or Caltech.

Furthermore, Lazar was not a member of a professional body.

Lazar claims that his academic records were erased

in an effort by authorities to discredit him.

However, in Lazar's defense, people have come forward and said they knew him

from his days at MIT and Caltech and affirmed he did attend there.

The subject of UFOs, Area 51 and aliens has entered the political spectrum as well.

US Senator and Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders

has pledged to share any details about UFOs if he wins the 2020 election.

He says he's prepared to disclose any government information

about unidentified flying objects,

but only if he wins, and mainly because his wife Jane asked him to;

even promising he would announce the findings on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Rogan asked if Jane was a UFO nut, which Sanders denied.

Jane, however, has been pressing the candidate about what information

he might have right now as a senator.

It's unclear however, if the Republicans will push this issue into election headlines.

[male narrator] In June, US President Donald Trump told ABC News's George Stephanopoulos

that he also received a briefing about recent sightings by military pilots.

Trump claims not to believe in UFOs or has no particular interest.

Although this debate sounds like a rehash

of conversations surrounding the 1950s and 60s' era Project Blue Book,

it does have more recent origins.

Earlier in the year, the New York Times reported that pilots with the US Navy

saw swiftly flying UFOs several times off the coast in 2014 and 2015,

but the reports of these vehicles don't necessarily point to something extraterrestrial.

But there's been so much attention on the issue that in June,

the Defense Department briefed Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia,

the Senate's Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman

about these encounters along with two other senators.

While we wait on party positions on space aliens for 2020,

remember that this isn't the first time the issue popped up

in talks with a Democrat presidential candidate.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton promised New Hampshire's Conway Daily news, Sun

that she would get to the bottom of the UFO phenomenon.

She added that Earth may have been visited already by aliens, but we don't know for sure.

However, it is unclear how seriously Clinton was speaking to the newspaper,

which is located in a key state for the election primaries.

Previous Presidents have alluded, sometimes tongue-in-cheek

that aliens may exist and the government may have top-secret departments that study them,

even with direct contact with aliens.

So far there has not been any confirmation by any leader in the world

that aliens are among us.

UFO enthusiasts believe that Area 51 may be the home of the famous Majestic 12.

The organization is claimed to be the codename of an alleged secret committee of scientists,

military leaders, and government officials formed in 1947

by an executive order by US President Harry S. Truman

to facilitate recovery and investigation of alien spacecraft.

The concept originated in a series of supposedly leaked secret documents

first circulated by ufologists in 1984.

Upon examination, the Federal Bureau of Investigation

declared the documents to be completely bogus

and many ufologists considered them to be an elaborate hoax.

Majestic 12 remains popular among some UFO conspiracy theorists

and the concept has appeared in popular culture

including, television, film and literature.

The concept of Majestic 12 emerged during a period in the 1980s

when ufologists believed there had been a cover-up of the Roswell UFO incident

and speculated some secretive upper tier of the United States government was responsible.

Their suppositions appeared to be confirmed in 1984,

when ufologist Jaime Shandera received an envelope containing film

which when developed showed images of eight pages

of documents that appeared to be briefing papers describing Operation Majestic 12.

The documents purported to reveal a secret committee of 12,

supposedly authorized by United States President Harry S. Truman in 1952,

and explained how the crash of an alien spacecraft at Roswell

in July of 1947 had been concealed,

how the recovered alien technology could be exploited

and how the United States should engage

with extraterrestrial life in the future.

Shandera and his ufologist colleagues Stanton T. Friedman and Bill Moore

say they later received a series of anonymous messages

that led them to find what has been called the Cutler/Twining memo

in 1985 while searching declassified files in the National Archives.

Purported to be written by President Eisenhower's assistant Robert Cutler

to General Nathan F. Twining and containing a reference to Majestic 12,

the memo is widely held to be a forgery, likely planted as part of a hoax.

[male narrator] However, claiming to be connected to the United States Air Force Office

of Special Investigations, a man named Richard Doty told filmmaker Linda Moulton Howe

that the MJ-12 story was true, and showed Howe unspecified documents

purporting to prove the existence of small, grey humanoid aliens

originating from the Zeta Reticuli star system.

Doty reportedly promised to supply Howe with film footage of UFOs

and an interview with an alien being, although no footage ever materialized.

Soon, distrust and suspicion led to disagreements within the ufology community

over the authenticity of the MJ-12 documents,

and Moore was accused of taking part in an elaborate hoax,

while other ufologists and debunkers such as Philip J. Klass

were accused of being disinformation agents.

Both Bob Lazar and the MJ-12 documents say that aliens at Area 51

come from the Zeta Reticuli star system.

So, where is this system?

The system is a wide binary star system in the southern constellation of reticulum.

From the southern hemisphere,

the pair can be seen as a naked-eye double star in very dark skies.

Based upon parallax measurements,

this system is located at a distance

of about thirty-nine point three light-years from Earth.

Both stars are solar analogs that have characteristics similar to those of our Sun.

They belong to the Zeta Herculis Moving Group of stars that share a common origin.

Scientists agree that any system within fifty light years could be reached with a spacecraft

traveling just under the speed of light within one lifetime.

So, as stars go, Zeta is rather close at thirty-nine light years away.

Betty and Barney Hill were an American couple

who claimed they were abducted by extraterrestrials

in a rural portion of the state of New Hampshire

from September 19th to September 20th 1961.

It was the first widely publicized report of an alien abduction in the United States.

The incident came to be called the Hill Abduction and the Zeta Reticuli Incident

because the couple stated they had been kidnapped by aliens

who claimed to be from the Zeta Reticuli system.

Their story was adapted into a best-selling 1966 book, The Interrupted Journey

and the 1975 television movie The UFO Incident.

In September 2016, plans were announced to make a film

based on the event with an unknown release date.

The interesting thing though is that the Hills claim came in 1961,

but it was in 1969 that Marjorie Fish discovered the system

and the Hill map actually did exist.

Marjorie Fish of Oak Harbor, Ohio read Fuller's Interrupted Journey.

She was an elementary school teacher and amateur astronomer.

Interested by the star map mentioned in the book,

Fish wondered if it might be deciphered

to determine which star system the UFO came from.

Assuming that one of the fifteen stars on the map must represent Earth's Sun,

Fish constructed a three-dimensional model of nearby sun-like stars

using thread and beads,

basing stellar distances on those published

in the 1969 Gliese Star Catalogue.

Studying thousands of vantage points over several years,

the only one that seemed to match the Hill map

was from the viewpoint of the double star system of Zeta Reticuli.

Fish sent her analysis to Webb.

Agreeing with her conclusions, Webb sent the map to Terence Dickinson,

editor of the popular magazine Astronomy.

Dickinson did not endorse Fish and Webb's conclusions,

but for the first time in the journal's history,

Astronomy invited comments and debate on a UFO report,

starting with an opening article in the December 1974 issue.

For about a year afterward, the opinions page of Astronomy

carried arguments for and against Fish's star map.

Notable was an argument made by Carl Sagan and Steven Soter,

arguing that the seeming star map

was little more than a random alignment of chance points.

In an episode of Cosmos in 1980, Sagan demonstrated that without the lines

drawn in the maps, the Hill map bore no resemblance to the real-life map.

In contrast, those more favorable to the map, such as David Saunders,

a statistician who had been on the Condon UFO study,

argued that unusual alignment of key sun-like stars

in a plane centered around Zeta Reticuli

was statistically improbable to have happened by chance

from a random group of stars in our immediate neighborhood.

[male narrator] The hill case

is one of the most heavily researched UFO cases on record

and many points made by the Hills

have been corroborated right after and since the abduction.

Most of Betty Hills' notes, tapes, and other items

have been placed in the permanent collection

at the University of New Hampshire, her alma mater.

In July 2011, the state Division of Historical Resources

marked the site of the alleged craft's first approach with a historical marker.

♪♪♪

[male narrator] So, you want to storm Area 51?

Where will you stay?

How do you get to camp?

There is not much in Rachel, Nevada

by way of stores, hotels and frankly anything.

The Little A'le' Inn, previously the Rachel Bar and Grill,

is a small bar, restaurant, and motel located in Rachel

along the Extra-Terrestrial Highway.

The business has been running for over twenty years

and is frequented by visitors to the local Area 51.

The business has a variety of Area 51 and UFO-related merchandise for sale

such as maps of the area, posters, postcards, and toys, and offers an alien burger.

There isn't much else in Rachel.

In 1991, Joe and Pat wanted something unique for the Bar & Grill

because they felt that Joe and Pat's was not exciting enough.

They held a contest won by Bruce Hooker with "A 'le' Inn" a play on alien.

The current owners of the Little A'le' Inn are Pat and her daughter Connie.

It has been featured in documentaries and even feature films.

If you're wondering, it is usually booked

with alien hunters for the Storm Area 51 event.

You can get there by taking highway 375.

The top-secret Area 51 government base is near SR 375

and many travelers have reported UFO observations

and other strange alien activity along this road.

Such stories prompted the state to officially designate the route

as the Extra-Terrestrial Highway in 1996.

The small town of Rachel located near the midpoint of the highway caters to tourists,

geocachers, and UFO seekers with alien-themed businesses.

Although the area receives some tourism due to the alleged extraterrestrial activity,

SR 375 remains a lightly traveled route.

Descending the summit, SR 375 nears the border of the Nellis Air Force Range.

As the highway heads northwest through Tikaboo Valley, it meets Mail Box Road.

It used to be marked by a single postal drop known as the Black Mailbox.

The dirt access road leads to the restricted lands surrounding Area 51.

The original mailbox was a normal black mailbox.

However, due to people constantly sifting through it,

it was replaced with a white one that was much more secure.

The name Black Mailbox still stuck.

It was commonly used as a gathering place for UFO seekers,

and two to three UFO sightings per week allegedly occur in the area.

The mailbox was removed by its owner, Steve Medlin, due to continued vandalism.

SR 375 continues heading northwest from the mailbox,

climbing in elevation again to reach the top of Coyote Summit at 5,591 feet.

To promote the Extraterrestrial Highway after its renaming,

the tourism commission launched "The ET Experience" in July 1996.

Tourists could contact the Nevada Commission on Tourism to receive a traveler's kit

containing information about the highway, nearby cultural attractions and area services.

Visitors that patronized businesses in Rachel and Central Nevada

and submitted an account of their journey

received Extraterrestrial Highway memorabilia.

Stories from travelers were also published in a newsletter

available to those that had completed the experience.

Despite tourism generated by people searching for signs of alien life,

only an average of about two hundred cars drive some portion

of the Extraterrestrial Highway every day, making it one of the state's least traveled routes.

[male narrator] You can't talk about Area 51 without at least a mention of Roswell.

After all, the Roswell UFO is said to be hidden away in Area 51.

In 1978, nuclear physicist and author Stanton Friedman interviewed Jesse Marcel,

the only person known to have accompanied the Roswell debris

from where it was recovered to Fort Worth

where reporters saw material which was claimed to be part of the recovered object.

The accounts given by Friedman and others in the following years

elevated Roswell from a forgotten incident

to perhaps the most famous UFO case of all time.

The story of Roswell has evolved since the first book published in 1980,

and an appearance by Jesse Marcel on the TV program "In Search Of."

Today, Roswell is a UFO fixture with an annual festival in July

where UFO researchers give talks, and there is a parade

which brings in much-needed income to a small desert town.

Rachel, Nevada must be looking on with envious eyes

at the stature this little town has garnered since the UFO stories broke.

Perhaps the Storm Area51 event will bring in as much tourism.

Storming Area51 looks to become something like the Burning Man event in Nevada.

Organizers are hoping it will grow and become part festival

with bands and attractions and part liberal event for art.

Burning Man is an event held annually in the western United States at Black Rock City,

a temporary city erected in the Black Rock Desert of Northwest Nevada,

approximately one hundred miles north-northeast of Reno.

The late summer event is an experiment in community and art,

influenced by ten main principles:

radical inclusion, radical self-reliance,

radical self-expression,

communal effort, civic responsibility,

gifting, participation, immediacy, and Leave No Trace.

The event takes its name from its culmination,

the symbolic ritual burning of a large wooden effigy;

the man that traditionally occurs on the Saturday evening of the event.

First held thirty-three years ago in 1986 on Baker's Beach in San Francisco

as a small function organized by Larry Harvey and Jerry James who built the first man.

It has since been annually spanning from the last Sunday in August

to the first Monday in September, or Labor Day.

At Burning Man, the community explores various forms of artistic self-expression,

which are created to be enjoyed by all participants.

Once considered an underground gathering for Bohemians and free spirits of all stripes,

Burning Man has since evolved into a destination for social media influencers,

celebrities, and the Silicon Valley elite.

Examples of creativity include experimental and interactive sculptures,

buildings, performances and art cars, among other media.

These contributions are inspired by a theme that is chosen annually by the organizers.

Burning Man boasts 70,000 attendees and has spawned other similar events worldwide.

Storming Area51 from the perspective of the military

has always been a stern report: don't try to storm our base.

Area 51 and the government is well aware of the event that is unfolding

and will be diligent against anyone who tries to cross the border into Area 51.

On July 10th 2019, speaking with the Washington Post,

Air Force spokeswoman Laura McAndrews said

officials were aware of the event and issued a warning saying,

"Area 51 is an open training range for the US Air Force

and we would discourage anyone from trying to come into the area

where we train American armed forces."

She added, "The US Air Force

always stands ready to protect America and its assets."

This is of course, the "We will shoot you statement."

Anonymous Nevadan law enforcement officials have said government agencies

are closely monitoring the reaction to the post saying,

"Anyone found trespassing would be arrested

and prosecuted to the fullest extent of local and military law."

A public information officer at Nellis Air Force Base told KNPR

that any attempt to illegally access the area is highly discouraged.

Signs at the border of the base clearly say

that lethal force is authorized, meaning, they can shoot you.

Most likely you would be arrested and detained, perhaps for days.

You will have no legal recourse.

If they truly believe you are a threat, you can be incarcerated.

But if a wave of people truly tried to storm the base, you can bet there will be gunfire.

The camo dudes that protect the base are armed and authorized to shoot you.

However, if you want to have a good time and get in some desert camping,

enjoy some music and talk about UFOs with fellow event participants.

This grassroots festival may just be the perfect place to have some fun.

Just remember,

don't storm Area 51.

♪♪♪

[man] Ten, nine,

ignition sequence start.

Six, five, four,

three, two, one, zero.

[explosion]