Whether you’re enthralled by all the recent talk about UFOs, or you’re halfway through an X-Files binge, you might be wondering where Area 51 is. Who can blame you? Like the Bermuda Triangle and quicksand, Area 51 is mentioned often enough to build a sense of eerie intrigue but not enough to dispel any mysteriousness around the subject. It doesn’t help that those familiar with Area 51 are pretty tight-lipped, either.
Here, we’ll go over what Area 51 is and where it’s located. Before we begin, though, note that the following is for informational purposes only—we don’t recommend attempting to be the first person to enter Area 51 without permission and come back out.
What Is Area 51, Anyway?
Area 51 is a US Air Force base in Nevada with a murky history. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) built the facility in 1955 to develop the Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Because the U-2 project was a secret, it couldn’t be tested at existing Air Force bases, hence the need for a new and remote location.
That level of secrecy gave Area 51 its misguided reputation for involvement with UFOs (or UAPs, as the government has taken to calling them). As the CIA and the Air Force began to use the facility for other classified aircraft, Nevada residents and tourists who found themselves near Area 51 sporadically spotted mysterious objects floating silently through the sky. Thanks to the military’s strict discretion and America’s longstanding obsession with extraterrestrials, those observers quickly drew their own conclusions.
Civilians who wanted to learn more about the region’s cryptic goings-on weren’t allowed to do so. Then, like today, Area 51 was kept off-limits. Its fences were monitored by security cameras and armed guards with Top Secret clearances, which were regularly checked. Buried motion sensors were eventually added to the region’s topography.
Left without a way to investigate or read about Area 51’s operations, some civilians came up with their own explanations. Conspiracies started to bloom: While some people thought the military was busy developing weather control technology, others felt the government was storing and reverse-engineering alien ships (including the equipment recovered following the Roswell Incident). Some even thought the government was joining forces with the aliens themselves.
The CIA didn’t publish a rundown of its Lockheed U-2 project until 1992. Even then, the version of the writeup shared with the public was heavily redacted. In 2005, National Security Archive fellow Jeffrey Richelson filed a Freedom of Information Act request in search of the non-redacted version. Richelson finally received what he’d asked for in 2013—and inside the document was the government’s first-ever written reference to Area 51.
Information about Area 51’s true purpose has trickled out ever since, and you can now read about a number of the aerospace experiments that took place there. But Area 51 still prohibits civilian entry, and its modern-day operations are kept under wraps. As a result, some people believe the government hasn’t been entirely honest about what the facility is really for, allowing conspiracy theories to continue running wild.
So, Where Is It?
We’ve mentioned that the US government’s somewhat demystified secret base is in Nevada—but where is it exactly?
To be clear, you can’t visit Area 51. Its vast perimeter is studded with warning signs, including those that read “Use of Deadly Force Authorized.” Photography and drone use are also prohibited. Area 51 is not a tourist attraction, nor should you attempt to turn it into one like a group of over-eager Facebook users did in 2019.
With that out of the way, Area 51 is located in southern Nevada, toward the north edge of the Mojave Desert. It’s 83 miles northwest of Las Vegas. No public road connects Area 51 to the rest of civilization. The closest civilians can get is Rachel, a tiny, 50-resident town off of SR-375 known for its alien-themed rest stops.
Area 51 was built around Groom Lake, a salt flat (or dried-up lake) that made for an excellent aircraft testing strip. This gave rise to the facility’s government name, “Groom Box.” At its origin, Area 51 was only 60 square miles; it’s since been expanded to 575 square miles, all of which are restricted airspace.
Area 51 is closely connected—physically and organizationally—with several other confidential government facilities. One, simply called “The Site,” belongs to the Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Sites (NNSS), a collection of nine facilities within the contiguous US. (The DOE’s usage of “area” monikers, like Area 5 and Area 30, is thought to be what inspired the name “Area 51.”)
The Site sits in Mercury, a mock village constructed in 1950 to house personnel involved in rocket testing. Mercury has ceased most of its operations, but The Site continues to perform smaller experiments. Officials can use the US Department of Energy’s Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) road network to travel between Area 15, Mercury, and a former nuclear testing site called Yucca Flats.
Toward Area 51’s southwest corner is the Sugar Bunker, a chemical explosives storage unit and laboratory. The Sugar Bunker is said to have been used for experiments during President Eisenhower’s three-year voluntary nuclear testing moratorium.
For more, read Are UFO Sightings Real?
