An airstrip, called Indian Springs Auxiliary Field No. The Sheahans' homestead was about as isolated as it gets Las Vegas wasn't even founded as a city until 1905 and was inaccessible by railroad until 1906.īut the family's quiet lifestyle abruptly changed in 1941, when the government sent agents to scout the area for use as a training site for bomber planes. A man named Patrick Sheahan built a humble homestead and founded Groom Mine in 1889. In 1864, prospectors discovered silver and lead around Groom Lake salt flat. Not much was happening on this swath of land before World War II. Through the years, the base has also been called Dreamland, Watertown, Yuletide and Paradise Ranch. If you ask air traffic control, that 'somewhere' is Homey Airport (KXTA), otherwise known as Area 51. Air traffic control audio out of a private terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport suggests that government-owned passenger jets flying under the name 'Janet Airlines' make daily flights to and from… somewhere in the Nevada desert. We also know that workers aren't commuting there by car. And the land around it is peppered with warning signs to would-be trespassers. The airspace above the base is extremely off-limits. The closest town is Rachel, Nevada, population 54.

Sometimes called the Nevada Test and Training Range, the base is located next to a salt flat called Groom Lake and is home to some of the longest runways in the world. Air Force uses the 38,400-acre patch of desert as a training site. Here's what we do know about Area 51: Today, the U.S. A sign on display at an entrance gate to the Nevada Test and Training Range, located near Area 51, on Septemnear Rachel, Nevada. Here's what we know for sure… and what secrets are yet to be revealed. So, what is Area 51 really? What do we know for sure? How did a Cold War espionage operation become associated with theories of deep-state cover-ups of crash-landed aliens? And why did dozens of people put their lives on hold in September 2019 to drive into the Nevada desert to stand outside of it?

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