Area 51 is a parcel of U.S. military-controlled land in southern Nevada, apparently containing a secret aircraft testing facility. It is also known as Watertown, Dreamland, Paradise Ranch, The Farm, The Box, and The Directorate for Development Plans Area, and simply Groom Lake. It is also famed as the subject of many UFO conspiracy theories.
Geography
Area 51 is a section of land of approximately 60 sq. mi. / 155 km¾ in Lincoln County, Nevada, USA. It is part of the vast (4687 sq. mi. / 12139 km¾) Nellis Range Complex (NRC). The area consists largely of the wide Emigrant Valley, framed by the Groom and Papoose mountain ranges. Between the two ranges lies Groom Dry Lake (37ƒÝ16 2Ý05 3ÝN 115ƒÝ47 2Ý58 3ÝW1), a dry alkali lake bed roughly three miles (5 km) in diameter. A large air base exists on the southwest corner of the lake (37ƒ14 2ÝN 115ƒ49 2ÝW) with two concrete runways, at least one of which extends onto the lake bed, and two unprepared runways on the lake bed itself.
Area 51 shares a border with the Yucca Flats region of the Nevada Test Site (NTS), the location of many of the U.S. Department of Energy's nuclear weapons tests. The Yucca Mountain nuclear storage facility is approximately 40 miles (64km) southwest of Groom Lake.
The designation "Area 51" is somewhat contentious, appearing on older maps of the NTS and not newer ones, but the same naming scheme is used for other parts of the Nevada Test Site.
The area is connected to the internal NTS road network, with paved roads leading both to Mercury to the Northwest and West to Yucca Flats. Leading northeast from the lake, Groom Lake Road (a wide, well-conditioned dirt road) runs through a pass in the Jumbled Hills. Groom Lake Road was formerly the track leading to mines in the Groom basin, but has been improved since their closure. Its winding course takes it past a security checkpoint, but the restricted area around the base extends further east than this (visitors foolhardy enough to travel west on Groom Lake Road are usually observed first by guards located on the hills surrounding the pass, still several miles from the checkpoint). After leaving the restricted area (marked by numerous warning signs stating that "photography is prohibited" and that "use of deadly force is authorized") Groom Lake Road descends eastward to the floor of the Tikaboo Valley, passing the dirt-road entrances to several small ranches, before joining with State Highway 375 south of Rachel.
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