Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Area 51

Starting point is 00:00:00 Area 51 is a place where secrecy became legend and speculation turned into modern mythology. Tucked away in the Nevada desert, it's been the alleged site for alien autopsies, hidden spacecraft, and technologies decades ahead of their time. All the while, the United States government insisted it barely existed at all. The reality is far less dramatic or conspiratorial. Learn more about the creation, secrecy, and theories surrounding Area 51 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Fear is the virus is trending on TikTok. Vaccines are poison. Then your yoga teacher says that sex traffic children are being sacrificed by satanic liberals.

Starting point is 00:00:52 But it's all okay. The Great Awakening is coming. What is happening? Every week on Conspirality Podcast, we explore the fever dreams that suck friends, family, and wellness gurus down the right-wing cult spiral in a search for salvation. Despite all the rumors and controversy surrounding it, the origins of Area 51 are pretty mundane. In fact, because of all the theories surrounding it, many people don't even realize that Area 51 is an actual place and a real thing. Construction of Area 51 began 70 years ago, though it wasn't formally recognized as a military base until 2013

Starting point is 00:01:37 through a request filed through the Freedom of Information Act. Though the base is commonly referred to as Area 51, the technical names of the base are either Groom Lake or the Homi Airport. In terms of its location, the base is situated within the Nevada Test and Training Range, or NTTR. The range is part of an established space where the American military can test develop and train new tactics and weapons. Notably, this testing range is part of the major range test facility bases, which are mainly

Starting point is 00:02:08 used by the Department of Defense. To highlight its vast scale, the NDTR is the largest continuous area of ground and air available to the United States military for peacetime military operations. This region spans 2.9 million acres of land, encompasses 5,000 square miles of airspace, and shares another 7,000 square miles of military operating area with civilian aircraft allowed. The land itself is actually larger than the state of Rhode Island. Area 51 itself is located at Groom Lake, a dried lake bed in southern Nevada, roughly 83 miles from Las Vegas. The lake bed is so flat, it's used as a runway for the Nellis Bombing Range test site. The CIA first established the Groom Lake test facility in April of 1955 as a part of Project Aquatone,

Starting point is 00:03:01 intended as a development and testing facility for the Lockheed U2 spy plane. The decision to test the U2 spy plane at a secret military facility was made because the project demanded extreme secrecy. After all, having people know about your spy plane pretty much negates the power of having a spy plane. The director of the U2 spy plane project, Richard Bissell Jr., reportedly conducted a search for the perfect spot to develop the plane, and when flying over the area that became Area 51, he thought it was perfect. The location sat between the Emigrant Valley Mountain Range and the border of the Nevada Test and Training Range, helping block any visitors from viewing the aircraft. Because of this, the CIA acquired the land and designated its location as Area 51.

Starting point is 00:03:49 It's actually unclear how the designation Area 51 originated, but the general assumption is that it was part of the Atomic Energy Commission's numbering grid. After the acquisition of the land, the area became dubbed Paradise Ranch. The goal of this name was to encourage workers to move to the location, despite it being in the middle of nowhere. The construction of the facility began on May 4, 1955. In the beginning, the base included a few trailer homes and workshops and shelters for the team living there. By the time CIA, Air Force, and Lockheed personnel arrived in the scene, the base had expanded to include other amenities. Another major project conducted at Area 51 was Project Oxcart.

Starting point is 00:04:31 Starting in August of 1959, the program was designed to test anti-radar capabilities, conduct structural tests, and complete engineering designs for the Lockheed A-12, the successor spy plane to the U-2. The project was notable because it necessitated the addition of new facilities to the base to support construction and development. Additionally, the new project led to an increase in security, presence at the base and the closure of the surrounding airspace. The next major known project completed at an Area 51 was the development of the D-21 tagboard.

Starting point is 00:05:06 This ship was a modified version of the A-12, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft designed to convert the A-12 into a drone. This project was viewed as necessary due to Francis Gary Powers U-2 being shot down over the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. Powers was part of a U-2 mission that conducted surveillance over the Soviet Union to gain insight into the Soviet's nuclear capabilities. While on his mission, a Soviet missile shot down Powers, who survived and was captured. The remaining pieces of his plane were then put on public display as proof from the Soviets that the Americans were deceitful. At the time, it was believed that U-2 spy planes flew too high for Soviet radar to detect, although this was later proven untrue.

Starting point is 00:05:47 The United States attempted to deny that the plane was used for spying, claiming it was conducting weather surveillance, but the ship's aerial camera easily revealed that it was in fact being used for spying. The U.S. and the Soviet Union bickered over whether or not the plane was used for spying until the American president Dwight Eisenhower admitted the truth. After the U-2 incident, despite official denials, covert surveillance continued, highlighting why the United States was developing spy drones. The D-21 was developed by the Air Force in October of 1962, though the project fell into the CIA's hands

Starting point is 00:06:22 by the time the design was finalized in October of 1963. The first D-21 was completed by Lockheed in the spring of 1964 and then sent to Area 51 for further development and testing. These tests went horribly and the project was ultimately canceled due to a change in focus on developing other projects. The main projects in the late 1960s focused on capturing enemy military, aircraft, such as Soviet mig fighters, and returning them to Groom Lake. Once at Area 51, the enemy aircraft underwent tests in which technical, operational, and performance metrics were analyzed. The capture and testing of enemy aircraft at Area 51 began with the Air Force, but the Navy eventually joined in, creating a joint task force known as Operation Donut.

Starting point is 00:07:07 The main purpose of the project was to test Soviet-made aircraft in simulated air combat scenarios. Other pieces of foreign technology taken and tested at Area 51 included the Soviet tracking and missile control radar systems and other enemy aircraft. The final major project that should probably be mentioned that occurred at Area 51 was the Lockheed Hague HVoo and the F-117 program. The Have-Boo program was a smaller stealth fighter prototype that served as the basis for the F-117. This actually began in 1978. Most of the development, including, completion occurred at Area 51, specifically during the development testing stage, with the final portion of the project being moved to a newer, larger base. After the project was moved, Area 51 did

Starting point is 00:07:54 continue to work on the F-117 to test the plane's weapons, conduct radar profiling, and to train the first group of pilots. Since the F-117 became operational in 1983, the base has remained active. The facility has been expanded multiple times, although the exact reason for the expansion has never been specified. It's likely linked the development of some new military aircraft. A major reason for Area 51's notoriety is the lack of information from the U.S. government. The area has been permanently off-limits to civilians, and there are strict security measures, including regularly checked clearances and bans on weapons and cameras. The security is so extreme that other military pilots at the NTTR will be disciplined

Starting point is 00:08:39 if they enter Area 51's airspace. Adding to the mystery are the topographical maps of the region provided by the United States Geological Survey, which only show the existence of Groom Mine, a mineral mine that was in operation prior to the base's construction. When aerial photographs of the region were publicly released in 1959 and 1969, they included images of the military base, so the public knew that there was something there. Additionally, civil aviation charts developed by the Nevada Department of Transportation showed a massive restricted zone over the region where Area 51 was located,

Starting point is 00:09:18 drawing more attention and suspicion to the site. The site was only formally recognized by the United States Air Force in 1998, and then only recognized by the CIA in June of 2013, when they admitted to the U2 spy planes being tested in Area 51. This made the CIA the first government agency to acknowledge any activity that was happening at the site. Over time, Area 51 has become one of the most well-known sites for conspiracy theories in the United States. These theories mainly focus on extraterrestrial life and UFO sightings. Despite these suspicions, the United States has denied all accusations and maintains that the base is used for flight testing.

Starting point is 00:10:01 All these theories have led to the surrounding area to become. become a popular tourist destination, earning it the nickname Extraterrestrial Highway. This comes from the rumors from the locals in the area who reported UFO sightings, although it's widely thought that these reports were primarily from the base's test flights. The modern explosion of Area 51 conspiracies can all be traced back to the year 1989, when self-proclaimed physicist Bob Lazar claimed on television that he had worked at a nearby facility reverse engineering alien spacecraft. Lazzar has never presented any evidence beyond his own testimony to support his claims,

Starting point is 00:10:40 and despite claiming to have graduated from both MIT and Caltech, neither university has any record of his attendance. From this initial claim in 1989, more theories began to spread. Some of these include using the base to manipulate the weather, develop new space exploration systems and energy weapons, and store and reverse engineer alien ships. Despite none of these conspiracy theories ever having been proven, Area 51 still attracts its fair share of controversy, and in some cases, quite legitimate. One of the largest scandals involved a 1994 lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed against the United States Air Force and the Environmental Protection Agency by five unnamed civilian contractors or widows of civilian contractors. They claim they witness large quantities of mystery chemicals burned in open,

Starting point is 00:11:32 trenches and pits at Area 51. They claimed that this resulted in the Complaintance, having respiratory skin, and liver issues. When the complaint's bodies were tested, evidence showed high levels of toxic chemicals in their body fat. The lawsuit sought compensation for these illnesses under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs the proper disposal of toxic chemicals. Additionally, they asked to learn which chemicals were present in order to receive proper treatment. In order to prevent the information, on these chemicals from getting out, the United States government invoked the state secrets privilege, which is a doctrine that allows the U.S. government to withhold information in court if it feels it could

Starting point is 00:12:12 harm national security or foreign relations. The judge in the case rejected the government's claim, but before any information could be released, President Bill Clinton used his power to issue a presidential edict exempting Area 51 from environmental disclosure laws. By making this move, the judge dismissed the lawsuit due to insufficient evidence. The ruling has been appealed, claiming that the government was abusing its power to classify information. In response, the U.S. Air Force stated that revealing the identities of the chemicals would reveal information on operational capabilities

Starting point is 00:12:44 and the scope of various classified operations. After this, a U.S. appeals court rejected the appeal. They then attempted to bring the case to the Supreme Court, but the court refused to hear it, ending the case. Since then, all U.S. presidents have continued to either issue or support support executive orders, exempting Groom Lake from environmental laws. Information on Area 51 or Groom Lake is likely to remain classified for decades to come. It really isn't surprising that so many conspiracy theories have centered around Area 51.

Starting point is 00:13:16 It is an actual government facility with extreme secrecy surrounding it. Nobody knows what presently goes on there, and almost no images or even descriptions of the facility have ever been made public. All of this mystery allows people to fill in the gaps and knowledge with whatever they want. Whether the base is holding alien technology or just testing advanced aircraft, the mystery and notoriety of the location will probably continue to fuel conspiracies for years to come. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. Research and writing for this episode was provided by the Olivia Ash.

Starting point is 00:14:01 Today's review comes from listener Celtic Blue 13 from Apple Podcasts in the United Kingdom. They write, fun and informative. Finally became a completionist, so feels sufficiently educated enough to leave a review. The podcast is great. The host has an easy style whereby you feel as if you are merely listening to a short tale, but suddenly realize you've been educated. I have a broad but admittedly shallow knowledge base, so I'm usually aware of the topic yet still learn something,

Starting point is 00:14:27 and sometimes hear something totally new, such as the prime minister who is eaten. would highly recommend. Well, thanks, Celtic Blue. You have discovered my secret. Stealth learning. You don't even know what's happening. Remember, if you leave a review of the podcast on any of the major podcast apps,

Starting point is 00:14:44 you do can have it read on the show. I found Area 51. No, ma'am, this is Area 51A. Ugh. Well, um, I'm kind of lost. Can you tell me where I am? I'm sorry, the location of this location is classified.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - Area 51

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