Close Encounters of the Nevada kind
By Jasmine Michaelson
ET Highway doesn’t guarantee ‘sightings,’ but it’s worth trip
I thought I’d heard quiet before but I hadn’t.
Standing on the dotted yellow line in the middle of the two-lane Extraterrestrial Highway, watching it stretch out straight in front of me until it ended at a point in the distance, all I could hear was my own breathing. There was no wind in the miles-wide, flat valley that stretched out on either side of the highway, its floor turning from reddish brown to grayish blue the farther it got from me. There were no leaves to rustle had there been any breeze — just some low brush and a few Joshua trees, their short, gnarled arms twisting heavenward.
The sky was
blue like deep water
and virtually cloudless and the road was serenely empty, despite it being mid-afternoon.
It’s so quiet, I thought, that if someone standing three miles down the road had cracked a knuckle, I’d have heard it.
But other than a handful of yellow diamond-shaped road signs warning us about “low-flying aircraft,” and eating an “alien burger” for lunch (which tasted inexplicably like beef) we didn’t catch any signs of visitors from other worlds — though, frankly, if we had, it wouldn’t have seemed out of place in the least.
The Extraterrestrial Highway (formally Nevada State Route 375), at just under 100 miles long, lies about 90 miles north of one the world’s louder tourist destinations: Las Vegas. Aside from it’s otherworldly atmosphere and a widely held belief among ufologists that it’s among the most “visited” sites in the world, the main reason Route 375 got its name is because it’s the way to Area 51.
Simply take the unmarked, stick-straight Groom Lake Road that juts off from the highway and disappears into white desert haze. The unusually manicured dirt road will take you behind the Groom Lake Mountains and eventually dump you into a dry lake bed where you’ll find — well, most people don’t know what exactly you’ll find there and those who do would tell you but then they might have to kill you.
For the non-conspiracy theorist, Area 51 (more officially known as the Groom Lake Base) is a top secret government facility 60 miles square where military planes like the U-2 spy plane were developed and tested.
(The first stealth fighter prototypes were allegedly seen flying over the area by awestruck civilians in 1977 who reported them as UFOs.) “The Ranch,” as Area 51 is frequently referred to by the locals, is also used for weapons testing and training. The conspiracy theorist, however, will give you a different story about the desert compound. They believe that the UFO wreckage and alien bodies recovered from an alleged crash in 1947 on a farm in Roswell, N.M., known as the “Roswell Incident” (which is another story entirely) have been stored and studied at Area 51.
The story has its holes, yes, but anybody will give a conspiracy theorist this: The place is certainly shrouded in mystery. For starters, the U.S. government apparently neither acknowledges nor denies its existence. Signs within the restricted area (where it is not recommended that you go) inform uninvited visitors that “photography is prohibited” and that “use of deadly force is authorized.” Men in white SUVs and camouflage uniforms (those hoping to sneak a peak of the area refer to them as “camo dudes”) prowl the hills with binoculars and guns. And employees of the establishment are sworn to secrecy, forbidden to discuss what they do and see there even with their own spouses. It’s all certainly enough get the imagination swirling.
In 1996, sniffing a moneymaker in true Nevada fashion, the state decided to try to turn State Route 375 into a tourist destination by renaming it the Extraterrestrial Highway. The moneymaker scent spread to Hollywood where the creators of the then-yet-to-be-released-1996-summer-alien-invasion-blockbuster “Independence Day” (which “exposes” Area 51 as everything the conspiracy theorists had always hoped) and decided to
publicity-piggyback onto the highway’s dedication. In addition to Nevada governor at the time Bob Miller and lieutenant governor at the time Lonnie Hammargren, the event was attended by “Independence Day” stars Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman and Brent Spiner (who also played Data from the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series), among others.
The esteemed affair took place April 18, 1996, in Rachel, Nev., the only town on the entire 100-mile stretch of highway — and really its status as a “town” is debatable. Consisting of a clump of dusty trailers just off the highway, at its halfway point, the town sign reads “Humans: 98; Aliens: ?”
Sharon Taylor, who served us our lunch at The Little A‘Le’Inn, the town’s tiny diner/motel/bar/gift shop, said Rachel has no law enforcement, no mayor and no town council, and adds that, despite the town sign’s claim, there have never been more than 75 residents. She moved to the place 24 years ago from San Francisco looking for a quieter, simpler life.
“I like people,” she said, “but I don’t like humanity.”
She says she only goes into Vegas about once a month to do her shopping and can never wait to get back to little Rachel. Most of the town, she said, consists of retirees, employees of The Little A‘Le’Inn, and a few Area 51 employees who, like her, are drawn to the place not by the stories of otherworldly travelers, but rather by the solitude. And the nights.
“At night the Milky Way is so intense that even if there’s no moon, you can see your shadow,” Taylor said. “It’s like a blanket.”
“You can see satellites appear,” another waitress chimed in.
Riiight. Satellites. Whatever lets you sleep at night, darlin’.
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On the net:
www.littlealeinn.com
www.alien-ufos.com
www.byways.org/browse/byways/2029
www.roadtripamerica.com/drives/Extrater ... ighway.htm
