Humans have always done stupid things over the course of our history. BBC’s 1957 Spaghetti Tree reports, the Shu General Zhuge Liang scaring away an army with nothing but a lute, Lichtenstein’s army leaving with 80 men and returning with 81, the man behind the theory of evolution, Charles Darwin, trying to ride the Galapagos turtles, the list goes on. What else could we add except millions charging a highly guarded military base in an attempt to “see them aliens”?

A whopping 2 million people signed up for the raid of Area 51 on September 20th, 2019.  Of course, only 1,500 went to party with only a handful of arrests being made for trespassing. Most would ask; Why Area 51 of all places? Most would say it’s aliens, but the base’s history suggests aircraft and weaponry for war times.

Area 51 has always been notorious for its rumors of extraterrestrial aircraft and aliens – especially over this past summer. Because of a satire post on Facebook, more than 2 million signed up for the so-called raid. The reason they thought they would get away with it? “They can’t stop all of us” the legend behind the raid, Matty Roberts, said in his post that kick started the ordeal. The post has since been taken down, but his words live on throughout the internet. It has bought the question that has only been uttered through the nerds of history to the masses- what is Area 51 actually hiding?

Area 51’s history begins during the early fifties, in the beginning ages of the Cold War. The Soviet Union was highly secretive, being protected by what Winston Churchill called Europe’s “Iron Curtain”. The United States had been trying to search for any way to get information from the isolated Eastern Europe. The CIA started developing aircraft for reconnaissance, something that couldn’t be detected by the Soviet. CIA director, Richard Bissell Jr., an aircraft designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, Colonel Osmund Ritland, and Tony Levier found that Groom Lake, Nevada, would be the perfect testing site for their new planes. Believing that the sparse population of the Nevada desert would be perfect against any unwelcome eyes, the CIA decided to make headquarters in the area. Groom Lake would soon became the location of the infamous Area 51. 

The prototype Lockheed U-2 plane was developed not even eight months later, in 1955. The advanced airplane could go up to an altitude of 70,000 feet, an accomplishment not met by any other aircraft at that time. It was tested in and around Groom Lake, seeing how well it worked and pushing it to its limit before being sent overseas. After being shot down in 1960, the U-2 was replaced with a newer prototype- the A-12. Made of almost entirely titanium, the A-12 could fly across the entire United States in a little over an hour. Could locals have seen these shiny new planes and believed them to be otherworldly? Were the remnants of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds radio broadcast still in American’s minds? This is likely, but not the case. 

A mysterious interview with a man who was only identified as “Dennis” was made and broadcast in May of 1989. In said interview he explained that he had worked at Area 51 for a period of time and had seen the spacecraft they were instructed to study and reverse engineer. 

“From Area 51, I was bussed to an even more highly secured facility about 15 miles south of Area 51, known as S4.” He explained about his first few weeks on the job. He then went on to explain how they actually had aliens- beings he described as small and grey- and how everyone  called them the “kids”. He even went as far as to say that a “conflict” occurred between the scientists and the kids in 1970, resulting in over forty of Area 51’s faculty being killed. 

“Carved into the base of the Papoose mountain is a laboratory including nine hangars, each one housing an alien disc.” He explained when asked about the spacecraft. “The entire ship was a wave guide and the occupants sat in the center with very small seats.”

He explained the spacecraft’s fuel source- an element known as 115 that does not occur naturally on Earth. Scientists in Russia in 2005 created an element with the same instability and properties- making it now known as Moscovium. At that time, however, no element was known nor was it in the process of being created. He then continued to go on a popular podcast series hosted by Joe Rogan, the Joe Rogan experience, where he was revealed to be Robert “Bob” Scott Lazar. Dennis, as it turns out, was the name of his former supervisor at S4. He tried to explain what he’d seen and his experiences with the CIA  and the aliens.

“When it came right down to the time to air it,” Lazar explains, hinting at a tape that he recorded with George Knapp, a journalist from KLAS-TV. “I changed my mind and I said, we’re not doing it. That’s what turned into the huge wrestling match of me and George trying to get the tape, but, um, he won. He got the tape, put it on 5 o’clock news and it was over. I got a call after the show and they said it was from Dennis and he said, do you have any idea what we’re gonna do to you now? And he hung up.” This event feeds into conspiracists’ belief that the government is constantly hiding things from the public. 

Between the futuristic analysis of the spacecraft and its basic functions, to the depth of the detail of these beings and the government’s attempts to make him go quiet, it’s easy to see how so many people would believe him. American society at that time was very easily impacted, with photo editing being more difficult than it is today and a lack of access to more information. Prior and more frequent “alien sightings” could have also fed into the belief of an otherworldly race. 

The most infamous would be the Roswell Incident. In July 1947, a “flying saucer” crash landed in a small ranch just northwest of Roswell, New Mexico. The military recovered the saucer and took it back to base for analytics. Lt. Walter Haut issued a press release on July 8, basically stating that the government concluded the vessel to be a flying saucer. The next day, they took back the statement and explained that it was actually a fallen weather balloon. This is thought to be one of the most infamous government cover-ups of all time. 

Now, the idea of the government hiding aliens from us is completely out of left field. Considering Area 51’s past and what they’d held there when it was first created, it’s safe to assume that it’s just advanced weaponry or vehicles to be used during wartime. What I’m not saying is that we’re alone in this big… infinitum? It would be naive to think so. In this vast universe, it’s possible that we’re less than a pinprick. Honestly, it would be comforting to believe that we’re not alone, that help could be near if something happened to Earth. 

Well, not for the dinosaurs. But that’s a different story. 

For now, aliens will be thrown into the mixing pot of human conspiracies with the ghosts, the superheroes, the gods and Bigfoot himself. And they’ll stay that way until you wake up in the morning and stumble down the stairs, making yourself a pot of coffee only to realize that it’s already been made, and seeing your good ol’ alien buddy reading the holographic paper at your dining room table. 

Sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/why-two-million-storm-area-51/

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/area-51-raid-weekend-event-trnd/index.html

http://podcasts.joerogan.net/podcasts/bob-lazar-jeremy-corbell

https://www.britannica.com/technology/U-2

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/lockheed-12-cia-had-its-own-supersonic-spy-plane-mini-sr-71-55827

https://roswell-nm.gov/692/UFO-Story

https://earthsky.org/space/wow-signal-explained-comets-antonio-paris

https://www.boblazar.com/