The name is almost synonymous with American black projects and secrecy, and there is perhaps no other government installation or operation that has aroused more interest over the years.

In fact, if just one term could be associated with all the claims of exotic looking, experimental U.S. test aircraft from over the years–as well as the possibility of a few “crash retrievals” that may represent technology that was never ours to begin with–there is one obvious name stands out among the rest.

Area 51. 

Few places are associated with more rumors and secrecy than America’s famous Area 51. Prior to the administration of President Barack Obama, no sitting U.S. commander in chief had ever said its name publicly; this was primarily because the test site remained officially off-the-books until 2013, when the CIA declassified historical documents about the U-2 and Oxcart spy plane programs, which were developed there.

The Groom Lake site as it appeared in 2010, as seen from the air

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons).

However, what many aren’t aware of when it comes to Area 51 is just how much information about the “secret” installation had already been made public prior to that time. In fact, some would have argued that Area 51–widely considered one of the most secretive facilities in all of American government–had never really been all that secret.

The history of the site is well known today. With the end of World War II and the emergence of the new world superpowers, the United States knew it had to have advance knowledge of any weapons and technological advancements being developed in the Soviet Union. Arguably, the best way to achieve that would be to use sophisticated aerial photography to help visualize what was happening behind the Iron Curtain; this would obviously require new kinds of aircraft capable of such missions.

Officials with the U-2 spy plane’s Development Projects Staff began to look for an area within the United States where such aircraft could be developed and tested safely, and away from the public. According to the CIA’s history of the site’s discovery, it was during a flight over Nevada in the early 1950s that officials spotted “what appeared to be an airstrip by a salt flat – Groom Lake – near the northeast corner of the Atomic Energy Commission’s (AEC) Nevada Proving Ground, which had been used during World War II as an aerial gunnery range for Army pilots.”

It seemed like the most logical place for spy plane tests to be carried out, although there were a few issues. As a CIA.gov article on tests at the site discusses, “upon further discovery, the U-2 Project Staff learned Groom Lake was not actually part of the AEC proving ground. They asked the AEC to add the Groom Lake strip to its real estate holdings in Nevada, to which the AEC readily agreed, and the deal was approved by President Eisenhower.”

For years thereafter, portions of the highly clandestine U-2 aircraft were developed out at nearby Barstow, California, draped in sheets, and then flown in transport aircraft out to the Groom Lake facility for final assembly there. Pilots were brought in (they were referred to as “drivers”, since the operation was being carried out by the CIA, rather than the Air Force), and training aimed at getting personnel up to speed on the specifics of flying these large, and potentially fragile spy planes began.

According to the CIA, the famous name “Area 51” was simply what the location’s map designation had been at that time (author Annie Jacobsen, who wrote an uncensored history of the location in 2011, also notes that the “51” was a reference to the year the site was established). Since “Area 51″ left a bit to the imaginations of those prospective employees who might come and work there, nicknames like “Paradise Ranch” became common, as well as “Watertown,” in reference to the rainwater runoff that would periodically spill off the surrounding mountains and fill the otherwise dry bed of Groom Lake.

Although it is without question that Area 51 and the projects carried out there over the years have been done so with a degree of secrecy, the idea that Area 51 had been largely undisclosed until 2013 isn’t entirely true. In fact, a review of early documentation from around the time of its founding shows that the site, and its various nicknames, were pretty common knowledge.

Area 51 site map, as depicted in declassified CIA documents released via its CREST program

(Credit: CIA.gov/Wikimedia Commons).

“The ‘base that doesn’t exist’ has always been public knowledge,” argues Peter Merlin, an aerospace writer and historian. “Construction of the airfield at Groom Lake, Nevada was announced by the government, and its existence has been repeatedly acknowledged by official sources.” Merlin has argued in the past that a number of unclassified maps produced over the years displayed the “secret” location, but that “Test Site insiders, government officials, military personnel, and the general public have, however, unknowingly conspired to perpetuate the myth that the existence of the base is a closely guarded secret.”

Perhaps the earliest public mention of Area 51 appeared in a press release on May 18, 1955, penned by Seth Woodruff Jr., who was at that time Manager of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Las Vegas Field Office. Woodruff wrote about the personnel from the Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company being brought in “to begin preliminary work on a small, satellite Nevada Test Site installation.” Runways and a few buildings were planned for the site, which Woodruff said would be “essentially temporary.”

Although the name “Area 51” was never used in the press release, it is obvious in hindsight what Woodruff was referring to. The newly announced project was referenced again in an article in 1955 that appeared in the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

“Construction at the Nevada Test Site installation a few miles north of Yucca Flat which was announced last spring is continuing. Data secured to date has indicated a need for limited additional facilities and modifications of the existing installation. The additional work which will not be completed until sometime in 1956 is being done by the Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company, Incorporated, under the direction of the Atomic Energy Commission’s Las Vegas branch office.”

During this period, the site was more commonly referred to by its “Watertown” moniker, although this wasn’t always the case. As Peter Merlin notes, a January 1960 edition of the N.T.S. Bulletin (“N.T.S.” referencing the Nevada Test Site) published a series of new telephone numbers for the installation on its front page, under the inconspicuous heading, “Area 51 Telephone Numbers” (see below). It doesn’t get much more obvious than that, especially considering that the N.T.S. Bulletin was an unclassified publication.

Other names for the site came into use over the years, which included Dreamland (the radio call sign for the base), although today, the name that is most often employed for official use is the Nevada Test and Training Range at Groom Lake. In the past, Area 51 and Watertown were both used as official names for the site, and according to T.D. Barnes, a former employee of the site and president of a similar collection of past employees called Roadrunners International, Area 51 can be found on some official maps and documentation produced by the Nevada Test Site, the Department of Energy, and other agencies. In fact, Watertown is even included on a list of legal members of the Alamo Township in Lincoln County, Nevada.

While nobody would dispute the use of secrecy in keeping Area 51 and the operations carried out there over the years away from prying eyes (and enemy spies), to say that the installation had been treated as though it “didn’t exist” until its disclosure in 2013 is a bit of a stretch. In fact, the passing references to it at that time, in relation to the CIA’s historical account of the development of the U2 and Oxcart, is probably best explained by the simple fact that Area 51 didn’t need to be “disclosed” to the public: it had already been well known by its various names, and referenced many times in print over the decades.

Without doubt, one of the strangest aspects of cryptozoology is it’s tie-in with the Crop Circle mystery. Although it’s a little-known aspect of both phenomena, more than a few accounts exist of strange creatures seen in and around Crop Circles. From Matthew Williams – the only British man ever arrested, charged and convicted for making a Crop Circle – come several such accounts. It transpires that, unsurprisingly for someone who has spent years deeply immersed within the Crop Circle controversy, Matthew is a veritable fountain of knowledge with respect to tales of weird creatures either having been seen in, or at least in the direct vicinity of, complex Crop Circle formations. One such case is truly strange.

Matthew advised me that the story in question concerned a man who had felt curiously compelled to drive late at night to a certain field in Wiltshire many years ago. On doing so, he parked his car and duly, and carefully, began his walk into the depths of the crop. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a large, black, human-like figure appeared in the air over the field. “It reminded me a little bit of the Mothman sightings when I heard this story,” said Matthew, not without a high degree of justification. Matthew continued that the source of the story could only stand and stare in awe, while suddenly gaining the distinct impression that the hovering entity was the source of at least some of the Crop Circle formations that were appearing in Wiltshire. At that precise moment, a simple Crop Circle suddenly appeared on the ground immediately below the black figure – after which it vanished from the skies and the man was left utterly alone in the field, and with no real option other than to make his shocked way back to his vehicle and drive home, baffled and bewildered by both the weird, aerial entity and what it was that had directed him to the field.

Example of simple crop circles

Matthew expands: “There was one time, I’d rather not say when or where exactly, as I could get into trouble for admitting I trespassed on the farmer’s land and made the crop circle formation. Plus, I had a friend named Paul helping me with this one. We were making this circle when we noticed these three bright lights – small balls of lights coming towards the field. We watched them; we were fascinated. But they split up and each of them went to a corner of the field – and which only left one corner for us to leave by without getting too close to these things. That was a bit unsettling. We didn’t know what these balls were; so we raced out of the open corner of the field. We looked back as we ran and could see the balls heading towards us: gliding very gracefully just above the top of the crop. It was like they were on a railway track, just moving very smoothly, but it left us sort of disturbed too: like they were almost ghostly and alive.”

The story was far from finished, as Matthew notes: “Well, I went to get the car, and told Paul to wait in the bushes at the edge of the road so he wouldn’t be seen. The last thing I wanted was for him to get arrested if the police happened to drive past. But by the time I had got the car and got back to Paul, he was walking up the middle of the road with all his Crop Circle equipment in full view. I pulled up, wound the window down and shouted at him: ‘What the hell are you doing? If people see you carrying your [crop circle-making] equipment, we’ll get arrested.’

“Paul looked scared stiff and said: ‘If they had arrested me, I’d have gone with them, just to get me out of there.’ I asked him what he meant, and Paul said that while I was getting the car he had heard these strange, animal-like screaming noises coming from inside the field and he had just charged out of there and onto the road. We never found out what it was though.”

Matthew Williams is not alone in commenting on such matters. In the summer of 2007, I spoke with Marcus Matthews, a researcher of mysterious big-cats in the U.K., who told me that he was then currently investigating a case involving a person who had seen a “huge black cat” sitting inside the confines of a Wiltshire Crop Circle. So, how do we define and explain such rogue reports as these? The answer, admittedly, and right now, is that we can’t. All I can say is this: if you ever find yourself deep in the heart of a huge Crop Circle, then keep a careful watch. There may be something monstrous keeping its eyes on you, getting ready to pounce.

In 1984, a group of astronomers founded the SETI Institute to continue the work of countless scientists before them who have sought to further the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the universe. Today, the not-for-profit research organization continues to attract some of the brightest minds in astronomy and related fields and serve as a vehicle for research into the biggest question mankind can ask: are we alone out here in the void?

One of the most high-profile researchers at the SETI Institute is its Senior Astronomer, Dr. Seth Shostak. In addition to his work with SETI, Shostak hosts the monthly “Skeptic Check” podcast and serves as a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Yet despite his skepticism, in 2017 Shostak made waves when he predicted Earthlings would discover alien life within the next 20 years. 

Seth Shostak

Now, it seems the SETI researcher has rolled back his optimism – at least in terms of what anyone may or may not alreadyknow about extraterrestrial life. Over the last two years, certain individuals and groups (you know the ones) have been suggesting that segments of or individuals within the U.S. government may know more about unidentified aerial phenomena than the public knows, and large portions of the public now believe the government is on the verge of disclosing that information. 

Shostak counters that belief in a piece published this week on SFGate, the online branch of the San Francisco Chroniclenewspaper. In the article, Shostak essentially insults the entire disclosure movement, calling it “sad” that so many are so invested in the possibility of government disclosure as opposed to trusting decades of their own research and investigating:

It’s sad that the UFO crowd has come to this – seemingly giving up on proving their own case and hoping that the feds will do their work for them. Mainstream scientists don’t wait for government agencies to prove their theories. That ball’s in the researcher’s court. And yet UFO proponents are now saying that, deus ex machina, the government will soon book some network air time and fess up about the aliens.

Air time on the History Channel of course. Shostak goes on to question why so many in the ufological community believe there is secret government knowledge to be revealed at all:

If extraterrestrial craft are really strafing the stratosphere, and in numbers sufficient to cause roughly ten thousand citizen reports annually in the U.S. alone, then why must we throw up our hands and claim “only the government can prove it’s true”? What about the hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers who avidly observe the sky on clear nights, but don’t seem to see any mysterious flying objects? What of the many thousand commercial satellites that make high resolution photos of our planet all day long without witnessing strange intruders? Are none of these data good enough?

Oof. Quite a burn coming from someone like Shostak who has spent his life looking for answers among the stars. Despite the cynicism, there’s a lot of truth in Shostak’s rebuttal of the disclosure movement.

Shostak’s statements remind me of another observation made by my colleague, Robbie Graham. In the introduction to his book UFOs: Reframing the Debate, Graham writes “the ultimate irony of the Disclosure movement is that it deeply distrusts officialdom, while simultaneously looking to officialdom for the truth” and that “by imagining all answers to the UFO mystery to be out of public reach, deep within the bowels of the national security state, the Disclosure movement actually places power into hands of officialdom while disempowering the individual.”

All by design, of course.

Both Shostak and Graham have a point. Government disclosure of possible secrets related to unidentified or unexplained aerial phenomena has been a topic of discussion running concurrent with the history of the modern UFO phenomenon itself. Why do so many believe the government will some day cough up its secrets?

Because we’ve been conditioned to believe it. For decades, the defense and intelligence communities have propagated and encouraged belief in extraterrestrial visitation as a form of cover for tests of classified weapons and aerospace technologies and to ultimately keep that information out of America’s adversaries’ hands.

“It’s a [expletive] drone bro.”

Over the last two years, To the Stars Academy (TTSA) and even the Department of Defense itself have lured a whole new generation of seekers into the disclosure movement, leading them to believe that the U.S. government will someday disclose its knowledge of UFOs/UAPs, extraterrestrial contact, or reverse-engineered alien technologies. All that is predicated on the question of whether there indeed is any knowledge to disclose – and that much ultimately remains unknown. 

Remember, everyone: the DoD will never show its hand if doing so would weaken America’s strategic advantage, and TTSA is nothing more than a money-making entertainment company capitalizing on the same unfortunate psychosocial forces which have given rise to the anti-vaccination movement, Flat Earth theory, and QAnon. It’s really unfortunate that all of us, myself included, have allowed them to hijack the conversation. 

Until TTSA or the Pentagon cough up anything more than a few seconds of grainy, ambiguous footage and questionable eyewitness testimony – one of the least reliable forms of evidence – they’re doing us all a disservice by persuading us to trust the national security state and believe it will some day tell us what we want to know.

Maybe Seth Shostak is right.